Linguistic Thinking Research Articles

Item Analysis of the Arabic Final Exams for the Third Year Secondary School Students of Kuwait in view of Linguistic Thinking and Creativity Skills

Item Analysis of the Arabic Final Exams for the Third Year Secondary School Students of Kuwait in view of Linguistic Thinking and Creativity Skills

Categories of Immaterial Objects in Mind and Language

Study of major ontological categories as a form of knowledge and finding the characteristics of their objectivation in language is one of the most promising areas of cognitive linguistics. It is related to the functions of categories in cognitive processes in general: their role in structuring and organizing knowledge, as well as in reflecting the significance of summarizing categorical concepts for the disclosure of the structure of the linguistic world view. The set of these categories is still not worked out, some of them must be first preliminary researched. Categories of immaterial objects, represented in German by the nouns «Eigenschaft» - «property», «Qualität»- «quality», «Merkmal» - «attribute», «feature», «sign», «Erscheinung» – «event» and «Zustand» - «state», which are dialectically interconnected and described in detail in the philosophical literature, are of interest to linguists, because the study of word combination nominating these categories enables the scientist to understand the problem of intercategorial relations in linguistic thinking.

L'Histoire du français: état des lieux et perspectives

The history of the French language, charting the affiliation between the modern language and its classical forebear, was a key element in French studies from the discipline's inception until quite recently. It has now all but vanished from the syllabus in UK universities; not so in continental Europe, where the subject is alive and kicking and feeding valuable new insights and material into contemporary ideas on linguistic change, as this volume amply demonstrates. The Société internationale de diachronie du français was set up in 2008 to inject a greater measure of rigorous linguistic thinking into the long-established genre of the histoire de la langue. This volume contains the reworked versions of nineteen papers presented at the Société's first conference, held in Nancy in 2011. The editors have toiled hard, and not unsuccessfully, to make of a disparate set of conference papers a coherent whole, distributing them into three sections: ‘États des lieux’, ‘Méthodologie’, and ‘Perspectives’. The first of these was evidently the most difficult to structure and offers a set of interesting essays on a range of topics (morpho-syntax, lexis, codification, and dialectology) arranged chronologically from the twelfth century to the present. Richard Ingham's paper on the linguistic status of Anglo-Norman deserves mention for its attempt to combat the traditional hierarchization of the regional varieties of medieval French, although the most substantial contribution is provided by Andres Max Kristol on the relevance of synchronic dialectology for the understanding of linguistic change. The second section deals primarily with the central problem of historical linguistics — that of data and its evaluation. Several of the papers here consider the wealth of historical data contained in the dictionaries of French compiled since the sixteenth century and the problems raised as we exploit this material to enhance our vision of linguistic change in French. Aude Wirth-Jaillard makes an important point as she draws attention to the material stored in the provincial archives of France and the ways in which this can re-balance a medieval database, traditionally over-dependent on more easily accessible literary data. The third section of the book is intellectually the most challenging, for it deals with the general, theoretical problems of language change. Peter Koch's article, ‘Phases et charnières’, is the fruit of years of reflection on the dichotomy, probably universal across natural languages, between the Distanzsprache and the Nähesprache. The author uses this opposition to create a useful typology for charting the historical evolution of a wide range of languages. Throughout this volume, however, there is degree of reluctance to engage with the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ theorizing about language change which, since the work of Uriel Weinreich in the 1960s, has pushed forward our thinking in this field a long way. Many of the theoretical issues raised were anticipated many years ago in, for instance, the WLH model of language change and could have assisted the endeavours of a number of the authors here.

