Rong Zeng; Xu Wen
Volume 6, Issue 1 , March 2018, , Pages 101-114
Abstract
Categories are not invariant. This paper attempts to explore the dynamic nature of semantic category, in particular, that of fashion language, based on the cognitive theory of Dawkins’ memetics, a new theory of cultural evolution. Semantic attributes of linguistic memes decrease or proliferate ...
Read More
Categories are not invariant. This paper attempts to explore the dynamic nature of semantic category, in particular, that of fashion language, based on the cognitive theory of Dawkins’ memetics, a new theory of cultural evolution. Semantic attributes of linguistic memes decrease or proliferate in replication and spreading, which involves a dynamic development of semantic category. More specifically, it is committed to unveiling the dynamic categorization of semantic category of fashion language through analyses of different lexical memes, sentence memes, and discourse memes. It is found that: (I) the replication and spreading of linguistic memes are closely related to the dynamic categorization of semantics, i.e., the stability of semantic categories is maintained by the replicability of memes, and the dynamic nature of semantic categories is determined by the evolution tendency of memes; (II) the underlying working mechanisms for meme variation and mutation are metaphor and metonymy; (III) how memes replicate and vary plays an important role in dynamic categorization of semantics of fashion language.
Samad Zare
Volume 6, Issue 2 , September 2018, , Pages 102-112
Abstract
This paper focuses on the concept of consciousness and liminality in the Iranian Diaspora and the way Iranians create digital diasporas where they can practise cultural identities outside the homeland. The discussion elaborates on the concept of traditional dowreh (family/social circle) in the fibre ...
Read More
This paper focuses on the concept of consciousness and liminality in the Iranian Diaspora and the way Iranians create digital diasporas where they can practise cultural identities outside the homeland. The discussion elaborates on the concept of traditional dowreh (family/social circle) in the fibre of Persian culture and then illustrates the creation of a virtual dowreh among Persian bloggers in the diaspora and the reasons that might contribute to the formation of such a digital dowreh in the diaspora. By exploring a section of a weblog called “Friday for Living” it demonstrates that weblogs provide a unique opportunity for the Persian diasporic bloggers to revive a dowreh in a virtual way where they can get together and practise cultural identities in the diaspora while living between two cultures. The examination of “Friday for Living” also reveals that the virtual dowreh for this group of Iranian diasporic bloggers acts as a community of practice that assigns the members a domain, membership, and commitment, and members took part in joint activities by sharing their stories and experiences.
Oralsyn Rakymzhan; Berdibai Shalabay; Omirgul Zhumagulova; Gulden Kazhibaeva; Ibagul Кairbekova
Abstract
Existential loneliness is a topic of debate that has been explored over three centuries. Nineteenth-century novelists contributed to cognition-based existentialism in a way that has shaped our contemporary understanding and conceptualization. This study investigates the thematic coverage of existential ...
Read More
Existential loneliness is a topic of debate that has been explored over three centuries. Nineteenth-century novelists contributed to cognition-based existentialism in a way that has shaped our contemporary understanding and conceptualization. This study investigates the thematic coverage of existential loneliness explored by novelists, poets, and writers to make conclusions about the cross-cultural stylometric signature, the underlying conceptual metaphors, and the priming of each linguistic metaphor for the difficult-to-attain definition of existential loneliness. In the compiled literary corpus, loneliness is represented through 11 linguistic metaphors, the most frequent of which are “loneliness is unbearable hell”, “loneliness is harm”, “loneliness is internal trait”, “loneliness is inability to keep company”, and “loneliness is poverty of self”. The retrieved results are computationally compared to the literary works of the most influential existential writers. Thus, the Kazakh writer Nurgali Oraz is very diverse in terms of using loneliness-related conceptual metaphors, which unites him with such internationally recognized authors as Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Flaubert, Chekhov, Turgenev, and Proust.
