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Communicative competence is one of the primary aims of English language education, and it highlights the proper use of language functions in specific situations. This study aimed to determine the language functions used in ESL classrooms by Junior High School students. The identified underrepresented language functions became the point of departure in designing an enhancement program to improve the conversational English skills of the students. This study used qualitative research design as it employed audio recordings, classroom observations, and field notes as instruments to gather data from the six (6) ESL classrooms. This study used the model of Michael Halliday's Language Functions as a framework for the conversation analysis of verbatim transcriptions. The study found that the participants mostly used representational, heuristic, personal, and instrumental language functions during their conversational English sessions. However, imaginative, regulatory, and interactional language functions were recognized as underrepresented. A Conversational English Enhancement Program (CEEP) Framework and Modules focused on the identified underrepresented language functions were designed for the language learners. The study's concerns, such as the sparse use of imaginative language function in discussion, ineffective ways of employing regulatory function in communication, and maintaining dialogues, were specifically and contextually targeted by the modules. Thus, students in ESL classrooms should be given avenues to exercise their conversational English skills by giving them exposure to authentic situations where they can maximize language functions appropriately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language difficulties exert profound negative effects on the cognitive and social development of autistic children. Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) is a promising intervention for improving social communication in autistic children, but there is a lack of a comprehensive examination of language functions. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of PRT in promoting the primary language functions (requesting, labeling, repeating, responding) defined by (Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. Martino Publishing.) theory of verbal behavior in autistic children. Thirty autistic children were randomly divided into the PRT group (Mage = 6.20, SDage = 1.21) and control group (Mage = 6.07, SDage = 1.49). The PRT group were provided with an 8-week training of the PRT motivation component in addition to treatment as usual (TAU) in their schools, whereas the control group only received TAU. Parents of the PRT group were also trained to practice the PRT motivation procedures at home. The PRT group demonstrated greater improvements in all four measured language functions compared to the control group. The improvement in language functions in the PRT group was generalized and maintained at the follow-up assessment. In addition, the PRT intervention enhanced untargeted social and communicative functioning, cognition, motor skills, imitation, and adaptive behaviors in the autistic children. In conclusion, language intervention using the motivation component of PRT is effective in promoting language functions as well as widespread untargeted cognitive and social functions in autistic children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bu çalışmanın amacı, Türkçe öğretmenlerinin ana dili eğitiminde karşılıklı konuşma becerisine yönelik dil işlevleriyle ilgili görüşlerini incelemektir. Nitel araştırma yaklaşımının benimsendiği çalışmada görüşme yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın çalışma grubu, Türkiye’nin 7 bölgesindeki 18 farklı ilde görev yapan 30 Türkçe öğretmeninden oluşmaktadır. Öğretmenlerin görüşlerini alabilmek için araştırmacıların geliştirdiği açık uçlu yarı yapılandırılmış sorulardan oluşan “Ana Dili Eğitiminde Karşılıklı Konuşma Becerisine Yönelik Dil İşlevlerine İlişkin Öğretmen Görüşme Formu” kullanılmıştır. Ulaşılan veriler, içerik çözümlemesi kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir. Çalışmanın sonucunda ortaokullardaki konuşma becerisi eğitiminin günlük hayatla ilişkisinin zayıf olduğu ve konuşma becerisinde dil işlevlerine yönelik bir düzenlemeye gidilmesi ve öğretim programı, kazanımlar, ders kitapları, etkinlikler ile ölçme araç ve gereçlerinin dil işlevlerine yönelik hazırlanması gerektiği sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Ayrıca dil işlevlerini Türkçe öğretmenlerine benimsetmek için çeşitli eğitimlerin verilmesi, etkinliklerin yapılmasına ihtiyaç olduğu bulgulanmıştır. Araştırma sonuçlarına dayalı olarak program geliştiriciler, ders kitabı yazarları, ölçme ve değerlendirme uzmanları ile öğretmenlere yönelik önerilerde bulunulmuştur.

Social media platforms, such as Twitter (now X), are a major source of communication. Identifying communicative intentions is useful, as it encapsulates the latent motivations that drive text creation. This intention is also helpful in understanding the message, context, and audience. This study proposes a method for detecting communicative intentions in tweets using Jakobson’s language functions. We constructed a meticulously annotated dataset, drawing from the extensive RepLab2013 corpus. Our dataset underwent rigorous scrutiny by linguistic annotators who analyzed over 12,000 tweets individually. These experts identified the dominant language function within each tweet by employing diverse strategies to ensure precise labeling quality. The outcome demonstrated a noteworthy Kappa agreement score of 0.6, reflecting a strong inter-annotator reliability. Subsequently, these functions were mapped to the corresponding intention categories. We employed logistic regression and support vector machines (SVM) algorithms to classify intention in tweets and explored various pre-processing techniques, incorporating n-grams and bag-of-words representations. Furthermore, we expanded our research using pre-trained large language models, incorporating the latest state-of-the-art techniques in natural language processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the linguistic and communication changes taking place in poetic dis­course under the influence of new media. The digital interface (blogs, social networks, applica­tions) affects the transformation of all the parameters of communication, due to the dominance of information channels and codes. The interaction of poetic language with colloquial speech and the influence of digital technologies lead to the creation of new strategies of subjectivation and addressing in contemporary poetry, as well as to an increase in the role of poetic pragmat­ics. In addition, the process of meaning formation in contemporary poetry involves the mech­anism of transcoding, i. e. the transfer of a message from one format to another, which can take place during the conversion from a paper (or analogue) format to a digital one. Transcoding involves a change in the form and content of the message, as well as other communication parameters. The paper classifies and explores in detail the pragmatic parameters that undergo transcoding under the influence of digital technologies, acting as new pragmatic techniques of poetic utterance.