On the Linguistic Situation of the Tatar Diaspora in the USA

The present article explores the linguistic situation among emigrant Tatars by the example of the Turko-Tatar diaspora in the USA. The cultural and educational work of the Turko-Tatar diaspora contributes to the preservation of the native language, national traditions outside the country as the culture, the language and the religion have played an integral part in preserving the national and cultural image, the lifestyle of the immigrant in a foreign land, in a foreign culture. The language is deemed as the cornerstone of the spiritual culture, a means of cultural cross-fertilization and self-identification. The Tatar diaspora in the USA retains a collective memory of the country of origin as well as striving for self-identification. They possess an enduring identification with the country of origin along with a sense of group unity based on it in order to preserve and develop their language and culture in a foreign environment. The study has confirmed our hypothesis that the linguistic consciousness of the Tatar in America has several features that distinguish it from the linguistic consciousness of Tatars in Tatarstan. At the same time, general views of both groups to certain values can be traced in the linguistic thinking. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s3p298

Do Cheaters Never Prosper? The Impact of Examples, Expertise, and Cognitive Load on Cryptomnesia and Inadvertent Self-Plagiarism of Creative Tasks

Previous work has shown that the presence of examples may lead to cryptomnesia, or inadvertent plagiarism, on creative tasks. Various experiential and environmental attributes may magnify this finding. For instance, novices, with limited knowledge, may be more prone to inadvertently plagiarize examples, and increases in cognitive load may result in an inability to recall the source of an idea. The purpose of my research was to determine if providing examples leads to cryptomnesia on linguistic and visual creative tasks and to further examine whether expertise level and cognitive load magnifies this relationship. In study 1, participants were given plain instructions or instructions with either an auditory or print example before completing linguistic and visual divergent thinking (DT) tasks. Examples increased the likelihood of cryptomnesia for both tasks, especially with congruent modalities (print example and visual task). In study 2, participants were classified as novices or experts in engineering and completed two designs tasks, one with an example accompanying the instructions. The presence of an example fostered cryptomnesia and this effect was stronger for novices. Novices were also more likely to inadvertently self-plagiarize. In study 3, participants were exposed to examples under both cognitive taxation and no taxation conditions prior to completing linguistic and visual DT tasks. After controlling for error rate on taxation task, cognitive taxation resulted in a greater likelihood of cryptomnesia. Based on principles of schema theory and cognitive load, in order to reduce cryptomnesia it is recommended to avoid providing examples for higher level learning objectives and avoid simultaneous presentation of congruent task modalities.

Sándor Karácsony’s Impact on General Scientific and Pedagogical Thinking in the Second Half of the 20th Century

Sandor Karacsony (1891–1952) was an original, creative and influential representative of Hungarian pedagogical, linguistic and philosophical thinking. As a secondary school teacher and a university professor he established a new school of thought with a lasting impact. The principle underlying his philosophy was that in education, in scientific research, and in all areas of life ‘the other person’ must be taken into account if we are to achieve valid results. In the 1970s and 1980s his former disciples and co-workers achieved significant results in various fields of science and education, such as mathematics, biology, linguistics, psychology and ethnography by applying and further developing his ideas, and many of them have also been responsible for new schools of scientific thought. Karacsony’s pedagogical thinking is very much alive even today. Representatives of the third and fourth generations of teachers who are familiar with Karacsony’s ideas believe that education takes place as a joint achievement of teacher and student if the two partners have respect for each other’s autonomy, and on this basis they relate to the ideals and values of the school. After 1990 his disciples and their co-workers created several social organisations dedicated to the task of making his work known again to those concerned. A part of this work was re-editing his ten-volume educational theory based on interpersonal logic and interpersonal psychology, and in the past 23 years holding conferences to present his pedagogical principles, which continue to be valid even today, to teachers, students and parents.

