scholarly journals Language, entanglement and the new Silk Roads

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 194-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
KM Fierke ◽  
Francisco Antonio-Alfonso
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
First Language ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Potential Threat ◽  
Relational Ontology ◽  
Ontological Shift ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Central South

Observers have tended to place the Silk Road proposals in the context of ‘China’s rise’, and its increasing influence and interests in Central, South and South-East Asia. From a realist perspective, China, like any expanding state, poses a potential threat. From a liberal angle, it is expanding the space for cooperation. Both models rely on an individualist ontology that highlights the interests of individual states. The potential of the Silk Roads looks somewhat different if approached from the perspective of a more relational ontology and a concept of entanglement. We draw on a few claims from Alexander Wendt’s (2015) recent book as a framework for examining the emerging reality of the new ‘Silk Roads’. What are the implications of this ontological shift for thinking about the Chinese ‘Silk Road’ proposal? We develop three specific claims as part of a reflection on this context: first, language use is a form of measurement that shapes and transforms reality; second, language use is an expression of entanglement; and third, leaders have a large role in ‘collapsing wave functions’ around specific potentials. While some of the themes that arise in this discussion are compatible with other arguments about the role of language, the quantum angle provides a more explicit point of departure for discussing the ‘physical’ dimensions of language use, the multiple layers of meaning within which the OBOR is embedded and its relational ontology.

scholarly journals The development of determiners in the context of French–English bilingualism: a study of cross-linguistic influence

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 767-787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Coralie HERVÉ ◽  
Ludovica SERRATRICE
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Use ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Longitudinal Development ◽  
Rate Of Development ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
A Minor

AbstractThis paper reports the preliminary results of a study examining the role of structural overlap, language exposure, and language use on cross-linguistic influence (CLI) in bilingual first language acquisition. We focus on the longitudinal development of determiners in a corpus of two French–English children between the ages of 2;4 and 3;7. The results display bi-directional CLI in the rate of development, i.e., accelerated development in English and a minor delay in French. Unidirectional CLI from English to French was instead observed in the significantly higher rate of ungrammatical determiner omissions in plural and generic contexts than in singular specific contexts in French. These findings suggest that other language-internal mechanisms may be at play. They also lend support to the role of expressive abilities on the magnitude of this phenomenon.

scholarly journals On the multidimensionality of bilingualism and the unique role of language use*

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Patrycja Kałamała ◽  
Magdalena Senderecka ◽  
Zofia Wodniecka
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
First Language ◽  
Measurement Methods ◽  
Language Switching ◽  
Unique Role ◽  
Language Mixing ◽  
Language Environment

Abstract The multidimensionality of the bilingual experience makes the investigation of bilingualism fascinating but also challenging. Although the literature distinguishes several aspects of bilingualism, the measurement methods and the relationships between these aspects have not been clearly established. In a group of 171 relatively young Polish–English bilinguals living in their first-language environment, this study investigates the relationships between the multiple measures of bilingualism. The study shows that language entropy – an increasingly popular measure of the diversity of language use – reflects a separate aspect of the bilingual experience from language-switching and language-mixing measures. The findings also indicate that language proficiency is not a uniform aspect of the bilingual experience but a complex construct that requires appropriately comprehensive measurements. Collectively, the findings contribute to the discussion on the best practices for quantifying bilingualism.

Historical Analogies and the Use of Force

2004 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Garofano
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Relative Weight ◽  
Pearl Harbor ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Point Of Departure

Using a recent book by Jeffrey Record as a point of departure, this essay considers the role of historical analogies in decisions by U.S. leaders to use force during the Cold War. The analogies considered by Record those of Munich and Vietnam may have had a bearing on some decisions, but it is often difficult to assess their relative weight compared to other critical variables. Moreover, several analogies not considered by Record Pearl Harbor, for example may have been far more salient during certain crises than the analogies he examines. In any case, we need a more systematic analysis of historical analogies than Record provides if we are to gauge the real influence and impact of historical analogies on the Cold War.

Language Use and Sustainable Development: Opportunities and Challenges for Policy-Makers and Educators in Northeast Vietnamese Areas

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-130
Author(s):  
Ha Ngan Ngo ◽  
Maya Khemlani David
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The Status ◽  
Wedding Songs

Vietnam represents a country with 54 ethnic groups; however, the majority (88%) of the population are of Vietnamese heritage. Some of the other ethnic groups such as Tay, Thai, Muong, Hoa, Khmer, and Nung have a population of around 1 million each, while the Brau, Roman, and Odu consist only of a hundred people each. Living in northern Vietnam, close to the Chinese border (see Figure 1), the Tay people speak a language of the    Central    Tai language group called Though, T'o, Tai Tho, Ngan, Phen, Thu Lao, or Pa Di. Tay remains one of 10 ethnic languages used by 1 million speakers (Buoi, 2003). The Tày ethnic group has a rich culture of wedding songs, poems, dance, and music and celebrate various festivals. Wet rice cultivation, canal digging and grain threshing on wooden racks are part of the Tày traditions. Their villages situated near the foothills often bear the names of nearby mountains, rivers, or fields. This study discusses the status and role of the Tày language in Northeast Vietnam. It discusses factors, which have affected the habitual use of the Tay language, the connection between language shift and development and provides a model for the sustainability and promotion of minority languages. It remains fundamentally imperative to strengthen and to foster positive attitudes of the community towards the Tày language. Tày’s young people must be enlightened to the reality their Tày non-usage could render their mother tongue defunct, which means their history stands to be lost.

