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Rawang and Jinghpaw, while both considered part of the larger Kachin ethnic group, are not seen to be closely related, though both retain proto-Tibeto-Burman forms relatively well. But as essentially all Rawang speakers speak Jinghpaw, there are a lot of loan words from Jinghpaw in Rawang, and there is also some commonality in the structures. This paper looks at the domains in which we find many loanwords and their paths into Rawang, and certain grammatical structures that seem to be either direct loans from Jinghpaw into Rawang, or could be calques on Jinghpaw structures. One such pattern is an adverbial phrase with a reduplicated adverb plus a light verb. There are also two nominalisation constructions that are relatively transparent loans from Jinghpaw. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a discussion of contact-induced borrowings and replications in Hyow, a Southeastern South Central (SC) Tibeto-Burman language spoken in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. Hyow shows two layers of contact-induced changes: an earlier layer under the influence of Burmese, and a more recent layer under the influence of Bangla. The Hyow desiderative -sháng closely resembles the suffix shɔn 'want to' in the Burmese variety of Rakhine State, suggesting that Hyow speakers previously lived in Rakhine State. In its current location, Hyow speakers are in contact with Bangla, and the presence of Indo-Aryan type relative-correlative clauses in Hyow – not found in any of the SC languages in Burma – reveals the effect of this recent contact with Bangla. Apart from demonstrating the respective antiquity of Hyow contact with Burmese and Bangla, the two examples of the borrowing of the desiderative suffix -sháng and relative-correlative clauses also show borrowing and replication as two distinct types of contact-induced change (Heine and Kuteva, 2005, 2006). This paper gives the first account of phonological, lexical and grammatical borrowings and replications to understand how language contact has shaped Hyow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

German modal particles (MPs) show semantic, pragmatic, and syntactic peculiarities which make them specifically interesting for research on language processing. However, so far, there are no tests available that reliably elicit MPs in order to study their production in different groups of speakers. This paper presents the Modal Particle Elicitation Test – MoPET. Based on simple contexts and black and white drawings, it is the first test that elicits a wide range of MPs by incorporating the semantic, pragmatic, and syntactic peculiarities of MPs. The goal of this paper is to evaluate whether the test reliably elicits MPs in adult German L1 speakers, in order to use it for research on different speakers (e.g., patients and L1/L2 learners) in the future. Results of a pilot study with 27 adult native speakers of German demonstrate that the test reliably elicits a wide range of nineteen different MPs and a wide range of different sentence types that are strongly interconnected with the use of MPs. Crucially, each of the twelve critical scenes of the test elicited at least one MP, and each participant produced at least one MP, which also makes the test suitable for diagnostic purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article adopts the notions of chronotope and scalar intimacy to discuss collective identification, in particular Hanfu identity among Chinese youth in the context of contemporary Chinese nationalism. Drawing upon ethnographic interviews and observations of self-identified Hanfu fans in Beijing, China, this paper analyzes how they, through invoking and shifting back and forth across multiple spatiotemporal scales, discursively enact collective and intimate identification among individuals, among Hanfu fan groups (on a local scale), and the general Chinese population (on a larger, national scale). This paper suggests that the great ancient China chronotope (GACC) has played a crucial role in establishing continuity between the present (or other time-spaces) and the 'past,' ultimately legitimizing the inseparable link between Hanfu groups and collectives and solidifying great China and collective identity ideologies. It also demonstrates that modern Chinese youth are internalizing the Chinese nationalist ideology in order to establish a sociocultural relationship of belonging to and sharing with Chinese collectives as a way to empower themselves to cope with uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a new Multi-dimensional model of graduate student coursework writing in two applied science disciplines from a corpus containing 1,108 texts and 2,008,316 words. