Irina Valeryevna Erofeeva; Albert Ilgizovitch Gilyazov; Maria Alexandrovna Pilgun
Abstract
A poem, story, or play, while expressing the inner states of the author, in many cases, reflect the state of culture and society where the poet or writer has lived in and been influenced by. The study of the lexical-semantic groups of vocabulary concerning the diachronic aspect is a promising direction ...
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A poem, story, or play, while expressing the inner states of the author, in many cases, reflect the state of culture and society where the poet or writer has lived in and been influenced by. The study of the lexical-semantic groups of vocabulary concerning the diachronic aspect is a promising direction in exploring the evolution of ideas about different areas of reality. The most important concepts with which human life has an inextricable link are representations of light and darkness. The paper will present the analysis of light in philosophical, worldview, lingual, and linguistic relations. The end of an era, the development of scientific thinking, and changes in the perception of the world image with respect to religious and secular aspects determine the formation of the system of meanings of the word “light”. It should be noted that the study has foremost used the method of conceptual analysis of one of the critical concepts of culture.
Rawan Emad Al-Sallal; Madani Othman Ahmed
Abstract
This study intends to investigate the role of culture in the acquisition of pragmatic competence by EFL learners. It investigated the refusal of requests and offers used by Bahraini and Indian learners of English compared to those employed by native speakers of English. It also explored the similarities ...
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This study intends to investigate the role of culture in the acquisition of pragmatic competence by EFL learners. It investigated the refusal of requests and offers used by Bahraini and Indian learners of English compared to those employed by native speakers of English. It also explored the similarities and differences between refusal strategies used by Bahraini and Indian L2 learners on the one hand and native speakers of English on the other. The participants included 20 Bahraini and 20 Indian learners of English (ILE) and 12 British and American native speakers of English (NE). Two instruments were used to collect the data: a discourse completion test (DCT) and open-ended Role Plays. The data were classified using widely used refusal strategies classifications and were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings indicated that there were differences between the two EFL groups and the NE control group in the frequency and number of pragmatic strategies.
Reza Pishghadam; Shima Ebrahimi; Mir Abdullah Miri; Shaghayegh Shayesteh
Volume 9, Issue 3 , September 2021, , Pages 16-27
Abstract
Given the significance of people’s attitudes in shaping the dominant culture of a society, this study intends to see how people react or are emotionally aroused when they see an intelligent person (i.e., sapioemotionality), and then examine the underlying cultulinguistic reasons for different degrees ...
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Given the significance of people’s attitudes in shaping the dominant culture of a society, this study intends to see how people react or are emotionally aroused when they see an intelligent person (i.e., sapioemotionality), and then examine the underlying cultulinguistic reasons for different degrees of sapioemotionality in the Persian culture. To do so, first, a sapioemotionality scale was developed and validated using 440 individuals. For further analysis, 68 interviews were conducted and a list of Persian, knowledge-related utterances/expressions were extracted to cross-validate the quantitative findings. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and t-test were used to analyze the quantitative data, and cultuling (culture + language) analysis was employed to examine the qualitative data. The results substantiated the validity of the proposed scale, revealing that the level of sapioemotionality is dwindling in Iranian society. Cultuling analysis, confirming the low level of sapioemotionality, espoused the quantitative findings. In the end, the results were discussed, and a number of suggestions were made to shed more light on sapioemotionality.
Gulshat Ahmathanovna Hayrutdinova; Xiaoxu Wang; Xinxin Zhang
Volume 9, Issue 3 , September 2021, , Pages 91-100
Abstract
It is obvious that investigating a text or a poem, regardless of the culture of the period in which the writer or poet lived, is futile. The current study explores the conceptual metaphors formed by culture in the functioning of the autumn word in the works of Russian poetry. The relevance of the work ...
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It is obvious that investigating a text or a poem, regardless of the culture of the period in which the writer or poet lived, is futile. The current study explores the conceptual metaphors formed by culture in the functioning of the autumn word in the works of Russian poetry. The relevance of the work is due to the need for a comprehensive study of those language units that play an essential role in the embodiment of the author’s intention. At the same time, not all words expressing a temporary meaning have received comprehensive coverage in the scientific literature. Among these, lexemes are the word “autumn”. The purpose of the study is to analyze the functioning of the “autumn” lexeme in poetic works of the XX-XXI centuries. Considerable attention is paid to the realization of the creative potential of the temporal lexeme. The material for the study was poetry texts extracted from the “National Corpus of the Russian Language”.
