Studies about Languages

Paradoxical inferences, biconditional interpretation, and exclusivity

Miguel López-Astorga — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Two inferences correct in classical logic are controversial in cognitive science. The reason is that people do not always deem them as valid inferences. One of them is the rule to introduce a conditional. The other one is the rule to introduce a disjunction. The theory of mental models has an account for them. Their conclusions refer to models, and, in both cases, one of those models is inconsistent with the premise. When semantics modulates and removes the incoherent model, the inferences are accepted as correct. The present paper tries to describe those phenomena within the framework of first-order predicate logic. It proposes that the rule to introduce a conditional is not admitted when the conclusion is not a conditional, but a biconditional. It also claims that the rule to introduce a disjunction is not accepted when the disjunction is exclusive. These latter points are the novelty of the paper. People do not actually reject the two mentioned inferences correct in classical logic. What individuals reject is to introduce a biconditional taking as one of its clauses just a proposition already presented in the inference (which is also forbidden in classical logic) and to infer an exclusive disjunction from just a proposition, which is taken as one of the disjuncts (which is also forbidden in classical logic).

Neologisms in the media coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war in the context of information warfare

Natalie Kramar, Olga Ilchenko — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

The article delves into English neologisms associated with the Russia-Ukraine war, which gained significant media prominence from its onset on February 24, 2022, until the end of 2022. The following categories were identified: 1) lexical neologisms, which first appeared after the beginning of the war, e.g., sanctionista, Zelensky-washing, Putinflation, etc.; 2) semantic neologisms, which existed before the war but acquired new meanings due to it, e.g., deputinization, digital blockade, etc.; 3) re-actualized lexical units, which were sporadically used up to 2022 but gained renewed relevance and additional contextual valency in the context of the war, e.g., ruscism, stalinization, etc. Some of the neologisms under study were first coined in the Ukrainian or Russian languages and subsequently spread to other languages (e.g., missile terrorism), while others are limited to English only and have no equivalents in either Ukrainian or Russian (e.g., sanctionista). Focusing on the media coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war, we trace the etymology of the identified neologisms, their recurrence, and context of usage, as well as the pragmatic value they have in shaping public stances on the war in Western countries. We also take into consideration humorous neologisms that trended on social media during this period of the war, providing a way of releasing tension while also contributing to Ukrainian information warfare and fundraising purposes. The study is instrumental in driving our understanding of the role of linguistic creativity in the media framing of emotionally loaded and potentially divisive political issues.

A comparative study on effects of controlled English on the translatability of technical texts from English to Turkish

Alpaslan Acar — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Controlled language, as a subset of natural language, refers to the restricted or standardised use of lexicon, grammar, and style. It has been hypothesised that the use of controlled language makes technical texts more translatable and therefore more understandable. This paper reports the results of an experimental study designed to test this hypothesis. To try out the hypothesis, a text written in controlled technical language and standard technical language was translated by 40 participants. The participants did not any see any difference between the two texts in terms of translatability. The texts were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. In terms of accuracy, language style and textual cohesion, the translated texts turned out to be more appropriate in the context of controlled technical English. However, it has been also shown that the participants, regardless of the text types, are still to loyal to the source text, ignoring the fact that they are translating for a new audience. Conclusively, the results showed that controlled technical language improved the comprehensibility and translatability of technical documentation in terms of accuracy, style and text quality. The study suggests that international companies should employ technical writers and translators who prioritise the language and extralinguistic norms of the target audience, rather than blindly adhering to the source text.

Text construction through patterns of signalling nouns: Evidence from the Discussion-Conclusion section of applied linguistics research articles

Thi Ngoc Phuong Le — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

There has been a great interest in abstract nouns such as concept, problem, result from different research approaches. These nouns, labelled here as ‘signalling nouns’, have been extensively investigated in numerous studies focussing on a range of aspects. Differences in terms of their patterns and uses have been explored between genres, disciplines and languages, yet little is known about possible variation on the level of rhetorical move. The present study examines the distribution of signalling nouns and their semantic, lexico-grammatical and discourse features across the moves in the Discussion-Conclusion section of 124 applied linguistics research articles. The examination of signalling nouns from such a micro level of move allows for deeper insights into rhetorical factors governing their differing preferences for particular patterns and the performance of each pattern associated with a particular noun. This detailed account also highlights how a text is constructed cohesively through the co-occurrence of moves.