Reza Zabihi; Momene Ghadiri; Abbas Eslami Rasekh
Volume 3, Issue 1 , March 2015, , Pages 105-119
Abstract
Media can be a good representation of dominant ideologies in society. The analysis of such discourse can shed light on the mental and social structures of people in society. Adopting van Dijk’s (1995) layout of discourse ideology and his (2000) practical and general outline of ideological analysis, ...
Read More
Media can be a good representation of dominant ideologies in society. The analysis of such discourse can shed light on the mental and social structures of people in society. Adopting van Dijk’s (1995) layout of discourse ideology and his (2000) practical and general outline of ideological analysis, this study analyzes the Iranian movie A Separation, the winner of the 84th Annual Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film. The data are transcribed, modified and then translated into English. What is of particular interest to the authors is to examine the discourse of the movie based on van Dijk’s (1995) layout of discourse ideology which tries to approach ideology by ensuring the triangulation of society, cognition, and discourse. The authors are more interested in analyzing people’s simple daily ideological behaviors which are rooted in their cognition and dominate their social activities. Having mapped these specific terrains, the authors attempt an examination of the ideologies of the film on levels of meaning, forms, and action and interaction.
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 ...
Read More
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’.
Serap Fiso; Emel Topcu
Abstract
This study aims to provide a personal, reflective look at the experiences of migration, citizenship, and naturalization in Bosnia and Herzegovina, using an autoethnographic investigation. There is limited literature, particularly in relation to individual experiences in the country, so this study seeks ...
Read More
This study aims to provide a personal, reflective look at the experiences of migration, citizenship, and naturalization in Bosnia and Herzegovina, using an autoethnographic investigation. There is limited literature, particularly in relation to individual experiences in the country, so this study seeks to fill that gap and provide insight into the region. The research aims to answer these questions: What prompts a skilled Turkish migrant to pursue citizenship? What difficulties and opportunities arise during the citizenship application process? How does the naturalization and citizenship journey affect the cultural linguacultural concepts, experiences, identities, and aspirations of a Turkish skilled female migrant? The results highlight the cultural aspect and difficulties associated with navigating bureaucratic procedures. It is most notable that the application process for citizenship reinforced patriarchal hierarchies and male dominance at the macro level, as well as linguistic and cultural concepts and male dominance at the micro level for the author.
Amani Lusekelo; Daudi Isaac Kapufi
Volume 2, Issue 1 , March 2014, , Pages 106-118
Abstract
This paper focused on the way names of body parts are artistically used to convey meanings and messages in Kifipa, a Bantu language spoken in Tanzania. Since the body parts metaphors are used by people to portray meanings in their daily conversations (Kovecses, 2004; Vierke, 2012), the paper investigated ...
Read More
This paper focused on the way names of body parts are artistically used to convey meanings and messages in Kifipa, a Bantu language spoken in Tanzania. Since the body parts metaphors are used by people to portray meanings in their daily conversations (Kovecses, 2004; Vierke, 2012), the paper investigated such linguistic richness in the language. Methodologically, the study identified names of body parts expressed in Kifipa and analysed their metaphoric use. Results showed that metaphoric use of names of body parts in Kifipa relies on politeness (Watts, 2003), stylistic, and cognitive hypotheses (Jilala, 2012) as well as helping in word economy. It was argued herein that, before interpreting metaphors related to names of body parts, the context of use must be taken into account so as to arrive at the intended meanings. Thus, meanings and functions of the metaphors originating from names of body parts in Kifipa do not create universal terms that can be applied everywhere, at every time in every socio-cultural group, rather they are context-based.
Fadwa Hamdi Barakat; Zain Nader Maghaireh; Hamza Moh’d AlAkash
Abstract
This study investigated the utilization of visual communication in e-learning within higher education institutions, commencing with the formal initiation of the e-learning program in March 2020 and extending through September 2022. The researchers utilized Bloom’s taxonomy framework to assess the ...