Tatyana Gennadevna Bochina; Anastasiia Alexandrovna Korshunova; Sholpan Kuzarovna Zharkynbekova
Volume 9, Issue 3 , September 2021, , Pages 101-108
Abstract
It is obvious that proverbs have their roots in the cultures of any society. Russian proverbs and sayings show a foreigner the traditions, customs, and way of thinking of the Russian people. In the current study, by monitoring posts on social networks and using passive observations of the speech process ...
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It is obvious that proverbs have their roots in the cultures of any society. Russian proverbs and sayings show a foreigner the traditions, customs, and way of thinking of the Russian people. In the current study, by monitoring posts on social networks and using passive observations of the speech process of native speakers, the communicative situations in which paremias were regularly resorted to were identified. The authors provide a review of the existing research in this area and conclude that it is necessary to conduct an additional experiment in order to obtain the most objective results. The choice of primary material for the questionnaire is explained, and preliminary results of a comparison of various sources of paremias are presented. Examples of formulations of questions proposed to informants are given that make it possible to identify not only the fact of recognition of paremias, but also their understanding. Eventually, further ways of research development are presented.
Isabel Menacho-Vargas; Ulises Córdova Garcia; Milagritos Leonor Rodríguez Rojas; Emma Margarita Wong-Fajardo; Miguel A. Saavedra-López
Volume 9, Issue 3 , September 2021, , Pages 109-118
Abstract
This empirical research intended to seek the effects of culturally-based conversations on developing speaking skill among Peruvian upper-intermediate EFL students. To reach this purpose, the OQPT was administered to 158 EFL students to gauge their general proficiency in the English ...
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This empirical research intended to seek the effects of culturally-based conversations on developing speaking skill among Peruvian upper-intermediate EFL students. To reach this purpose, the OQPT was administered to 158 EFL students to gauge their general proficiency in the English language. After that, the researchers chose 100 upper-intermediate students and made them two groups; culture group (n=50) and conventional group (n=50). Then, the researchers gave a speaking pre-test to the mentioned groups. After pre-testing, the culture group received the instruction through culturally-based conversations, i.e., conversations that were related to American and English cultures. The conventional group was instructed traditionally, i.e., they did not receive any specific culturally-based conversations. This procedure continued till the last session. Finally, the researchers gave a speaking post-test to the subjects of both groups. The analysis of the data revealed that the culture group outflanked the conventional group after the treatment. Eventually, the benefits of the cultural materials for teachers and students were described.
Al-Tair Syzdykov
Volume 9, 2 (Themed Issue on Modern Realities of National Languages of CIS Countries) , August 2021, , Pages 160-169
Abstract
Great novels are always born out of an obsession that has been overcome. This is René Girard’s summary of what he considers the most important project in all the fiction. Scientific novelty of this study is determined by the fact that Girard not only follows his early observation but also ...
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Great novels are always born out of an obsession that has been overcome. This is René Girard’s summary of what he considers the most important project in all the fiction. Scientific novelty of this study is determined by the fact that Girard not only follows his early observation but also has been supporting and developing it for fifty years. This observation made in his first book, “Deception, Desire, and Novel”, lays the foundation for a theoretical background for his further work. This structure is mimetic theory. It deals with the phenomenon of mimetic desire in both literal and non-literal ways. The practical relevance of the study is determined by the fact that, according to Girard’s work, there is no more suitable tool for overcoming mimetic obsession than fiction. Girard referred to his collection of favorite novels and dramas while insisting that literature is no longer that significant for him as it has been before.
Gulzhakhan Tazhitova; Dina Kurmanayeva; Jannat Sagimbayeva; Gulden Tussupova; Natalya Ustelimova
Volume 9, 2 (Themed Issue on Modern Realities of National Languages of CIS Countries) , August 2021, , Pages 170-179
Abstract
This paper demonstrates the results of the study on the use of region-based materials in EFL classes at university. The empirical research methods made it possible to reveal teachers’ attitudes towards the use of region-based materials. The data were collected from 21 participants through an interview ...