This study investigates the multifaceted functions of language in undergraduate classroom discourse, focusing on how students utilize various language functions to enhance learning and communication in diverse educational settings. Through a descriptive qualitative analysis of classroom interactions, it reveals that students actively engage with both formal and informal teaching methods, fostering social interaction and critical thinking. Judgmental functions dominate the discourse, indicating a prevalent use of evaluation and critical analysis in student talk. However, the study also uncovers that responses to questions are multifaceted, often involving argumentative and informative discourse for deeper engagement with content. The research highlights the integral role of instructors in facilitating a classroom environment that promotes robust student discourse and equitable participation. The findings emphasize the need for educators to be aware of and integrate both recognized and uncategorized language functions into instructional strategies to support student communication and learning. Conclusively, this study provides insights into the dynamic application of language functions within classroom discourse and the crucial role of educators in guiding and enhancing this discourse. It suggests the necessity of further research into oral discourse in educational contexts, particularly the types of student explanations and clarifications, to refine teaching and learning practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the linguistic landscape in public transportation places in Sidoarjo Regency. It aims to analyze the use and function of language on signs at Sidoarjo Train Station, Waru Train Station, Purabaya Bus Station, Larangan Bus Station, and Juanda Airport. According to Spolsky and Cooper's theoretical framework, signs are classified based on various criteria forming language taxonomy on signs. The data collection was conducted using observation and interviews. The interview was conducted with one person (passenger) at each location and the observation lasted for four days for all locations, followed by data integration and analysis. The study identified 94 signs, including 62 monolingual (Indonesian and English) and 32 bilingual (Indonesian-English) signs functioning as prohibition, warning, labeling, direction, and information. The findings found the diverse linguistic landscape in the public transportation places in Sidoarjo Regency, which had an impact on communication and navigation for both domestic and foreign passengers. Furthermore, for future research, the researchers suggest using mixed methods for analysis and addressing specific areas, particularly enhancing the clarity and visibility of prohibition signs for passenger safety.

Bu araştırmanın amacı, Türkiye’deki üniversitelere bağlı Türkçe öğretimi uygulama ve araştırma merkezlerinde görev yapan öğretim elemanlarının ve bu merkezlerde Türkçe öğrenen öğrencilerin görüşlerinden yola çıkarak Türkçeyi yabancı dil olarak öğrenenlerin günlük yaşamlarında ihtiyaç duydukları dil işlevlerini tespit etmektir. Çalışmanın sonucunda yabancı dil olarak Türkçe öğretiminde ihtiyaç analizine dayalı güncel bir dil işlevleri listesinin ortaya konulması hedeflenmiştir. Nitel durum araştırması modelindeki bu araştırmada, veriler yüz yüze/çevrim içi görüşme tekniğiyle toplanmıştır. Türkiye genelinde 28 farklı üniversitede görev yapan 50 öğretim elemanı ile 16 farklı üniversitede öğrenim gören 200 öğrenci, bu araştırmanın çalışma grubunu oluşturmaktadır. Veriler yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme formu aracılığıyla toplanmış, betimsel analiz tekniğine göre çözümlenmiştir. Araştırmada Türkçenin yabancı dil olarak öğretiminde ihtiyaç duyulan dil işlevleri belirlenerek bunların nedenleri tartışılmıştır. Araştırmanın sonucunda kapsamlı bir ihtiyaç analiziyle şekillendirilmiş; 6 tema, 20 kategori, 180 koddan oluşan “Türkçenin Yabancı Dil Olarak Öğretimi İçin Güncel Dil İşlevleri Listesi” ortaya çıkmıştır. Araştırmanın iletişimsel ve işlevsel Türkçe öğretimine hem kuram hem de uygulama açısından katkı sunması beklenmektedir.

To forecast the sociolinguistic dynamics of the language, to determine the level of its vitality and to provide adequate measures of language policy and planning, it seems important to analyze the structures of the symbolic components of the language situation, which include language representations and language attitudes, that is, social attitudes towards language. The article presents the results of the analysis of the main types of Tatar language representations and linguistic attitudes among speakers of the Mishar idiom of the Tatar language. The data were collected in the regions where the Mishary Tatars live, namely in the Middle Volga region and in Prisurie. The main research method was a semi-structured interview with subsequent analysis of the obtained data, its classification and interpretation. The paper proposes five clusters of language representations in the minority situation: representations related to the instrumental, symbolic and regulative functions of language, on the one hand, and representations related to the actualized identity structures and to the deontic attitudes of the individual, on the other. In connection with these classes of representations and taking into account language forms, language competences and language practices, a typology of language loyalty is proposed, which includes instrumental loyalty, symbolic loyalty, loyalty according to the forms of language used, loyalty according to language competences and prescriptive loyalty. The material analysis showed the prevalence of positive representations of the Mishar idiom among its speakers, the presence of active positive loyalty in oral spheres of communication at the local level, a high level of idiom preservation, and the integrative nature of sociolinguistic dynamics. At the same time, the situation should be regarded as diglossic both in relation to the Russian language and to the literary Tatar language, which is considered to be prestigious.