Read More
This study investigated the utilization of visual communication in e-learning within higher education institutions, commencing with the formal initiation of the e-learning program in March 2020 and extending through September 2022. The researchers utilized Bloom’s taxonomy framework to assess the effectiveness of hybrid learning approaches in practical education, focusing on knowledge, skills, and competencies. This study used an experimental methodology to examine the potential advantages of utilizing e-learning platforms for visual communication students in their acquisition of applicable materials. In their empirical study, researchers tracked two groups of twenty students: experimental and control. The results revealed that there was statistically significant improvement for the experimental group after the changes were implemented, which suggests that the methods used were effective. Therefore, scholars must dig further into these questions and design novel approaches to e-learning if it is to become a standard teaching method, especially in higher education.
Karim Sadeghi; Forouhar Mohammadi; Nasrin Sedaghatghoftar
Volume 1, Issue 2 , September 2013, , Pages 117-132
Abstract
The study was conducted with the aim of examining the rate of foreign language anxiety in male and female language learners. FLCAS (Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale) was administered to two groups of male and female learners. The mean scores of FLCAS indicated a significant difference with females ...
Read More
The study was conducted with the aim of examining the rate of foreign language anxiety in male and female language learners. FLCAS (Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale) was administered to two groups of male and female learners. The mean scores of FLCAS indicated a significant difference with females having considerably higher levels of anxiety than males. From 38 female learners, 22 were recognized as experiencing anxiety, 14 of whom were invited to attend interviews as high-anxious learners. In addition to the learners, six language instructors were interviewed. From among the responses, socio-cultural reasons were deduced as being responsible for the noticeable level of females' anxiety. With regard to the findings, this study invites language teachers to be more sensitive and considerate about their female learners' social status, their senses of identity, and their self-perceptions, and take account of all these when judging their language performance, particularly as to the speaking activities and communicative tasks.
Uche Gloria Oboko
Volume 8, Issue 2 , September 2020, , Pages 121-136
Abstract
Language plays major functions in society. The way of life of a people is handed down from generation to generation through language. The Igbo people are known for their rich oral tradition and cultural heritage especially in the use of proverbs. Some studies on Igbo proverbs have focused on the semantic ...
Read More
Language plays major functions in society. The way of life of a people is handed down from generation to generation through language. The Igbo people are known for their rich oral tradition and cultural heritage especially in the use of proverbs. Some studies on Igbo proverbs have focused on the semantic classifications, structures of the proverbs, the relevance of Igbo proverbs in interpersonal relationships and conflict resolutions as well as explored the stance of proverbs in the creation of dichotomy in gender relations in Igbo land. The present study aims at establishing the relationship between Igbo proverbs, their functions in society and their pragmatic force as didactic tools. The proverbs were selected from texts written by Igbo native speakers. Twenty proverbs that teach respect and honour in Igbo land were selected, translated to English and analysed. In Igbo land, proverbs are situated in contexts; hence, the work adopts context, an aspect of Lawal’s 2012 pragmatic theory. The work is analysed in line with the six levels of context identified in the theory in consonance with the Igbo worldview. These levels include cosmological, sociological, social, psychological, situational and linguistic.
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 ...
Read More
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.
Zhanar Konyratbayeva; Darikha Satemirova; Bekzhan Abdualyuly; Kuanyshbek Kenzhalin; Almagul Akazhanova
Volume 9, 2 (Themed Issue on Modern Realities of National Languages of CIS Countries) , August 2021, , Pages 85-97
Abstract
Worldview, especially the cultural worldview, is one of the most important aspects in the sphere of intercultural communication. The given research is devoted to considering the linguocultural aspect of the cultural worldview of the East and the West and the creation of the linguocultural map of the ...
Read More
Worldview, especially the cultural worldview, is one of the most important aspects in the sphere of intercultural communication. The given research is devoted to considering the linguocultural aspect of the cultural worldview of the East and the West and the creation of the linguocultural map of the two civilizations through the worldview of students. The worldview can be studied by comparing it with the culture of a foreign language. The study of the ways on which the concept of association is based is one of the most important aspects of comparing the cultural image of different languages. Due to the intensification of the East and West dialogue in the cultural worldview, the creation of a linguocultural map would give more opportunities to study the actual issues of intercultural communication. It is possible to identify cultural and cognitive stereotypes of young people of Kazakhstan, to learn more about worldview and culture, especially national values.
