Language and identity in virtual space

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaila Sultana
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Virtual Space ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Native Form ◽  
Second Language Speakers ◽  
Conscious Choice ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

Based on the data drawn from an intensive ethnographic study on young adults in Bangladesh conducted in the virtual space, specifically Facebook (FB) and analysis of those data through a transglossic framework, the paper shows that the meaning-making processes in lingua franca (LF) encounters can be appropriately deciphered when their language is considered in terms of translocalisation, transculturation, transmodality, and transtextualisation. The data also demonstrate that the young adults deliberately flout the linguistic features of English with their Bangladeshi counterparts, while they prefer to approximate a native form of English with other native and non-native speakers of English. Even though their English is variable and emergent in the potential LF context of the virtual space, their conscious choice of approximating a near-native form indicates that they are keenly aware of the ideologies related to ELF and associated with ELF identity attributes. The paper confirms the necessity of reconceptualisation of ELF, considering the idiosyncrasies of young adults’ language practices; and identifies the paradoxes of sociolinguistic profiling of South Asian speakers, based on dichotomous and binary phenomena, such as ELF and non-ELF speakers, EFL (English as a Foreign Language) vs. ESL (English as a Second Language) speakers, or members of the Inner Circle vs. Outer Circle.

How native and non-native English speakers adapt to humor in intercultural interaction

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy D Bell
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
The Other ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Intercultural Interaction ◽  
Second Language Speakers ◽  
Negative Message ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

AbstractHumor can often carry an implicit negative message and thus be potentially dangerous to use. In addition, it is culturally and linguistically complex and sophisticated. Because of these things, it poses a challenge for L2 (second language) speakers and we might expect to see attempts at humor failing and causing offense in intercultural interaction. This paper reports on a study that examined humor in interaction between native and non-native speakers of English and found that humor did not seem to be a cause of conflict because of adjustments speakers made to their speech and their situated interpretations of meaning. In general, taboo topics and potentially dangerous forms of humor were avoided and humor was carefully contextualized. Native speakers reported being careful about the vocabulary they used in creating humor and both sides appeared to approach humor in intercultural communication prepared to accommodate the other and with an attitude of leniency.

First and Second Language Patterns of Brain Activation in Korean Layrngeal Contrasts

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haeil Park ◽  
Gregory Iverson
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Occipital Lobe ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Second Language Speakers ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Specific Activities ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Brain

Abstract. This study aims to localize the brain regions involved in the apprehension of Korean laryngeal contrasts and to investigate whether the Internal Model advanced by Callan et al. (2004) extends to first versus second language perception of these unique three-way laryngeal distinctions. The results show that there is a significant difference in activation between native and second-language speakers, consistent with the findings of Callan et al. Specific activities unique to younger native speakers of Korean relative to native speakers of English were seen in the cuneus (occipital lobe) and the right middle frontal gyrus (Brodmann Area [BA] 10), areas of the brain associated with pitch perception. The current findings uphold Silva's (2006) conclusion that the laryngeal contrasts of Korean are increasingly distinguished less by VOT differences than by their effect on pitch in the following vowel. A subsequent experiment was conducted to establish whether more traditional, older native speakers of Korean who still make clear VOT distinctions also activate both the cuneus and BA 10 in the same task. Preliminary results indicate that they do not, whereas speakers with overlapping VOT distinctions do show intersecting activations in these areas, thus corroborating Silva's claim of emergent pitch sensitivity in the Korean laryngeal system.

scholarly journals Linguistic Markers and Stylistic Attributes of Hedging in English Academic Papers Written by Native and Non-Native Speakers of English

MANUSYA ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Amara Prasithrathsint
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Linguistic Markers ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
The Impact

