Dealing With Language Gap in a Hungarian-English Early Childhood Classroom

The term ‘translanguaging' has been widespread in the field of Applied Linguistics in a short period of time, and just as quickly, it infiltrated in the field of Multilingual Education. Translanguaging is mostly seen as an opportunity to build on multilingual speakers' full language repertoire in the classroom in order to make sense of the world around them. At the same time, translanguaging might be seen as a threat for heritage language survival because heritage languages are forced to immerse in the mainstream language(s). The authors observed pedagogical translanguaging practices in the AraNY János Hungarian Kindergarten and School (USA) to understand how English was used in teaching the heritage language and to discover how bridging existing language gaps between speakers worked in the practices of bilingual pedagogues. The overarching aim of this study was to reveal some of the pedagogical translanguaging strategies used to deal with occurring language gaps.

Language Endangerment and the Need for Technology for Language Empowerment: Case Study of the Brahui language in Balochistan

Diaspora and indigenous speech communities are under the threat of extinction in Balochistan. Local inhabitants with a lower economic and commercial value symbolize cultural and ethnic genocide in western Pakistan. In my study, I investigate the scope of technology for the documentation and maintenance of the Brahui language in the province of Balochistan. Also, I discuss how language policy and the digital divide are creating unfamiliar pedagogical, socio-cultural and linguistic practices, along with putting minority speech communities in danger of losing their identity and bringing about linguistic extinction. Drawing on the work of critical theorists, perceptions of indigenous Brahui community are recorded to understand the influence of digital technology for language survival. The study identifies that digital divide and flawed educational policies in Balochistan are potent instruments of Brahui endangerment. I call for inclusive and unbiased language policies and uniform access to technology for linguistic empowerment of the Brahui speech community in Balochistan.

A Pragmatic Analysis of Names and Naming in Igarra (Etuno)

The study examines the Pragmatic meanings of names and naming in Igarra (Etuno). Data gathered from Igarra (Etuno) names have been purposely selected for Speech Act analysis because of their assertive, penetrating and incisive messages. Specifically, the Speech Act theory which consists of locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts was applied in the data analysis. The ‘invisible meaning’ of the selected names were analysed using the pragmatic and linguistic tools of context and speech acts. It has been observed that Igarra people previously preferred names sourced from other languages especially Yoruba language but there have been shifts in attitude because of the realization that Igarra (Etuno) names are as meaningful as names from other climes. Another significant reason is the fact that Igarra people have now recognized the importance of preserving Etuno language. The study investigated the pragmatic implications of the names by exploring the reasons and circumstances of the selected names. The names were purposively selected from families and friends. For ease of analysis, the data were grouped according to different circumstances surrounding the names. The findings from this study showed that Igarra names do not only identify a person but also communicate so much about the circumstances surrounding the person’s birth. The study concludes that names perform several speech acts like informing, requesting, questioning or expressing gratitude which are reflective of the emotional link or expectations of the giver of the name. The study recommends that names and naming should indeed have cultural inkling and should reflect the situational nuances about their birth. This will aid language survival.

A Pragmatic Analysis of Names and Naming in Igarra (Etuno)

The study examines the Pragmatic meanings of names and naming in Igarra (Etuno). Data gathered from Igarra (Etuno) names have been purposely selected for Speech Act analysis because of their assertive, penetrating and incisive messages. Specifically, the Speech Act theory which consists of locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts was applied in the data analysis. The ‘invisible meaning’ of the selected names were analysed using the pragmatic and linguistic tools of context and speech acts. It has been observed that Igarra people previously preferred names sourced from other languages especially Yoruba language but there have been shifts in attitude because of the realization that Igarra (Etuno) names are as meaningful as names from other climes. Another significant reason is the fact that Igarra people have now recognized the importance of preserving Etuno language. The study investigated the pragmatic implications of the names by exploring the reasons and circumstances of the selected names. The names were purposively selected from families and friends. For ease of analysis, the data were grouped according to different circumstances surrounding the names. The findings from this study showed that Igarra names do not only identify a person but also communicate so much about the circumstances surrounding the person’s birth. The study concludes that names perform several speech acts like informing, requesting, questioning or expressing gratitude which are reflective of the emotional link or expectations of the giver of the name. The study recommends that names and naming should indeed have cultural inkling and should reflect the situational nuances about their birth. This will aid language survival.