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 ...
Read More
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.
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 ...
Read More
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.
Marina Borisovna Grolman; Zubayda Albertovna Biktagirova; Olimjon Habibovich Kasimov
Volume 9, Issue 1 , March 2021, , Pages 102-110
Abstract
In India, English has the status of an official language along with Hindi. According to linguists, the English spoken in India is different from the one spoken in other countries, with it being an independent version of the English language. While working on the research, the general trends of differences ...
Read More
In India, English has the status of an official language along with Hindi. According to linguists, the English spoken in India is different from the one spoken in other countries, with it being an independent version of the English language. While working on the research, the general trends of differences between the Indian English pronunciation and the Standard English pronunciation were discovered. In our work, the phonetic peculiarities of Indian English were studied. There is a particular tendency towards assimilation with other indigenous languages of India – softening and reduction of some sounds and the abolition of reduction in others, the appearance of retroflex sounds, the replacement of interdental sounds with dental occlusive sounds, the transposition of stress, etc. Phonetic peculiarities of Indian English are explained by a different structure of the articulation apparatus of people living in India. Despite this, the educated population of India, when using Indian English, strives for a more prestigious pronunciation.
Piotr Kuhiwczak
Volume 2, Issue 2 (Special Issue on Translation, Society and Culture) , September 2014, , Pages 103-111
Abstract
This paper looks at the issues of transculturation as explored in auto and semi-autobiographical accounts of linguistic and cultural transitions. The paper also addresses a number of questions about the structure of these texts, the authors’ linguistic competences, as well as questions about the ...
Read More
This paper looks at the issues of transculturation as explored in auto and semi-autobiographical accounts of linguistic and cultural transitions. The paper also addresses a number of questions about the structure of these texts, the authors’ linguistic competences, as well as questions about the theoretical and conceptual tool which may help us to discuss the issues the writers are reflecting on. Authors such as E. Hoffman (Lost in Translation), A. Makine (Le Testament Francais, A. Dorfman (Heading South, Looking North), A. Kaplan (French Lessons), and X. Guo (A Classical Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers) will be referred to and their thoughts are discussed.
Moses Adebayo Aremu
Volume 4, 1 (Special Issue on African Cultures and Languages) , March 2016, , Pages 103-116
Abstract
Earlier linguistic studies of political discourse revealed that, not many works exist on pragmatic analysis of impoliteness in this genre. Apart from Mullany (2002), who employs relational and face works to analyses impoliteness in political discourse, Taiwo (2007), Adetunji (2009), and Ademilokun (2015), ...
Read More
Earlier linguistic studies of political discourse revealed that, not many works exist on pragmatic analysis of impoliteness in this genre. Apart from Mullany (2002), who employs relational and face works to analyses impoliteness in political discourse, Taiwo (2007), Adetunji (2009), and Ademilokun (2015), who employ discourse analytical tools in analyzing the political speeches, there exist very scanty works on invective songs of Western Nigerian Politicians. The present study, therefore, focused on filling the existing lacuna in pragmatic studies by exploring fourteen randomly selected invective songs of Western Nigerian Politicians (WNPs), utilizing the modified version of Eckert and McConnell-Ginet’s (1992a) community of practice (CofP) as the pragmatic tool for data analysis. Our findings revealed that, invective songs of WNPs were characterized by impolite/belligerent utterances, indirect speech acts, politic confrontational behavior, lexical borrowing, code-mixing, direct speech acts, use of paralanguage, imagery, and symbolism. The paper concluded that, CofP clearly explicates the signification in invective songs of WNPs and shows the participants’ intention in the discourse.
Lin Zhu
Volume 5, Issue 1 , March 2017, , Pages 103-117
Abstract
Language is primarily constituted by action and interaction based on sensorimotor information. This paper demonstrates the nature of subjectivity and intersubjectivity through the neural mechanism and typological evidence of sentence-final particles from East Asian languages and extends to the discussion ...