Varieties of Intentionalism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Keiser
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Linguistic Communication ◽  
Grammatical Analysis

In Imagination and Convention: Distinguishing Grammar and Inference in Language, Ernie Lepore and Matthew Stone offer a multifaceted critique of the Gricean picture of language use, proposing in its place a novel framework for understanding the role of convention in linguistic communication. They criticize Lewis’s and Grice’s commitment to what they call ‘prospective intentionalism,’ according to which utterance meaning is determined by the conversational effects intended by the speaker. Instead, they make a case for what they call ‘direct intentionalism’, according to which utterance meaning is determined by the speaker’s intentions to use it under a certain grammatical analysis. I argue that there is an equivocation behind their critique, both regarding the type of meaning that is at issue and the question each theory is attempting to answer; once we prise these issues apart, we find that Lepore and Stone’s main contentions are compatible with the broadly Lewisian/Gricean picture.

Doing Tricks

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Borba
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Commercial Sex ◽  
Business Transaction ◽  
Methodological Challenges ◽  
Social Scientific

Sex work has long been of interest to a variety of fields, among them anthropology, sociology, public health, and feminist theory, to name but a few. However, with very few exceptions, sociolinguistics seems to have ignored the fact that commercial sex, as an intersubjective business transaction, is primarily negotiated in embodied linguistic interaction. By reviewing publications in distinct social scientific areas that directly or indirectly discuss the role of language in the sex industry, this chapter critically assesses the analytical affordances and methodological challenges for a sociolinguistics of sex work. It does so by discussing the “tricks” played by sex work, as a power-infused context of language use in which issues of agency (or lack thereof) are paramount, on sociolinguistic theory and methods. The chapter concludes that the study of language in commercial sex venues is sociolinguistically promising and epistemologically timely.

scholarly journals A LONGITUDINAL INVESTIGATION OF EXPLICIT AND IMPLICIT AUDITORY PROCESSING IN L2 SEGMENTAL AND SUPRASEGMENTAL ACQUISITION

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Hui Sun ◽  
Kazuya Saito ◽  
Adam Tierney
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
Auditory Processing ◽  
First Language ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Immersion Experience ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Processing Ability ◽  
Speech Learning

Abstract Precise auditory perception at a subcortical level (neural representation and encoding of sound) has been suggested as a form of implicit L2 aptitude in naturalistic settings. Emerging evidence suggests that such implicit aptitude explains some variance in L2 speech perception and production among adult learners with different first language backgrounds and immersion experience. By examining 46 Chinese learners of English, the current study longitudinally investigated the extent to which explicit and implicit auditory processing ability could predict L2 segmental and prosody acquisition over a 5-month early immersion. According to the results, participants’ L2 gains were associated with more explicit and integrative auditory processing ability (remembering and reproducing music sequences), while the role of implicit, preconscious perception appeared to be negligible at the initial stage of postpubertal L2 speech learning.

scholarly journals The role of response domain and scale label in the quantitative interpretation of patient-reported outcome measure response options

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tessa Peasgood ◽  
Jen-Yu Chang ◽  
Robina Mir ◽  
Clara Mukuria ◽  
Philip A. Powell
Keyword(s):  
First Language ◽  
Patient Reported Outcome Measures ◽  
Patient Reported Outcome ◽  
Response Options ◽  
The Public ◽  
Online Panel ◽  
Patient Reported ◽  
Common Response ◽  
Chi Squared

Abstract Purpose Uncertainties exist in how respondents interpret response options in patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), particularly across different domains and for different scale labels. The current study assessed how respondents quantitatively interpret common response options. Methods Members of the general public were recruited to this study via an online panel, stratified by age, gender, and having English as a first language. Participants completed background questions and were randomised to answer questions on one of three domains (i.e. loneliness (negatively phrased), happiness or activities (positively phrased)). Participants were asked to provide quantitative interpretations of response options (e.g. how many times per week is equal to “often”) and to order several common response options (e.g. occasionally, sometimes) on a 0–100 slider scale. Chi-squared tests and regression analyses were used to assess whether response options were interpreted consistently across domains and respondent characteristics. Results Data from 1377 participants were analysed. There was general consistency in quantifying the number of times over the last 7 days to which each response option referred. Response options were consistently assigned a lower value in the loneliness than happiness and activities domains. Individual differences, such as age and English as a second language, explained some significant variation in responses, but less than domain. Conclusion Members of the public quantify common response options in a similar way, but their quantification is not equivalent across domains or every type of respondent. Recommendations for the use of certain scale labels over others in PROM development are provided.

scholarly journals Is and Ought? How the (Social) Ontological Circumscribes the Normative

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 509-525
Author(s):  
Dorothea Gädeke
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Normative Values ◽  
Relational Ontology ◽  
Individual Values ◽  
The Social ◽  
Argument Proceeds ◽  
Ontological Position ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Normative Content

Abstract Is normative theory grounded in ontology and if so, how? Taking a debate between Kwame Gyekye and Thaddeus Metz as my point of departure, my aim in this article is to show that something normative does indeed follow from ontological views: The social ontological, I maintain, circumscribes the normative without, however, fully determining its content. My argument proceeds in two steps: First, I argue that our social ontological position constrains what kind of normative theory we may plausibly defend. A relational ontology as defended by Gyekye entails a relational normative theory, whereas an atomist ontology calls for an individualist normative approach and a collectivist ontology for a strong communitarian one. Second, this link between the ontological and the normative has substantive implications for how to interpret the normative content of a theory; it entails interpreting normative values in light of the appropriate kind of normative thought. I illustrate the importance of this implication by showing that it suggests a decidedly relational reading of the core value of well-being in Gyekye’s moderate communitarianism, that resolves the alleged tension between communal and individual values in his account.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document