scholarly journals A multimodal cognitive approach to aid the conceptualization of Spanish utterances with ‘se’

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-710
Author(s):  
Renia Lopez-Ozieblo
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Peninsular Spanish ◽  
Advanced Proficiency

AbstractMost native speakers of Spanish are intuitively able to construct correct structures with the marker ‘se’. On the other hand, non-native speakers, even those at advanced proficiency levels, have difficulties producing most constructions with ‘se’. This is hardly surprising as the marker ‘se’, one of the most common words in Spanish, can convey highly pragmatic nuances with a variety of functions that are still much debated among linguists. This study analyses some of the most used functions of the marker in the oral production of 18 Peninsular Spanish speakers from a multimodal Cognitive Grammar approach, identifying how gestures might be employed by speakers to create or clarify meaning. Our results confirm that gestures are used differently depending on the function of the marker. Middle voices where ‘se’ marks high levels of subject involvement and/or energy co-occur with related gestures, while middle voices or impersonal structures, where the involvement and/or energy is low, co-occur more often with unrelated gestures, if any.

scholarly journals A contrastive study of conventional indirectness in Spanish

Pragmatics ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosina Márquez Reiter
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Negative Correlation ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Contrastive Study ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Indirect Requests ◽  
Peninsular Spanish

This article examines the results of a contrastive empirical study of conventional indirect requests in Peninsular and Uruguayan Spanish. The results reveal pragmatic similarities at the level of the linguistic encoding of utterances with both, Peninsular and Uruguayan Spanish speakers showing a negative correlation between (in)directness and social distance. The less familiar the interlocutors are with each other, the more likely it is for their requests to be realised indirectly. On the other hand, pragmatic differences were found in the tentativeness conveyed by the requests in these two language varieties. Uruguayan Spanish requests were more tentative than those in Peninsular Spanish. This tentativeness was achieved through a more frequent and more varied use of external modifications and a much higher incidence of internal modificating devices of the downgrading type.

scholarly journals Strategies of Impoliteness in Japanese Spontaneous Talks

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Calvetti
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
The Other ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Bulletin Board ◽  
Bulletin Board System ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
Board System

If, on the one hand, Japanese language, with its richness of marked allomorphs used for honorifics, has been considered one of the most attractive languages to investigate the phenomenon of politeness, on the other hand, a very small number of studies have been devoted to Japanese impoliteness, most of them limited to BBSs’ (Bulletin Board System) chats on Internet. Interestingly, Japanese native speakers declare, in general, that their language has a very limited number of offensive expressions and that ‘impoliteness’ is not a characteristic of their mother tongue. I tried to analyse some samples of spontaneous conversations taken from YouTube and other multimedia repertoires, in order to detect the main strategies used in Japanese real conversations to cause offence or to show a threatening attitude toward the partner’s face. It seems possible to state that, notwithstanding the different ‘cultural’ peculiarities, impoliteness shows, also in Japanese, a set of strategies common to other languages and that impoliteness, in terms of morphology, is not a mirror counterpart of keigo.

Effects of Handedness and Script Types on Visual-Field Differences in the Mental Addition Task

1996 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-376
Author(s):  
Kazuhito Yoshizaki ◽  
Takeshi Hatta ◽  
Kumiko Toyama
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Right Visual Field ◽  
Cerebral Lateralization ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Mental Addition ◽  
Addition Task ◽  
Group A ◽  
The Difference

The effects of handedness and script types on the difference in performance in a mental addition task by visual field were examined. Right-handers, nonfamilial left-handers, and familial left-handers who were all native speakers of Japanese were asked to add two numbers presented in the visual half-fields tachistoscopically. The two numbers were displayed either to one visual field (left or right visual field) or to the center. The numbers were displayed in Arabic, in Kanji, or in Arabic and Kanji numerals (one in Arabic and the other in Kanji: Mixed stimuli). The subjects were asked to add the two numbers and to state the sum orally. In the righthanders group, a right visual-field advantage was found for the Arabic condition but not for the Kanji or Mixed stimuli. On the other hand, in the nonfamilial and familial left-handers group, no visual-field difference in any of the conditions was found. These findings suggest that pattern of cerebral lateralization for familial and nonfamilial left-handers is the same but it is different from that of right-handers.

Wie Zijn 'Onze' Leerders?

