scholarly journals Chasu Euphemisms: An Ethnolinguistic Descriptive Account

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Erasmus Akiley Msuya
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Activity ◽  
Elderly People ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Key Informants ◽  
Descriptive Account ◽  
Kilimanjaro Region ◽  
Excretory Organs

The current study is an ethnographic descriptive account of use of euphuisms among the Chasu speaking community in their attempts to avoid impolite words. The study was conducted in Mwanga district, Kilimanjaro Region, in a remote rural ward known as Ngujini. 20 elderly people (13 men and 7 women) took part in the study, having been purposively sampled to be key informants. This was complimented by the researcher’s introspection since he belongs to the same speech community as a native speaker. Data were gathered through spontaneous elicitation and were sound-recorded and later transcribed and then classified into their respective categories. The categories in focus were reference to sexual and excretory organs, reference to sexual and excretory processes, references to diseases and deaths and reference to pregnancy, births and deaths. The findings indicated that euphemisms referring to sexual activity were most dominant and picturesque while those referring to burial were the fewest. Most euphemisms were semantic extensions of existing Chasu words while a few were borrowings from other languages, notably Kiswahili. It has been concluded that Chasu people have crafty way of communicating whatever is unpleasant or impolite but also there are times their euphemistic expressions had attitudinal overtones leading to some pejorative expressions.

Forms of Direct Linguistic Violence against Women in Secondary Schools in Tanzania: A Case of Dar Es Salaam Region

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Dr. Zelda Sam Elisifa
Keyword(s):  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Sexual Behaviors ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Female Victims ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Descriptive Account ◽  
Continuous Use ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Excretory Organs

The present study sought to make a descriptive account of how forms language use is violence against young women. It specifically sought to identify various forms of linguistics violence against women and assess the diversity of such linguistics violence on the women’s self image. The study involved 107 students of different levels of secondary education out of whom 71 were females and 35 males. Data were gathered through questionnaire and observation. The findings revealed that linguistics violence is plural as it involved different forms and strategies which were captured under six themes: pejorizing, sexualizing, animalizing, feminizing, masculining and stupidizing. I was also noted that of the six forms of linguistics violence, pejorizing was the most prevalent and most diverse. However, it was sexualizing which was the most pervasive and the most offensive since the women’s sexual and excretory organs and processes are used as disgusting and sickening sight. Further, the continuous use of female-related body parts and psycho-sexual behaviors and processes has resulted in women being adversely affected so much that they are not only the source of linguistic repository from which insults are mined and served to male and female victims, but also the perpetrators of the same.

He'm ¢i¢imat, 'La Chichimeca'

Tlalocan ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salomé Gutiérrez Morales ◽  
Søren Wichmann
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Analysis ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Close Relative ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Unsuccessful Attempt ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Brothers Grimm ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
The Village

The paper presents a transcription and Spanish translation of a folktale in Sierra Popoluca, a Mixe- Zoquean language spoken in Southern Veracruz, in the municipio of Soteapan. Published texts in this language are very scarce, so the text may serve as a resource for future studies. The text was dictated to Salomé Gutiérrez Morales, a trained linguist as well as native speaker, by his close relative Jesús Gutiérrez from the village of Amamaloya. It was subsequently checked for details in transcription and translation by both authors in collaboration with another member of the speech community, Nicasio Gutiérrez Juárez. Opting not to present a morphological analysis, the authors have chosen a very literal translation style which should make it simpler, with some help from a grammar such as Elson (1960), to work out an analysis. As is true of much of the lore of the Popolucas, the contents of the tale is predominately of European extraction, in part rather closely resembling the story of "Hansel and Gretel" from the collection of the German brothers Grimm, and similar stories known also from the oral traditions of Spain, among other European countries. It appears to be rather popular in most parts of southern Veracruz, and perhaps beyond, not only among other indigenous groups, such the Popolucas of Texistepec, but also in the general, rural Spanish-speaking population.The story may be summarized as follows. Two children, a boy and a girl, are left out in the country by their father because they are unwanted by their stepmother. They are adopted by an old, blind, wicked woman, the Tzitzimat (or Chichimeca, in Nahuatl-derived Spanish). However, managing to kill the Tzitzimat, the children make their escape. From the cauldron into which they have pushed her spring two dogs. When, later on, the girl h as plans to marry a giant whom they have met during their wanderings, the dogs help out the boy. After an unsuccessful attempt by the dogs to kill the giant, the girl takes revenge on them by hiding a bone in her brother's pillow to kill him. The boy is brought back to life by the dogs. Later follows an episode where the boy saves the life of a princess, killing a snake which had been a threat to her. A Negro, who falsely claims the honor of having saved the life of the princess, is shown to be a liar when the dogs bring the tongue of the serpent to the king as proof that the boy was the true savior of the king's daughter.

