Construing the scene in Julian of Norwich’s “A Revelation of Love”

Julian of Norwich’s “A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman” and “A Revelation of Love” are texts which present two accounts (short and long, respectively) of her mystical experience. Julian was an anchoress whose work is known for its vivid imagery and bodily resonance it provokes in the reader. New research on Julian’s work has focused scholarly attention on the significance of embodied cognition for the exploration of the mystic’s writing. The present paper identifies a gap in this research in that cognitive-linguistic aspects of the anchoress’s text are still largely ignored. The article discusses the connection between perception and cognition and its potential role in structuring Julian’s longer text, “A Revelation of Love”. The Cognitive Linguistic analysis focuses on selected excerpts from the long version portraying scenes from Julian’s visions, where visualisation is particularly significant for meaning construction. Providing a link between recent findings from cognitive science and current cognitively-oriented studies of Julian’s texts, the paper draws on the concept of construal pertinent to the fact that the language user may conceive and present some conceptual content (an apprehended scene) in alternate ways. The Cognitive Linguistic investigation connects Julian’s work to the visual and material culture of her day, revealing how the mystic transforms the familiar imagery into vivid, dynamically unfolding images. It is concluded that cognitively-informed research is likely to shed new light onto long-standing issues in scholarship on Julian, particularly those that concern the interplay of language, culture and cognition.

When numbers are not what they seem – analysis of the functions and distribution of numerals in the numeronyms featured in the “Netlingo Dictionary of Texting Terms & Online Acronyms”

The paper attempts to explore the concept of numeronyms, which, in the literature of the subject, are perceived as numeral-based words. Its principal aim is to contribute to the existing discussion about numeronymy by offering a fresh perspective, concentrated on the raison d'être of numeronyms, i.e., numerical figures incorporated within. The analysis concerns particular examples of numeronyms, as featured in the “Netlingo Dictionary of Texting Terms & Online Acronyms”. This source comprises a list of acronyms and shorthands derived from two language varieties: textspeak and online slang. Specifically, subject to the analysis are those terms that, in their written form, contain numerical figures. The corpus of 200 numeronyms is scrutinised with respect to two factors, namely, the function the numeral performs in the numeronym, as well as the possible patterns regarding the distribution of particular numerals. The research, both quantitative and qualitative in nature, reveals four distinct functions of numerals within numeronyms: homophonic, conceptual, typographic and quantifying. Only the last group can be claimed to follow the function normally attributed to numerals, i.e., quantity property assignment. In turn, the distributionoriented analysis brings to light the conclusion that certain numerals that point to number words possessing homophonic properties feature in numeronyms more prominently than others.

FL code-switching in the L1 environment among early-aged monolingual learners: a pilot study

Code-switching has recently become an interesting phenomenon to study because it is a part of the developmental processes, as well as the result of the use of, and exposure to, multiple languages. For this reason, code-switching usually occurs during foreign language teaching and learning, “especially when studying English based on the different backgrounds and reasons” (Yusuf, 2009). Accordingly, code-switching can be examined from various viewpoints such as the form, location, patterns, conditions, and functions, in relation to the use or the roles of the L1 and L2 or FL in the classroom, the former being most often referred to. This paper aims to determine the conditions for the use of code-switching in a quite different situation, namely, among very young learners conceived of as monolinguals who happen to switch to English (FL) in the L1 classroom environment. The article opens with a brief characterization of code-switching, defining its most frequent forms and functions, and a description of bilingual and monolingual code-switching contexts, an emphasis being put on the role of L1 in the language adaptation process and switching. The study, composed of a questionnaire distributed among 5 kindergarten teachers in public kindergartens in Poland, has shown bits and pieces of code-switching to be observed among four groups of Polish children (early-aged monolinguals), and their “linguistic behaviors” on a daily basis in the kindergarten classroom. What has been hinted at ranges from the exact situations of switching to language samples, presented according to age, and possible reasons for the current state of affairs.

On the metaphorization of space: a closer look at the English far from X-construction and its Polish equivalents

Although a fair share of scholarly attention has been paid to the metaphorically driven grammaticalization of the originally spatial English far from X-construction into a minimizer, whereby it emphatically points to the subject’s non-attainment of a given property or failure to enter a specific eventuality, little has been written about whether, and how, this change finds reflection in the translation of English texts into foreign languages, including Polish. Thus, on the basis of a random sample composed of sentences containing the English far from X-construction along with their respective Polish translations extracted from the parallel English-Polish Paralela Corpus, this paper sets out to examine how the grammaticalized English expression is typically rendered into Polish. Considering the variation observed in the data, five main translation categories have been identified, namely those involving (i) spatial markers, (ii) standard minimizers, (iii) simple negation, (iv) omission, and (v) other locutions. The results of the empirical analysis indicate that in slightly more than half of the cases, the metaphorical English construction is translated into Polish with the use of non-spatial expressions, in particular canonical minimizers, a finding which can be accounted for in terms of the fact that the Polish spatial counterparts of far from X have generally undergone a lower degree of grammaticalization.