1999 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 87-97
Author(s):  
Anne-Mieke Janssen-van Dieten
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
The One

There is an increasing awareness that the number of non-native speakers in the category of 'adult, highly educated, advanced L2-learners' is rapidly increasing. This paper presents an analysis of what it means to teach them a second language - whether it is Dutch or any other second language. It is argued that, on the one hand, conceptions about language learning and teaching are insufficiendy known, and that, on the other hand, there are many widespread misconceptions that prevent language teachers from catering adequately for people's actual communicative needs, and from providing tailor-made solutions to these problems.

scholarly journals Immediate and Distracted Imitation in Second-Language Speech: Unreleased Plosives In English

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arkadiusz Rojczyk ◽  
Andrzej Porzuczek ◽  
Marcin Bergier
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Word Boundary ◽  
Linguistic Difference ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Significant Rate ◽  
No Release

The paper investigates immediate and distracted imitation in second-language speech using unreleased plosives. Unreleased plosives are fairly frequently found in English sequences of two stops. Polish, on the other hand, is characterised by a significant rate of releases in such sequences. This cross-linguistic difference served as material to look into how and to what extent non-native properties of sounds can be produced in immediate and distracted imitation. Thirteen native speakers of Polish first read and then imitated sequences of words with two stops straddling the word boundary. Stimuli for imitation had no release of the first stop. The results revealed that (1) a non-native feature such as the lack of the release burst can be imitated; (2) distracting imitation impedes imitative performance; (3) the type of a sequence interacts with the magnitude of an imitative effect

scholarly journals On the Hungarian Equivalents of the English Passive in Literary Translations A Case Study on the Translations of Two Novels

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-107
Author(s):  
Enikő Tankó
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Passive Voice ◽  
Discourse Function ◽  
Passive Construction ◽  
Other Hand

Abstract This paper investigates the choice of Hungarian equivalents for the English passive construction in translated texts in order to have a glimpse on how translators deal with the English passive. In previous studies (Tankó 2011, 2014), we have looked at the problems encountered by L1 speakers of Hungarian in the acquisition of the English passive voice, having identified different Hungarian equivalents of the English passive that native speakers would resort to when expressing a passive meaning. A special attention has been paid to the Hungarian predicative verbal adverbial construction, which seems to be the closest syntactic equivalent of the English passive, which captures most of its syntactic or discourse function properties. The main question to pursue is whether L1 speakers of Hungarian use the same strategies as shown in previous studies or they choose some other structures to express the passive meaning when it comes to translating literary texts. On the other hand, we would like to analyse Hungarian contexts which require a translation using the passive in English. Thus, our corpus consists of Orwell’s 1984 and Jókai Mór’s Az arany ember, comparing them with their translated versions.

scholarly journals Pragmatic Options of the Dialogical Text as a Language Unit

2021 ◽  
pp. 47-56
Author(s):  
Nadezhda Shpilnaya
Keyword(s):  
Research Methodology ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Informal Communication ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Communication Situation ◽  
Phatic Communication ◽  
Attachment Model ◽  
The One ◽  
Informative Communication

The purpose of the article is to analyse pragmatic variants of a dialogical text as a language unit. It is assumed that the pragmatic context of the dialogical text (dialogue) actualizing is associated with either informative or phatic intentions. Informative and phatic dialogues appear as pragmatic allotext of a dialogical text. The research methodology is based on the synthesis of derivational and anthropocentric language theories. The process of creating a dialogical text is considered, on the one hand, as a derivational process due to the suppositional relationship between the lexeme and the text, and on the other hand, as a process of interpreting the text in the pragmatic context of its actualization. The material for the study was the recording of oral and written speech of regular native speakers in an informal communication situation. The total number of analyzed speech patterns was 140 dialogic texts – 70 texts of each communication type. It is stated that the pragmatic actualization of the dialogical text is associated with the realization of paradigmatic and syntagmatic connections of lexemes. It is revealed that the syntagmatic model of a dialogical text genesis in informative communication is an adjoining model. A paradigmatic model of dialogic text genesis in informative communication is synonymy. In phatic communication, an attachment model was identified as a syntagmatic model of the genesis of a dialogical text. The paradigmatic model for the production of dialogic text in phatic communication is a homonym model.

scholarly journals Translating English WOMAN IS AN ANIMAL metaphors: Spanish native speakers’ associations with novel metaphors

2021 ◽  
Vol 108 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-66
Author(s):  
Kristina Fernandes
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sexually Active ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Likert Scales ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Conventional Animal