What is to be learned

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Labov
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Outward Bound ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Learning Capacity ◽  
High Degree ◽  
General Effort

This paper is an effort to define the target of the language learner: asking, what are the data that the child pays attention to in the process of becoming a native speaker? In so doing, we will necessarily be engaged in the more general effort to define language itself. The general argument to be advanced here is that the human language learning capacity is outward bound, that is, aimed at the acquisition of the general pattern used in the speech community. The end result is a high degree of uniformity in both the categorical and variable aspects of language production, where individual variation is reduced below the level of linguistic significance.

Language and the Media

1995 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 23-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan Bell
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Sole Source ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Language Data ◽  
The Media

Media language has always attracted the attention of linguists, particularly applied linguists and sociolinguists. There are four practical and principled reasons for this interest. First, the media provide an easily accessible source of language data for research and teaching purposes. Second, the media are important linguistic institutions. Their output makes up a large proportion of the language that people hear and read every day. Media usage reflects and shapes both language use and attitudes in a speech community. For second language learners, the media may function as the primary—or even the sole—source of native-speaker models. Third, the ways in which the media use language are interesting linguistically in their own right; these include how different dialects and languages are used in advertising, how tabloid newspapers use language in a projection of their assumed readers' speech, or how radio personalities use language—and only language–to construct their own images and their relationships to an unseen, unknown audience. Fourth, the media are important social institutions. They are crucial presenters of culture, politics, and social life, shaping as well as reflecting how these are formed and expressed. Media ‘discourse’ is important both for what it reveals about a society and for what it contributes to the character of society.

scholarly journals A Foreign Speech Accent in a Case of Conversion Disorder

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 225-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo Verhoeven ◽  
Peter Mariën ◽  
Sebastiaan Engelborghs ◽  
Hugo D’Haenen ◽  
Peter De Deyn
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Conversion Disorder ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Foreign Accent Syndrome ◽  
Reference Corpus ◽  
Extensive Test

Objective: The aim of this paper is to report the psychiatric, neuroradiological and linguistic characteristics in a native speaker of Dutch who developed speech symptoms which strongly resemble Foreign Accent Syndrome. Background: Foreign Accent Syndrome is a rare speech production disorder in which the speech of a patient is perceived as foreign by speakers of the same speech community. This syndrome is generally related to focal brain damage. Only in few reported cases the Foreign Accent Syndrome is assumed to be of psychogenic and/or psychotic origin. Method: In addition to clinical and neuroradiological examinations, an extensive test battery of standardized neuropsychological and neurolinguistic investigations was carried out. Two samples of the patient's spontaneous speech were analysed and compared to a 500,000-words reference corpus of 160 normal native speakers of Dutch. Results: The patient had a prominent French accent in her pronunciation of Dutch. This accent had persisted over the past eight years and has become progressively stronger. The foreign qualities of her speech did not only relate to pronunciation, but also to the lexicon, syntax and pragmatics. Structural as well as functional neuroimaging did not reveal evidence that could account for the behavioural symptoms. By contrast psychological investigations indicated conversion disorder. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge this is the first reported case of a foreign accent like syndrome in conversion disorder.

scholarly journals The L2 acquisition of a phonological variable: the case of /l/ deletion in French

2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARTIN HOWARD ◽  
ISABELLE LEMÉE ◽  
VERA REGAN
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Phonological Variation ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Sociolinguistic Variation ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Native Speech

This article is situated within the recent strand of SLA research which applies variationist sociolinguistic methods to the study of the acquisition of sociolinguistic variation by the L2 speaker. Whilst that research has tended to focus on the study of morphological and morphosyntactic variables, this article aims to investigate a number of acquisitional trends identified in previous research in relation to phonological variation, namely the variable deletion of /l/ by Irish advanced L2 speakers of French in both an instructed and study abroad environment. Based on quantitative results using GoldVarb 2001, the study further illuminates the difficulty that the acquisition of sociolinguistic variation poses to the instructed L2 speaker, who is found to make minimal use of informal sociolinguistic variants. In contrast, contact with native speakers in the native speech community is seen to allow the L2 speaker to make considerable sociolinguistic gains, not only in relation to the acquisition of the informal variant in itself, but also in relation to the underlying native speaker grammatical system as indicated by the constraint ordering at work behind use of the variable.

