• Title/Summary/Keyword: cross-linguistic

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A Study of Chinese Linguistic Taboo (중국 금기어 소고)

  • Han, Yong Su
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.34
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    • pp.307-330
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    • 2014
  • To avoid calamities, the Chinese use different euphemisms in various fields of occupation and region. There are a lot of linguistic taboos concerned with Xieyin that shows the special characteristic of chinese characters. If two characters are homophones and one of them is considered offensive or misfortune, the Chinese prefer to substitute another expression for them in the actual conversations. These substitutes are called euphemisms. As an combined expression of psychological insecurity and language, euphemisms were not only used in the past, but also now they are still in common use. Although some of the chinese euphemisms are not used anymore nowadays, some of them are still used. There are a large number of chinese euphemisms in common use, but some special ones are used in particular fields only. This article focused on the linguistic taboos in some special fields like different regions, occupations and some others related with calamities, and tried to make a distinction from other previous studies. Language reflects culture and euphemism is a mirror of culture. The study of chinese linguistic taboos and euphemisms is expected to be some help to understand the chinese customs and linguistic features.

Relative Quantifier Scope and Object Shift

  • Lee, Chang-Su
    • Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.97-121
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    • 2002
  • Aoun and Li (1989) and Hornstein (1995) suggest that the cross-linguistic contrast in quantifier scope between English and East Asian languages is attributed to the parametric difference in the base subject position, viz. VP-internal position in English and Spec IP in East Asian languages. This paper argues that their suggestion is untenable, and that the cross linguistic contrast in question is due to the parametric difference that English permits and East Asian languages do not permit (overt) object shift.

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English Discourse of Tourism: An Example of Oman

  • TUZLUKOVA, Victoria;AL-MAHROOQI, Rahma
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.24
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    • pp.184-195
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    • 2011
  • Acknowledging the importance of English as the language of tourism discourse, this paper explores its current standing in the landscape of tourism in Oman. It also investigates its features and functions aimed at promoting the country as a wonderful tourist destination to people around the globe and framing tourism as a customer-oriented industry that meets tourists' interests and needs. To convey these messages the authors examine English tourism discourse in Oman from linguistic, pragmatic and socio-cultural perspectives.

The Role of L1 and L2 in an L3-speaking Class

  • Kim, Sun-Young
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.24
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    • pp.170-183
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    • 2011
  • This study explored how a Chinese college student who previously had not reached a threshold level of Korean proficiency used L1 (Chinese) and L2 (English) as a tool to socialize into Korean (L3) culture of learning over the course of study. From a perspective of language socialization, this study examined the cross-linguistic influence of L1 and L2 on the L3 acquisition process by tracing an approach to language learning and practices taken by the Chinese student as a case study. Data were collected through three methods; interview protocols, various types of written texts, and observations. The results showed that the student used English as a means to negotiate difficulties and expertise by empowering her L2 exposure during the classroom practices. Her ways of using L2 in oral practices could be characterized as the 'Inverse U-shape' pattern, under which she increased L2 exposure at the early stage of the study and shifted the intermediate language to L3 at the later stage of the study. When it comes to the language use in written practices, the sequence of "L2-L1-L3" use gradually changed to the "L2-L3" sequence over time, signifying the importance of interaction between L2 and L3. However, the use of her native language (L1) in a Korean-speaking classroom was limited to a certain aspect of literacy practices (i.e., vocabulary learning or translation). This study argues for L2 communication channel in cross-cultural classrooms as a key factor to determine sustainable learning growth.

Persian EFL Learners' Cross-Cultural Understanding and Their L2 Proficiency

  • Nasrabady, Azadeh Nasri;Rasekh, Abbass Islami;Biria, Reza
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.24
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    • pp.62-83
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    • 2011
  • The totality of language learning comprises three integrated components: linguistic, cultural, and attitudinal (Wilkes, 1983).Positively sensitizing students to cultural phenomena is urgent and crucial. A positive attitude toward L2 culture is a factor in language learning that leads to cross cultural understanding. This research examined, through a survey analysis, how three groups of students (one high school group and two university student groups) viewed the role of their foreign culture (i.e., American and British cultures) in achieving cultural understanding. The focus was upon how EFL learners approach the target language culture as well as their own culture.