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) revealed five dimensions: (1) Conceptual Information vs. Process-Focused Actions (2) Human/Subjective- vs. Entity/Objective- Focus, (3) Attitudinal Monoglossia vs. Precisely Measured Information, (4) Social vs. Physical Science Approaches, and (5) Speculative vs. Finalized Events. The dimensions are analyzed functionally in terms of both register and discipline. The results demonstrate that course papers exhibit distinct patterns of language use, often attributed to the varying purposes of the texts but also related to disciplinary ways of knowing. Findings have implications for disciplinary writing research and representativeness of student writing corpora while contributing to an exploration of register as a continuous construct. The research provides an enhanced understanding of academic coursework writing for stakeholders such as professors, graduate students, writing consultants. (150 words) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I assume a grammatical approach to codeswitching (MacSwan, 2012), which predicts a ban on codeswitching below the head level. Previous literature has analyzed this ban largely at the word-level, terming it a ban on word-internal codeswitching. In this paper I argue that the said ban can also be extended from the lexical domain to certain syntactic domains that act as one word. I test MacSwan's theory in the context of codeswitching within construct state nominals, a genitive construction prevalent in Semitic languages. The construct state is particularly relevant for discussions on the syntax-phonology interface within codeswitching because it is a complex and productive syntactic structure that is mapped onto one word. The results of an acceptability judgment experiment show lowered acceptability for sentences where a codeswitch occurred within a construct state nominal vs. sentences where the codeswitch occurred outside of a construct state nominal. The lowered acceptability for such codeswitched judgments suggests that the ban on word-internal codeswitching is not in fact limited to words but can be extended to complex syntactic units that prosodically function as one word. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For years now, all over Europe a debate has been ongoing concerning the effectiveness of an early start in learning a foreign language. This paper presents findings from a representative large-scale assessment study from Germany and seeks to examine the relationship between receptive skills in English as a foreign language (EFL) of students in Year 9 and their EFL learning onset age. We examined the differences in achievement of early starters – i.e., students who started learning English either before Year 3 or in Year 3 – in comparison with late starters defined as students instructed in EFL from Year 4 or 5 using a sample of more than 30,000 students. The results from multilevel regression modelling point to long-term advantages in reading and listening comprehension for students with an early onset of English instruction in primary school compared to students who began later. The paper finishes by discussing the results and suggesting further research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, a number of etymologically related native and non-native English and German suffixes derive nouns and adjectives from entire phrases, suggesting that these suffixes have evolved clitic-like properties. By providing a diachronic analysis of dictionary entries that is underpinned by corpus searches, this paper traces how this property of the schemas of German ‑ig, ‑er and ‑ismus and of English ‑y, ‑er and ‑ism has evolved in the respective languages. The present analysis reveals that some developments appear to have taken place in parallel, while others are language-specific, which offers novel insights to our understanding of diachronic change affecting morphological schemas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the concept of hate speech in online media. Hate speech is defined as offensive discourse that targets a group or individual based on inherent characteristics and may threaten social peace. The article emphasizes the intention of the speaker and the potential harmful consequences of hateful speech, which can lead to bullying, violence, and other forms of mass atrocities. The boundaries of hate speech vary across different countries and cultures, and it is often difficult to define. The article also explores the linguistic aspects of hate speech and the forms, functions, effects, and consequences it has in online media. Several papers are presented in this special issue, which analyze examples of hate speech in different contexts and languages. The aim is to provide a better understanding of hate speech and its impact on society. [Extracted from the article]

Linguistic and cultural anxieties have characterized the Ndebele language and culture due to the various hegemonies the people have gone through. The Ndebele as a nation were born out of the Mfecane migrations. In their migration up north they encountered various linguo-cultural groups that posed the risk of possible linguistic and cultural attrition. Upon settling in what is known as Zimbabwe today, the speakers of Ndebele were a minority among other language groups which they had conquered militarily. Both colonial conquest and the subsequent Shona triumphalist and nationalist discourses and policies placed Ndebele in a disadvantaged social and political position which threatened its existence. This paper establishes that all these factors fed into the Ndebele linguistic anxiety, which is manifested in various tense encounters, especially on social media platforms. Data for the study were collected through observations and unstructured interviews. Using the prisms of linguistic purism ideologies and linguistic analysis, the paper analyzes the attitudes towards and the grammar of the various renditions of the toponym. The paper establishes that, while political tensions foment the linguistic tensions around the phonology and morphology of the toponym, there