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This paper demonstrates the results of the study on the use of region-based materials in EFL classes at university. The empirical research methods made it possible to reveal teachers’ attitudes towards the use of region-based materials. The data were collected from 21 participants through an interview that showed teachers’ positive attitudes to region-based materials integration. Based on the results obtained during the study, implications were provided for teachers to improve the EFL teaching process at universities. The practical significance of the study is determined by the fact that the realization of a regional approach in different countries of the world and in Kazakhstan was studied. English teachers’ attitudes towards the use of region-based materials in classes were revealed and the difficulties in the use of those materials were indicated.
Aida Nailevna Nurutdinova; Anastasiya Aleksandrovna Rus; Vera Nikolaevna Argunova
Volume 8, 3 (Special Issue on Russian Culture and Language) , December 2020, , Pages 72-79
Abstract
Welfare is a social category and is rooted in the cultural and social structures of society. Therefore, the improvement of welfare policies requires knowledge of these structures and cultural and social conditions. It should be noted that the culture in the cultural discourse of welfare is no longer ...
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Welfare is a social category and is rooted in the cultural and social structures of society. Therefore, the improvement of welfare policies requires knowledge of these structures and cultural and social conditions. It should be noted that the culture in the cultural discourse of welfare is no longer limited to mental and spiritual values and meanings. It is integrated into all varieties of individual and collective life activity as a natural socio-psychological formation, and manifests itself as a functional unit of social and psychosocial development of the world, and influences current social behavior. Based on the data of the all-Russian sociological survey, the social well-being of the population is diagnosed. The characteristics of social well-being were determined based on a subjective assessment of living conditions. The subjective assessment contains a cognitive (rational) aspect and an affective (emotional) one. In the affective aspect of the subjective assessment, there are more negative emotions in women and people of pre-retirement age.
Reza Pishghadam; Shima Ebrahimi; Ali Derakhshan
Volume 8, Issue 2 , September 2020, , Pages 17-34
Abstract
The close relationship between language and culture has been highlighted by scholars in sociology, sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication, psychology, and linguistics. They postulate that language is a tool to instantiate cultural concepts and delineate how individuals perceive the world. Regarding ...
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The close relationship between language and culture has been highlighted by scholars in sociology, sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication, psychology, and linguistics. They postulate that language is a tool to instantiate cultural concepts and delineate how individuals perceive the world. Regarding such an outstanding impetus and triggered by the conceptualization of cultulings (culture in language), language structures and expressions can manifest the overt and covert cultural patterns. Not only can the cultuling analysis of a society disclose the cultural patterns entrenched in the language, but also it can unearth the effective and defective cultural memes. To this end, our cultural model, underpinned by environmental factors, cultural, emo-sensory, and linguistic differences, can provide a robust model to analyze cultulings of a given society. Therefore, to analyze and explain the cultulings, the cultural, emotioncy, and SPEAKING models are suggested to be collectively utilized to reflect the participants’ culture. The amalgamation of these models and the underlying environmental factors can delineate people’s specific behaviors and cultulings which can culminate in euculturing.
Jose Fernandez
Volume 8, Issue 1 , March 2020, , Pages 16-24
Abstract
John Searle’s theory of social ontology posits that there are indispensable normative components in the linguistic apparatuses termed status functions, collective intentionality, and collective recognition, all of which, he argues, make the social world. In this paper, I argue that these building ...
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John Searle’s theory of social ontology posits that there are indispensable normative components in the linguistic apparatuses termed status functions, collective intentionality, and collective recognition, all of which, he argues, make the social world. In this paper, I argue that these building blocks of Searle’s social ontology are caught in a petitio of constitutive circularity. Moreover, I note how Searle fails to observe language in reciprocal relation to the institutions which not only are shaped by it but also shape language’s practical applications. According to Searle, social theorists that tried to show a connection between society, culture, and language all failed to see the constitutive role of language in the making of social reality. Consequently, I believe that Searle is himself guilty of a certain kind of blind presumption, and argue that Hegel’s philosophy of culture, which Searle dismisses as implausible, offers a more cohesive account of the normative transactions between human beings and their social world.
Rajabali Askarzadeh Torghabeh
Volume 7, 2 (Special Issue on Iranians Views of Cultural Issues) , September 2019, , Pages 69-79
Abstract
This study has analyzed the culture and language of the American Dream in Blue Surge. It shows the effects of the formula of success and the competition presented by this dream; and, how it produces neurotic individuals trying to cope with the competitive society by means of neurotic strategies. This ...
