Montserrat Martinez-Vazquez
Volume 5, Issue 2 , September 2017, , Pages 1-14
Abstract
This paper investigates the conceptualization of emotional release from a cognitive linguistics perspective (Cognitive Metaphor Theory). The metaphor weeping is a means of liberating contained emotions is grounded in universal embodied cognition and is reflected in linguistic expressions in English and ...
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This paper investigates the conceptualization of emotional release from a cognitive linguistics perspective (Cognitive Metaphor Theory). The metaphor weeping is a means of liberating contained emotions is grounded in universal embodied cognition and is reflected in linguistic expressions in English and Spanish. Lexicalization patterns which encapsulate this conceptualization include the caused-motion construction, the resultative construction, and the reaction object construction (Goldberg, 1995; Levin, 1993). These patterns are common in English but atypical or non-existent in Spanish and other Romance languages. Results from a corpus analysis, however, reveal that syntactic manifestations of this metaphor are abundant in Spanish, but rare in English. I argue that specific socio-cultural rules are imposed on universal human schemas and particular linguistic availability in this specific domain. In line with recent research on the culture-language interface (Kövecses, 2005; Sharifian, 2011; Wierzbicka, 1999, 2002) this article attempts to show how cultural filters restrain English speakers from using typologically ‘preferred’ constructions in this specific emotional domain.
Andre Mostert; Bob Lisney; Geoffrey M. Maroko; Russell H. Kaschula
Volume 5, Issue 2 , September 2017, , Pages 37-48
Abstract
Developing suitable frameworks and paradigms (theoretical and practical) is a challenge for all disciplines in the face of rapid technological changes. Technological advances are fundamentally changing discourse in many well-established areas of research; from advances in understanding the brain, questioning ...
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Developing suitable frameworks and paradigms (theoretical and practical) is a challenge for all disciplines in the face of rapid technological changes. Technological advances are fundamentally changing discourse in many well-established areas of research; from advances in understanding the brain, questioning the informed wisdom of sectors of the brain, through to impacts of social networks on sociology, to digitisation of culture. Technology’s potential is a double-edged sword which calls for coherent and reflective practices, to avoid the many pitfalls which abound. Kaschula recognised this as far back as 2004 in terms of orality, oral societies, and developed Technauriture as a framing solution. Drawing from this experience, the authors aim to expand the concept to offer a framing paradigm for culture in the form of Cultauriture. In this article the concept of Cultauriture is introduced and expanded to create a base for further research and dialogue with and between cultural practitioners, artists and policy makers.
Eucabeth Ong’au-Mong’are; Augustine Agwuele
Volume 5, Issue 1 , March 2017, , Pages 29-43
Abstract
The stories we tell about our lives unveil their content just as much as the lexical choices we make index a certain worldview, attitude, positionality, and relationship to reality. In essence, in narratives, individuals construct the self and denote personal identities. The available narrative identity ...
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The stories we tell about our lives unveil their content just as much as the lexical choices we make index a certain worldview, attitude, positionality, and relationship to reality. In essence, in narratives, individuals construct the self and denote personal identities. The available narrative identity studies have largely ignored the language employed by the bewitched while narrating their experiences. Based on the personal narratives obtained from three self-professed previously bewitched individuals from the AbaGusii community of Kenya (Aba = people, hence AbaGusii = Gusii people), this article examines the verbal clauses employed by these narrators as they recounted their experiences. The goal is to understand how these individuals constructed their personal identities through the three different phases (i.e., pre-bewitchment phase, the bewitchment phase, and the post bewitchment phase) of their bewitchment experiences. The paper argues that understanding the various identity constructions by the bewitched is invaluable for understanding not only how they represented and structured events in their lives, but also how the identities represented them as particular agents in their world, and how they viewed themselves as particular community members.
Kaseem Olaniyi
Volume 5, Issue 1 , March 2017, , Pages 58-67
Abstract
This essay examines greetings as one of the elements of politeness in a Nigerian community and how it influences the cultural characteristics of the people. To analyze, this essay makes use of speech act theory and politeness principle and also considers the pragmatic context in analyzing different types ...
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This essay examines greetings as one of the elements of politeness in a Nigerian community and how it influences the cultural characteristics of the people. To analyze, this essay makes use of speech act theory and politeness principle and also considers the pragmatic context in analyzing different types of greetings such as condolences, departure and arrival, rejoicing, daily greetings, casual greetings, and seasonal or festivity greetings. The paper finds among others that ‘greeting’ is part of the culture of Ilorin people, and the failure to comply is an aberration. It does not only create warmth, but establishes relationships which go a long way in cementing communality. The paper concludes that Ilorin greetings are embedded in and constrained by cognition, social principles of communication, and the contexts of use. Little wonder why Ilorin greetings may come as carefully chosen, catchy, and precise words which are not without religious colorations.
Niloofar Keshtiari; Michael Kuhlmann
Volume 4, Issue 2 , September 2016, , Pages 71-86
Abstract
This paper reports on a behavioral study that explores the role of culture and gender in the recognition of emotional speech in an under investigated cultural context (a collectivist society: i.e., Iran). Participants were asked to recognize the emotional prosody of a set of validated emotional vocal ...
