Rethinking ecolinguistics from a distributed language perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 101277
Author(s):  
Jia Li ◽  
Sune Vork Steffensen ◽  
Guowen Huang
Keyword(s):  
Distributed Language

Distribution and translation

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tong King Lee
Keyword(s):  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
First Order ◽  
Language System ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
Distributed Language

Abstract Translation has traditionally been viewed as a branch of applied linguistics. This has changed drastically in recent decades, which have witnessed translation studies growing as a field beyond, and sometimes against, applied linguistics. This paper is an attempt to think translation back into applied linguistics by reconceptualizing translation through the notions of distributed language, semiotic repertoire, and assemblage. It argues that: (a) embedded within a larger textual-media ecology, translation is enacted through dialogical interaction among the persons, texts, technologies, platforms, institutions, and traditions operating within that ecology; (b) what we call translations are second-order constructs, or relatively stable formations of signs abstracted from the processual flux of translating on the first-order; (c) translation is not just about moving a work from one discrete language system across to another, but about distributing it through semiotic repertoires; (d) by orchestrating resources performatively, translations are not just interventions in the target language and culture, but are transformative of the entire translingual and multimodal space (discursive, interpretive, material) surrounding a work. The paper argues that distributed thinking helps us de-fetishize translation as an object of study and reimagine translators as partaking of a creative network of production alongside other human and non-human agents.

Analysis of Item-Level Bias in the Bayley-III Language Subscales: The Validity and Utility of Standardized Language Assessment in a Multilingual Setting

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (9) ◽  
pp. 2663-2671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun K. Y. Goh ◽  
Elaine K. H. Tham ◽  
Iliana Magiati ◽  
Litwee Sim ◽  
Shamini Sanmugam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Bias ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Language Bias ◽  
Language System ◽  
Item Functioning ◽  
Item Level ◽  
Language Assessments ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Distributed Language

Purpose The purpose of this study was to improve standardized language assessments among bilingual toddlers by investigating and removing the effects of bias due to unfamiliarity with cultural norms or a distributed language system. Method The Expressive and Receptive Bayley-III language scales were adapted for use in a multilingual country (Singapore). Differential item functioning (DIF) was applied to data from 459 two-year-olds without atypical language development. This involved investigating if the probability of success on each item varied according to language exposure while holding latent language ability, gender, and socioeconomic status constant. Associations with language, behavioral, and emotional problems were also examined. Results Five of 16 items showed DIF, 1 of which may be attributed to cultural bias and another to a distributed language system. The remaining 3 items favored toddlers with higher bilingual exposure. Removal of DIF items reduced associations between language scales and emotional and language problems, but improved the validity of the expressive scale from poor to good. Conclusions Our findings indicate the importance of considering cultural and distributed language bias in standardized language assessments. We discuss possible mechanisms influencing performance on items favoring bilingual exposure, including the potential role of inhibitory processing.

Tweet Topic Classification Using Distributed Language Representations

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quanzhi Li ◽  
Sameena Shah ◽  
Xiaomo Liu ◽  
Armineh Nourbakhsh ◽  
Rui Fang
Keyword(s):  
Distributed Language

Multiuser, Distributed Language-Based Environments

IEEE Software ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 58-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.E. Kaiser ◽  
S.M. Kaplan ◽  
J. Micallef
Keyword(s):  
Distributed Language

Extending the Private Language Argument

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 513-531
Author(s):  
Marcin Trybulec
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Metalinguistic Awareness ◽  
Private Language ◽  
Private Language Argument ◽  
Material Characteristics ◽  
Objective Meaning ◽  
Distributed Language

Abstract The paper poses the question of how the use of external artifacts contributes to the stabilization of meaning and thought. On the basis of the private language argument and the problem of objective meaning, I argue that Wittgenstein’s considerations regarding meaning-making should be sensitive to how materiality bears on the interactions with semiotic artifacts produced in speech and writing. The distributed language perspective and the concept of languaging (Cowley 2011, 2007; Steffensen 2011) is then linked to a metacognitive theory of writing (Goody 1977; Olson 1994, 2016) to clarify how social and material settings contribute to the lived experience and metalinguistic awareness that is essential to meaning-making. It is argued that, if material characteristics of symbolizations change metalinguistic awareness, the interpretation of the private language argument partly depends on the types of external artifacts the private linguist is allowed to exploit. The frameworks of distributed language and the theory of writing thus shed new light on the private language argument by making it even more radical than has previously been assumed.

Distributed language and dynamics

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Cowley
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Extended Cognition ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Human Dynamics ◽  
Insight Problem ◽  
Language Functions ◽  
Insight Problem Solving ◽  
Distributed Language

Language is coordination. Pursuing this, the present Special Issue of Pragmatics & Cognition challenges two widely held positions. First, the papers reject the claim that language is essentially ‘symbolic’. Second, they deny that minds (or brains) represent verbal patterns. Rather, language is social, individual, and contributes the feeling of thinking. Simply, it is distributed. Elucidating this claim, the opening papers report empirically-based work on the anticipatory dynamics of reading, their cognitive consequences, Shakespearean theatre, what images evoke, and insight problem-solving. Having given reasons for rejecting linguistic autonomy, the papers turn to theory building. Initially, attention is given to a possible origin for semiotic cognition. Then, it is claimed that language functions by realizing values. Next, it is argued that human dynamics are co-regulated by cultural and biological symbols. Finally, in a review article, the distributed view of language is used to contrast Clark’s (2008) organism-centered cognition with what is here called ecologically extended cognition.

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