scholarly journals Reported speech in Kakabe: Loose syntax with flexible indexicality

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Nikitina ◽  
Alexandra Vydrina
Keyword(s):  
Structural Properties ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
Second Languages ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Speech Reports ◽  
Dimensions Of Variation ◽  
The Way

AbstractMainstream approaches to the typology of reported discourse have been based on the notion of a direct-indirect continuum: reported speech constructions are traditionally analyzed as conforming to or deviating from the “ideals” of European direct and indirect speech. This study argues that continuum-based approaches fail to distinguish between two dimensions of variation that are systematically discriminated in a number of African languages and should therefore be treated separately. First, different constructions can be recruited for speech reporting, ranging from paratactic to subordinate structures. Second, languages differ in the way pronouns in speech reports are interpreted. In European languages two different deictic strategies are associated with different syntactic types of speech report (‘indirect’ and ‘direct’ deixis is correlated with subordination and parataxis, respectively). In Kakabe, we argue, the choice of pronominal values is independent of the construction’s syntax. Dissociating the construction’s structural properties from the behavior of indexicals allows us to describe the Kakabe strategies of speech reporting as well as account for the seemingly puzzling behavior of reported commands. Our data shows that speech reporting strategies of Kakabe should be treated as a type in its own right: a type characterized by loose syntax and flexible pronominal indexicality.

scholarly journals The advantage of story-telling: children's interpretation of reported speech in narratives

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 541-557
Author(s):  
FRANZISKA KÖDER ◽  
EMAR MAIER
Keyword(s):  
Information Transmission ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
Direct Speech ◽  
Indirect Speech ◽  
Transmission Setting ◽  
Referent Selection ◽  
Processing Effort ◽  
Dutch Children ◽  
Speech Reports

AbstractChildren struggle with the interpretation of pronouns in direct speech (Ann said, “I get a cookie”), but not in indirect speech (Ann said that she gets a cookie) (Köder & Maier, 2016). Yet children's books consistently favor direct over indirect speech (Baker & Freebody, 1989). To reconcile these seemingly contradictory findings, we hypothesize that the poor performance found by Köder and Maier (2016) is due to the information-transmission setting of that experiment, and that a narrative setting facilitates children's processing of direct speech. We tested 42 Dutch children (4;1–7;2) and 20 adults with a modified version of Köder and Maier's referent selection task, where participants interpret speech reports in an interactive story book. Results confirm our hypothesis: children are much better at interpreting pronouns in direct speech in such a narrative setting than they were in an information-transmission setting. This indicates that the pragmatic context of reports affects their processing effort.

Red-hot faces and burnt hearts

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 482-516
Author(s):  
Sérgio N. Menete ◽  
Guiying Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Heat Source ◽  
Conceptual Structure ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Target Domain ◽  
Bodily Experience ◽  
Source Domain ◽  
African Languages

Abstract People from different languages draw from the knowledge they have from the domain of heat (source domain) and apply it to the domain of anger (target domain) through metaphor. This was also found to be the case with Amharic and Changana. Our study investigates how anger is metaphorically conceptualized in these two languages. Many similarities were found even though variations do exist cross-linguistically. It is suggested that the similarities between these languages in conceptualizing anger lie in the fact that human beings share the same bodily experience: (physiology) embodiment, even though variations may arise due to the differences in cultural embodiment (race, values and geographical localization, etc). The study seeks to demonstrate how these two dimensions contribute to the overall conceptual structure of anger is heat metaphor in these two (unrelated) African languages.

