scholarly journals Syntactic discontinuous reduplication with antonymic pairs: a case study from Italian

Linguistics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Masini ◽  
Simone Mattiola

Abstract This article aims at giving a comprehensive account of a so far undescribed reduplicative pattern in Italian named syntactic discontinuous reduplication with antonymic pairs (SDRA). This pattern, characterized by the non-contiguous repetition of the same element within a larger fixed configuration defined by two spatial antonyms, can be schematized as <Xi Adv1 Xi Adv2>, where Adv1 and Adv2 are antonyms (e.g., di qua ‘here’ ∼ di là ‘there’). After describing its formal and functional properties, based on naturally occurring data extracted from the Italian Web 2016 corpus, the SDRA is analyzed as an independent ‘construction’ in the Construction Grammar sense. This construction is claimed to convey a general value of ‘plurality’ and to have developed a polysemy network of daughter constructions expressing more specific functions such as ‘distributivity,’ ‘related variety,’ and ‘dispersion.’ In addition, we propose considering the SDRA a ‘multiple source construction,’ originating from the blending of two independent constructions: syntactic reduplication and irreversible binomials with antonymic adverbs. Finally, we discuss SDRA-like patterns in other typologically different languages (Russian, Modern Hebrew, Mandarin Chinese, German), pointing out similarities and differences, and paving the way to a more systematic study of discontinuous reduplication in a crosslinguistic perspective.

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-226
Author(s):  
Dan Jiang

AbstractThe roles of interaction have been studied for several decades. Recent studies have turned to investigate “the details of which components of interaction might be more or less effective in which contexts with which learners” (Loewen, Shawn & Masatoshi Sato. 2018. Interaction and instructed second language acquisition. Language Teaching 51(3). 285–329: 286). This case study, based on three unstructured interactions outside the classroom between two L2 Mandarin Chinese learners, investigates the learning opportunities these interactions brought about in terms of helping them to increase in control over forms that had already been encountered inside the classroom. Using the concept of the language-related episode (Swain, Merrill & Sharon Lapkin. 1998. Interaction and second language learning: Two adolescent French immersion students working together. The Modern Language Journal 82(3). 320–337), this study sets focus on learning opportunities for lexis- and grammar-related items. It finds learning opportunities arise as the two peers negotiate for meaning motivated by the need to comprehend, strive to use the L2 to express/co-express themselves, and improve their form through the other’s feedback. In addition, lexis-related learning is found to be very positive in this study. The dictionary played an indispensable role in facilitating the learners when they encountered lexis-related issues. Further, it enabled the learners to learn new vocabulary when driven by communicative needs. In comparison, the grammar-related learning is found to be relatively complicated. And the fact the learners had nowhere to resort to concerning grammatical issues attributed to it. In terms of the different types of interactions, compared to learning through negotiation for meaning and feedback, output and co-construction/collaboration were found to be most productive in promoting the learning.


2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (7) ◽  
pp. 604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Flowers ◽  
Hanaa K. Galal ◽  
Lindell Bromham

The evolution of salt tolerance is interesting for several reasons. First, since salt-tolerant plants (halophytes) employ several different mechanisms to deal with salt, the evolution of salt tolerance represents a fascinating case study in the evolution of a complex trait. Second, the diversity of mechanisms employed by halophytes, based on processes common to all plants, sheds light on the way that a plant’s physiology can become adapted to deal with extreme conditions. Third, as the amount of salt-affected land increases around the globe, understanding the origins of the diversity of halophytes should provide a basis for the use of novel species in bioremediation and conservation. In this review we pose the question, how many times has salt tolerance evolved since the emergence of the land plants some 450–470 million years ago? We summarise the physiological mechanisms underlying salt-tolerance and provide an overview of the number and diversity of salt-tolerant terrestrial angiosperms (defined as plants that survive to complete their life cycle in at least 200 mM salt). We consider the evolution of halophytes using information from fossils and phylogenies. Finally, we discuss the potential for halophytes to contribute to agriculture and land management and ask why, when there are naturally occurring halophytes, it is proving to be difficult to breed salt-tolerant crops.


Author(s):  
Zhao Meijuan ◽  
◽  
Ang Lay Hoon ◽  
Florence Toh Haw Ching ◽  
Sabariah Md Rashid ◽  
...  

