scholarly journals Investigating the influence of culture on language patterns: a contrastive corpus-based study

Tradterm ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 644-670
Author(s):  
Sandra Navarro

This paper aims to explore the intrinsic relationship between language and culture. It attempts to shed light on the underlying cultural associations embedded in collocational meaning across languages. The notion of culture adopted in this study is related to how individuals perceive the world and interpret reality around them. This paper brings together the principles of Corpus Linguistics and Intercultural Studies to investigate a corpus of travelers’ reviews (English/Portuguese) and interpret results within the framework of the model of cultural orientations in Walker et al. (2003). In a study of collocations with the word staff and their equivalents in Portuguese, we demonstrate how a language pattern can also represent a cultural pattern, thus showing that cultural orientations play a role in the identification of collocational meaning across languages.

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Manca

The relationship between language and culture is an interplay between linguistic choices and cultural filters; if we accept that language is an expression of culture, i.e. of the beliefs, customs, behaviours and rituals constituting the cultural identity of a group of people, then it is crucial that phraseology and cultural features are not separated in the analysis and production of meaning. This paper aims to combine two different methodological approaches to the study of meaning (Manca 2008, 2009): the Corpus Linguistics approach within the framework of John Sinclair’s view of language (1991, 1996) and the Intercultural Studies approach based on Hall’s ([1976] 1989) theories and Katan’s (2004, 2006) framework of High and Low Context Cultures features in transactional communication. The two levels of analysis allow the researcher to carry out both a quantitative and qualitative analysis. Examples that show the validity of this combined approach will be derived from a number of corpora of different subsections of the British and Italian languages of tourism. We will see that the two cultures tend to adopt different types of promotion in terms of linguistic devices (for example use of concrete nouns vs. abstract nouns) and features of description along a continuum which sees at one extreme explicitness and simple facts and at the other extreme implicitness, feelings and opinions.


Author(s):  
Anna Wierzbicka

This chapter argues that a philosophical account of human epistemology needs to be complemented by a linguistic one, informed by analytical and empirical experience of cross-linguistic semantics. The author outlines such a complementary account, based on many decades of empirical and analytical research undertaken within the NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) approach. The main conclusion is that KNOW is an indefinable and universal human concept, and that there are four “canonical” frames in which this concept occurs across languages, the most basic one being the “dialogical” frame: “I know,” “I don’t know.” The author contends that both the questions and the answers concerning the “epistemology for the rest of the world” need to be anchored in some conceptual givens, derived neither from historically shaped Anglo English, nor from the European philosophical tradition, but from a more reliable, language- and culture-independent source; and the author shows how this can be done.


According to a long historical tradition, understanding comes in different varieties. In particular, it is said that understanding people has a different epistemic profile than understanding the natural world—it calls on different cognitive resources, for instance, and brings to bear distinctive normative considerations. Thus in order to understand people we might need to appreciate, or in some way sympathetically reconstruct, the reasons that led a person to act in a certain way. By comparison, when it comes to understanding natural events, like earthquakes or eclipses, no appreciation of reasons or acts of sympathetic reconstruction is arguably needed—mainly because there are no reasons on the scene to even be appreciated, and no perspectives to be sympathetically pieced together. In this volume some of the world’s leading philosophers, psychologists, and theologians shed light on the various ways in which we understand the world, pushing debates on this issue to new levels of sophistication and insight.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3613
Author(s):  
Carola Kleemann

The coastal areas of Finnmark have deep Sámi roots. With the Norwegian assimilation policy—Norwegianization—the transition to the Norwegian language has been extensive here, placing the region outside Sámi core areas. Nevertheless, indigenous Sea Sámi identity still exists, and language vitalization and raising awareness of culture are shown in Sámi institution building. Within these frames, kindergarten teachers with Sámi backgrounds work to strengthen their local Sámi language and culture in a Sámi department of a kindergarten outside the core Sámi areas. This article aims to shed light on how the use of their bilingual resources in pedagogical translanguaging practices can build sustainable language practices for North Sámi. With children and adults, we explored how culturally aware, situated outdoors activities, such as building a campfire and gathering berries, encouraged children’s use of North Sámi. Both children and adults recorded these activities with GoPro cameras. The material was transcribed and analyzed using Conversation Analysis and translanguaging. For this article, I chose three episodes in which kindergarten teachers used their bilingual language register to interact with children in different pedagogical practices to give children input in North Sámi. Pedagogical translanguaging with young language learners in an emergent bilingual situation could help strengthen North Sámi language and culture outside Sámi core areas.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Victor Crochet ◽  
Marcus Gustafsson