The paper discusses law as a linguistic phenomenon by focusing on the performative function of legal language. In the introduction the notion of language, as well as the variety of its possible functions are explained by referring to the theories of such scholars as Roman Jakobson and John Langshaw Austin. The introduction is concluded with a very brief presentation of legal language characteristics and the way it can be perceived as a performative speech act. Subsequently, materials and methods used in the course of this analysis are listed. The study focuses mainly on real life examples of utterances expressed during chosen adoption hearings in American courts. The specific communicative situations have been chosen due to their complex emotional and legal character as an example to illustrate how certain seemingly identical statements may be of completely different functions. After the examples are compared and discussed, authors’ conclusions are presented and the initially posed question of whether or not legal utterances can be deemed as performatives is answered and justified.

Research on the discursive features of graffiti in institutional settings is in its infancy and few studies have investigated the phenomenon and its implications in educational contexts. In this paper, we report on a study in which we employed systemic functional linguistics (Halliday in Learning how to mean, Edward Arnold, 1975). to probe communicative functions and gender differences in Iranian university student graffiti that appeared in all-male and all-female locations. The data comprised authentic instances of graffiti generated by students, analysis of which suggests that male and female university students each have their own distinctive motives for using graffiti, as realised in significant differences observed in the context-specific functions they perform. Graffiti pieces represented a distinctive and meaningful way of communicating, and its most salient features were creativity, simplicity and variation. Indications are that university students' graffiti reflects psychological and social challenges, and the thoughts, attitudes and feelings expressed through it serve students' personal and interactional purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Written feedback is an essential communication between theses supervisors and postgraduate students. This study examines written assessments from academic supervisors from a master's program with no official assessment rubric or tool at a postgraduate level. The data from written feedback on five masters' theses underwent qualitative content analysis focused on identifying comments related to the foci; content, language, structure, and presentation; and directive, expressive, and referential language functions. The findings revealed that the dominant focus of the supervisors' written feedback was content, followed by language, then structure, and presentation. Supervisors strongly preferred directive language, followed by referential language, with a minimal representation of expressive language. This study concluded that the supervisors emphasized content-related feedback more, while language, structure, and presentation were secondary and tertiary concerns. The supervisors also preferred directives, such as clarifying questions and suggestions, over referential language functions, such as indirect corrections. They showed little interest in expressive language functions,such as giving praise or negative criticism when giving written feedback. Implications and recommendations were also provided in this study. It is concluded that the supervisors focused on the content of the thesis. In addition, they also looked at its overall aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interesting article by Hongbing Yu (Yu, Hongbing. 2019. Meaning generation. Chinese Semiotic Studies 15(3). 429–447) "Meaning generation" led me to reconsider an unpublished paper from 15 years ago on Roman Jakobson's much-criticized basic communication model, and the functions of language published in the Closing Statement of Style in language (Jakobson, Roman. 1960. Linguistics and poetics. In Thomas Sebeok (ed.), Style in language, 350–377. New York: MIT Press). In this article it is about using the semiotic nonagon operative model, derived from the three Peircean categories, to review Jakobson's model, and in turn, think about the limits of agency for the production of meaning in relation to three other authors like Jacques Lacan, Louis Althusser, and Charles S. Peirce himself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have taken an interest to study the language of English materials that learners use in different contexts. One line of inquiry is to examine the pragmatic competence potential of such materials. This study aimed at examining the use of speech acts and language functions in the 21st Century English for Libya Secondary 1, 2, and 3 course books and workbooks. To achieve this aim, a frequency-based analysis of language functions and speech acts in the conversation sections in the five course books and five workbooks was followed. A data analysis revealed that the distribution of speech acts and language functions is highly skewed; in each analysis domain, a given category accounted for almost half of the data while other categories accounted for little or even none. Findings are used to argue that Libyan students need a more balanced and language-in-use informed distribution of English functions and speech acts to learn the pragmatic features of English; otherwise, they are less likely to become communicatively competent in speech acts and functions that have been not been treated adequately. The findings also highlight that the unequal frequency and distribution of these pragmatic variables are in line with previous studies and provide implications for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) curriculum, material designers, and language practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Advanced Education Studies is the property of Journal of Advanced Education Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