Rethinking Hierarchies in East Asian Historical IR

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 598-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph MacKay
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
East Asia ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Dimensions Of Variation ◽  
Over Time

Abstract International relations (IR) has seen a proliferation of recent research on both international hierarchies as such and on historical IR in (often hierarchical) East Asia. This article takes stock of insights from East Asian hierarchies for the study of international hierarchy as such. I argue for and defend an explanatory approach emphasizing repertoires or toolkits of hierarchical super- and subordination. Historical hierarchies surrounding China took multiple dynastic forms. I emphasize two dimensions of variation. First, hierarchy-building occurs in dialogue between cores and peripheries. Variation in these relationships proliferated multiple arrangements for hierarchical influence and rule. Second, Sinocentric hierarchies varied widely over time, in ways that suggest learning. Successive Chinese dynasties both emulated the successes and avoided the pitfalls of the past, adapting their ideologies and strategies for rule to varying circumstances by recombining past political repertoires to build new ones. Taken together, these phenomena suggest new lines of inquiry for research on hierarchies in IR.

scholarly journals Aesthetics and Creativity. Identity Configurations

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Livia Durac ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
State Of Mind ◽  
Human Attitude ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Nature And Society ◽  
The Way

Reflecting on human attitude towards reality, together with deciphering the emotional code that accompanies it, has configured - in time – the aesthetic universe, open to human reflection, creation, and evaluation. Aesthetics appears through the way in which consciousness reacts and capitalises upon things in nature and society, or which belong to human subjectivity, including on artistic work, which have an effect on sensitiveness due to their harmony, balance and grandeur. As a fundamental attribute of the human being, creativity is the engine of cultural evolution, meaning the degree of novelty that man brings in his ideas, actions, and creations. Aesthetical values, together with the other types of values, contribute to what society represents and to what it can become, hence motivating human action and creation. Their role is to create a state of mind that encourages the cohesion, cooperation, and mutual understanding of the society. Integrating a chronological succession of the evolution of the concepts that objectify its structure, its aesthetics and creativity, this article stresses the synergetic nature of the two dimensions of human personality, paving the way to beauty, as a form of enchantment of the human spirit.

scholarly journals A Needs Assessment for Indigenous African Language-Based Programming Languages

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Ezekiel K. Olatunji ◽  
John B. Oladosu ◽  
Odetunji A. Odejobi ◽  
Stephen O. Olabiyisi
Keyword(s):  
Needs Assessment ◽  
Programming Languages ◽  
Programming Language ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
African Languages ◽  
European Languages ◽  
To Come ◽  
High Degree

AbstractThe development of an African native language-based programming language, using Yoruba as a case study, is envisioned. Programming languages based on the lexicons of indigenous African languages are rare to come by unlike those based on Asian and / or European languages. Availability of programming languages based on lexicons of African indigenous language would facilitate comprehension of problem-solving processes using computer by indigenous learners and teachers as confirmed by research results. In order to further assess the relevance, usefulness and needfulness of such a programming language, a preliminary needs assessment survey was carried out. The needs assessment was carried out through design of a structured questionnaire which was administered to 130 stakeholders in computer profession and computer education; including some staffers and learners of some primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions in Oyo and Osun states of Nigeria, Africa. The responses to the questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The analysis of the responses to the questionnaire shows that 89% of the respondents to the questionnaire expressed excitement and willingness to program or learn programming in their mother tongue-based programming language, if such a programming language is developed. This result shows the high degree of relevance, usefulness and needfulness of a native language-based programming language as well as the worthwhileness of embarking on development of such a programming language.

Autonomy and Objectivity as Political Operators in the Medical World: Twenty Years of Public Controversy about AIDS Treatments in France

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Dodier ◽  
Janine Barbot
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Patient Autonomy ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Medical Decisions ◽  
Public Controversy ◽  
Meeting Point ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
Contemporary Medicine ◽  
The Way

ArgumentThe article is based on the controversies relating to conducting experiments and licensing AIDS treatments in France in the 1980s and 1990s. We have identified two political operators, i.e. two issues around which tensions have grown between the different generations of actors involved in these controversies: 1) the way of thinking about patient autonomy, and 2) the way in which objectivity regarding medical decisions is built. The article shows that there are several regimes of objectivity and autonomy, and that it is at the meeting point of the two dimensions that very different political forms of medicine have developed. In the case of AIDS, the article identifies four of these forms (liberal and conservative clinical traditions and therapeutic modernity – enclosed, then participative) and analyzes the dynamics of their emergence and opposition. We discuss an “objectivity/autonomy” diagram as a conceptual framework which enables us (above and beyond AIDS) to think about changes in contemporary medicine.