The acquisition of future temporality by L2 French learners

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
DALILA AYOUN
Keyword(s):  
Personal Narrative ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Descriptive Account ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Modal Values

ABSTRACTThis cross-sectional study in the acquisition of future temporality by English-speaking L2 French learners presents a descriptive account of the major contrastive features of the expression in futurity in English and French before considering learnability implications. A personal narrative and a cloze task were administered to L2 French learners (n = 34) at three proficiency levels and French native speaker controls (n = 14). Analyses revealed task and proficiency effects, but all learners used a variety of morphological forms to express futurity in their personal narratives, and appear to be acquiring temporal and modal values associated with the future.

scholarly journals Factors Associated with Depression in Middle-Aged and Elderly People in Romania

Psichologija ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 33-50
Author(s):  
Cornelia Rada
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Sexual Activity ◽  
Elderly People ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Sexual Interest ◽  
Geriatric Depression Scale ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Severe Depression ◽  
Sexual Relationships ◽  
Middle Aged

The objectives of this study were the determination of the prevalence of self-reported depressive symptoms by the Geriatric Depression Scale and the influences of variable income, physical activity, socialization and sexual activity. A total of 601 patients aged 55–93 years with a mean age of 67.32 years and a median age of 67 years participated in this study between 2016 and 2017. Non-cooperative people and individuals with strong auditory or visual sensory deficits, severe cognitive deficits, or disorders accompanied by psychotic elements with serious somatic pathology were excluded from the interviews. Employing the SPSS GENLIN procedure, an ordinal logistic model was used. Over ½ of the respondents are within the categories of moderate and severe depression, almost half of the respondents feel that their family incomes are not enough or make it hard to meet their needs, approximately 10% think they are sedentary, over ½ participate in no sexual activity, and over ¼ do not frequently respond with pleasure to partner-initiated sexual relationships. Those who were in the higher depression category perceived their income to be extremely low (p = .001), perceived themselves as sedentary (p < .001), infrequently met with friends or neighbours in their leisure time (p = .002), and had lower sexual interest (p < .001). Middle-aged adults and older adults should learn about the health benefits of physical activity, socialization and sexual activity. Social policies must take into account this low-income segment. Poverty itself can be a contributor to depressive states, and additionally, due to their low incomes, elderly people are at risk of benefiting less from pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy.

The Non-Native Speakers of International Law: The Case of Russia

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-103
Author(s):  
Anna Dolidze
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
International Law ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Speech Communities ◽  
Linguistic Rules ◽  
The Future ◽  
Linguistic Repertoire ◽  
Western European

This article presents a metaphor that might explain Russia’s approach to international law. Drawing on linguistics, the article proposes that Russia has been a non-native speaker of international law. A non-native speaker’s experiences range from estrangement and disengagement from the foreign language and its speech community to that of empowerment and inspiration nurtured by the acquisition of a new language and a new multilingual identity. Thus, as a non-native speaker, Russia has approached international law with two rhetorical moves: as a disaffected foreigner and as an empowered multilingual subject who aspires to uphold and interpret the rules of the language recently acquired. As a multilingual speaker fluent in the language of international law, Russia has asserted control over judgments of grammaticality and has disagreed with previously determined linguistic rules established by the native-speaking community. The notion of a non-native speaker of international law can apply to states other than Russia. Policymakers and intellectual leaders of other countries, including China, might perceive themselves as non-native speakers in their encounters with the western European foundations of the language of international law. Finally, the article explores the future of international law by asking whether non-native speakers who have been gaining fluency in the parlance of international law will continue to develop their own linguistic repertoire, build their own vocabularies, and advance their own assertions regarding rules of grammar. The future of international law might be diglossic, as two varieties of its language, shared by different speech communities and practiced in different contexts, may be established.

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