A Pragmatic Analysis of Names and Naming in Igarra (Etuno)

The study examines the Pragmatic meanings of names and naming in Igarra (Etuno). Data gathered from Igarra (Etuno) names have been purposely selected for Speech Act analysis because of their assertive, penetrating and incisive messages. Specifically, the Speech Act theory which consists of locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts was applied in the data analysis. The ‘invisible meaning’ of the selected names were analysed using the pragmatic and linguistic tools of context and speech acts. It has been observed that Igarra people previously preferred names sourced from other languages especially Yoruba language but there have been shifts in attitude because of the realization that Igarra (Etuno) names are as meaningful as names from other climes. Another significant reason is the fact that Igarra people have now recognized the importance of preserving Etuno language. The study investigated the pragmatic implications of the names by exploring the reasons and circumstances of the selected names. The names were purposively selected from families and friends. For ease of analysis, the data were grouped according to different circumstances surrounding the names. The findings from this study showed that Igarra names do not only identify a person but also communicate so much about the circumstances surrounding the person’s birth. The study concludes that names perform several speech acts like informing, requesting, questioning or expressing gratitude which are reflective of the emotional link or expectations of the giver of the name. The study recommends that names and naming should indeed have cultural inkling and should reflect the situational nuances about their birth. This will aid language survival.

Dealing With Language Gap in a Hungarian-English Early Childhood Classroom

The term ‘translanguaging' has been widespread in the field of Applied Linguistics in a short period of time, and just as quickly, it infiltrated in the field of Multilingual Education. Translanguaging is mostly seen as an opportunity to build on multilingual speakers' full language repertoire in the classroom in order to make sense of the world around them. At the same time, translanguaging might be seen as a threat for heritage language survival because heritage languages are forced to immerse in the mainstream language(s). The authors observed pedagogical translanguaging practices in the AraNY János Hungarian Kindergarten and School (USA) to understand how English was used in teaching the heritage language and to discover how bridging existing language gaps between speakers worked in the practices of bilingual pedagogues. The overarching aim of this study was to reveal some of the pedagogical translanguaging strategies used to deal with occurring language gaps.

Investigating Cognitive and Psycholinguistic Features of Translation Universals

Traditionally, translation is viewed as a reliable shield over linguistic diversity, one of the ways to ensure a target language survival. However, translation is also reported to distort a translated language due to introducing ‘the third code’ (Frawley, 1984) features. These “deforming tendencies” (Berman, 1985) destroy the translated language by erasing its natural pattern and by adding there a bundle of alien features that cause its lexical, syntactical, and stylistic deficiencies. The current study is aimed at detecting those destructive features treated in translation studies as “translation universals” (Chesterman, 2004). To this end, a psycholinguistic analysis was held to establish the use of language which is not the result of intentional, controlled processes and of which translators may not be aware. These subliminal translation-inherent processes can be traced in the use of function words that encode procedural meaning. Relevance Theory (Wilson & Sperber, 1993) explains a conceptual-procedural distinction as a major distinction made between two types of linguistically encoded information. Conceptual information expressed by content words is viewed as encoding concepts whereas words with procedural meaning contribute to the derivation of implicatures, certain ways of processing propositions. Discourse connectives, conjunctions, prepositions, particles, pronouns, modal words constitute that group of function words with procedural meaning. To uncover certain variations in the use of these linguistic units, a parallel English-Ukrainian corpus made up of an 8,000-character excerpt from Franny by J.D. Salinger, its professional translation, and forty novice translators’ target versions, was compiled. The corpus data were processed by Textanz and SPSS computerized tools. The results of the psycholinguistic analysis proved that the Ukrainian versions as contrasted to the original text contained the following S-universals: implicitation expressed through the shortage of discourse markers of global coherence, simplification due to the lack of personal pronouns, decreased mean number of words per sentence, and greater number of sentences; normalization embodied in vernacular network impoverishment due to the decreased amount of pragmatic markers and fillers, explicitation due to higher lexical variety and density rates, and rationalization as a result of abundant marking of discourse relations. Conclusions. Taken together, these findings have significant implications for the understanding of how procedural information processing by novice translators is manifested in translation.