are some idiosyncrasies that are influenced by the mother tongues of speakers and this creates some of the transphonological and morphological changes that infuriate Ndebele speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a series of lectures Halliday presented in the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong in 2005. As Amy Tsui indicates in her companion paper in this issue, it was to have been the first chapter in a book that would also include chapters by other scholars discussing the educational use of some of Halliday's theoretical and practical proposals, but for various reasons the book did not eventuate. (See also the first sentence of the paper.) One distinctive feature of the paper is its reach over a very large range of concepts in Halliday's theory. Another is its accessibility for educators looking to find a general introduction to aspects of systemic functional linguistic theory relevant to education. The final section illustrates the analytical use of the theory in various educational contexts through examples of discourse analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kress used the opportunity of responding to Halliday's paper (see the preceding paper in this issue) to advance ideas which have subsequently been foundational to work in multimodality within the general theoretical of social semiotics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how scientists respond to visual design in scientific communications. Specifically, we determine the impact of visual design on the Graphical Abstract (GA), an overview figure that attracts potential readers and visually summarizes what a paper is about. We show that GAs designed in accordance with classic visual design principles significantly enhance readers' first impressions of a paper. Well-designed GAs make papers seem more interesting, more clearly written and more scientifically rigorous. These results confirm that visual design enhances rather than detracts from the perception of intellectual and scientific competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of English for Research Publication Purposes is the property of John Benjamins Publishing Co. 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.)

Copyright of Journal of English for Research Publication Purposes is the property of John Benjamins Publishing Co. 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 paper aims to bring research on different forms of group-level cognition into conversation with Cognitive Translation Studies (CTS), the focal point of the paper being cognitive processes in translation teams. It is argued that an analysis of cognition in translation teams, which exhibit the properties of a cognitive system, needs to be placed on group-level. A case study of a team, translating the Hebrew Bible Book of Psalms into Swedish in the 1980's, is presented. The empirical base for the case study consists of archival material in the form of draft translations and paratexts. The methodological question is thus raised whether, and if so in what way, cognitive processes may be analyzed retrospectively, and not only from a real time perspective. By treating the archival material as cognitive artifacts which have constituted an integral part of the team's cognitive process, the question is tentatively answered in a favourable way. This, it is finally argued, opens up interesting possibilities for joining CTS with translator archives research, Genetic Translation Studies (GTS), and cognitive archeology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the Design Space of Robot Appearance and Behavior in an Attention-Seeking "Living Room" Scenario for a Robot Companion. Another challenge is that not all human social norms are applicable for human-robot interactions, while there might also be norms that only exist for human-robot interactions. A key factor for the acceptance of robots as regular partners in human-centered environments is the appropriateness and predictability of their behavior. [Extracted from the article]

The article examines the various ways in which 'solidarity' is invoked and signified through narrative and categorial devices in a political debate following the UK's vote to leave the EU in 2016. Analysing a floor debate in the European Parliament concerning a white paper released by the European Commission on the future of the EU held in March 2017, we investigate how politicians deploy references to 'solidarity' in service of different political agendas. Our research highlights the strategic use of 'core' values in political debate through the way different speakers appeal to 'solidarity' as a self-evident positive value within the EU, but which is then mobilised through different relevant actors and scenarios to argue contrastive political positions. Our analysis demonstrates how narrative positioning and category-bound normative expectations are harnessed to serve the aims of political persuasion by "populating" a shared principle of governance with purposeful sets of identities and interrelations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Should the writing construct be assessed through handwriting or keyboarding? As the only major language entirely without a syllabary or alphabet, the Chinese writing system is unique among modern languages, thus the question of writing proficiency is complicated by character recall. Most of the testing research comparing text entry