Specific Features of Linguistic Coding of Elements of a Godonym Space

The article analyses linguistic constituency of the godonym space of three cities in the Volgograd region – Volgograd, Kamyshin and Petrov Val. The godonym space is a set of geographic names officially assigned to linear topo objects located within settlements. Having taken into account the definitions of the term "linguistic code" in linguistics, the authors offer their interpretation of the phenomenon under study. The research revealed the most important features of the linguistic code: consistency, structural unity, relevant-to-users information, as well as conventionality and symbolism, which convey positive assessments. The linguistic codes that understate intracity linear topo objects nominations are distinguished and specified as memorial, locative, topographic, anthropogenic, symbolic, naturalistic, relatively-abstract, orderly types. Both the general features of motivations in the code actualization for naming linear topographic objects, and the specific set of odonyms that nominates locations in the godonym space of every of the three cities have been established. It was noted that, being the largest, Volgograd godonym space demonstrates variety of linguistic codes, whereas Kamyshin and Petrov Val codes are specified by memorial, local, topographis, anthropogenic and symbolic types. The article offers for observation the historically defined set of geographical names of linear topographic objects in the three cities of the Volgograd region, which reflects multiple ethnic contacts of it, and renaming of road names due to the local authorities "interference" in the godonym space.

How Children’s Media and Teachers Communicate Exclusive and Essentialist Views of Science and Scientists

Language that uses noun labels and generic descriptions to discuss people who do science (e.g., “Let’s be scientists! Scientists discover new things”) signals to children that scientists are a distinctive category. This identity-cuing language promotes essentialist beliefs and leads to disengagement from science among young children in experimental contexts. The extent to which these cues shape the development of children’s beliefs and behaviors in daily life, however, depends on (a) the availability of identity-based language in children’s environments, and (b) the power of these cues to shape beliefs over time, even in the noisier, more variable contexts in which children are exposed to them. Documenting the availability of this language, linguistic coding of children’s media (Study 1) and prekindergarten teachers’ classroom language (Study 2; n = 103; 98 female, 1 male, 4 unknown; 66% White, 8% African American, 6% Asian/Asian American, 3% Mixed/Biracial; 21% of the sample, of any race, identified as Hispanic/Latinx), confirmed that identity-cuing language was the most common form of science language in these two contexts. Further, children (Study 3; n = 83; Mage = 5.07 years; 43 female, 40 male; 64% White, 12% Asian/Asian American, 24% Mixed/Biracial; 36% of the sample, of any race, identified as Hispanic/Latinx) who were exposed to less identity-focused language from their teachers developed increasingly inclusive beliefs about science and indicated higher levels of science engagement over time. These findings suggest that linguistic input is an important mechanism through which exclusive beliefs about science are conveyed to children in daily life.

‘Having to use English others us': South African terminologies of sexual and gender diversity

The linguistic coding of sexual and gender diversity remains highly contested in African contexts. While English language terminologies reflecting rights-based talk proliferate, such terms fail to fully reflect the lived realities of African queerness. This paper engages existing South African research on indigenous terminologies to describe sexual and gender diversity, focusing on representations of male same-sex sexualities. Our findings show that local terminologies serve not only to ‘other’ sexual and gender diversity, but also hold the potential to render those existing outside of normative sex/gender binaries as socially intelligible. Two core themes emerged: (i) the persistence of heterogendered subjectivities, where sexual dissidence is mapped onto a normative male/female binary; and (ii) a procreative imperative focused on communitarian norms that privilege heterosexual childbearing. The findings highlight the limitations of global terminologies of sexual and gender diversity by engaging the ways in which local African terminologies provide social recognition for same-sex sexualities in generally heteronormative community spaces. We discuss the implications of this gendered encoding of sexual dissidence in terms of advocacy strategies for the greater social inclusion of sexual and gender minorities.

Typology of coding patterns and frequency effects of antipassives

Frequency asymmetries within a minimal grammatical domain create offline associations that languages tend to exploit for a more efficient encoding. We explore cross-linguistic coding patterns of antipassives. We first argue that antipassive markers tend to have properties of derivational markers. Secondly, we show that antipassives are considerably rarer than the basic transitive constructions. The lower frequency correlates with the length of coding: antipassives tend to be coded with longer forms than basic transitive verbs. Thirdly, we explore frequency associations of different lexical input types and find that it is the rare input types that tend to select the antipassive, if the marking is differential, while the frequent ones correlate with the unmarked verb (A-lability). We, furthermore, show that the rarer argument types and argument scenarios correlate stronger with antipassives than the more frequent argument types and scenarios.

