This paper gives an outline of the representational theory formulated in Bouchard (1998, 2002) to account for the location and interpretation of adjectives in French and English. It presents the application of Bouchard’s theory to Russian (in Trugman 2010, 2011) and then shows how this approach can be employed for a description of adjectival modification in Polish.
The aim of the paper is to examine a single case of random substitution which con-sists in the replacement of liquids by glides, that is, gliding. This process occurs in both English and Polish and it affects children’s speech as well as the speech of those adults who did not acquire the proper pronunciation of liquids. We address the following questions: is the substitution really random, why in the majority of cases it results in glides and not in something else, what is the relationship between two articulatorily distant segments which allows them to participate in substitution, among many others. It is argued that some examples of gliding can be analysed as a simple reduction in the elemental make-up of segments, e.g. [] ~ [], others like English [] ~ [] can be the effect of phonetic enhancement sometimes called phonological reinterpretation.
The research reported in this paper is a continuation of the experimentation on the articulation of the Polish /r/ in the intervocalic and postconsonantal positions (cf. Stolarski 2013a and 2013b, respectively). According to Biedrzycki (1978: 83-84), in these two phonetic contexts the rhotic happens to be articulated as a tap. Such an assumption stands in contrast to the widely accepted view that the Polish rhotic is generally realised as a trill. The results reported in Stolarski (2013a) and (2013b) amply prove that in these two environments tapping of the Polish /r/ is extremely frequent. In this article the articulation of the Polish rhotic is examined in the preconsonantal and word-final phonetic contexts. Biedrzycki’s account suggests that in these environments /r/ should be realised as a trill. The results obtained in the current research, however, indicate that even in such contexts the rhotic is mostly tapped. The conclusion which must be drawn from these findings is that the basic allophone of the Polish /r/ is the tap, and not the commonly assumed trill.
Communication is one of the most important aspects of everyday life. One of its most characteristic features is its diversity as “it rangers from the mass media and popular culture, through language to individual and social behavior” (Fiske 1990:13). The way we talk depends on a number of factors, such as where a conversation takes place, when, why, how and with whom. Thus, “One person’s language use will vary widely according to the needs of the social context” (Jule 2008:27). One has to learn how to communicate successfully through many situational interactions since both communicative competence and success consist in making appropriate choices in contextual, situational and social settings. It is usually stressed that whereas men’s communication styles are associated with competition and dominance, women’s conversation strategies are based on cooperation and politeness (Trask 1999:183). In the following paper we intend to verify the linguistic data obtained so far and focus on the most principal aspects of communication, which are: turn taking, backchannels and interruptions. The purpose of the analysis is to investigate characteristics of conversation strategies in the speech of both male and female speakers talking to each other and exchanging their views on a particular topic during relatively spontaneous male-female interactions, that is mixed-gender interviews. We will seek to analyze the occurrence of backchannels and interruptions the use of which could be indicative of either support, agreement, involvement or dominance, competition and even hostility on the part of the speakers. The participants consist of randomly selected students at the age of 20-25 who study English at the English Department.
The present paper describes the temporary language situation in Sweden. The country has a high rate of immigration and large minority groups have lived in Sweden for many hundreds of years. In order to reflect its cultural and language diversity Sweden has developed its own Language Law. This establishes Swedish as the main language in Sweden and declares five other languages to be national minority languages: Finnish, Meänkieli, Romani, Yiddish and Sami. Furthermore, the country’s language law protects and at the same time promotes Swedish Sign language. Swedish communes offer free Swedish courses for adult immigrants and immigrant children attend courses in Swedish as a Second Language both in primary and secondary school. Due to the multinational composition of Swedish suburbs a new variety of Swedish called rinkebysvenska has developed. This variety is characterized by many loan words from other languages, divergent pronunciation, morphology and syntax. Rinkebysvenska is used primarily by young immigrants living in Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö and has assumed the status not only of a Sociolect, but also of a special Swedish slang. The mobility of Swedish inhabitants within the country has led to a smoothing out of Swedish dialects so that differences can only be observed in pronunciation. On the other hand, there is a strong tendency to protect and develop Övdalian – one of the dialects that differs most from Swedish.