Adjectives and Event Structure

2019 ◽  
pp. 367-392
Author(s):  
Rebekah Baglini ◽  
Christopher Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Structural Properties ◽  
Event Structure ◽  
Scale Structure ◽  
Verbal Aspect ◽  
Verb Phrase ◽  
Alternative Approaches ◽  
Scalar Properties ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

This chapter investigates the relationship between adjectives and event structure by looking at properties of deverbal adjectives and deadjectival verbs. Although simple adjectives are not eventive, they nevertheless play an important role in matters of event structure, both in the way that they influence the eventive properties of verbs that they are derivationally related to, and in the way that an understanding of the scalar properties of adjectival meaning informs theorizing about eventive meanings. Although often considered in isolation, we show that adjectival gradability and verbal aspect are intimately related scalar phenomena. The structural properties of an adjectival scale determine the aspectual class of a derived event predicate. Similarly, the aspectual structure of a verb phrase constrains the scale structure of an adjectival participle. Our discussion focuses primarily on degree-based approaches to these phenomena, but we also consider alternative approaches based in a more articulated ontology for states.

Substratal Influence in Saramaccan Serial Verb Constructions

1992 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
John McWhorter
Keyword(s):  
Universal Grammar ◽  
West African ◽  
Serial Verb Constructions ◽  
African Languages ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Verb Constructions ◽  
The World ◽  
Serial Verbs ◽  
Serial Verb ◽  
Substrate Influence

Bickerton's bioprogram hypothesis uses serial verbs as a primary demonstration that Saramaccan represents the closest approximation to Universal Grammar extant, judging from the fact that speakers of mutually unintelligible West African languages formulated it with little contact with European languages. Closer examination of Saramaccan and its substrate languages suggests, however, that the creole is a prime demonstration of substrate influence. The uniformity of serials across the substrate languages can be shown to have provided the opportunity for compromise between the small differences in the constructions in forming the language, according to perceptual saliency relative to the languages involved. A survey of serializing language families shows that serials in Saramaccan are most similar to those in its substrate, while a survey of créoles around the world shows that serials appear in créoles with similar substrates and almost never in those with nonserializing substrates. Furthermore, the explanation of serials as compensation for missing categories in Saramaccan is belied by an evaluation of this argument as applied to prepositions, which shows that the Saramaccan system mirrors that of its substrate with limited accommodations to its superstrate.

Teaching indirect speech: deixis points the way

ELT Journal ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. P. Harman
Keyword(s):  
Indirect Speech ◽  
The Way

Language territorial regimes in multilingual ethnic territorial autonomies

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 358-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadezhda Borisova ◽  
Konstantin Sulimov
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
Language Rights ◽  
South Tyrol ◽  
The Way

Ethnic territorial autonomy (ETA) is an institutional way to ensure simultaneously the integrity of the state and the rights of ethnic minorities through preferential policies in certain ethnically sensitive spheres. Language preferential policies differ greatly across multilingual ETAs and can be analyzed through the concept of “language territorial regime” (LTR). In this paper, we examine LTRs along two dimensions: (1) the scope of state regulation of language use and (2) the way language rights are perceived and used. The first considers the depth and universality of state regulation of language use – “strong” or “weak.” The second concerns whether the community's approach to language rights is symbolic or pragmatic. The combination of these two dimensions allows the categorization of LTRs into four main classes: “strong parting-regime,” “strong pooling-regime,” “weak pooling-regime,” and “weak parting-regime.” A comparison of South Tyrol, Vojvodina, and Wales allows conceptualizing LTR as a system of de jure institutional arrangements of linguistic issues and practice of self-organization and perpetuation of multilingual communities.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document