Technology Used in Knowledge Management by Global Professional Event Services

Professional service providers, due to their use of information and communication technology (ICT), could be global players. The market for congresses, conferences, trade shows, and business events attract clients and contractors from around the world. Competition between firms motivates them to apply advance technologies that enable faster and easier cooperation. The aim of this exploratory study was to identify and classify ICT used in knowledge management among professional event service providers. By applying method triangulation (interviews, meta-linguistic coding, analysis of association graphs, and netnography), the authors identified key terms related to knowledge management and technology. Firms differed by type and length of market presence. The technologies used by firms were grouped into five types. The analysis of competition in search engines confirm high scores for technology service providers (i.e., cloud data and beacon).

Children’s development of humour in everyday interactions: two case-studies in French and Brazilian Portuguese

In order to understand how children learn to recognize and use humor in their own cultural environment, we have chosen to study their production in two different languages and cultures. We studied a French-speaking monolingual child and a Brazilian Portuguese-speaking child, video-recorded once a month up to seven years old. The detailed multimodal linguistic coding of our data enabled us to draw the multimodal paths the two children followed from the first instances of shared amusement initiated by the adult, expressed mainly through reactive behavior such as laughing, to the children’s own verbal production of successful humor in dialogue. Our study demonstrates that the production of children’s humor is closely linked to the family input (their micro-culture), and to children’s multimodal linguistic and meta-cognitive development. We did not observe important differences between the two children at the macro-cultural level, but there were noticeable inter-individual differences.

This is for you: Social modulations of proximal vs. distal space in collaborative interaction

Human spatial representations are shaped by affordances for action offered by the environment. A prototypical example is the organization of space into peripersonal (within reach) and extrapersonal (outside reach) regions, mirrored by proximal (this/here) and distal (that/there) linguistic expressions. The peri-/extrapersonal distinction has been widely investigated in individual contexts, but little is known about how spatial representations are modulated by interaction with other people. Is near/far coding of space dynamically adapted to the position of a partner when space, objects, and action goals are shared? Over two preregistered experiments based on a novel interactive paradigm, we show that, in individual and social contexts involving no direct collaboration, linguistic coding of locations as proximal or distal depends on their distance from the speaker’s hand. In contrast, in the context of collaborative interactions involving turn-taking and role reversal, proximal space is shifted towards the partner, and linguistic coding of near space (‘this’ / ‘here’) is remapped onto the partner’s action space.

This is for you: social modulations of proximal vs. distal space in collaborative interactions

Human spatial representations are shaped by affordances for action offered by the environment. A prototypical example is the organization of space into peripersonal (within reach) and extrapersonal (outside reach) regions, mirrored by proximal (this/here) and distal (that/there) linguistic expressions. The peri-/extrapersonal distinction has been widely investigated in individual contexts, but little is known about how spatial representations are modulated by interaction with other people. Is near/far coding of space dynamically adapted to the position of a partner when space, objects, and action goals are shared?Over two preregistered experiments based on a novel interactive paradigm, we show that, in individual and social contexts involving no direct collaboration, linguistic coding of locations as proximal or distal depends on their distance from the speaker’s hand. In contrast, in the context of collaborative interactions involving turn-taking and role reversal, proximal space is shifted towards the partner, and linguistic coding of near space (‘this’ / ‘here’) is remapped onto the partner’s action space.

Thematic Analysis of Leadership Values in Apologies

The aim of the study was to elicit leadership values embedded in Obama’s apology speeches to have an insight of his leadership in the face of crisis. During his presidency, Obama had issued a number of successful remedial apologies as an action performed by the offender to calm the angered party, seek forgiveness and achieve reconciliation. The study found that Obama portrayed an array of values such as responsibility, accountability, determination and dedication to duty, trustworthiness and truthfulness, apologetic, regretful, appreciative of sacrifice, visionary, and to comfort and sympathise. This paper gives an insight of how the methodology for the study of leadership values in Obama’s apologies was carried out. The methodology relies on positive discourse analysis and grounded theory for performing a thematic analysis through linguistic coding.