Litewska mniejszość narodowa w Polsce – język i społeczność

This paper is dedicated to Lithuanians, one of the smallest national minorities in Poland. It characterises the Lithuanian community, which densely populates the Podlasie region in three clusters (Puńsk, Sejny, Suwałki). The study presents the last century’s history of the Lithuanian education and culture, including differences between the Puńsk and Sejny centres. Lithuanians’ strong sense of national identity is closely connected with their mother tongue, culture and traditions. The minority’s community nature is evidenced by the high prestige and broad scope of use of the native dialect. The functions of the primary and secondary languages are clearly specifi ed by the Lithuanian- or Polish-speaking recipient. The transformations occurring in the Southern Aukštaitian dialect are aimed at unifi cation of the Sejny and Puńsk dialects in younger people’s speech and creation of a regiolect. Interference under a strong infl uence of the Polish language is noticeable at all levels of the primary language

The Long Shadow of Peers: Adolescent Networks and Young Adult Mental Health

Connections with peers play an important role in adolescent mental health, but their lasting impact is unclear. This study examines whether structural status and support in adolescent networks predict depressive symptoms years later. Using data from the PROSPER Peers study (n = 1017), I find that the persistent effects of networks differ based on the mental health of teens and their friends. Structures of status and support relate to young adult mental health only for individuals who experience depressive symptoms as teens. Among depressive adolescents, popularity predicts lower subsequent depressive symptoms, while high prestige predicts higher depressive symptoms in young adulthood. Embeddedness among depressed friends also predicts higher young adult depressive symptoms. Overall, findings suggest relationships with peers can set the stage for mental health for adolescents who experience depressive symptoms or have depressive friends.

Occupational prestige and sickness absence inequality in employed women and men in Sweden: a registry-based study

ObjectivesSocioeconomic position has been linked to sickness absence (SA). However, less is known about the role of occupational prestige, a measure of social status afforded by one’s occupation, in SA. We investigated the association between occupational prestige and SA and the distribution of the association in women and men. We also examined the effect of intersections of gender and occupational prestige on SA.DesignLongitudinal.SettingA nationwide representative sample of Swedish working population.Participants97 397 employed individuals aged 25–59 years selected from the 2004, 2007 and 2010 waves of the Swedish Labour Force Survey and prospectively linked to the Swedish Longitudinal Integration Database for Health Insurance and Labour Market Studies.Outcome measuresThe number of SA days in any particular year during a 3-year follow-up and long-term (>120 days) SA based on those with at least one sick leave spell during the follow-up.ResultsOccupational prestige was weakly associated with SA in the total sample after adjusting for potential confounders. In the gender-stratified analysis, women in lower prestige occupations had higher absenteeism rates than women in high prestige occupations; men in lower prestige occupations had higher odds for long-term SA than men in high prestige occupations. In the intersectional analysis, women regardless of prestige level and men in lower prestige occupations had higher probability of SA compared with men in high prestige occupations. Women in high prestige occupations had the highest absenteeism rates (incidence rate ratio (IRR), 2.25, 95% CI, 2.20 to 2.31), while men in medium prestige occupations had the lowest rates (IRR, 1.17, 95% CI, 1.13 to 1.20). Compared with the rest of the groups, men in low and medium prestige occupations had higher odds for long-term absence.ConclusionThere is need to pay close attention to occupational prestige as a factor that may influence health and labour market participation.

Sociolinguistics Study of Aravind Adiga’s White Tiger

This paper comprises the sociolinguistic concepts which are hidden in the Aravind Adiga’s novel White Tiger. And it will let us know how Aravind Adiga managed to reach his audience effortlessly. Aravind Adiga is a Man Booker Prize Winner of 2008, for his debut novel ‘White Tiger’. White Tiger is the story of a common man, who manages to attain tremendous success, later starts working as an Entrepreneur. The protagonist, Balram Halwai, narrates this novel, he sends letters to Premier of China, who will soon be visiting India. Moreover, this novel comprises of sociolinguistic elements such as the names are mostly of Indian origin, prestige feature. Aravind Adiga is being chosen as a writer to be tested on sociolinguistic grounds because there is an apt amount of sociolinguistic elements (code switching, high prestige, low prestige, etc.) in his novels. Aravind Adiga reaches the reader's heart, by using appropriate language in the manner his target audience can understand. This paper also verifies the sociolinguistic impact on Aravind Adiga, in the midst of this we realise the importance of sociolinguistic theories. Society and culture play a vital role in our language acquisition, and it shapes our respective roles in society. Ultimately, this can let us know how language variation occurs and impacts the users. Language is like a river, it changes its directions with time, place, communities, etc, and certain meanings avert or change slightly from the original meanings.