Hedging means mitigating words so as to lessen the impact of an utterance. It may cause uncertainty in language but is regarded as an important feature in English academic writing. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the style of academic writing in English with particular reference to the significant role of hedging and the linguistic features that mark it. The data was taken from academic articles in the humanities written by native speakers of English, Filipino speakers of English, and Thai speakers of English. It is hypothesized that speakers of English as a foreign language use fewer and different hedging devices than native speakers of English. The result of the analysis shows that the prominent linguistic markers of hedging are the auxiliaries may, might, could, the verbs suggest, appear, seem, and the adverbs perhaps and often. They are divided into three groups according to their stylistic attributes of hedging; namely, probability, indetermination, and approximation. The use of hedging found in the data confirms what Hyman (1994) says; i.e., that hedging allows writers to express their uncertainty about the truth of their statements. It is also found that English native speakers use hedges most frequently. The Filipino speakers of English are the second, and the Thai speakers of English use hedges the least frequency. This implies that hedging is likely to be related to the level of competence in English including knowledge of stylistic variation, and that it needs to be formally taught to those who speak English as a second or foreign language.

scholarly journals “Like, Pasta, Pizza and Stuff” – New Trends in Online Food Discourse

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Diemer ◽  
Marie-Louise Brunner ◽  
Selina Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Online Environment ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Mediated Discourse ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
The Times ◽  
Blog Posts

This paper examines two examples of online food discourse to illustrate how the medium changes parameters established in print recipes: food blogs for written and Skype talks for oral computer-mediated discourse about food. The language of food blogs will be analysed with the help of examples from the Food Blog Corpus (Diemer and Frobenius 2011),i compiled at Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany. This corpus includes 100 blog posts in total from The Times Online. Skype conversations about food between non-native speakers of English are taken from CASE, the Corpus of Academic Spoken English (Diemer et al. forthcoming),ii also compiled at Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany. For the purpose of this analysis, a subcorpus of food-related conversations was extracted, containing seven conversations (5.5h) between 14 German and Italian participants in total. The two corpora were examined in terms of contextualisation (reference to place, time, and personal background), register (audience, and linguistic features), as well as personal opinions and lifestyle comments. The paper suggests that both discourse types make use of the multimodal online environment and add evaluative content, for example integrating positively connoted terms to describe food-related issues. The paper also illustrates possible trends towards an increasing inclusion of non-expert language features, such as vagueness and a reduction of presuppositions, and of cultural and personal references, integrating individual background information.

scholarly journals Unenthusiastic Europeans or Affected English: the Impact of Intonation on the Overall Make-up of Speech

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 35-44
Author(s):  
Smiljana Komar
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Pitch Range ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
The Impact

Attitudes and emotions are expressed by linguistic as well as extra-linguistic features. The linguistic features comprise the lexis, the word-order and the intonation of the utterance. The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of intonation on our perception of speech. I will attempt to show that our expression, as well as our perception and understanding of attitudes and emotions are realized in accordance with the intonation patterns typical of the mother tongue. When listening to non-native speakers using our mother tongue we expect and tolerate errors in pronunciation, grammar and lexis but are quite ignorant and intolerant of non-native intonation patterns. Foreigners often sound unenthusiastic to native English ears. On the basis of the results obtained from an analysis of speech produced by 21 non-native speakers of English, including Slovenes, I will show that the reasons for such an impression of being unenthusiastic stem from different tonality and tonicity rules, as well as from the lack of the fall-rise tone and a very narrow pitch range with no or very few pitch jumps or slumps.

Non-Native Varieties of English: Nativization, Norms, and Implications

1986 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter H. Lowenberg
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
English Usage ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

Institutionalized “non-native” varieties of English have developed in countries such as Nigeria and India, where English is widely used as a second, often official, language in a broad range of intranational domains. These varieties are characterized by “nativization” (Kachru, 1981a): systematic changes in their formal features at all linguistic levels, which result from the use of English in new sociocultural settings, in contact with other languages, and in the absence of native speakers of English. This paper demonstrates how non-native varieties are distinct from interlanguages or approximative systems of “established” (Platt & Weber, 1980) varieties of English (e.g., British or American). Crucial differences are illustrated in strategies common to both nativization and second language acquisition—generalization of rules in the established varieties of English and transfer of linguistic features from other languages—in terms of linguistic contexts in which they apply and motivations underlying their application. A survey of positive attitudes toward non-native varieties among their users indicates that certain nativized features are becoming new norms for English usage in many countries. These strategies of and attitudes toward nativization are shown to have important implications for the teaching of English as a second language and for linguistic theory.