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This study has analyzed the culture and language of the American Dream in Blue Surge. It shows the effects of the formula of success and the competition presented by this dream; and, how it produces neurotic individuals trying to cope with the competitive society by means of neurotic strategies. This study has used Karen Horney’s theories and strategies. Horney says neurosis is engendered from the conflicting values of the competitive culture such as the absence of means to fulfill goals which are set for the individuals and harsh childhood experiences. The paper has analyzed the main characters’ languages, their psyches, and their defensive strategies according to Horney’s theories of Neurotic needs, which consider cultural elements as an important factor in producing neurotic individuals. The results show that the members of this society, the rich and the poor, all become neurotic individuals who are searching for defensive strategies, since individuals are living a social life and cannot escape its consequences.
Mohammad Hossein Keshavarz; Majed Amro
Volume 7, Issue 1 , March 2019, , Pages 40-51
Abstract
This study aimed at investigating the attitude of Muslim students towards the use of certain English idioms and proverbs. Thirty Muslim students were asked to express their reactions and feelings towards two categories of English idioms and proverbs: the first category included idioms and proverbs containing ...
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This study aimed at investigating the attitude of Muslim students towards the use of certain English idioms and proverbs. Thirty Muslim students were asked to express their reactions and feelings towards two categories of English idioms and proverbs: the first category included idioms and proverbs containing the names of animals that are prohibited in Islam, and the second category contained culturally inappropriate idioms and proverbs. The results of data analysis revealed that idioms and proverbs belonging to the first group were found by the majority of the participants to be rather offensive, while culturally inappropriate idioms and proverbs were less offensive. This indicates that religion is the main influential factor in the reaction of Muslim students towards English idioms. Non-Muslim English teachers may find the results of this study useful in gaining awareness about the attitudes of Muslim students towards the use of religiously and culturally-loaded idioms and proverbs and taking precautions in using such idioms in the classroom environment.
Wyman King; Richard Emanuel; Xavier Brown; Niroby Dingle; Vertis Lucas; Anissa Perkins; Ayzia Turner; Destinee Whittington; Qwa'dryna Witherspoon
Volume 6, Issue 2 , September 2018, , Pages 47-58
Abstract
The N-word is the ultimate insult that has tormented generations of African-Americans. Yet over time, N-word derivatives have become popular terms of endearment by the descendants of the very people who once had to endure the N-word. Therein lies the root of an ongoing argument in society today: Who ...
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The N-word is the ultimate insult that has tormented generations of African-Americans. Yet over time, N-word derivatives have become popular terms of endearment by the descendants of the very people who once had to endure the N-word. Therein lies the root of an ongoing argument in society today: Who has the ‘right’ to use the N-word and N-word derivatives? A quota sample (N=347) of undergraduate students at a historically Black college/university in the deep-South participated in this survey study. Participants were mostly Black (88%) and female (62%). Using a five-point semantic differential scale from ‘always’ to ‘never’, participants were asked the degree to which they believe it is acceptable to use the N-word and N-word derivatives. A majority (76%) of respondents agreed that it is never acceptable for non-Blacks to use the N-word with anyone in any situation. Fifty-six percent of respondents agreed that it is never acceptable for anyone to use N-word derivatives with anyone in any situation.
Qianqian Geng
Volume 6, Issue 2 , September 2018, , Pages 113-124
Abstract
This paper explores the relationship between cultural knowledge and the specific meaning of a pronominal adverb in legal English where Chinese translators need to get the correct translation in their venture into translating the language of law. On the one hand, relying on the relevant legal cultural ...
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This paper explores the relationship between cultural knowledge and the specific meaning of a pronominal adverb in legal English where Chinese translators need to get the correct translation in their venture into translating the language of law. On the one hand, relying on the relevant legal cultural knowledge functioning as domain-general reference within a community or jurisdiction, translators, especially those non-lawyers, may find out the common grounds for decoding the meaning of linguistic expressions in source legal English and adopt such commonalities as bases for further exploring the specific meaning of a pronominal adverb, which would let translators, no matter a professional lawyer or not, get the general sketch of the meaning thereof. On the other hand, such efforts to consult the general sense cultural information need further extraction. Since the framework information out of such extraction would be organized into a systematic structure and lead to their final determination of the translation with efficiency.