One of the fragments of a system of temporal meanings is distributive tense. It occurs when an activity repeats in time or the time intervals correlating with the activity are repeated. This meaning has its specifi c means of expression. The proposed draft (ending a series of articles focusing on semantics of distributiveness in Polish) concerns synonymics of distributive constructions. Part 1 of the paper focuses on the position of a nominal group in particular constructions, aspectual-temporal characteristics of verb as well as on synonymics of constructions with names of time units.
While most traffic signs in Europe are purely pictorial, some also employ text. The article discusses two-code (image plus text) traffic signs on examples from a few countries: the UK, Germany, the US, the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Poland. Special emphasis is placed on various possible sense relations between text and image in such signs. In some of these relations (such as intersemiotic translation or emphasis) the text does not modify the meaning of the image, whereas in others (such as restriction, complementation or elaboration) it does. Drivers who do not know the local language, however, are neither able to understand the text nor to determine its function towards image. Therefore, the text is always prone to affect them negatively.
The paper aims at presenting selected notes and remarks on corpora and corpus linguistics. It starts with a brief history of corpus linguistics. It occurs that although corpus linguistics is a relatively young branch of linguistics, it managed to revolutionise all branches of linguistics. Afterwards, the notion of corpus anddifferent types of corpora are discussed . In general, we can say that, on the one hand, there are annotated and unannotated corpora, and, on the other, diachronic and synchronic ones. In the following sections of the article the notions of corpus composition, annotation, size and representativeness are discussed, and towards the end of the paper a list of the advantages of corpus linguistics is presented and some further conclusions drawn.
False or “mad” jealousy is the central theme in William Shakespeare’s Othello and The Winter’s Tale. Both Othello and Leontes, the protagonists of the plays, seem to have great diffi culties distinguishing between the surface of things (or what they see) and the truth. Both can be classifi ed as tragic fi gures as they both commit an error of judgment – due to a fl aw in their nature (be it self-love or suspiciousness) they misjudge a key situation and are easily led astray. In fact, dramatic irony, which is evidently present in the plays, can be exemplified by a pragmatic analysis of these two texts. It is interesting to observe that both characters are focused on saving face in front of others, not only to avoid criticism by the society (Leontes) but also to be each able to cope with their wife’s supposed betrayal (Othello). Pragmatics helps establish the causes of the characters’ tragedy: Othello’s false jealousy is conceived by Iago’s infelicitous speech acts and develops only because Othello is unable to grasp Iago’s real intention in communication. On the other hand, Leontes in his obsession is looking for hidden meanings in things just to prove that he is right; his verbal behaviour abounds in examples of self-deceit. The aim of this article is to defi ne jealousy in pragmatic terms, using the speech act theory, felicity conditions, conceptual metaphor, and face.
While the existing literature focuses on analyzing individual hedges and comparing their use by native and non-native speakers, little attention has been paid to the teaching of conversational hedges. Research reveals that despite their pervasive nature in spoken discourse, hedges are regarded by teachers as ‘verbal garbage’ (Schiffrin 1987), not worthy of teaching. The aim of this study is to investigate college teachers’ perceptions of hedging devices in spoken discourse as well as their attitudes to the teaching of hedges. A questionnaire was administered to elicit the teachers’ responses. The results indicate that college teachers are aware of the significance and usefulness of hedges in spoken discourse; nevertheless, they have doubts about the value of teaching them. The paper will conclude with a discussion of the pedagogical implications of these findings.
The present study intends to examine the use of the nominal and verbal syntactic patterns in a corpus of 20 different instruments in the English and Polish version of the Community legislation. The issues discussed cover: the frequency of passive- and other syntactic patterns- occurrence in English and Polish as well as an attempt to establish certain rules that would account for the differences in the results obtained in the course of the analysis. The hypothesis underlying the present investigations is that Polish language is more nominal in nature. Since legal language favors the use of ‘subjectless’ sentences the subject of the sentence is rarely mentioned. How-ever, in Polish it is sometimes unnatural to employ repetitive passive constructions, especially in literary written discourse which seeks syntactic variety and dynamism. Whether this reluctance towards passive also applies to legal discourse as exemplified in the Community legislation is a question to be resolved. We shall see whether techniques such as nominalizations or the active voice are favored more than the passives.