Abstract Discontentment is growing such that governments, and notably that of China, are increasingly providing subsidies to companies outside their jurisdiction, ‘buying their way’ into other countries’ markets and undermining fair competition therein as they do so. In response, the European Union recently published a proposal to tackle such foreign subsidization in its own market. This article asks whether foreign subsidies can instead be addressed under the existing rules of the World Trade Organization, and, if not, whether those rules allow States to take matters into their own hands and act unilaterally. The authors shed light on these issues and provide preliminary guidance on how to design a response to foreign subsidization which is consistent with international trade law.


2021 ◽  
pp. 095715582110024
Author(s):  
Murielle El Hajj

The texts of Leslie Kaplan question the irreducible opposition between the real and the non-real. Her characters and their intentional absence confuse the repository and fictional worlds, not only to point out the thin margin between reality and fiction, but to underline the impossible delimitation between the real and the fictional, or even between the text and the world. This article studies the characters of Kaplan and aims to demonstrate their identity crisis through the study of their literary onomastic and the use of the neutral pronoun ‘it’ and allegoric expressions. In addition, the objective of this article is to shed light on the Kaplanian characters as Kunderian models, while stressing the particularity of their physionomy, which consists to present ‘fuzzy’ characters that are present and absent at the same time, engaging the reader in the fictional process as a try to complete the missing details. This article concludes that the Kaplanian characters are not only the prototypes of the postmodern being, but they are also introverted, psychopaths and a demonstration of different facets of the unconscious.


Organization ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianna Fotaki ◽  
Kate Kenny ◽  
Sheena J. Vachhani

Affect holds the promise of destabilizing and unsettling us, as organizational subjects, into new states of being. It can shed light on many aspects of work and organization, with implications both within and beyond organization studies. Affect theory holds the potential to generate exciting new insights for the study of organizations, theoretically, methodologically and politically. This Special Issue seeks to explore these potential trajectories. We are pleased to present five contributions that develop such ideas, drawing on a wide variety of approaches, and invoking new perspectives on the organizations we study and inhabit. As this Special Issue demonstrates, the world of work offers an exciting landscape for studying the ‘pulsing refrains of affect’ that accompany our lived experiences.


Daphnis ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-84
Author(s):  
Sabine Seelbach

Abstract This article presents the project “Virtual Benedictine library Millstatt” (www.virtbibmillstatt.com/), which is dedicated to the cultural memory and educational history of Carinthia in the broadest sense. It aims to reconstruct the hitherto little-known and little-researched corpus of manuscripts from the Benedictine Abbey of Millstatt, to identify its texts, and to shed light on their history of use. Against the background of the eventful history of ownership of the Millstatt library, the problems that arise when trying to reliably assign manuscripts scattered around the world to the Millstatt corpus are outlined. Examples will be used to show the extent to which external features (binding, signature system, accessories), but also text-internal indications, make the origin and ownership history of the manuscripts traceable. Spectacular new finds are presented, but also erroneous assumptions about the affiliation of certain texts to the reading canon of the Millstatt Benedictines are pointed out.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 77-97
Author(s):  
John Bosco Ngendakurio

Abstract This article seeks to reveal the primary barriers to fair economic development based on Kenyans’ perceptions of power and globalization. This search was initially sparked by the seeming disinterest of First World scholars to understand the reasons why poor countries benefit so little from the global market as reflected in a subsequent lack of a wide-ranging existing literature about the subject. The literature suggests that global capitalism is dominated by a powerful small elite, the so-called Transnational Capitalist Class (TCC), but how does this relate to Kenya and Africa in general? We know that the TCC has strong connections to financial capital and wealthy transnational corporations. It also pushes neo-liberalism, which becomes the taken-for-granted everyday language and culture that justifies state policies that result in a further class polarization between the rich and poor. Using Kenya as a case study, this article draws on original qualitative research involving face-to-face interviews with Kenyan residents in different sectors who spoke freely about what they perceive to be Kenya’s place in the world order. My interview results show that, on top of the general lack of economic power in the world order, the main barriers to Africa’s performance are neo-colonial and imperialist practices, poor technology, poor infrastructure, general governance issues, and purchasing power.