Gestural Manifestation of Knowledge in Conceptual Frames

Frames are cognitive structures of knowledge grounded in people's social interaction in recurrent sociocultural activities or individual incidences. Discussion concerning the knowledge in frames largely focuses on its linguistic manifestation with regard to roles and role relations in scenes. Little attention has been paid to the scriptal knowledge in conceptual frames. The present study provides empirical evidence that frame knowledge is also readily manifested in gesture in daily conversation. Gesture not only reveals roles and role relations in a scene as distinct from those in speech, but it also collaborates with speech to jointly manifest part of a script of the frame. In addition, in line with the view of prominence, the part of frame knowledge being selected for manifestation in gesture is the speaker's focus of attention on a certain aspect of the scene during speaking. Finally, the temporal patterning of gesture and speech further bears out growth point theory, in that the planning of an utterance involves the interplay of imagery thinking and linguistic thinking.

The European Linguistic Tradition - The Greco Roman Legacy

The European linguistic tradition exists since the very beginning of date and even before. This long-lasting tradition is believed to have started with Greeks, and it has been, since then, one of the very few unbroken chains of scholarship. Five hundred years before date, the Greeks were already launching this tradition which went through different stages to become the scientific study that it is today. The logical question that one might ask is: Why are Greeks considered to be the pioneers in linguistic thinking? A possible answer is provided by Bloomfield (1935: 4) when he says that 'the ancient Greeks had the gift of wondering at things that other people take for granted.' Although, the gift in question may have had a lot to do with the political, economic and social situation of the time, the Greeks, and the Romans after them, are believed to be the roots of a long-lasting European linguistic tradition.

理察˙塞拉雕塑作品─場域及空間定位探討

American Post-Minimalism artist and steel sculptor, Richard Serra has had 40 years of experience. His works were undertaken the influence of Abstract Sculpture and Minimalism in conjunction with his personal literature background. After proposed Verb List in 1967, Serra continually published various stages of work, such as Splash, Prop, Elevate, and Arc. Serra was the pioneer of contemporary sculpture as he interfered art with social sites for critical thinking. During the development of Post- Minimalism, Serra created a series of works based on the perception of human body. His early years were influenced by ontology, combining linguistic and philosophical thinking. Serra used steel in his works, integrating form structures to replace traditional hand-made labor work and to remove referential themes. In his later years, Serra returned to the essence of his works to focus on the exploration of time and space.This article focuses on ”site” to pinpoint the visual perception in Serra's works by using three topics. There are: 1) expansion of site awareness, 2) establishment of visual perception, and 3) spirit of spatial orientation. Serra explored the interrelation between space and time created through his works in particular sites by examining urban and rural atmospheres, the contract between organic ground change and dull industrial materials, and indoor and outdoor spaces. Serra created his works by integrated iron and steel materials; he aimed to highlight the existence of body in the space and the spirit associated with the particular site.

Phraseological Units with the Component “Heart” Expressing Love and Devotion

The present article aims to study, analyze and compare phraseological units with the component “heart” expressing love and devotion in Armenian, Russian and English. These phraseological units in the languages mentioned have structural, grammatical, stylistic, as well as semantic similarities and differences. The similarities reflect the peculiarities of the linguistic thinking of the language bearers, whereas the differences witness the peculiarities of the mentality of the given nation.

Специфика содержания образов языкового сознания подростка – пользователя интернет-чатов (лингвистический аспект анализа данных ассоциативного эксперимента)

Специфика содержания образов языкового сознания подростка – пользователя интернет-чатов (лингвистический аспект анализа данных ассоциативного эксперимента)

Odnowa czy od nowa...? Semantyka leksykalna w perspektywie tzw. zwrotu empirycznego* w językoznawstwie XXI wieku

The paper explores the issue of the development of semantics under the circumstances of „the new linguistic thinking”, which promotes the idea of semantics without borders, and the so-called „empirical-turn” in linguistic investigation. The uncritical fascination with corpus-data, which could be considered as a natural reaction against the promotion of subject-oriented nature of meaning, leads to the substitution of the quest for meaning for the statistical data. On the other hand, the idea of „no borders” endangers the autonomy of semantics as a science.