scholarly journals FACTORS INFLUENCING THE COMPREHENSION OF CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURES BY NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY INSPIRED BY BOUTON’S (1988)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alisa-Anastasiia Kavetska
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
Choice Test ◽  
Conversational Implicature ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Digital Version ◽  
Second Language Speakers ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Linguistic Backgrounds

The main goal of the present study has been to examine implicature comprehension in native and foreign/second language speakers of English from different linguistic backgrounds. The project was inspired by an earlier work of Bouton (1988), whose objective was to measure the influence of cultural background on the ability to grasp implied meanings in English, by comparing native and non-native speakers' performance. A modified digital version of the original multiple-choice test (Bouton 1988) was used to collect the data. Gricean (1989) theory of conversational implicature served as a theoretical framework for the study. The quantitative analysis of the data collected from the speakers of 33 languages was compared against the original results and the scope of the analysis was expanded to incorporate the examination of other factors affecting implicature understanding in native and nonnative languages. The present results corroborate some of the earlier findings and suggest that language competence and cultural background are crucial factors in understanding implicated meanings.

Construing Temporal Magnitudes: Implications for Event Conceptualisation

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-237
Author(s):  
Mikołaj Deckert
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Major Effect ◽  
Time Intervals ◽  
Objective Time ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Four Levels ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Analogous Effect

The paper investigates the effect of alternating construals of temporal magnitudes on individuals’ reasoning about events that are explicitly embedded in time. Specifically, I analyse the meaning-making potential of “cumulative” and “fractional” construals, as in “30 minutes” and “half an hour”. Inspired by Cognitive Linguistics postulates, the hypothesis is that although these alternate constructions of time quantities are numerically equivalent, i.e. the objective time intervals designated are the same, they will differently prompt conceptualisation and reasoning about events they structure. This hypothesis is empirically tested with native and non-native speakers of English at four levels of time granularity, for seconds/minute, minutes/hour, weeks/month and months/year configurations. The findings show that there is a consistent major effect indicating a semantic-conceptual asymmetry between cumulative and fractional construals for the seconds/minute level, and a weaker, though analogous, effect for the months/year level, with the fractional construals ‘magnifying’ the quantity. Critically, the effect is found to hold in the case of conceptualisers for whom English, in which stimuli were presented, was their L2 while English native speakers appear to be ‘immune’. I discuss the potential motivation behind those patterns as well as the effect’s theoretical and practical implications. Finally, the findings are then related to a study on individuals’ intuitive predictions about meaning-making implications of alternating between cumulative and fractional construals of time.

Hong Kong university students’ perceptions of their identities in English as a Lingua Franca contexts

2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chit Cheung Matthew Sung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
University Students ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Second Language Speakers ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Asian Context

This paper presents findings from an exploratory study that investigated the perceptions of a group of Hong Kong university students concerning their identities in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) contexts. Qualitative data were collected primarily via in-depth interviews with a group of second-language speakers of ELF who use English with people from different first-language and cultural backgrounds on a regular basis. The analysis revealed that these participants came to terms with their identities as non-native speakers of English and emphasized the importance of maintaining their cultural identities as Hong Kong or Chinese speakers of ELF. In addition, most of them valued their ‘multicompetence’ in English, Cantonese and Putonghua when speaking English in ELF situations. The inquiry also found that some participants’ identification with other non-native speakers of English within the ELF community was rather selective and that different members within the ELF community were not perceived as equally ideal speakers of ELF. The study offers some valuable insights into the identities of ELF speakers and the wider ELF community within an Asian context.

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