Author(s):  
Muhittin Gümüş

ÖZET. Milletlerin çok eski zamanlardan bugüne kadar yaşayarak edinmiş oldukları tecrübeler, bilgiler, kazanımlar ve değerler o milletin kültürünü oluşturur. Edinilen değerlerin dil aracılığıyla hayat bulması kültürdilbilim alanı çerçevesinde kültür-dil-insan arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemeye değer bulmuştur. Herhangi bir varlığın şekline, işlevine, görevine, görüntüsüne her toplumda farklı anlam veya dilsel dünya görüşünü yansıtan adlar verilir. Kültür-dil-insan çerçevesinde dil ve kültür ilişkilerinin belli bir disiplin altında incelenmesi ancak kültürdilbilim yoluyla mümkündür. Dilbilim alanına ait kültürdilbilim çalışmalarında ele alınan dilsel dünya görüşü kavramı her bir dilin dolayısıyla toplumun ya da ortak değerlere sahip toplumlarının oluşturduğu milletlerin dünyayı nasıl algılayıp yansıttığını, çevresindeki varlıkların ve kavramların hangi niteliklerini ayırt ettiğini, insanın duygu ve düşüncelerini, değer yargılarını nasıl betimledikleri incelenmektedir. Bu makalede kültürdilbilim çerçevesinde Türkçede “gibi”, Kırgızcada -DAy eki ve “sıyaktuu”, “öndüü” bağlacıyla yapılan benzetmeler ve deyimler Türkçe ile karşılaştırmalı olarak incelenmekte, böylelikle iki toplum arasındaki dış dünya algısı arasındaki farklılıklar veya benzerlikler tespit edilecektir. Адам баласы алмустактан бери топтогон маалыматы, турмуштан топтогон тажрыйбасы жана баалуулуктары менен улуттук маданиятын түзгөн. Тилдик каражаттар аркылуу чагылдырылган турмуштук тажрыйбалар улуттук маданият чөлкөмүндө маданият-тил-адам баласы деген чөйрөдө изилдөөгө алынат. Сөз, форма, иш аракет, көрүнүштөр ар бир коомдо ар кандай маанини туюндурган лексикалар менен берилген. Маданият-тил-адам баласы аттуу чөйрөдө тилдик жана маданий байланыштар белгилүү бир тартипте изилдениши бир гана маданияттаануу жолу менен ишке ашат. Тил илимине тиешелүү маданияттаануу илиминде каралган тилдик дүйнө тааным түшүнүгү ар бир тилдин, ошол эле учурда орток баалуулуктарга ээ болгон коомдун дүйнөнү кабыл алышы жана аны чагылдырышы, анын чөйрөнү жана түшүнүктөрдү айырмалаган сапаттарын, адамдын ички уйгу-туйгусун жана түшүнүктөрүн кандай сүрөттөгөнүн изилденет. Бул макалада маданияттаанууда Түрк тилиндеги “gibi” Кыргыз тилиндеги –ДАй мүчөсү, сыяктуу жана өндүү жандоочтор менен бе-рилиши, фразеологиялык каражаттар Түрк тили менен салыштырылып, эки тилдин ортосундагы сырткы дүйнө тааным менен болгон айырмасы жана окшоштуктары аныкталат. The experiences, knowledge, achievements and values that have been gained by nations starting from ancient times and up today constitute the culture of that nation. It has become worthy of examining the relationship between culture-language-human within the frameworks of cultural linguistics. Names are attached to any entity in accordance with its shape, function, tasks, and appearance that reflect different meanings in each society or their linguistic worldview. Analyzing language and culture relations within the scope of a certain discipline in the frameworks of culture-language-human is only possible by means of Cultural Linguistics. The concept of linguistic worldview, which is discussed in cultural-linguistics studies in the field of linguistics, deals with studying how each language and therefore the societies or societies with common values perceive the world and reflect it through the language they use, what qualities of entities and concepts surrounding them they distinguish, how they describe feelings and thoughts of a human being and their value judgments. This paper studies analogies and idioms that are formed by means of preposition “gibi” in the Turkish language and “sıyaktuu” with the suffix –Day in the Kyrgyz language, which are examined in the context of comparative cultural linguistics. Thus, the differences and/or similarities between the perception of external world between the two societies are revealed.


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