For last two decades, it has become possible to speak not only about massive lexical borrowing, but about the real anglicization of the Russian-speaking communicative space, and this has become a factor of serious linguistic conflict, since, on the one hand, the process can be considered as inevitable and even beneficial, and on the other hand, negative and even catastrophic. If language activity is considered to be not external to a person, but essential, forming a person as a social being, then it is obvious that the language code participates in this formation. Public language practice influences the peculiarities of human phylogeny, the system of existential guidelines and value parameters, individual and social cognition. Therefore, it is extremely important to define how the very concept of anglicization is correct in relation to the modern Russian language and to evaluate the impact of cultural and linguistic contacts on the modern Russian language. The purpose of the article is to study the phenomenon of Russian-speaking media space anglicization as a linguistic conflict, taking into account the functioning of anglicisms in various communicative spheres. The source of the language material was text fragments containing multilevel anglicisms. Since the article deals with the current state of the Russian language, relevant media texts were involved in the analysis. To solve this problem, the methods of linguopragmatic and sociolinguistic interpretation of linguistic facts were used. This article contains an attempt to answer these global questions (in the context of modern ecological linguistics). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have taken an interest to study the language of English materials that learners use in different contexts. One line of inquiry is to examine the pragmatic competence potential of such materials. This study aimed at examining the use of speech acts and language functions in the 21st Century English for Libya Secondary 1, 2, and 3 course books and workbooks. To achieve this aim, a frequency-based analysis of language functions and speech acts in the conversation sections in the five course books and five workbooks was followed. A data analysis revealed that the distribution of speech acts and language functions is highly skewed; in each analysis domain, a given category accounted for almost half of the data while other categories accounted for little or even none. Findings are used to argue that Libyan students need a more balanced and language-in-use informed distribution of English functions and speech acts to learn the pragmatic features of English; otherwise, they are less likely to become communicatively competent in speech acts and functions that have been not been treated adequately. The findings also highlight that the unequal frequency and distribution of these pragmatic variables are in line with previous studies and provide implications for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) curriculum, material designers, and language practitioners.

The NCAR Command Language (NCL) is a popular scripting language used in the geoscience community for weather data analysis and visualization. Hundreds of years of data are analyzed daily using NCL to make accurate weather predictions. However, due to its sequential nature of execution, it cannot properly utilize the parallel processing power provided by High-Performance Computing systems (HPCs). Until now very few techniques have been developed to make use of the multi-core functionality of modern HPC systems on these functions. In the recent trend, open-source languages are becoming highly popular because they support major functionalities required for data analysis and parallel computing. Hence, developers of NCL have decided to adopt Python as the future scripting language for analysis and visualization and to enable the geosciences community to play an active role in its development and support. This study focuses on developing some of the widely used NCL routines in Python. To deal with the analysis of large datasets, parallel versions of these routines are developed to work within a single node and make use of multi-core CPUs to achieve parallelism. Results show high accuracy between NCL and Python outputs and the parallel versions provided good scaling compared to their sequential counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on automatically assessing language proficiency levels according to linguistic complexity in learner English. We implement a supervised learning approach as part of an automatic essay scoring system. The objective is to uncover Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) criterial features in writings by learners of English as a foreign language. Our method relies on the concept of microsystems with features related to learner-specific linguistic systems in which several forms operate paradigmatically. Results on internal data show that different microsystems help classify writings from A1 to C2 levels (82% balanced accuracy). Overall results on external data show that a combination of lexical, syntactic, cohesive and accuracy features yields the most efficient classification across several corpora (59.2% balanced accuracy). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overwhelming personality of the 20th century, Metropolitan Anthony Bloom was the spiritual head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Great Britain (1948-2003) who really raised the British people’s awareness of what Orthodoxy meant. He provided the realm of religious discourse with a particular outlook on Christianity (mainly sprung from his own revelation of the risen Christ), which he expressed in a perfectly natural and unsophisticated manner. Interestingly enough, Anthony Bloom and C. S. Lewis can be viewed as “kindred spirits”, as not only did they embrace Christianity after being non-believers, but their writing styles are also similar in that “both have an uncanny ability to explain difficult concepts with simple and engaging language” (“Beginning to Pray (A. Bloom)” [book review]). In Metropolitan Anthony’s view, Christian life represents the personal encounter with God. His discourse is in fact a place of encounters; it is where Eastern Orthodoxy meets Western spirituality, where the sacred realm meets the secular realm and, perhaps most importantly, where the metropolitan’s inner world meaningfully interacts with his addressees’ spiritual searches. We hereby examine the ways in which adjectives contribute to creating an image of a particular world in the following books: Living Prayer (1999a), School for Prayer (1999b), Meditations on a Theme: A spiritual journey (2003). Our approach relies on the Jakobsonian model (1960/1987) of language functions, Kinneavy’s (1980) Theory of Discourse, van Eemeren’s (2002) pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation and various studies on religious discourse. The current paper reveals such discourse constants as the triadic pattern of adjectival constructions, the abundant use of the adjectives “real” and “true”, as well as the presence of adjectives in parallelism and repetition. All these expressive uses of adjectives contribute to the creation of a complex network in which the world of the Gospel, the discursive ethos (conveying the author’s attitude in its diversity) and the reader’s image intermingle in a most harmonious manner.

The paper prepared on the basis of 842 hand-written letters of Zofia Kraszewska to her husband Józef Ignacy, is the author’s next publication of 19th century epistolography.Cosidering the specific features of family letters the author starts from the theory of literaturę, pragmatics and sociolinguistics, which describes variant of language in different social groups.Then he presents some types of derivatives used by Kraszewska to show to the addres- see the situation context of writing, to express her permanent sensitives and temporary affections, as well as to fortify the pragmatic impact of particular letters. They are the equivalent of conversation and should compensate the lack of face-to face contact bet- ween the wife and her lamous husband.

