scholarly journals The Role of Prosody in the Identification of Persian Sentence Types: Declarative or Wh-question?

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zohreh Shiamizadeh ◽  
Johanneke Caspers ◽  
Niels O. Schiller

AbstractIt has been reported that prosody contributes to the identification of utterances which lack lexico-syntactic indicators of interrogativity but do have characteristic prosodic correlates (e.g. Vion and Colas 2006. Pitch cues for the recognition of yes-no questions in French. Journal of Psycholinguistics Research 35. 427–445). In Persian wh-in-situ questions, the interrogativity device (the wh-phrase) does not move to the sentence-initial position, and the pre-wh part is characterized by specific prosodic correlates (Shiamizadeh et al. 2016. Do Persian native speakers prosodically mark wh-in-situ questions? Manuscript submitted for publication). The current experiment investigates the role of prosody in the perception of Persian wh-in-situ questions as opposed to declaratives. To this end, an experiment was designed in which Persian native speakers were asked to choose the correct sentence type after hearing only the pre-wh part of a sentence. We hypothesized that prosody guides perception of wh-in-situ questions independent of wh-phrase type. The results of the experiment corroborate our hypothesis. The outcome is discussed in terms of Ohala´s frequency code, and Bolinger´s claim about the universal dichotomous association between relaxation and declarativity on the one hand and tension and interrogativity on the other hand.

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zohreh Shiamizadeh ◽  
Johanneke Caspers ◽  
Niels O. Schiller

It has been shown that prosody contributes to the contrast between declarativity and interrogativity, notably in interrogative utterances lacking lexico-syntactic features of interrogativity. Accordingly, it may be proposed that prosody plays a role in marking wh-in-situ questions in which the interrogativity feature (the wh-phrase) does not move to sentence-initial position, as, for example, in Persian. This paper examines whether prosody distinguishes Persian wh-in-situ questions from declaratives in the absence of the interrogativity feature in the sentence-initial position. To answer this question, a production experiment was designed in which wh-questions and declaratives were elicited from Persian native speakers. On the basis of the results of previous studies, we hypothesize that prosodic features mark wh-in-situ questions as opposed to declaratives at both the local (pre- and post-wh part) and global level (complete sentence). The results of the current study confirm our hypothesis that prosodic correlates mark the pre-wh part as well as the complete sentence in wh-in-situ questions. The results support theoretical concepts such as the frequency code, the universal dichotomous association between relaxation and declarativity on the one hand and tension and interrogativity on the other, the relation between prosody and pragmatics, and the relation between prosody and encoding and decoding of sentence type.


Author(s):  
Anke Holler

The paper discusses the so-called adverbial use of the wh-pronoun was (ˋwhat'), which establishes a non-standard interrogative construction type in German. It argues that the adverbial use of was (ˋwhat') is based on the lexical properties of a categorically deficient pronoun was (ˋwhat'), which bears a causal meaning. In addition, adverbial was (ˋwhat') differs from canonical argument was (ˋwhat') as it is analyzed as a functor which is generated in clause-initial position. By means of empirical facts mainly provided by d'Avis (2001) it is shown that was (ˋwhat') behaves ambivalently regarding the wh-property: On the one hand, was (ˋwhat') can introduce an interrogative clause, but on the other hand it cannot license wh-phrases in situ. While formally analyzing the data against the background of existing accounts on wh-interrogatives couched in the framework of Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar, an analysis is developed that separates two pieces of information to keep track of the wh-information percolating in an interrogative clause. Whereas the WH-value models wh-fronting and pied-piping phenomena, the QUE value links syntactic and semantic information and thus keeps track of wh-phrases in-situ.


Author(s):  
Vadim Markovich Rozin

The article covers the two main topics: the characteristics of three key stages of studying art by the author, and a brief summary of the original concept of art proposed as a result of this study. Leaning on the concept of art of L. S. Vygotsky, the author offers the own approach towards studying art. Firstly, art is viewed in comparison with dreams, communication and play, analyzing the role of these processes and semiotic means played in relation to ordinary life. The article introduces the idea of artistic reality, which manifests as a continuation of ordinary life, allowing to realize in a semiotic form the desires (psychic programs) that are blocked in ordinary life; and such realization suggest living through the events set by the specific semiosis of art and conditionality. Secondly, the author describes the results of the genesis of art. In the course of analysis, emphasis is place on the three central topics:: 1) establishment of the semiosis of art based on the semiosis formed in ordinary life; 2) formation of recreation sphere, within which art is being formed; 3) philosophical “conceptualization” of art in the antique culture, which characterizes art as an independent sphere of life, unlike other spheres. Thirdly, art and artistic reality are viewed as a peculiar type of communication. The author believes that both, the artist (writer, composer) and the viewer (reader, listener), on the one hand, create and reconstruct artistic reality (and there is not always a coincidence), while on the other hand, to one or another extent, they take into account each other's communicative abilities and competencies. The conclusion is made that art is determined by conceptual space, the coordinates of which indicate the representations of artistic reality, artistic communication, life patterns in art, conceptualization of art and its development.