Phonodidactics is not so black as it is painted: traditions and trends in FL pronunciation teaching

By a curious paradox, the indispensability of intelligible, comprehensible and minimally accented foreign language (FL) speech in oral communication does not translate into intensive pronunciation practice in instructed settings. Teaching pronunciation usually poses a major challenge to language instructors both at the level of planning and implementation of pronunciation teaching activities, and is therefore frequently frowned upon to the advantage of the remaining language subsystems. However, underdeveloped FL pronunciation skills carry negative consequences every time learners enter into oral conversations. The problem takes on yet greater significance nowadays when the increased mobility of 21st century societies raises the likelihood of students making contacts with native and non-native speakers of the target language (TL). On having, firstly, enumerated some of the culprits responsible for the inferiority of pronunciation component in everyday language classroom routine and, secondly, demonstrated the importance of the subskill in establishing contacts with native and non-native speakers of the TL, we attempt to provide a general overview of the well-established traditions and main trends in the field of phonodidactics. In view of the above, our primary objective is to first and foremost overcome deep-rooted prejudices against including the pronunciation component in language classrooms by developing readers’ awareness on the fundamentals of pronunciation teaching.

People in aviation – a linguists’ insight into history

History can be studied from a number of angles and on the basis of a variety of sources. Researchers interested in the history of aviation typically focus on the development of subsequent types of flying machines. This study relates to the history of aviation, but, due to its linguistic bias it concentrates on the semantic field <people in aviation>. The structure of this field is analysed on the basis of a collection of nouns that form the relating lexical fields. In detail the study is aimed to cast some light on the history of modern aviation, i.e. aviation that started with the 1903 flight made by the Wright Brothers in an engine-driven machine, and has been continued up to now. Importantly, in 1911, soon after the first flight took place, the first dictionary of aviation was published. This specialized dictionary served as an inspiration for an attempt to draw a linguistic picture of the discipline at the beginning of the 20th century, and later to contrast it with a linguistic picture of the discipline as emerging from modern specialized dictionaries of aviation one century later. Additionally, the analysis of particular nouns, including the study of their morphological structure and semantics leads to some interesting observations relating to the history of modern aviation.

English Slang: a word-formation perspective

This paper examines the word-formation processes which are used in English slang. It does so by presenting the word-formation analysis of a sample of words selected from the online Urban Dictionary (UD). The words under investigation come from three semantic groups from the UD, specifically COLLEGE, DRUGS and FOOD. The focus is also on the comparison of the use of word-formation processes in this sample of slang words and in Standard English. The results propose an overview of the individual word-formation processes occurring in the sample. They also suggest that, to some extent, in this sample, slang uses word-formation processes in the same way as Standard English, however, in certain cases it diverges from the language’s traditional use.

Language and culture in bilinguals’ mind: Insights from case studies

The present article deals with a number of themes that pertain to culture and language relation in bilingual reality, most notably how bilingualism is defined and classified in the literature, and how bicultural bilinguals’ languages and cultures are interconnected. In the subsequent research part, the reported data formed the basis for conclusions supported by two-year observation and interviews of 4 Spanish-English bilinguals. The case studies allowed to gather information regarding their linguistic and cultural behaviour and how they identify themselves both linguistically and culturally. Each case study is discussed and conclusions on parallel points along with dissimilarities between accounts of the linguistic and cultural reality experienced in both languages are outlined.

Are you talking to me? A case of specific reply by means of election campaign advertisements

The article aims at an analytic description of a specific type of exchange occurring during political campaigns. The candidates often engage in a virtual dialogue; that is, an exchange of points made by means of campaign advertisements. The specific type of exchange or reply is, in certain aspects, no different to an ordinary conversation. However, what influences it most is the context of public/mass communication. The main concern of the presentation is to investigate, within the framework of Relevance Theory, ways in which a candidate’s reply to the opponent’s advertisement is actually a message to the viewers and prospective voters rather than to the rival themselves. The analysis is carried out on selected advertisements for Mitt Romney and Barack Obama broadcast during the U.S. presidential election campaign in 2012.

Surviving in between worlds of Laila “Halaby’s West of the Jordan”

“West of the Jordan” was published in 2003, a period when the Arab American movement was coming to a new era in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It was a time when scholars/writers began deconstructing the concept of Arab and Arab American identity to highlight the diversity of the community by taking into account internal differences, especially in areas such as gender, class, and sexuality. I intend to add to this body of work by setting “West of the Jordan” against Gloria Anzaldúa’s theoretical concept of nepantla (Borderlands; In-betweenness), seen here as an identity formation framework. Anzaldúa’s theorization of nepantla has stressed the instability of identity categories through movement betwixt and between identity and transformative ethics of change. Thus, the novel’s formulations and reformulations of ethnic, gender, and other categories should be understood as a way of criticizing these categories ’essentialist nature (even if some of the characters in the novel fail to formulate a constructive liberatory alternative to the essentialisms it attacks/aims to eradicate). In this context, the heroines ’actions succeed in destabilizing the categories ’ideological power and manage to show the shallowness of such delineations.