Introduction: The earliest signs of cognitive decline include deficits in temporal (time-based) speech characteristics. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients are more prone to mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The aim of this study was to compare the temporal speech characteristics of elderly (above 50 y) T2DM patients with age-matched nondiabetic subjects.Materials and Methods: A total of 160 individuals were screened, 100 of whom were eligible (T2DM: n=51; nondiabetic: n=49). Participants were classified either as having healthy cognition (HC) or showing signs of MCI. Speech recordings were collected through a phone call. Based on automatic speech recognition, 15 temporal parameters were calculated.Results: The HC with T2DM group showed significantly shorter utterance length, higher duration rate of silent pause and total pause, and higher average duration of silent pause and total pause compared with the HC without T2DM group. Regarding the MCI participants, parameters were similar between the T2DM and the nondiabetic subgroups.Conclusions: Temporal speech characteristics of T2DM patients showed early signs of altered cognitive functioning, whereas neuropsychological tests did not detect deterioration. This method is useful for identifying the T2DM patients most at risk for manifest MCI, and could serve as a remote cognitive screening tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the present study was two-fold. First, the effect of speaking task difficulty on EFL lower-intermediate learners’ quantity of code-switching was examined. Second, the effect of speaking task difficulty on the participants’ quality of code-switching was studied. The participants of this study included 61 lower-intermediate language learners in a private English language institute in Iran. The participants performed twelve speaking tasks with easy, medium, and difficult levels of complexity developed by theresearchers. The findings indicated that less than 10 percent of students’ clauses included code-switching. The participants employed significantly more code-switching items under difficult task condition. The findings showed that the participants used code-switching for different purposes including vocabulary, syntactic structure, content, rubric clarification, turn-taking, and pronunciation. The learners employed expressive, referential, and directive language functions to fulfill their purposes and the number of directive items rose as the task difficulty level increased. Regarding the addressee of learners’ code-switches, the inductive analysis of the data showed that the code-switches were self-directed, peer-directed, teacher-directed, teacher and then peer-directed, and peer and then teacher-directed. The participants addressed almost half of the code-switches to their peers; however, more difficult tasks resulted in a higher number of teacher-directed code-switching items.

An overwhelming personality of the 20th century, Metropolitan Anthony Bloom was the spiritual head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Great Britain (1948-2003) who really raised the British people's awareness of what Orthodoxy meant. He provided the realm of religious discourse with a particular outlook on Christianity (mainly sprung from his own revelation of the risen Christ), which he expressed in a perfectly natural and unsophisticated manner. Interestingly enough, Anthony Bloom and C. S. Lewis can be viewed as "kindred spirits", as not only did they embrace Christianity after being nonbelievers, but their writing styles are also similar in that "both have an uncanny ability to explain difficult concepts with simple and engaging language" ("Beginning to Pray (A. Bloom)" [book review]). In Metropolitan Anthony's view, Christian life represents the personal encounter with God. His discourse is in fact a place of encounters; it is where Eastern Orthodoxy meets Western spirituality, where the sacred realm meets the secular realm and, perhaps most importantly, where the metropolitan's inner world meaningfully interacts with his addressees' spiritual searches. We hereby examine the ways in which adjectives contribute to creating an image of a particular world in the following books: Living Prayer (1999a), School for Prayer (1999b), Meditations on a Theme: A spiritual journey (2003). Our approach relies on the Jakobsonian model (1960/1987) of language functions, Kinneavy's (1980) Theory of Discourse, van Eemeren's (2002) pragmadialectical theory of argumentation and various studies on religious discourse. The current paper reveals such discourse constants as the triadic pattern of adjectival constructions, the abundant use of the adjectives "real" and "true", as well as the presence of adjectives in parallelism and repetition. All these expressive uses of adjectives contribute to the creation of a complex network in which the world of the Gospel, the discursive ethos (conveying the author's attitude in its diversity) and the reader's image intermingle in a most harmonious manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antipsychotic treatment resistance affects up to a third of individuals with schizophrenia. Of those affected, 70–84% are reported to be treatment resistant from the outset. This raises the possibility that the neurobiological mechanisms of treatment resistance emerge before the onset of psychosis and have a neurodevelopmental origin. Neuropsychological investigations can offer important insights into the nature, origin and pathophysiology of treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS), but methodological limitations in a still emergent field of research have obscured the neuropsychological discriminability of TRS. We report on the first systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate neuropsychological differences between TRS patients and treatment-responsive controls across 17 published studies (1864 participants). Five meta-analyses were performed in relation to (1) executive function, (2) general cognitive function, (3) attention, working memory and processing speed, (4) verbal memory and learning, and (5) visual−spatial memory and learning. Small-to-moderate effect sizes emerged for all domains. Similarly to previous comparisons between unselected, drug-naïve and first-episode schizophrenia samples v. healthy controls in the literature, the largest effect size was observed in verbal memory and learning [dl = −0.53; 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.29 to −0.76; z = 4.42; p < 0.001]. A sub-analysis of language-related functions, extracted from across the primary domains, yielded a comparable effect size (dl = −0.53, 95% CI −0.82 to −0.23; z = 3.45; p < 0.001). Manipulating our sampling strategy to include or exclude samples selected for clozapine response did not affect the pattern of findings. Our findings are discussed in relation to possible aetiological contributions to TRS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Adab Al-Basrah is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article reported a case study investigating small group interaction patterns in online collaborative writing tasks and factors influencing team collaborations. Participants included six Asian EFL university students who formed two small groups and were engaged in two online collaborative writing tasks via Google Docs. Data collection included the participants' use of writing change functions and language functions during the collaborative writing processes revealed through Google Docs archives and collaborative essays. Semi-structured interviews were employed to examine factors influencing small group collaborations. The findings revealed that the two teams exhibited divergent interaction patterns, but the patterns of interaction remained consistent within each group across both tasks. The qualitative content analysis showed factors that affected team collaborations were individual goals, learners' English proficiency, individual roles, and the use of collaborative agency. The findings may help elucidate the divergence of online collaborative writing and provide insightful information for instructors to design collaborative writing activities and assist EFL learners in the co-construction of writing tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the comparability between the video-conferencing and face-to-face modes of the IELTS Speaking Test in terms of scores and language functions generated by test-takers. Data were collected from 10 trained IELTS examiners and 99 test-takers who took two speaking tests under face-to-face and video-conferencing conditions. Many-facet Rasch Model (MFRM) analysis of test scores indicated that the delivery mode did not make any meaningful difference to test-takers' scores. An examination of language functions revealed that both modes equally elicited the same language functions except asking for clarification. More test-takers made clarification requests in the video-conferencing mode (63.3%) than in the face-to-face mode (26.7%). Drawing on the findings, as well as practical implications, we extend emerging thinking about video-conferencing speaking assessment and the associated features of this modality in its own right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