Author(s):  
Olena Osadcha

The article deals with the development of the model of students’ independent work under conditions of distance learning. The importance of the research into this problem is determined, on the one hand, by the growing possibilities of using various information technologies and, on the other hand by the necessity to adapt to the conditions of today’s world where independent work of students is becoming increasingly important. The advantages and disadvantages of distance learning have been explored. The author studied the role of independent work in the formation of the professional competences of students. The issue of modeling in the area of education has been tackled. The approaches to the development of the model of independent work have been identified and analyzed. The components of the model, such as the goal, the tasks, the content, the methods, the means and evaluation of results have been determined and characterized. The prospects of further development of this research are related to the exploration of models of independent work of students majoring in different areas.


Author(s):  
Paolo Calvetti

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.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabi Reinmann

Bardone and Bauters suggest a re-conceptualization of design-based research using the classical term "phronesis" and question some methodological developments referring to the role of intervention and theory in design-based research. This discussion article is a comment on the text of Bardone and Bauters and pursues two aims: On the one hand the term “phronesis” is connected to the traditional concept of “pädagogischer Takt” (literally: “pedagogical tact”) to stimulate a joint discourse of both traditions. On the other hand, two main suggestions of Bardone und Bauters are critically examined, namely their proposal to conceptualize intervention in design-based research exclusively as an action, and their call for deriving generalizations via experiences instead of theories. The discussion article finally argues for maintaining the integrative power of design-based research by avoiding one-sided interpretations.  


Arabica ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 59 (6) ◽  
pp. 709-723 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hend Gilli-Elewy

Abstract As a social and cultural study, this article is an attempt to contribute to the discussion around the end of the Ilkhanate by looking at the question of assimilation of Muslim and Mongol traditions during Abū Saʿīd’s rule (reg. 716-736/1316-1335). By studying this period through the main focus of women’s roles, it hopes to draw connections between the traditional Turco-Mongol status of elite women, the process of Islamization of the Ilkhanate, and the Ilkhanate’s inability to ensure continuity of government after the death of Abū Saʿīd. It will highlight the role of women of the ruling house during this period that on the one hand was seen as a Golden Age of the Ilkhanate, but on the other hand was marked by political fragmentation, confusing alliances, marriages, and numerous rebellions which ultimately led to its dissolution. The tension between choosing to remain loyal to traditional Turco-Mongol values and the processes of cultural exchanges, integration, and especially conversion to Islam becomes particularly interesting when studying the role of women in the late Ilkhanid court.


2021 ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Grigory N. Utkin

The article reveals the conceptual, meaning-forming role of the categories of the unconditional and conditional in law. At the same time, their dialectical relationship with each other and with other categories is put in the center of attention. The dialectic of the unconditional and conditional is revealed by achieving the unity of the three stages of theoretical analysis, which allows us to present the unconditional and conditional, on the one hand, as the content of all concepts, through which the idea of law is generally expressed in various aspects and elements; on the other hand, the entire set of categories subject to dialectical analysis appears as elements of the content of the unconditional and conditional as semantic units that Express the universal characteristics of law in its features, isolation from other forms of social life.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-57
Author(s):  
Kristupa Sabolius ◽  

Simondon’s poorly examined theory of imagination reveals a number of interesting possibilities. On the one hand, by grounding the function of images within the idea of a cycle, it provides an attempt of reconciliation between the assumptions that privilege either reproduction or creativity. On the other hand, his view might also be conceived as a serious alternative to various theoretical stances that characterize the problem of imagination strictly within a dichotomy between individual subject and social imaginaries. The paper proposes a reading of Simondon’s lectures given between 1965 and 1966 in Sorbonne in the broader context of his philosophy and outlines the role of imagination that exceeds imagining subject as well as establishing the mode of correlation with associated milieu, which performs the conditioning of its potentiality. Rejecting the primacy of representation, Simondon’s take enables one to draw the conclusion that imagination can be attributed to all living beings and conceived as the function of life.


Author(s):  
Elena Kravtsova

L. S. Vygotsky’s principal idea, lying in the base of cultural-historical theory, is the primacy of sense over meaning. There are serious reasons to believe that this part of cultural-historical theory was not completely understood both by his disciples and his opponents. That’s why many Vygotsky’s conclusions and discoveries remained untapped. while others were implemented in science and practice quite di˙erently from what he suggested. Vygotsky once wrote that features of the particular science deeply related to its method. That’s why he introduced the experimental-genetic method (projective method in modern psychology), which allows modeling the processes of development. One of the basic concepts of cultural-historical theory is the concept of “cultural de-velopment”. A Cultural person, for Vygotsky, is the person, who can control not only their own behavior and actions but also their own psychic processes. On the one hand, modern psychology doesn’t deny the role of volition in child’s development. But on the other hand, the volition itself is typically understood as one’s ability to submit to laws and rules. More than that – it’s rather easy to create conditions where a person will submit to laws and rules, but it doesn’t develop his ability to control himself. In Vygotsky’s opinion, there are natural psychic functions, which in the process of learning transform into cultural ones. In this context, the main goal of learning is to create conditions for developing person’s ability to be the subject of his own behavior, activity and psychic.


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