Translated children’s works from English to Chinese have flooded China unprecedentedly since the end of the 19PthP century. However, there is a discrepancy in the translation of Chinese children’s works into the English language. This is maybe because western scholars are still largely ignoring Asian texts for young readers. Therefore, the research aims to fill the gap in the scholarship by studying the translated Bronze and Sunflower, which is a renowned work written by the Chinese first Hans Christian Anderson winner Cao Wenxuan, from the aspect of narrative space. A qualitative approach is adopted to compare the similarities and differences of narrative space between the source text and the target text. The samples will be taken from Cao Wenxuan’s Bronze and Sunflower and its English translation. The textual analysis is illuminated through the narratological framework, which is based on three-layered space: The topographic level, the chronotopic level and the textual level. The study explores how narrative space is constructed in the process of translating Bronze and Sunflower. It is hoped that the findings of the study will show how space is created in a different languagea, and that the translator prefers to change the narrative space rather than keeping the same spatial structure in the target text.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-359
Author(s):  
Qian Wu

AbstractCommunication of emotion is at the heart of human interaction. For second language (L2) learners, the ability to communicate one’s emotion is crucial, especially in the context of study abroad when they are in frequent contact with native speakers. The aim of the case study is to investigate how an American sojourner Puppies and her Chinese roommate Kiki (both pseudonyms) participated in conversational narratives in the dormitory to construct emotions, and how the contextualized interaction facilitated Puppies’ development of a linguistic repertoire for the expression of emotion in Chinese. Informed by Vygotskian sociocultural theory, the study followed the genetic method in tracing the history of Puppies’ Chinese emotional repertoire across the semester, thereby elucidating the language developmental processes in the situated oral interaction. Audio-recorded everyday interaction in the dorm is triangulated by Puppies’ responses to the pre- and post-Mandarin Awareness Interview and interviews with Puppies and Kiki. Analysis revealed that the contextualized dorm talk provided abundant L2 resources for Puppies to develop a L2 emotional repertoire, especially fear-related emotion expressions. A discrepancy in the product of development as gleaned from the Mandarin Awareness Interview, and the process of development as seen in the naturally occurring dorm talk, suggests that Puppies’ use or non-use of local emotional expressions could be mediated by her partial understanding of the forms and the speech style and identity she wished to assume.


CrystEngComm ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (43) ◽  
pp. 6970-6981 ◽  
Author(s):  
Artem O. Surov ◽  
Alexander P. Voronin ◽  
Mikhail V. Vener ◽  
Andrei V. Churakov ◽  
German L. Perlovich

New zwitterionic cocrystals of fenamate drugs and diclofenac with the naturally occurring amino acid l-proline have been obtained and thoroughly characterised by a variety of experimental and theoretical techniques.


2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Fang Wang ◽  
Mei-Chi Tsai ◽  
Wayne Schams ◽  
Chi-Ming Yang

Mandarin Chinese zhishi (similar to English ‘only’), comprised of the adverb zhi and the copula shi, can act as an adverb (ADV) or a discourse marker (DM). This study analyzes the role of zhishi in spoken discourse, based on the methodological and theoretical principles of interactional linguistics and conversation analysis. The corpus used in this study consists of three sets of data: 1) naturally-occurring daily conversations; 2) radio/TV interviews; and 3) TV panel discussions on current political affairs. As a whole, this study reveals that the notions of restrictiveness, exclusivity, and adversativity are closely associated with ADV zhishi and DM zhishi. In addition, the present data show that since zhishi is often used to express a ‘less than expected’ feeling, it can be used to indicate mirativity (i.e. language indicating that an utterance conveys the speaker’s surprise). The data also show that the distribution of zhishi as an adverb or discourse marker depends on turn taking systems and speech situations in spoken discourse. Specifically, the ADV zhishi tends to occur in radio/TV interviews and TV panel news discussions, while the DM zhishi occurs more often in casual conversations.


2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yael Reshef

This article studies the relevance of an historical lexical analysis to the stylistic description of Modern Hebrew texts. The examination of the lexical make-up of two distinct genres - administrative language and folksong - reveals a correlation between the social functions of the corpora and their formal characteristics. The administrative corpus reflects the lexical structure of standard Modern Hebrew. The folksong, on the other hand, is influenced by literary and ideological considerations. Consequently, it gives expression to the cultural ties with the traditional Hebrew sources by an abundant use of inherited lexicon. The findings suggest that in text-oriented cultures such as Hebrew, stylistic description can benefit from an historical analysis. Such an analysis responds to an intrinsic socio-linguistic characteristic of the language, and complements the structural stylistic analysis. Following Sarfatti (1990), the lexical analysis is based on distinctions drawn within each lexical item between three elements - root, form and meaning. Such a distinction takes account of diachronic changes in the semantic value of lexical items. It pinpoints factors characterizing the corpora’s lexical composition and enables multi-level distinctions between different types of discourse. As a result, it sheds light on one aspect of genre differentiation in the language.


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