Controlling Presentation Speed, Labels, and Tooltips in Interactive Animations

The experiment investigated whether controlling presentation speed as well as labels, which display the names of the currently presented nodes in interactive dynamic graphs, affects comprehension performance. Dynamic graphs are animated graphical representations of nodes and edges representing mathematical structures used to model relations between different objects over time. After being tested on spatial imagination and linguistic thinking, 111 students had to answer twelve multiple choice comprehension questions about six interactive dynamic graphs while working with them. For each question, participants were randomly assigned to one cell of a 2 (with or without a scrollbar to adjust the presentation speed of the visualization) × 2 (with labels displaying all names of the currently presented nodes in the dynamic graphs or with tooltips displaying only one node name if the mouse cursor hovers over this node) factorial design. Scrollbars, which allow adjusting the presentation speed, were rarely used and did not foster learners’ comprehension performance. Labels displaying all names of the currently presented nodes fostered learners’ comprehension performance compared to tooltips. The higher the ability for linguistic thinking of the participants, the more their comprehension performance benefited from labels. These results are consistent with the cognitive-affective theory of learning with media.

Imbodela zamakhumsha – Reflections on standardization and destandardization

While the concept of standardization is well-established in linguistics, destandardization is a more recent addition to linguistic terminology. Drawing on historiographic and ethnographic data from isiXhosa, one of South Africa's indigenous languages, this paper reflects on both of these concepts. Standardization is discussed as a modernist grand narrative whose continued application to linguistic thinking has outlived its usefulness, and standard languages as such (hegemonoc, prescriptive, etc.) might be assigned to Beck's (Theory, Culture & Society 19: 17–44, 2002) zombie categories of modernity. Discussing the example of brandy-talk in isiXhosa from the perspective of ethnographic lexicography (Silverstein, Annual Review of Anthropology 35: 481–496, 2006), the paper argues for a linguistic perspective which focuses on the articulation and reproduction of social meaning as a central mechanism in the formation of linguistic conventions or ways of speaking. It advocates a recognition of the practices of speakers as they draw on standard and non-standard forms, as well as their associated meanings and ideologies (first/second order indexicality), in positioning themselves as social beings with identities, histories, aspirations, and ideological stances in everyday talk.

IBNU JINNĪ MENEMBUS SEKAT MAZHAB LINGUISTIK (Memadukan Aspek Logis dan Sosiologis)

Abū al-Fath Usmān Ibnu Jinnī, a prolific Arabic linguist with more than forty five works, has a significant role in Arabic linguistics development. He made some efforts to cool down the tension between the two main schools of nahwu Bashra and Kufa that competed to penetrate their influence upon Arabic linguistics theories. Ibnu Jinnī, who had Motazila theological background, tried to bring the Arabic linguistic thoughts out of this conflict and took its way from hegemony of these two schools. He stood up between the two schools theories by combining the philosophical (logical) and sociological approach in discussing issues of Arabic linguistics. This article tries to examine the theory, method and approach used by Ibnu Jinnī in dealing with the linguistics issues. The article finds that Ibnu Jinnī view is that language is not a mere rational entity, but it has social dimensions. Based on this theory, Ibnu Jinnī shifted the paradigm of the Arabic linguistic issues from nah} wu based theories debate to a broader discourse and more comprehensive theories covering internal or structural aspects such as phonology, morphology, syntax as well as external aspects, notably sociology.