Animal metaphors are prevalent across languages and convey a variety of, oftentimes negative, meanings – more so for women than men. In English, for example, both lion and lioness refer to a sexually active, dominant man or woman respectively, but while the former is endowed with positive connotations (courage, strength), the latter evokes negative associations (danger, voracity). There are some animal terms, however, that do not feature in animal metaphors in a certain language, posing the question as to which associations are evoked by those animal terms that are not part of conventional animal metaphors. This paper explores Spanish speakers’ interpretations of mappings of the woman is an animal metaphor that are documented to exist in English but not in Spanish. This was tested with two online questionnaires, one employing open questions and the other one Likert scales presenting possible traits (e. g. quarrelsome, kind, promiscuous), in which Spanish speakers had to judge the animal metaphors which were translated from English. The results show that the novel animal metaphors are mainly associated by Spanish native speakers with negative features, first and foremost with ugliness. Additionally, most of the animal terms convey different meanings in English and Spanish. For example, musaraña, the Spanish equivalent of shrew, is not associated with bad temper and quarrelling, but instead with ugliness and muddleheadedness. Furthermore, the findings reveal significant insecurities in the interpretation of the translated metaphors by the Spanish speakers. These results might be an indication for both the arbitrariness and the stableness of associations with different animal species, depending on the speakers’ culture. It also seems that novel animal metaphors mainly provide mental access to unattractiveness as it is a concrete physical feature and might therefore be more accessible than abstract personality traits such as kindness or quarrelsomeness.

scholarly journals Conceptualizing translation in Poland in 2018

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-114
Author(s):  
Anna Kuźnik
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
The Other ◽  
Main Hypothesis ◽  
Additional Hypothesis ◽  
Item Questionnaire ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The One ◽  
Methodological Strategy

This paper aims to provide an account of our survey on the semiotic nature of the concept of translation among young Polish native speakers. The methodological strategy adopted is a con­structive replication of Sandra Halverson’s survey conducted in Norway in 1997. We claim, in our main hypothesis (stemming from a theoretical background of prototype semantics, which we used for measuring our object), that the concept of translation is not uniform and includes different semiotic types of translation, some of which are perceived as central (prototypical), and others as peripheral. According to our additional hypothesis, young Polish native speakers have a broad notion of translation (encompassing a wide range of intralingual and intersemiotic translations), even broader than their Norwegian counterparts, more than twenty years ago. Our data has been collected in 2018 using a seven-item questionnaire (seven different text pairs) with a seven-value scale from 103 subjects. While the main hypothesis has been confirmed, the additional hypothesis was rejected, with Polish respondents conceiving the concept of translation more narrowly. The methodological format of a replication produced an ambivalent effect: on the one hand, it yielded positive incentive, and on the other hand, it became our principal hindrance.

scholarly journals MODALITES ENONCIATIVES EN KABIYE, LANGUE DU GURUNSI ORIENTAL DU TOGO / ENUNCIATIVE MODALITIES IN KABIYE, A LANGUAGE OF THE EASTERN GURUNSI OF TOGO

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pali Tchaa ◽  
Amizou Maléki Espoir
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Basic Element ◽  
The Other ◽  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Verbal System ◽  
Structural Types ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Communication Context ◽  
Communication Needs

La problématique de l’énonciation, déjà abordée dans les travaux de Kassan (1996) en regard du système verbal trouve, dans la présente étude, un regain d’intérêt. Il s’est agi de focaliser l’analyse sur les types structurels d’énoncés pour en dégager les propriétés. L’ancrage théorique se situe entre Culioli (1978) qui conçoit l’énonciation à l’aune de l’assignation de la valeur référentielle du sujet de la relation prédicative et Cervoni (1992) dans la sous-catégorisation en « modalité » assertive, impérative, interrogative de l’énoncé. Compte a été également tenu des acquis descriptifs de Kassan (1996) et Lébikaza (1999). Les données analysées sont recueillies au cours de différents travaux de terrains auprès des locuteurs natifs du kabiyè à Kara. Il résulte de l’étude que l’énoncé est construit autour d’un contexte de communication, élément de base de son interprétation sémantique. Au-delà, sa structure est diversifiée. Verbal ou non verbal, l’énoncé kabiyè peut se réduire à un constituant. Par contre, quelle que soit son étendue, il peut admettre des expansions selon les besoins de communication des interlocuteurs. The topic of enunciation, already addressed by Kassan (1996) in relation to the verbal system, finds a renewed interest in the present study. The aim was to focus the analysis on the structural types of statements in order to identify their properties. Theoretical grounding ps between Culioli (1978), who conceives the enunciation on the basis of the assignment of the referential value of the predicative relationship, and Cervoni (1992) in the modality subcategorization in assertive, imperative and interrogative statements. Account was also taken of descriptive results of Kassan (1996) and Lébikaza (1999). The analyzed data are collected during various fieldworks in Kara with native speakers of Kabiyè. The study shows that the statement is built around a communication context, the basic element of its semantic interpretation. Beyond that, its structure is diversified. Verbal or non-verbal, the Kabiyè utterance can be reduced to a constituent. On the other hand, whatever its extent, it can admit expansions according to the communication needs of the interlocutors. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0720/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

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