Vietnamese Proverbs From a Cultural Perspective

Proverbs are important data depicting the traditional culture of each nation. Vietnamese proverbs, dated thousands of years ago, are an immense valuable treasure of experience which the Vietnamese people desire to pass to the younger generations. This paper aims to explore the unique and diversified world of intelligence and spirits of the Vietnamese through a condensed and special literary genre, as well as a traditional value of the nation (Nguyen Xuan Kinh 2013, Tran Ngoc Them 1996, Le Chi Que and Ngo Thi Thanh Quy 2014). Through an interdisciplinary approach, from an anthropological point of view, approaching proverbs we will open up a vast treasure of knowledge and culture of all Vietnamese generations. The study has examined over 16,000 Vietnamese proverbs and analysed three groups expressing Vietnamese people’s behaviors toward nature, society and their selves, and compared them with English and Japanese proverbs. The research has attempted to explore the beauty of Vietnamese language, cultural values and the souls and personalities of Vietnam. Approaching Vietnamese proverbs under the interdisciplinary perspective of language, culture and literature is a new research direction in the field of Social Sciences and Humanity in Vietnam. From these viewpoints, it is seen that proverbs have remarkably contributed to the language and culture of Vietnam as well as and constructed to the practice of language use in everyday life which is imaginary, meaningful and effective in communication. Furthermore, the study seeks to inspire the Vietnamese youth’s pride in national identity and to encourage their preservation and promotion for traditional values of the nation in the context of integration and globalisation. In the meantime, it would be favourable to introduce and market the beauty of Vietnamese language, culture and people to the world, encouraging the speakers of other languages to study, explore and understand Vietnam.

Polysemy of Words Expressing Human Body Parts of The Four Limb Area in Thai Language in Vietnam

The nomenclature and polysemiosis of body parts has constituted a central part of linguistics, and of Linguistic Anthropology. The ramifications of such work make inroads into our understandings of many fields, including language contact, semiotics, and so forth, This current paper identifies the structures and emerging denotations of expressions of human body parts (HBPs) in Thai language, and ways in which these dimensions reflect polysemy. The study thus applies the following methods: Field research methods of linguistics, description, comparison, and collation. As sources of data, this study surveys Thai rhymes, fairy tales, riddles and riddle songs, rhyming stories, children’s songs and linguistic data of daily speeches in the northwest of Vietnam. The paper uses theories on word meaning and the transformation of word meaning. To aid analysis, this paper applies methods of analyzing meaning components so to construct significative meaning structures of words expressing HBPs in Thai language, thus identifying the semantemes chosen to be the basis for the transformation. In the polysemy of words expressing HBPs of the four limbs, the polysemy of words expressing the following parts were studied: khèn - tay, cánh tay (arm); mễ – tay, bàn tay (hand); khà - đùi (thigh); tìn - chân, bàn chân (leg, foot). Directions of semantic transformation of words expressing HBPs in Thai language are as diversified and as multi-leveled as Vietnamese. Furthermore, in Thai language, there occur differences in the four scopes of semantic transformation, as compared with Vietnamese, including “people’s characteristics,” “human activities,” “nomination of things with activities like HBPs’ activities,” and “unit of measurement.” This study contributes to Linguistic Anthropology by suggesting that the polysemy of words expressing HBPs of the four limb area in Thai language will outline a list of linguistic phenomena which serve as the basis to understand cultural and national features, in the light of perception and categorization of the reality of the Thai minority with reference to Vietnamese.

At the Origin of the Khmer Melodic Percussion Ensembles or “From Spoken to Gestured Language”

Frescoes representing melodic percussion orchestras have recently appeared in the central sanctuary of the Angkor Wat temple. They prefigure two orchestras existing today in Cambodia: the pin peat and the kantoam ming. These two ensembles are respectively related to Theravada Buddhism ceremonies and funerary rituals in the Siem Reap area. They represent a revolution in the field of music because of their acoustic richness and their sound power, supplanting the old Angkorian string orchestras. This project analyzes in detail the composition of the fresco sets and establishes a link with the structure of Khmer melodic percussion orchestras. The analysis of some graphic details, related to other frescoes and bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat, also makes it possible to propose a dating. The study embodies one of an anthropological ethnomusicology, while also incorporating a discourse analysis, so to frame the uncovering of new historiographers of music and instrumentation, so to re describe musical discourses, more so to shed new light on melodic percussion of Angkorian music.