Copula Contraction and Deletion among African American Vernacular English (AAVE) Speakers

  • Willie, Willie U.
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.36
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    • pp.211-240
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    • 2014
  • This is a cross-sectional study designed to analyze the correlation between the structural and social variables and the pattern of contraction and deletion of the copula verb in the speech of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) speakers in Athens in Georgia, USA using a questionnaire. The results show that the frequency of copula contraction is higher than that of deletion in all factor groups including the age of the speakers where this study found that younger speakers tend to have higher frequency of contraction and deletion of the copula than older speakers. This study analyzes this as a function of the fact that younger speakers of AAVE are conscious of the linguistic and social differences between AAVE speakers and speakers of Standard American English (SAE) and they consciously make choices regarding which norm to use at which contexts to satisfy their communicative and socio-cultural needs. This sort of conscious social behavior is not likely to disappear with age rather it might increase as a correlate of the perceived physical, socio-cultural and psychological distance between AAVE speakers and speakers of other varieties. This study shows that such perceived linguistic, socio-cultural and psychological distance has negative effects on pedagogy and I proffer the remedy.

Priming Effect in Korean and English Word Production by Korean Speakers. (한국인의 한국어와 영어 단어 산출에서 나타나는 점화 효과)

  • Kwon Hyewon;Nam Kichun
    • Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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    • 2002.11a
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    • pp.165-168
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    • 2002
  • This research was conducted to investigate the priming effect in Korean and English word production by Korean speakers. Picture-naming with distractors was used as experimental task. The type of target language, the type of distractor language and SOA(Stimulus Onset Asynchrony) were used as variables. Cross-linguistic priming effect and within-linguistic priming effect were mesured to investigate bilinguals' conceptual system.

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Cross-linguistic Study of Perceptual Cues to F0 Variations (한·중 청자의 음높이 변화에 대한 지각 연구)

  • Yoon, Eunkyung;Cao, Wenkai
    • Journal of Korean language education
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    • v.28 no.3
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    • pp.25-51
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    • 2017
  • This study aimed to identify the differences in pitch perception between tonal and non-tonal language listeners. A total of 60 Korean and Chinese listeners participated in the perception test. A two-syllable nonsense word /paba/ was manipulated in five steps. The pitch height or contour on the second syllable was raised or lowered. Both groups were asked to select which of the two syllables had the higher pitch. The findings showed that the majority of Korean listeners (GK) perceived decreased pitch as each peak of the syllable was lowered and perceived increased pitch as it was raised, which means the pitch height is a primary perceptual cue for GK. However, Chinese listeners (GC) perceived sensitive pitch movements as the pitch contour changed. GC's perception may presumably be affected by the L1's tone sandhi. We found it reasonable to assume that language experience has a significant effect on the cross-linguistic perceptual differences between tone and non-tonal language listeners.

A Style-based Approach to Translating Literary Texts from Arabic into English

  • Almanna, Ali
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.32
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    • pp.5-28
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    • 2013
  • In this paper, a style-based approach to translating literary texts is introduced and used. The aim of the study is to work out a stylistic approach to translating literary texts from Arabic into English. The approach proposed in the current study is a combination of four major stylistic approaches, namely linguistic stylistics, literary stylistics, affective stylistics and cognitive stylistics. It has been shown from data analysis that by adopting a style-based approach that can draw from the four stylistic approaches, translators, as special text readers, can easily derive a better understanding and appreciation of texts, in particular literary texts. Further, it has been shown that stylistics as an approach is objective in terms of drawing evidence from the text to support the argument for the important stylistic features and their functions. However, it loses some of its objectivity and becomes dependent and subjective.

A Study on Thematic Groups of Russian Slangs (러시아어 슬랭의 주제별 그룹에 대한 연구)

  • Kim, Sung Wan
    • Cross-Cultural Studies
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    • v.23
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    • pp.321-349
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    • 2011
  • The purpose of this study is to examine slangs used in contemporary Russian. In any kind of social group, there are special jargons used to satisfy special needs of verbal communication and express individual affiliation compared with neighboring parties, apart from standard languages popularized in each society. Some of these jargons belong to a category of common usual language, while others are temporarily popularized but disappear. It is undeniable that these languages are a product of our social language phenomena in addition to the presence of standard language. Thus, it is very essential to investigate and understand these linguistic phenomena as well as standard languages. In this study, Chapter 1 examines the definition of slang as one of most important topic with a view to achieve desired goals hereof. Next, Chapter 2 sets the scope of subjects for this study. Chapter 3 subdivides subjects into each group by topic for analysis within the scope as set in the previous chapter. This analysis gives a basis on which we can understand linguistic phenomena and identify any psychological conditions of people who use languages. This study comes to its conclusions with summary of findings from data collection and analysis.