تعرض هذه الورقة خلفية مختصرة عن العمل الجماعي وطبيعته. الهدف العام من البحث هو معرفة ما إذا كان العمل الجماعي وسيلة فعالة في تدريس اللغة الانجليزية في قسم اللغة الانجليزية في كلية الآداب جامعة الكوفة، وأيضا معرفة سبب استخدام المعلمين للعمل الجماعي في المنهج الدراسي. ؟ يتم استخدام الاستبيان لجمع البيانات. يتم طرح عشرة أسئلة ويكون أمام الطالب المشارك أربع إجابات للاختيار من بينها، ويمكنه الاختيار من بين الإجابات مثل أوافق، أوافق بشدة، لا أوافق، لا أوافق بشدة. وأظهرت النتائج أن الطالبات يفضلن العمل الجماعي أكثر من الطلاب. مفهوم العمل الجماعي أسلوب فعال في قسم اللغة الإنجليزية في كلية الآداب.

Language is an instrument of communication. Language carries functions through which the intention of communication can be revealed. This study investigates language functions used by the main character in “12 Years a Slave” movie transcript by Stave Mc Queen. The objectives of the study was to find out the types of language functions used by main character in the movie and to describe the most dominant types of language functions found based on Roman Jakobson’s theory. The research design of this research was descriptive method with qualitative approach. The result showed that Solomon Northup as the main character in “12 Years a Slave” movie transcript by Stave Mc Queen used all types of the language functions in the movie. They are; 43 emotive, 17 directive, 8 phatic, 4 poetic, 117 referential and 10 metalinguistic function. Referential function becomes the dominant types of language function used by the main character in “12 Years a Slave” movie transcript by Stave Mc Queen. Referential function is used dominantly by Solomon Northup as the main character, because as a slave, he tried to reveal the truth by correlating every piece of evidence and giving information about his life that he was a free man not a slave that run away from other country.

This article aims to put forward a translation-oriented model of analysis of the essay. Firstly, the article highlights the defining features of the essay as a genre to be differentiated from the other three great literary genres –narrative, drama and poetry. Then an overview is provided of the main theoretical contributions to the study of essay translation. The issues dealt with in the literature are grouped under four headings: subject matter, the voices heard in the text and their interaction, the text’s linearity and the cultural dimension. A correspondence is established between these four headings and the three language functions identified in systemic-functional linguistics (ideational, interpersonal and textual) and the context of culture, respectively. Finally, by way of illustration, the model of analysis is applied to Samuel Johnson’s essay “Capital Punishment” and its Spanish translation.