The aim of the present study, set in the Polish-English context, is to discuss the lexical infl uence of English upon the Polish names of professions. The analysis is based on the offi cial list of professions in Polish, compiled by the Polish Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. The loans are classifi ed into different groups, with various criteria taken into account: they are classified (1) according to the time of their fi rst occurrence in Polish (the criterion here is based on their existence or non-existence in two dictionaries, one of general Polish, i.e. Uniwersalny słownik języka polskiego, and one of English borrowings in Polish, i.e. Słownik zapożyczeń angielskich w polszczyźnie); (2) according to the place in which a given borrowing is used (in the very name of the profession or in its peripheral parts) and (3) according to the function of a given borrowing (functioning as the only name of the profession or as an additional name, parallel to the Polish one). Additionally, the roles of the English borrowings in the names of professions are analyzed.
The article discusses the importance of the context in the process of automatic translation. The author focuses on two major issues: the lexical database provided by the traditional dictionnaries combined with the data resulting from the analysis based on the object-oriented approach proposed by W. Banyś. A more detailed characterization of the classes of objects around the analysed verb may have the influence on sometimes very subtle differences in the translation. The conclusion is that all this kind of data and the approach adopted in the process of the disambiguation of words are useful to find adequate equivalents in the target language, which the author tries to demonstrate on the example of the French verb descendre. Automatic translation can also show that the modular structure of the approach proposed to the description of words is very specific and doesn’t allow to many possible translations of the word’s concrete use.
This article discusses the research of the linguistic landscape in the 20th century. The author concentrates on the research of the written texts in the public space. He pays attention to the complexity of the discussed problems. This complexity results from the processes of globalization and migration, that contribute to create social structures with the great variety of used languages and with a heterogeneous ethnic composition. These processes could have been observed in the first place in the great cities which offered the best job opportunities and attracted so the greatest numbers of foreign workers or job seekers from other parts of the multinational country, and presented non rarely linguistically mixed territories already from many generations (for example Brussels or Montreal). This development contributed to a visible change of the language presence in the public space and evoked from the 1970s the quickly growing interest of the researchers. The researchers described not only the specific appearance of the given linguistic landscape but they analyzed against the historical background also the complex relations between the social and political importance of individual national groups on the one hand and the use of their languages in the public space on the other.
Any language learning process is a complex phenomenon as it occurs on the cog-nitive, affective and socio-cultural levels. The interrelatedness of them all and the contextually-determined way in which they interact make language learning expe-riences unique to individuals. The context in which more than two languages are learnt adds to its complexity. This article examines what multilingual language users perceive as meaningful in two different contexts of language learning: L2 versusL3. Although unique, these two processes exhibit a fair degree of homogeneity, for example in terms of one`s coping potential as the major appraisal value both in L2 and L3 learning and growing negativity about language learning in later stages of life in L3 learning.
Communication apprehension, identifi ed with feelings of tension or embarrassment experienced in social interaction, induces an array of communication avoidance behaviors. Meanwhile ethnocentrism, with its negative view on other cultures, implies a tendency to avoid communication with persons of different cultures, as well. The cumulative effect of both phenomena may induce the catastrophic effects of communication withdrawal, connected with deprecating views on other cultures or their representatives. The uniqueness of the speech event and uncertainty caused by the cultural differences, augmented by the lack of skills and knowledge about the interlocutor, provokes anxiety.
The findings of this empirical study on the relationship between ethnocentrism and communication apprehension taking place in the foreign language classroom demon-strate that students with high levels of communication apprehension display higher levels of ethnocentrism in comparison to their non-apprehensive peers, mainly due to their cognitive, affective, and linguistic barriers.