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This paper reports on a behavioral study that explores the role of culture and gender in the recognition of emotional speech in an under investigated cultural context (a collectivist society: i.e., Iran). Participants were asked to recognize the emotional prosody of a set of validated emotional vocal portrayals (including the five basic emotions). Findings of the experiment were then compared with the results of a similar study performed on members of an individualist culture. Taken together, our results established that both, gender as a biologically rooted social mechanism and cultural factors modulate the recognition of emotional speech. More specifically, our findings supported the view that with regard to vocal emotions, females are more sensitive compared to males. Additionally, it was revealed that members of a collectivist culture show higher sensitivity to vocal emotional cues compared to their individualist counterparts. These findings imply that cultures that center on group harmony (i.e., collectivist cultures), may thus promote higher default levels of emotional sensitivity.
Tarek Hermessi
Volume 4, Issue 2 , September 2016, , Pages 105-118
Abstract
This study investigated the cognition of 70 Tunisian teachers on the place of culture in English education. It showed that Tunisian teachers believe that English textbooks and curricular documents are not specific about the cultural dimension of EFL. It also revealed that L2 teachers, whose mother culture ...
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This study investigated the cognition of 70 Tunisian teachers on the place of culture in English education. It showed that Tunisian teachers believe that English textbooks and curricular documents are not specific about the cultural dimension of EFL. It also revealed that L2 teachers, whose mother culture is distant from that associated with L2, hold ambivalent attitudes towards culture. They acknowledge the importance of culture to communicative competence and intercultural competence, but either approach culture with suspicion or prefer to keep it to a minimum in the curriculum. The reasons for the marginalization of culture in English curriculum, according to the participants of the study, are ‘vastness of the concept of culture’, ‘lack of resources’, and ‘problems of procedure’. These reasons are accepted by L2 teachers, worldwide, who seem to share a ‘co-culture’ that determines their cognition on the different aspects of language teaching. As regards the cultural dimension of L2 teaching, the ‘co-culture’ seems to drive teacher cognition more than ‘cultural distance’.
Lin Zhu
Volume 4, Issue 2 , September 2016, , Pages 119-134
Abstract
Humans are equipped with some universal or language-specific abilities to recognize emotions. However, because of the different emotional contents in diverse languages and the relevant cultural differences, humans with different cultural backgrounds own different metapragmatical abilities to recognize ...
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Humans are equipped with some universal or language-specific abilities to recognize emotions. However, because of the different emotional contents in diverse languages and the relevant cultural differences, humans with different cultural backgrounds own different metapragmatical abilities to recognize and express emotions. A hypothesis concerning emotional effects about intonation and particle is proposed, testified by typological evidence and then extended to the relevant language phenomena. The linguistic systems utilizing emotional experiences might be more in a language with high emotional contents, and the expressions concerned with emotional metapramatical operation might be more complicated. Furthermore, high emotional contents in languages and more emotional metapragmatical abilities of the speakers lead people to pay more attention to the emotional contents, and thereby tend to develop collectivistic cultures. On the other hand, variant culture display rules regulate emotional expression and understanding, revealing the very intricate interaction between language and culture.
Zeinab Kafi; Khalil Motallebzadeh
Volume 4, Issue 2 , September 2016, , Pages 134-140
Tugba Toprak; Yasemin Aksoyalp
Volume 3, Issue 1 , March 2015, , Pages 91-104
Abstract
Increasingly intercultural dimension of communication in the 21st century has brought about challenging aims in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) pedagogy, such as ascertaining the enhancement of the learners' intercultural awareness and promoting their ability to communicate in intercultural settings. ...
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Increasingly intercultural dimension of communication in the 21st century has brought about challenging aims in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) pedagogy, such as ascertaining the enhancement of the learners' intercultural awareness and promoting their ability to communicate in intercultural settings. Taking the disadvantage of EFL environment in terms of intercultural input into account, course books can be considered as one of the most crucial tools used in these settings. Thus, the links between culture, language teaching, and course books deserve a closer investigation carried out with a critical eye. Hence, the present study was conducted: (1) to explore the extent and number of the cultural representations present in course books (2) the distribution of cultural representations across different English-speaking countries (i.e., the UK, the USA, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand). To this end, 17 English course books written by international publishers and used at preparatory English schools of universities in an EFL setting were examined by using a quantitative content analysis. The results were discussed and implications were made.
Wincharles Coker
Volume 2, Issue 1 , March 2014, , Pages 53-62
Abstract
As a result of the epiphany of giant multinational media conglomerates, transnational trade networks and the politics of globalization, it is tempting to believe that individual and national identities have morphed. This article argues that such homogenization in relation to individuation is tedious ...
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As a result of the epiphany of giant multinational media conglomerates, transnational trade networks and the politics of globalization, it is tempting to believe that individual and national identities have morphed. This article argues that such homogenization in relation to individuation is tedious to accept. It draws from theories of symbolic interactionism, social psychology, Foucauldian, and postcolonial constructs to hold that structuralist significations of postmodern society ought to be contested. The article emphasizes that human identity can hardly be spoken of in either/or terms, by revisiting notions of selfhood, culture, and bio-power. The paper concludes by examining how these elements act, shape, and constrain individual identities in ‘glocal’ societies, rather than as persons affected by them in homologous deterministic ways.