Diglossia and Local Identity: Swiss German in the Linguistic Landscape of Kleinbasel

The city of Basel is situated in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, in the geographic triangle of three countries: France, Germany and Switzerland. Everyday urban life is characterised by the presence of Standard German and Swiss German as well as diverse migrant languages. Swiss German is ‘an umbrella term for several Alemannic dialects’ (Stepkowska 2012, 202) which differ from Standard German in terms of phonetics, semantics, lexis, and grammar and has no standard written form. Swiss German is predominantly used in oral forms, and Standard German in written communication. Furthermore, an amalgamation of bilingualism and diglossia (Stepkowska 2012, 208) distinguishes the specific linguistic situation, which indicates amongst other things the high prestige of Swiss German in everyday life. To explore the visibility and vitality of Swiss German in the public display of written language, we examined the linguistic landscape of a superdiverse neighbourhood of Basel, and investigated language power and the story beyond the sign – ‘stories about the cultural, historical, political and social backgrounds of a certain space’ (Blommaert 2013, 41). Our exploration was guided by the question: How do linguistic artefacts – such as official, commercial, and private signs – represent the diglossic situation and the relation between language and identity in Kleinbasel? Based on a longitudinal ethnographic study, a corpus was compiled comprising 300 digital images of written artefacts in Kleinbasel. Participant observation and focus group discussions about particular images were conducted and analysed using grounded theory (Charmaz 2006) and visual ethnography (Pink 2006). In our paper, we focus on signs in Swiss German and focus group discussions on these images. Initial analyses have produced two surprising findings; firstly, the visibility and the perception of Swiss German as a marker of local identity; secondly, the specific context of their display.

Language as Symbol System: Islam, Javanese Muslem and Cultural Diplomacy

Islamic diaspora throughout the world has its own characteristics depending on cultural context in each region. Observing the characteristics of the entry process and the rise of Islam in Java in the past, Indonesia can be viewed significantly through a linguistic perspective. By focusing on the narratives of how Islam was constructed in Java by kiai, we will be able to understand that the pattern of the entry process and the rise of Islam in Java emerged through“language diplomacy.” There are various symbols which later became the symbol system in Islamic languages that were contextualized to Javanese language and knowledge systems. In other words, I see that language in this context is a symbol system. These symbols are a strategy of how Islam was “planted” and developed in Java. I will compare the symbol system of the language in the Quran as the Great Tradition of Islam with a symbol system on the narratives that a kiai expressed in Javanese society as the Little Tradition. By taking some narratives that the kiai gave to the Javanese Moslems in East Java region, this paper argues that the linguistic aspect in some narratives and Quran recitation which has the symbolic system of the language have an important role in planting and developing Islam in Java. This paper is based on ethnographic research-participant observation among Nahdlatul Ulama Muslim society in East Java, Indonesia and reviews Islamic narratives in society as an important unit of analysis.

Revitalizing Eastern and Western Online Communication: A Micro-Meso-Macro Link of Temporal Digital Change

This paper explains in a de-westernized sense (Gunaratne, 2010) how internet-mediated communication changes the way we deal with and plan time both individually and culturally in Germany and China. Therefore, it blends Western and Eastern culture and media theories. The paper focuses on two distinct phenomena: temporal change due to social media, and Online journalism, as the core of Internet-mediated communication (for Germany 39% communication, media use 24% Projektgruppe ARD/ZDF-Multimedia, 2016; for China 90.7% instant messaging, 82% Internet news China Internet Network Information Center, 2017), with other temporal change via smart devices touched upon (Ash, 2018). General research on time in post modern societies, recently more focused on media’s temporal change phenomena (e.g. Barker, 2012; Barker, 2018; Castells, 2010; Eriksen, 2001; Hartmann, 2016; Hassan, 2003; Innis, 2004; Neverla, 2010a, 2010b; Nowotny, 1995; Rantanen, 2005; Wajcman, 2010; Wajcman and Dodd) has not yet linked the different societal and cultural levels of temporal change. Thus, we suggest the following to fill this research gap: For a micro perspective the notions of network theories (e.g. Granovetter, 1973; Schönhuth, 2013), media synchronicity (Dennis, Fuller, and Valacich, 2008) and the idea of permanent connectivity (Sonnentag, Reinecke, Mata, and Vorderer, 2018; van Dijck, 2013; Vorderer, Krömer, and Schneider, 2016) are linked. On a meso level, institutional change in Online journalism with a focus on acceleration is modeled (Ananny, 2016; Bødker and Sonnevend, 2017; Dimmick, Feaster, and Hoplamazian, 2011; Krüger, 2014; Neuberger, 2010). On a macro level, mediatization theory (Couldry and Hepp, 2017; Krotz, 2001, 2012) and recent acceleration theory (Rosa, 2005, 2012, 2017) is discussed. The levels are systematically linked suggesting a micro-meso-macro-link (Quandt, 2010) to then ask if and how many of the dimensions of the construct temporal understanding (Faust, 2016) can be changed through Internet-mediated communication. Temporal understanding consists of nine dimensions: General past, general future, instrumental experience (monochronicity), fatalism, interacting experience (polychronicity), pace of life, future as planned expectation and result of proximal goals as well as future as trust based interacting expectation and result of present positive behavior. Temporal understanding integrates the anthropological construct of polychronicity (Bluedorn, Kalliath, Strube, and Martin, 1999; Hall, 1984; Lindquist and Kaufman-Scarborough, 2007), pace of life (Levine, 1998) and temporal horizon (Klapproth, 2011) into a broader framework which goes beyond Western biased constructs through the theory driven incorporation of Confucian notions (Chinese Culture Connection, 1987). Finally, meta trends are laid out.