Read More
Language is primarily constituted by action and interaction based on sensorimotor information. This paper demonstrates the nature of subjectivity and intersubjectivity through the neural mechanism and typological evidence of sentence-final particles from East Asian languages and extends to the discussion of the relationship between them. I propose that intersubjecivity is a kind of embedded or nested interpersonal synergy grounded in mirror neurons. By means of shared motor information and embodied simulation, one’s self models can be generated in which other self-models are embedded. With the process of embedded interpersonal synergies, the relationship between synergies might be concerned to produce mutual shaping of meaning between speaker and hearer. Accordingly, I propose a hypothesis that the more intersubjective markers a language has, the more embedded or nested interpersonal synergies it has. This proposal opens new perspective on the understanding of the nature of language communication and (inter)subjectivity.
Sariah Sariah; Rini Widiastuti; Ade Mulyanah; Ai Kurniati; Riani Riani; Exti Budihastuti
Abstract
This study aims to reveal the image of hotels in the City of Karawang as the identity of modern industrial areas and linguistic landscape studies. In this research, a descriptive qualitative methodology is employed. Techniques for data collection rely on photographic documentation and visual analysis. ...
Read More
This study aims to reveal the image of hotels in the City of Karawang as the identity of modern industrial areas and linguistic landscape studies. In this research, a descriptive qualitative methodology is employed. Techniques for data collection rely on photographic documentation and visual analysis. Based on the distribution of language choices and the function of the linguistic landscape, the findings of this study indicate that English predominates the linguistic landscape in hotels in Karawang City. Therefore, the position of the Indonesian language is diminished. Using English on signboards, directory signs, food and beverage menus, and other special facilities contributes to the modern image of hotels in Karawang City. There are two functions of the linguistic landscape of hotels in Karawang City: informational and symbolic. The information function informs the hotel’s name and the completeness of the facilities, cleanliness, and comfort. Likewise, the symbolic function of the linguistic landscape of hotels in Karawang City symbolizes industrialization and modernity.
Eva Mendieta
Volume 5, Issue 2 , September 2017, , Pages 105-118
Abstract
Linguistic factors played a significant role in the origin and spread of accusations of witchcraft in Early Modern Spain. The preoccupation with witches’ words is at its root a preoccupation about the power of speech and, to a great extent, of female speech. Studies in some Early European countries ...
Read More
Linguistic factors played a significant role in the origin and spread of accusations of witchcraft in Early Modern Spain. The preoccupation with witches’ words is at its root a preoccupation about the power of speech and, to a great extent, of female speech. Studies in some Early European countries have connected aggressive female speech styles with accusations of witchcraft, and this article offers evidence to this effect for Early Modern Spain. The speech of women with ‘ungoverned tongues’ is stigmatized as masculine, and the power it conveys is regarded with suspicion. Rumor, gossip, and reputation also played a key role in accusations of witchcraft in these oral societies. Once the accusation is launched, public reputation was often adduced as ‘proof’ of culpability. Rooted in the specific reality of the northern provinces of Early Modern Spain, this study shows how assumptions about women’s ‘linguistic place’, along with certain forms of linguistic performance played a significant role in transforming a woman into a witch.
Kun Zhang
Volume 7, Issue 1 , March 2019, , Pages 106-117
Abstract
As a former Portuguese colony, Macao is the only region in China where Cantonese, a variety of Chinese, and English, an international language, are enjoying de facto official statuses, with Putonghua being a quasi-official language and Portuguese being another official language. Recently, with an increasing ...
Read More
As a former Portuguese colony, Macao is the only region in China where Cantonese, a variety of Chinese, and English, an international language, are enjoying de facto official statuses, with Putonghua being a quasi-official language and Portuguese being another official language. Recently, with an increasing number of Mainland Chinese students crossing the border to pursue their tertiary studies in Macao, the question as to how they cope with the complex sociolinguistic situation there is of great importance. The present study focuses on how Mainland students perceived Chinese-English code-mixing during their sojourn. It has been found that in the process of their adapting to Macao, the Mainland students’ attitudes towards Chinese-English code-mixing shifted due to the influence of local flexible ideologies about multilingualism. Accordingly, they could strategically resort to Chinese-English code-mixing, a linguistic practice negatively perceived on the Mainland, to socialize with people of different linguistic backgrounds when sojourning in Macao. In this process a flexible cross-border identity was constructed.
