Search results for "language and linguistics"

Children’s beliefs about bilingualism and language use as expressed in child-adult conversations

2017

AbstractThe aim of this article is to describe young children’s beliefs about language and bilingualism as they are expressed in verbal utterances. The data is from Swedish-medium preschool units in three different sites in Finland. It was generated through ethnographic observations and recordings of the author’s interactions with the children. The meaning constructions in the interactions were analyzed mainly by looking closely at the participants’ turn taking and conversational roles. The results show that children’s beliefs of bilingualism are that you should use one language when speaking to one person; that languages are learnt through using them; and that the advantage of knowing more…

“You’re So Not Going to Believe This”:

2017

Mark Baker (2015),Case: Its principles and parameters

2018

Four Potential Meanings of Double Negation

2016

The figurative use of double negations (not uninteresting, not unhappy) has been described by linguists and rhetoricians with regards to the rhetorical figure litotes. Both mitigation and strengthening have been proposed as aims of litotes (Horn, 1989; Krifka, 2007; van der Wouden, 1996). An analysis of the construction nicht un-adjective (not un-adj.) on the basis of German corpora leads to a coherent system of pragmatic functions for this sort of double negations. The construction can function as denial, potential presumption denial, mitigation or understatement. Nevertheless, litotes exemplifies the “indeterminate nature of figurative meaning” as suggested by Colston/Gibbs (2012: 259) in…

Word classes and the scope of lexical flexibility in Tongan

2017

Abstract Tongan is an Oceanic language belonging to the Polynesian subgroup. Based on previous work (Churchward 1953, Tchekhoff 1981, Broschart 1997), Tongan has been classified as a 'flexible' language by various typological approaches on word classes (Hengeveld 1992, Rijkhoff 1998, Croft 2001). This means that lexical items are per se not categorised in terms of major word classes, but they can function as noun, verb, adjective and manner adverb without morphosyntactic derivation. However, not all lexemes are entirely flexible occurring within all these constructions. So the crucial issue of how flexible Tongan really is remains. This question will be addressed by a survey based on a comb…

¿Atenuación del compromiso del hablante?: el caso de los evidenciales "por lo visto" y "se ve que"

2018

espanolBuena parte de la bibliografia sobre marcadores evidenciales en espanol senala la atenuacion del compromiso (o responsabilidad) de lo dicho como uno de sus rasgos definitorios. Sin embargo, tanto la nocion de atenuacion como la de compromiso del hablante se han empleado con distintas acepciones, segun los trabajos. En primer lugar, se revisan estas acepciones y se propone, siguiendo a Cornillie/Delbecque, distinguir las nociones compromiso del hablante de implicacion del hablante, las cuales funcionan de manera inversa en algunos usos evidenciales: (i) de las evidencias reportativas a las inferenciales conjeturales hay una escala de menos a mas implicacion del hablante; (ii) en las e…

Learning from learners: a non-standard direct approach to the teaching of writing skills in EFL in a university context

2016

Corpora have been used in English as a foreign language materials for decades, and native corpora have been present in the classroom by means of direct approaches such as Data-Driven Learning (Johns, T., and P. King 1991. 'Should you be Persuaded'- Two Samples of Data-Driven Learning Materials. In Classroom Concordancing,1-16. Birmingham University. English Language Research Journal 4.). However, the suitability of using learners' output in classroom tasks remains controversial. This paper describes a pilot study in the application of a non-standard direct approach where Spanish university students are invited to reflect on their production. In the experiment, carried out in several sessions…

Word derivational knowledge and writing proficiency: How do they link?

2016

Abstract Although word derivational (WD) knowledge, i.e., how new words are formed from existing words with help of derivational affixes, is considered important for learners of second or foreign languages (L2), there is still no clear answer as to what aspects comprise the construct of L2 English word derivational knowledge and how it develops. The present study adds to our knowledge on how the ability to derive English words develops among L2 English learners. More specifically, it sheds light on how word derivational knowledge relates to communicatively defined Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) language proficiency levels regarding learners' writing skills. In the study, 117 …

(Im)Politeness and interactions in Dialogic Literary Gatherings

2016

Abstract This article examines the interactions that occur in Dialogic Literary Gatherings (DLG), a cultural activity in which low literate adults read and debate classic literature. To respect the principle of egalitarian dialogue, participants agree on how to communicate and reflect on their communicative patterns. We analyse the actual interactional behaviour of participants and the pragmatic traits that evidence how this principle is implemented by identifying dialogic and power interactions in connection to (Im)politeness. This study shows the influence of the situated genre (DLG) over status in the prevalence of politeness and how the participants use polite mitigation strategies that…

Anadeixis and the signalling of discourse structure

2018

Como anadeixis (un termino acunado por Ehlich, 1982) se entiende, prototipicamente, el funcionamiento referencialmente dependiente de determinadas expresiones ligadas al contexto para senalar entidades discursivas que o bien todavia no son topicos o bien estan a punto de perder su estatus como topicos. El tema concreto de este estudio es la funcion discursivo-estructural de los marcadores de referencia anadictica. La base de nuestra argumentacion seran dos textos cortos completos, en dos lenguas (frances e ingles). De este modo, se mostrara como determinadas referencias anadicticas stricto sensu y dictico-discursivas pueden senalar las macroestructuras (estructuras de contenido) y superestr…