Methodology in Accent Perception Studies: A Review

Research in the field of Language Attitudes and Social Perceptions have proven associations between a speaker’s accent, and listener’s perceptions of various aspects of their identity – intelligence, socio-economic background, race, region of origin, friendliness, etc. This paper seeks to critically analyze the methodology and theories in the field of accent perception through a review of existing research literature across various disciplines that have studied it. After reviewing Social Identity Theory, Prototype theory, and theories regarding Ethnolinguistic identity, it points out various knowledge gaps and limitations of methodologies previously used. It then studies the implications for future research, in various domains, proposing a new theoretical paradigm using mixed methods studies.

Moribund Language Documentation and Preservation: A Preliminary Study on the Punan Language

This study focuses on the Punan language in Punan Bah, Belaga, Sarawak. The Punan language is a language spoken by the Punan people, one of the minority ethnic groups in Sarawak. This study is a preliminary study of the language and acts as an early step in the effort to document and preserve the language. This preliminary study is pivotal in preventing teh language from falling into an endangered phase or becoming moribund. This study also aims to resolve confusion over some terms used to refer to the Punan ethnicity and Punan language. This study was conducted as field-oriented research. The respondents were selected based on several criteria and were native speakers of the Punan language, aged forty and above, and living in the Punan Bah area. Data were collected through interviews and voice recordings. The data include the history and the background of the Punan ethnicity. The outcome of the study shows that the Punan language and ethnicity are different from the Penan language and ethnicity, and these ethnicities belong to two different categories with their own respective identities. From historical and background aspects, the Punan language is spoken in eight long houses, namely Punan Pandan, Punan Jelalong, Punan Mina, Punan Meluyou, Punan Bah, Punan Biau, Punan Sama and Punan Kakus. From a linguistics aspect, it is found that the Punan language has four main variations; daily spoken language, ukiet (folklore), u'a and setuo. Hence, this study will explore the diversity of indigenous languages in Sarawak.

Towards a Progressive Asian Linguistic and Cultural Psychology

Traditional Linguistic and Cultural Anthropology has been predicated on traditional systems of thought, such as colonialism and that the west has been a purveyor of intellectual work and its traditions. Consequently, the shaping of Asian and non-Asian academic and industrial sector have emerged to separate these two regions, though dynamically. This paper seeks to provide a new framework for Anthropologically describing Asian Linguistic and Cultural contexts, which show great contradiction. The paper builds on colonialism and post colonialism, and then draws on a comparative ethnography of Asian and non-Asian regions, to present that the symbolic typologies of each of these regions show contradiction. The paper then presents that these contradictions speak against both traditional notions of Asia and nonAsia, and that traditional Linguistic and Cultural Anthropology can become modal, and can be realigned to incorporate complex perspectives in the symbolic analysis of language and culture.

The Change Laboratory in CLIL settings: Foregrounding the Voices of East Asian Students

I propose that the Change Laboratory is an underutilized intervention research methodology that can be used to foreground the voices, needs and rights of East Asian students taking English Medium Instruction classes predicated on the Western Socratic learning habitus. In particular, I relate the Change Laboratory methodology to a specific type of EMI pedagogy known as CLIL, Content Language Integrated Learning. What separates CLIL courses from content-based language learning and other forms of EMI, is the planned integration of the ‘4Cs’ of content, cognition, communication and culture into teaching and learning practice (Coyle et al., 2010). CLIL pedagogy aims to motivate and empower students in learner-centered classrooms. However, student voices have not often been foregrounded in research. The Change laboratory (Virkkunen and Newnham, 2013) is an intervention research methodology that can empower students with regard to course design. It applies a “Vygotskyan developmental approach in real-world, collective, organizational settings” (Bligh and Flood, 2015) and is therefore in accordance with CLIL pedagogy underpinned by the constructivist ideas of Bruner, Vygotsky and Piaget. There is much potential for the Change Laboratory to be used in course design as it focuses on how “institutional forms actually unfold locally” (Bligh and Flood, 2015) and has the ability to “develop the transformative agency of marginalized voices in higher education” (Bligh and Flood, 2015). Thus, I argue that Change Laboratory interventions can reduce linguistic imperialism, or perceptions thereof, in English Medium Instruction or CLIL settings in East Asia. They can help investigate the perception of cultural habitus – Confucian and Socratic – that may affect learning dispositions and in doing so redesign courses that better fit the needs of learners.