The persistence of persistence in the research world

Timmer (2021) raised the issue of perceived value and persistent use of a persistent and very serious problem in humankind's scientific inquiries: replicability problems. Apparently, reading Timmer's makes serious scientists and academics—who have embraced basic ethical standards—both worried and disappointed. And everybody should not omit the fact that Timmer's discussion has been backed by another truly scientific attempt made by Serra-Garcia & Gneezy (2021), published in a high-prestige journal, Science Advances.

Prestige Does Not Affect the Cultural Transmission of Novel Controversial Arguments in an Online Transmission Chain Experiment

Cultural evolutionary theories define prestige as social rank that is freely conferred on individuals possessing superior knowledge or skill, in order to gain opportunities to learn from such individuals. Consequently, information provided by prestigious individuals should be more memorable, and hence more likely to be culturally transmitted, than information from non-prestigious sources, particularly for novel, controversial arguments about which preexisting opinions are absent or weak. It has also been argued that this effect extends beyond the prestigious individual’s relevant domain of expertise. We tested whether the prestige and relevance of the sources of novel, controversial arguments affected the transmission of those arguments, independently of their content. In a four-generation linear transmission chain experiment, British participants (N = 192) recruited online read two conflicting arguments in favour of or against the replacement of textbooks by computer tablets in schools. Each of the two conflicting arguments was associated with one of three sources with different levels of prestige and relevance (high prestige, high relevance; high prestige, low relevance; low prestige, low relevance). Participants recalled the pro-tablets and anti-tablets arguments associated with each source and their recall was then passed to the next participant within their chain. Contrary to our predictions, we did not find a reliable effect of either the prestige or relevance of the sources of information on transmission fidelity. We discuss whether the lack of a reliable effect of prestige on recall might be a consequence of differences between how prestige operates in this experiment and in everyday life.

Evaluation of dialectal speech in PAPRŪSĖ region: investigation of Vištytis habitat in the beginning of the twenty-first century

Vištytis habitat belongs to the western part of Western Highlanders of Kaunas. The border of East Prussia has been in this area, so these environs until are often called as paprūsė region. There is described location of Vištytis habitat in the Lithuanian dialect classification, specific features and dialectal attitudes of speakers in the beginning of the twenty-first century. The results of this research are discussed in comparing to other similar studies of Western Highlanders of Kaunas. The investigation revealed that the speakers of Vištytis sub-dialect tend to consider local speech variant as standard Lithuanian language. The local speech was evaluated by the speakers as partially non-correct, but attractive. This attitude was mostly determined by aspects of intelligibility and conventionality of the local speech code. Evaluation of dialectal speech in Vištytis habitat for the most part coincides with common self–evaluation pattern of Western Highlanders of Kaunas. The short linguistic distance to standard language, fairly high prestige of dialectal speech and the same language code in all linguistic situations are most representative characteristics of this pattern.

Computational Justice: Simulating Structural Bias and Interventions

Gender inequality has been documented across a variety of high-prestige professions. Both structural bias (e.g., lack of proportionate representation) and interpersonal bias (e.g., sexism, discrimination) generate costs to underrepresented minorities. How can we estimate these costs and what interventions are most effective for reducing them? We used agent-based simulations, removing gender differences in interpersonal bias to isolate and quantify the impact and costs of structural bias (unequal gender ratios) on individuals and institutions. We compared the long-term impact of bias-confrontation strategies. Unequal gender ratios led to higher costs for female agents and institutions and increased sexism among male agents. Confronting interpersonal bias by targets and allies attenuated the impact of structural bias. However, bias persisted even after a structural intervention to suddenly make previously unequal institutions equal (50% women) unless the probability of interpersonal bias-confrontation was further increased among targets and allies. This computational approach allows for comparison of various policies to attenuate structural equality, and informs the design of new experiments to estimate parameters for more accurate predictions.