Reza Morad Sahraee; Elham Khayatan
Volume 7, 2 (Special Issue on Iranians Views of Cultural Issues) , September 2019, , Pages 107-119
Abstract
National Identity is the new, updated form of ethnic identity. It is a nascent concept, having emerged in the late 19th century, in contrast to ethnic identity, which is as old as myths. National identity is the foremost component of human identity, formed and preserved by the members of a large group. ...
Read More
National Identity is the new, updated form of ethnic identity. It is a nascent concept, having emerged in the late 19th century, in contrast to ethnic identity, which is as old as myths. National identity is the foremost component of human identity, formed and preserved by the members of a large group. Nima Yushij, as a trendsetting poet possessing a distinct personal style, used a plethora of symbols and signs in his works, as he lived in an era filled with the strangulation of the human spirit. Nima’s true follower, Sohrab Sepehri did also emulate this style. Adopting a semiotic approach, the present paper addressed these two poets’ national identity elements, including names, titles, geographical locations, languages, (religious) festivals, dishes, clothing, beliefs, religions, and the luminaries in order to answer these questions: Which aspect of national identity was of the greatest importance for Nima and Sohrab? What steps did Nima and Sohrab take to strengthen the Iranian national identity?
Morteza Hosseinzadeh; Farrokhlagha Heidari; Yazdan Choubsaz
Abstract
Considering the significant role of textbooks as culture carriers and the role that culture plays in the process of language learning, this study aimed at the cultural analysis of two widely used textbook series in the Iranian context. To this end, the Touchstone and Iran Language Institute (ILI) series ...
Read More
Considering the significant role of textbooks as culture carriers and the role that culture plays in the process of language learning, this study aimed at the cultural analysis of two widely used textbook series in the Iranian context. To this end, the Touchstone and Iran Language Institute (ILI) series were analyzed and compared for cultural content adopting Cortazzi and Jins’s (1999) and Tajeddin and Teimournezhad’s (2014) frameworks. The cultural elements of the series were also investigated utilizing Adaskou et al.’s (1990) model. In terms of cultural contents, ILI represented all four types of cultural contents, though not with equal weight; whereas, in the Touchstone series, the target culture followed by international themes had more weight, and the source culture had almost gone unnoticed. As for cultural elements, while both aesthetic and sociological senses of culture were highly dominant in both series, pragmatic and semantic senses were not in the spotlight. Furthermore, Chi-square tests indicated significant differences between these two series in terms of both cultural content and element representations.
Luke Lawrence
Volume 8, Issue 1 , March 2020, , Pages 111-125
Abstract
Recent poststructuralist theories of identity posit identities as being discursively constructed in interactions with society, institutions, and individuals. This study used a Linguistic Ethnographic framework to investigate the discursive identity construction of two English teachers, one ‘non-native’ ...
Read More
Recent poststructuralist theories of identity posit identities as being discursively constructed in interactions with society, institutions, and individuals. This study used a Linguistic Ethnographic framework to investigate the discursive identity construction of two English teachers, one ‘non-native’ English speaker, and one ‘native’ English speaker, teaching English in a tertiary institution in Japan. Using naturally occurring data taken from classroom observations as well as data from reflexive semi-structured interviews, a Membership Categorization Analysis approach was taken to analyze how the participating teachers are positioned and position themselves in relation to the institution itself as well as at the classroom level when interacting with students. The study found that a clear distinction between ‘native’ and ‘non-native’ speaker teachers was created at the institutional level, which the teachers had little control over. However, at the classroom level, the participants exercised greater agency, which was used by the teachers to resist straightforward identity ascriptions.
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 ...
Read More
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.