運動実践における言語の役割とその限界

The purpose of this research is to clarify the use of language and its limitation required for movement practice by considering on the relationship between both of them. Especially in the scene of movement acquisition, there always exists some concern with the decrease of useless linguistic explanation and increase of efficiency in the movement practice. Therefore, research is needed towards the solution of this subject. It will be also inquiring for the possibility and limitation of linguistic thinking in movement practice.First, it is considered how the language has been used in PE class. Then, the use of language in movement practice is considered. It is also considered on the relationship between movement practice and indication of the specific performance. Although it is natural to use language in movement practice, too much reliance on the language may cause some negative effects. Hence, it is important for us to be aware of the use of language so that one can complete the effective acquisition of movement. That is to say, on which level of practice and that of language we may use with words.To conclude, although language with abstraction can explain movements rationally, it is extremely difficult to produce “acticept” which means Gestalt of movement perception. Therefore, we should change our attention from the use of language for scientific explanation to the usage which draws out of practice. Furthermore, the language should have a nature of time. Hence, there are two essential points of the use of language in movement practice. One of the usages is to make the selection of words indicating “acticept”, and to articulate “acticept” required in the practice is the other. For its completion, it is necessary to discern the limitation of linguistic thinking in movement practice, to assure the logic of bodily thinking required for movement acquisition and movement practice, and to consider the role of language in the scene of movement acquisition.

CATEGORISATION IN LINGUISTICS

In this paper concepts from cognitive linguistics are combined with assumptions and methods from corpus linguistics in order to study categorisation in everyday life. The notion of categorisation, although ambiguous, will cover both the act of setting up categories and the act of identifying instances of a category. The presentation and discussion of current linguistic thinking in “categorisation theory” will entail a reassessment of the notion of binarism as popularised in structural linguistics, preferably following Langacker’s A ® B principle.

Was Wenker noch zu sagen hatte...

Previously unknown sections of the historic „Sprachatlas des Deutschen Reichs“ (Georg Wenker, 1897-1923) were recently discovered by the author in the Berlin State Library, consisting of an introduction to the atlas, explanations of individual maps, and hand-drafted maps. This article provides firstly a brief inventory and secondly an appraisal of the scholarly worth of the find. It is demonstrated that all of the material discovered helps shed new light onto the historical project and, further, reveals new facets of Wenker’s linguistic thinking. It becomes apparent that the linguistic atlas is in fact a different type of atlas than has previously been assumed. Finally, the article addresses the question of why the material remained unknown for over a century, tying its answer closely to various historical factors, many linked to the history of both the Marburg institute and that of the Berlin State Library during the twentieth century.

The Use of Generalizability (G) Theory in the Testing of Linguistic Minorities

We contend that generalizability (G) theory allows the design of psychometric approaches to testing English‐language learners (ELLs) that are consistent with current thinking in linguistics. We used G theory to estimate the amount of measurement error due to code (language or dialect). Fourth‐ and fifth‐grade ELLs, native speakers of Haitian‐Creole from two speech communities, were given the same set of mathematics items in the standard English and standard Haitian‐Creole dialects (Sample 1) or in the standard and local dialects of Haitian‐Creole (Samples 2 and 3). The largest measurement error observed was produced by the interaction of student, item, and code. Our results indicate that the reliability and dependability of ELL achievement measures is affected by two facts that operate in combination: Each test item poses a unique set of linguistic challenges and each student has a unique set of linguistic strengths and weaknesses. This sensitivity to language appears to take place at the level of dialect. Also, students from different speech communities within the same broad linguistic group may differ considerably in the number of items needed to obtain dependable measures of their academic achievement. Whether students are tested in English or in their first language, dialect variation needs to be considered if language as a source of measurement error is to be effectively addressed.

Curious Parallels and Curious Connections—Phylogenetic Thinking in Biology and Historical Linguistics

In The Descent of Man (1871), Darwin observed "curious parallels" between the processes of biological and linguistic evolution. These parallels mean that evolutionary biologists and historical linguists seek answers to similar questions and face similar problems. As a result, the theory and methodology of the two disciplines have evolved in remarkably similar ways. In addition to Darwin's curious parallels of process, there are a number of equally curious parallels and connections between the development of methods in biology and historical linguistics. Here we briefly review the parallels between biological and linguistic evolution and contrast the historical development of phylogenetic methods in the two disciplines. We then look at a number of recent studies that have applied phylogenetic methods to language data and outline some current problems shared by the two fields.