Intercultural encounters, among many values, serve as critical incidents that promote understanding, noticing and observing particular cultural as well as linguistic phenomena. Additionally, narrating intercultural encounters may activate the processes commonly associated with LA methodology, i.e.: description, exploration, languaging (understood as making meaning and shaping knowledge and experience through language use; Swain 2010), engagement and refl ection. The aim of this paper is to analyze Ss’ narratives of intercultural encounters and present the impact that these encounters had on students’ language awareness, language sensitivity and language use.
The article examines the meanings, both literal and figurative, that are expressed in the British national press by the words blue and blues. The materials on which this study is based come from two corpora of newspaper texts: one collected from the daily newspaper The Guardian, and the other from the weekly magazine The Economist. In its main part, the paper analyses numerous instances of blue and blues use to determine their meanings in respective contexts. This is done to see which aspects of their meaning potential are activated in newspapers targeted at different readerships and preoccupied with dissimilar thematic and ideological concerns.
Questioning in class is often found by students to be highly stressful and a cause of anxiety. Lower-order questions, in particular, are often closely linked to behaviour management, with teachers using them as a means of control in the classroom while e.g. manipulating or accusing. The fact that questions are mainly initiated by teachers ( they ask up to two questions every minute and questioning may account for even up to a third of all teaching time) and that there exists a strong asymmetric relationship in their number (students, on average ask not more than 6 questions during one lesson) may have a tremendous impact on students’ emotional well-being and their learning. This asymmetric relationship stems from differences of status, roles, age, education or class and can give teachers power or authority. Questions are commonly used as part of a power struggle, and pupils can still fi nd this sort of interrogation intimidating. Thus teacher’s questioning (Mitchell cited in Hastings 2003) has been found children’s main source of fear and face-threatening act – the learners are not afraid of being wrong, but of looking silly – saying something that will be ridiculed by the teacher or other pupils. It is well known that FTAs threatening the hearer’s self-image include expressions negatively evaluating the hearer’s positive face, e.g. disapproval, accusations, disagreement or criticism and all of these elements are commonly appearing in teacher’s discourse and questions they ask. Those of the lower status and less dominant role (students) use more indirectness and more negative politeness features, such as hedges and mitigation, than those with the higher status (teachers) do (Cutting 2002). The article also aims at presenting Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive learning (1956) and the influence the language of teacher’s questions may have on students experiencing face-threatening acts.
The aim of the study was twofold. First it was to investigate sources and symptoms of foreign language listening anxiety (FLLA) among a very specific group of foreign language learners: proficient students of English (C1, C2) who were on the verge of completing their MA studies in the English department, with teaching English as their specialisation. The second goal was to create an instrument which would allow for a detailed analysis to be carried out of the factors giving rise to FLLA and identification of its symptoms. To achieve this aim, the author of this article proposed a new taxonomy of factors responsible for FLLA which served as a basis for constructing a questionnaire to investigate seven categories of FLLA sources and three categories of its symptoms. The research showed that the possibility of getting a poor mark, fast speech, mind drifting away while listening, and being evaluated were identified by participants as being the most common anxiety-provoking factors, although they were experienced less intensely than by less proficient students. As far as the effects of FLLA are concerned, the most common somatic symptoms were found to be a pounding heart and the mind going blank.
The paper concerns the concept of English as a lingua franca (ELF) and its potential implications for ELT practices. The paper aims to present fi ndings of the study conducted among secondary school students, who were asked to express and justify their desires concerning the model of English they wish to follow. The author of the study wants to gather information about students’ preferences concerning varieties of English they want to adopt as models. Are students’ opinions grounded in full awareness of the paradigm shift that has taken place in current ELT methodologies? Or do they simply reflect the status quo of the language classroom that is still permeated by conservative tenets upheld in the Polish educational system? A questionnaire with six open-ended questions was administered to 120 students from four senior high schools. Attitude patterns that emerge from the responses indicate that standard language ideology is prevalent among the participants. They feel commitment to native-speaker norms and hold conventional beliefs about the English language.
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