Machine metaphors in 2020 USA electioneering campaign: a cognitive aspect

Olha Lapka — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

The conceptual metaphor is a major persuasive tool in political discourse. Therefore, the aim of the research is to analyze the fulfillment of van Dijk’s Ideological Square strategies with the help of machine conceptual metaphors used by Donald Trump and Joe Biden during the 2020 electioneering campaign in the United States. The data of the research comprise 99 political speeches delivered by the two presidential candidates at rallies. Consequently, the following methods of linguistic analysis were used: a Critical Discourse Analysis, a Conceptual Metaphor Analysis in the form of the method of the reconstruction of conceptual mappings, a comparative method, and a contextual analysis. As a result, the analysis demonstrated that conceptual metaphors, which were identified in the corpus, play an important role in realizing the Ideological Square strategies with persuasive goals. Apart from that, it was established that the conceptual metaphor ECONOMY IS A MACHINE is predominant in Donald Trump’s and Joe Biden’s discourses. In addition, the data analysis showed that the majority of metaphors were used to highlight the candidate’s own positive sides while exaggerating his opponent’s disadvantages.

How much Romanian does Google Translate know? A corpus-informed genre-specific error analysis of English-into-Romanian translations

Loredana Pungă, Ionela Manda, Mădălina Chitez — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

To compensate, even if on a small scale, for the scarcity of investigations of English-into-Romanian machine translation from a corpus-based genre-specific perspective, this case study concerns the translation between these languages, by Google Translate, of texts belonging to two different, but closely-related genres – everyday and newspaper/ news releases language. In particular, it aims to offer a view of the translation errors in the Romanian target texts and, implicitly, of translation quality. To meet this aim, a translation error analysis is performed, starting from Keshavarz’s (1999) very general model of error analysis, and a linguistic error profile is created for each of the two genres taken into consideration. The errors identified are discussed and illustrated with small-scale corpus examples. Since translation errors, affecting translation quality, are the direct consequence of the capabilities of the Google translation platform, the findings of this paper may be relevant for the developers of this platform. They may get a clearer picture of its strengths and limitations and suggest ways of improving it so that it can ultimately provide higher quality translations when working with the English – Romanian pair of languages, with the particular text genres looked at here. It may also contribute to raising translators’ attention to the areas that are potentially problematic in these contexts, in the post-editing stage.

Conceptual metaphors in Volodymyr Zelensky’s political discourse

Vilma Linkevičiūtė — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

The article aims at identifying and analysing conceptual metaphors in Volodymyr Zelensky’s political discourse, their rhetorical effect on the target audience, the role and functions within the context of war. The consequences of this war are globally relevant because the geopolitical situation in the region, the future of the EU and its member states, especially Poland, the Baltic States and the EU candidate Moldova, are highly dependent on the end of this war. The research was conducted within conceptual framework which encompasses political discourse in the context of Russian invasion of Ukraine, conceptual metaphors, aimed at Ukraine, Russia and the global community, and focuses on their significance in the context of war. The most prevalent conceptual metaphors, identified in Zelensky’s discourse, are – WAR IS A JOURNEY, STATE IS A BUILDING, WAR IS A GAME and STATE IS A PERSON. Their rhetorical effect is to form an intended positive image of Ukraine and a negative image of Russia, to define who is a victim and who is an enemy in this war. Furthermore, the real perception of the situation, based on conceptual metaphors, might attract more support in the form of armament, stricter sanctions against Russia and, eventually, lead to the victory.

A cross-linguistic study of the discourse functions of antonymy in Albanian and English

Ekaterina Strati, Ergys Bezhani — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Antonymy is considered a binary lexical-semantic opposition of words, a lexical-sematic relation among other relations such as synonymy, hyponymy, and meronymy. Several authors have categorized the binary opposition of antonyms when considering the typology of antonyms. Issues such as the use of antonyms in discourse, how different languages use antonyms, patterns of distribution, etc., are dealt with in this paper. This study aims to provide a comparative perspective of the Albanian and English patterns of co-occurrence of antonymous pairs in sentences. The co-occurrence of antonyms in sentences and the roles of antonymous pairs have been the object of cross-linguistic study in different languages, including French, Swedish, Chinese, Serbian, Romanian, etc. In terms of novelty, this article adds Albanian to the list of cross-linguist studies, providing a broader database for further comparative studies and opening the way to other comparative studies between similar and different languages other than English. In the given paper, there are examples of antonym pairs co-occurring in the same syntactic frame using an empirical, quantitative method. The Albanian National Corpus is used as a “clinical setting” for the investigation. There is also a detailed analysis of the distribution of such pairs in the English and Albanian corpora, with examples illustrating similarities and differences. Both languages show a predominance of ancillary and coordinated antonymy. Also, coordinated antonyms are more significant in number in both languages and are followed by the second major group of ancillary antonyms. Regarding differences, far more examples were classified as residual in Albanian compared to the English language.