The present study propounds a novel discourse-semantic approach that problematizes the social semiotic analysis of visual narrative in two respects: (i) the lack of a model that can explain the plurifunctional structure of visual acts of communication in general and (ii) the failure to provide the deep structure underlying the characters and/or objects in visual narrative in particular. Redressing these two shortcomings, the approach is methodologically geared towards analysing the visual narrative grammar that encodes the 2017 BBC image-enabled news story of Islamic State (IS). The proposed approach rests on two theoretical models: (i) Roman Jakobson's (1960) communication model of language functions; (ii) Algirdas Julien Greimas's (1966, 1987) structural-semantic model of actant grammar. The study has reached two major findings. First, theoretically, the visual narrative analysis of images demands the presence of both (1) a theory that can adequately explain the plurifunctional structure associated with the semiotic complexity of visual communication and (2) a structural-semantic model that reveals the deep structure of the actants that enable the dramatis personae to relate to the events featuring in the mono-/multimodal discourse of narrative. Second, on a practical level of the BBC's visual storyline, IS has been represented within three actant-based enunciation-spectacles: (a) victimhood with Subject versus Object, (b) beneficiariness with Sender versus Receiver, and (c) villainy (self-presented and other-presented) with Opponent/Victim versus Helper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Language dysfunction is a crucial deficit in terms of cognitive functioning, quality of life and activities of daily living. Several studies have identified cognitive impairment in patients with cancer across several cognitive domains, including language. Methods: We investigated language functions among 182 patients with different types of cancer (not brain cancer) and compared them with the performance of Greek healthy adults with the same age and educational levels as the patients. The assessment included verbal fluency test, both semantic (animals) and phonological (X), and Boston Naming Test (BNT-60) among other neuropsychological measures. Results: Breast cancer patients performed worse compared to patients with prostate, colorectal and thyroid cancer in language tasks. In addition, breast cancer patients had a decreased performance compared with healthy adults, while patients with other types performed to the mean in two out of three language tasks. Conclusions: Semantic and phonological fluency requirements of cognitive processes in the brain are discussed. Implications for cancer survivors: Language dysfunction is a crucial deficit in terms of cognitive functioning, quality of life and activities of daily living, especially in brain cancer patients, but it can be crucial for patients with other types of cancer as stated in the present study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on usage-based approaches this paper addresses the challenge of capturing EMI teachers' linguistic needs for the purposes of teacher training in international Medical Education. The focus is on EMI medical teachers in various instructional formats. Each format requires a specific linguistic repertoire resulting dynamic interactions of linguistic, didactic, and intercultural competence, which is difficult to define in linguistic modules such as syntax and lexicon. Moreover, a generic native speaker standard of language proficiency is questionable in this ELF context. Capturing the relevant EMI competence as linguistic units that can be taught in teacher training programs is therefore a challenge. The paper builds on central tenets shared by a number of usage-based approaches to propose that linguistic units of EMI competence can be conceptualized as highly specific language functions arising from a specific EMI instructional context and mapping onto suitable formulations in ELF. This conceptualization was applied in a local teacher training initiative. First, subject-specific language functions were identified through a combined analysis of the EMI instructional context and the teachers' instructional practices. Second, the identification procedure formed a starting point for a collaborative teacher training program. Third, a policy document was drafted, taking into account institutional limitations. Abbreviations: CDFs: Cognitive Discourse Functions; CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning; ELF: English as a lingua franca; EMI: English-Medium Instruction; IBMG: International Bachelor Medicine Groningen; PBL: Problem-Based Learning [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Polonica is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The frontal aslant tract (FAT) is a recently documented white matter tract that connects the inferior and superior frontal gyri with a tendency to be more pronounced in the left hemisphere. This tract has been found to play a role in language functions, particularly verbal fluency. However, it is not entirely clear to what extent FAT asymmetry is related to performance benefits in language-related tasks. In the present study, we aimed to fill this gap by examining the correlations between asymmetric micro- and macro-structural properties of the FAT and performance on verbal fluency and lexical decision tasks. The results showed no correlation between the FAT and verbal fluency; however, lexical decision was correlated with FAT laterality. Specifically, greater left lateralization in both micro- and macro-structural properties was related to faster lexical decision response times. The results were not due merely to motor or decision-making processes, as responses in a simple discrimination control task showed no correlation with laterality. These data are the first to suggest a role for the FAT in mediating processes underlying lexical decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muslim subjectivity is created and shaped by means of certain linguistic-rhetorical traits and techniques prevalent in the Qur'an. This hypothesis implies that rhetorical choices and strategies were crucial for the emergence and gestalt of the Qur'anic discourse, it oratorical Sitz im Leben. In terms of genre and speech register, Qur'anic discourse presents itself as an extrovert soliloquy: self-sufficient and introvert on one hand and extrovert and audience-orientated on the other. The present article focuses on the latter, that is, the pragmatic and functionalistic nature of Qur'anic rhetoric. Furthermore, it argues for the analytical application of Roman Jakobson's notion of language functions, especially one particular language function. This is the so-called conative or appellative language function, which I regard as a particularly salient Qur'anic one. Central here are linguistic-rhetorical features such as direct speech, imperatives, and vocatives. Moreover, I maintain that the Qur'an's appellative language must be coupled with the critical notion of interpellation, as provided by the French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser (1918–1990). By means of regular interpallative addresses, such as the yā-ayyuhā vocatives, the Qur'an creates and shape an efficacious Muslim subjectivity: the subject, whether an individual person or a collective group, instantly and intuitively feels recognised and apprehended as a privileged addressee. As a result of this very recognition and apprehension, the subject in the same instant recognises itself as subordinate to a powerful divine voice. Seized by the Qur'anic address, a basic Muslim subjectivity—with a certain vision of the ultimate conditions of existence—is constituted. In other words, the appellative rhetoric is crucial to the appeal of the Qur'an: the appellative Qur'an is an appealing Qur'an. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the process of acquiring Serbian language as a native language, from birth to pre-school age. The paper is based on the assertion that the same language development stages apply to all languages of the world and to all children of the world, and that there are two stages in speech development: pre-lingual and lingual. The pre-lingual stage is dominated by vocals. Hence, this stage is termed vocalisation stage. The transition from the pre-lingual to the lingual stage is marked by the occurrence of the first word, and this is so-called holophrastic stage. In the lingual stage the first utterances represent a vocal manifestation of a child expressed in the form of a meaningful word used for the purposes of communication or for the purposes of expressing a child's reactions to his/her experience of reality. The paper presents the development order in the course of acquiring certain word categories, as well as phenomena which accompany speech development (omission, metathesis, adopting clusters). The author also discusses the manner of acquiring the case and verbal systems. Likewise, the paper deals with lexical and morphophonemic neologisms, which children produce spontaneously. The study of neologisms indicates something extremely important, and that is the manner in which a child acquires the grammar of his/her native language. The paper also emphasizes the most significant language functions: significative (signifying), communicative (objective) and egocentric (private).

The paper uses Roman Jakobson’s conceptual framework to study the development of communication of children. It sets out to explain how cardinal functions of verbal messages – referential, emotive, conative, phatic, metalingual and poetic – understood in terms of Jakobson’s communication model – progressively differentiate during children’s language acquisition. The differentiation of these functions is apparent in changes in children’s use of language, as it corresponds to the gradual formation and adoption of various linguistic structures in the development of speech. Children’s acquisition of the use of grammatical subject and predicate, corresponding to the appearance of specifically metalingual speech, among other linguistic structures, is related to children’s adaptation to the linguistic environment. The article relates differentiation of metalingual and poetic functions to the development of children’s thinking using the example of crib talk.

Copyright of Adab Al-Kufa is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The effects of epilepsy and its treatments have contributed significantly to language models. The setting of epilepsy surgery, which allows for careful pre- and postsurgical evaluation of patients with cognitive testing and neuroimaging, has produced a wealth of language findings. Moreover, a new wave of surgical interventions, including stereotactic laser ablation and radio frequency ablation, have contributed new insights and corrections to language models as they can make extremely precise, focal lesions. This review covers the common language deficits observed in focal dyscognitive seizure syndromes. It also addresses the effects of surgical interventions on language, and highlights insights gained from unique epilepsy assessment methods (e.g., cortical stimulation mapping, Wada evaluation). Emergent findings are covered including a lack of involvement of the hippocampus in confrontation word retrieval, possible roles for key white matter tracts in language, and the often-overlooked basal temporal language area. The relationship between language and semantic memory networks is also explored, with brief consideration given to the prevailing models of semantic processing, including the amodal Hub and distributed, multi-modal processing models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Musicology of Lithuania / Lietuvos muzikologija is the property of Lithuanian Academy of Music & Theatre and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the past 2 decades, there has been an increasing tendency to use scores from the TOEFL iBT® Speaking test for decisions regarding the certification of international graduate students as teaching assistants at North American universities. To obtain validity evidence in support of the usefulness of the speaking scores for this secondary use of the test, this study adopted the argument‐based approach to validation. Focusing on the domain description inference in the TOEFL interpretive argument, the study investigated whether the language functions elicited by TOEFL iBT Speaking tasks can be identified in authentic discourse produced by international teaching assistants (ITAs) with different instructional roles. We compiled and analyzed 2 corpora—a TOEFL iBT speech corpus and an ITA speech corpus. The TOEFL corpus contained 2,738 responses to integrated and independent tasks. The ITA corpus of 119 spoken texts included multiple disciplines and 3 instructional genres: lab, recitation, and lecture. The 2 corpora were manually annotated using the knowledge framework (Mohan, 1986), which is a heuristic in systemic functional linguistics (SFL) used to identify knowledge structures (KSs) and language functions based on how linguistic choices function in the discourse. Then, the following types of data were quantitatively analyzed: discourse units annotated per KS category, discourse units annotated per language function, KS categories occurring in each text, language functions occurring in each text, and KSs and functions from each component of the spoken corpora. The corpus data revealed how the language functions were realized and how they varied. Overall, the results indicated that TOEFL iBT Speaking tasks elicit most of the language functions identified in ITA discourse, suggesting that this test accounts for the functional language ability necessary for effective instructional performance as a teaching assistant in the target domain of language use. The discrepancy detected in the use of some functions pertaining to 2 KSs warrants further examination of the extent to which it may impact secondary test use and score interpretation. Report Number: ETS RR–18‐45 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the question of contact and its importance in journalistic communication from a pragmatic and linguistic perspective. Thus, the key concepts of this theoretical approach are the phatic function of language and phaticity, defined here as a property of language-in-use that allows individuals to establish, develop and maintain relationships through communication. The overall aims are to design a new research line in print journalism discourse analysis, and also to provide a discursive model based on the phatic dimension of language. In the light of the constant decline of print media audiences and of the rapid growth of online media audiences, this model could serve as a tool for print outlets to keep its readership close by strategically engage with it, using the discursive apparatus developed here. The main conclusion of this proposal refers to the necessary discursive turn in print journalism from referentiality (a context-centred approach) to phaticity (a contact-centred approach), a turn already embraced by other mass communication channels like radio, television and Internet. In other words, this study is an invitation for print media to lay more stress on how facts are expressed, along with what is communicated.

Owing to the growing interest in communicative, cultural and pragmatic aspects of second language learning in recent years, the present study tried to investigate representations of pragmatic aspects of English as a foreign language in Iranian high school textbooks. Using Halliday’s (1978), and Searle’s (1976) models, different language functions and speech acts were specifically determined and examined in high school textbooks. The results indicated that there were major insufficiencies in pragmatic representations in these books. These problems were related to inadequate coverage of different speech acts and language functions, lack of authenticity in the dialogues, inappropriate simplifications and reductions, lack of grading, unsystematic presentations, providing no meta-pragmatic information, and presenting English speech acts embedded in dialogues with Iranian culture, religion, and norms. The results indicate that material developers and textbook designers need to consider these aspects to help learners to be able to learn second language more efficiently and appropriately.