methods has been conducted in English and has found that keyboarding and handwriting can be used interchangeably. This paper reports the outcome of a study comparing the results of handwritten and typed versions of the Chinese ACTFL Writing Proficiency Test (WPT). L2 Chinese students (n = 25) with Intermediate to Superior speaking skills were randomly divided into two groups and took both WPT versions in a counterbalanced design. Keyboarding resulted in significantly higher test scores [repeated measures ANOVA F(1, 23) = 62.7, p <.001, effect size partial eta squared =.73]. Keyboarding was on average 1.69 ACTFL sublevels higher than handwriting. Finally, this paper will discuss the writing construct in Chinese along with pedagogical implications around curricular decisions on teaching and assessing handwriting vs. keyboarding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the metaphorical framing of the concept of democracy in Nigerian Senate debates (henceforth, NSD) in a mini-corpus of 214 meta-discursive commentaries on democracy by legislators, with insight from metaphor scenario theory. Three source concepts – "erect structure", "living organism", "dividends" and their associate scenarios are analysed. These scenarios are exploited by legislators to effect specific argumentative and ideological conclusions, such as Nigerian democracy is weak, positive-self-presentation by legislators amongst others. The paper reveals the conceptual, evaluative and ideological structures that dominate the discourse about democratization in Nigeria, especially in the Fourth Republic, from the perspective of legislators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The September 11 terrorist attacks emerged as a turning point on security standards, contouring many aspects of public life ever after. Two decades later, the see something, say something campaign stands as one of the New York City trademarks. Its ubiquity across subway platforms intends to raise public awareness by transferring security responsibilities to the general public. Language is neither innocent nor merely instrumental, any more than is not neutral. This paper disentangles the construction of something in the current context, where the elusive definition of terrorism has enabled distorted perceptions of risk and certainty. The paper adopts a multimodal critical discourse analysis, focusing on the campaign's use of ambiguity and its lexical and semiotic choices. Ultimately, it intends to crystallize how language resonates with a broader preemptive and never-ending War on Terror rhetoric while paving the way to further analyze the activation of the target of this campaign: you. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the degree to which most of the most widely-used measures of dispersion in corpus linguistics are not particularly valid in the sense of actually measuring dispersion rather than some amalgam of a lot of frequency and a little dispersion. The paper demonstrates these issues on the basis of data from a variety of corpora. I then outline how to design a dispersion measure that only measures dispersion and show that (i) it indeed measures information that is different from frequency in an intuitive way and (ii) has a higher degree of predictive power of lexical decision times from the MALD database than nearly all other measures in nearly all corpora tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The category of adverbs in Chinese, as is its counterpart in English, is featured by morphological, syntactic and semantic heterogeneity. The heterogeneity poses the questions of the categorial coherence and the conflicting criteria in identifying adverbs. This paper starts with the definition of adverbs in Cognitive Grammar and analyzes degree adverbs, temporal adverbs, scope adverbs, manner adverbs, attitude adverbs and negation adverbs in Chinese. It is found that they all profile a relationship with a relational trajector, consistent with the proposal in Cognitive Grammar, but the precise relationship has to be specified. Some adverbs can also serve as mental space builders. Moreover, the morphological and syntactic behaviors of adverbs can be motivated to different degrees by their semantic functions. The paper attempts to establish the categorial status of adverbs. It develops the semantic account of lexical categories and motivates the formal aspects of language from meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2020 the first two courses on localization were introduced in Slovakia. During their preparatory stages, it was thought that they would be taught in person. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovakia had worsened by the end of the summer of 2020; teaching over both semesters was moved online and the syllabi had to be promptly adjusted to the new situation. Another change in the syllabi was required in the following academic year as teaching began in a hybrid format. The presented paper is a case study, and it will deal with the adjustments made to the courses; it will briefly introduce the first syllabi and then present the changes made after the switch to distance teaching and after the switch to hybrid teaching. The various parts of the syllabi are accompanied by statements from students that were gathered in an anonymous survey after each semester to see whether they were satisfied with the course and whether they understood the problems they had been dealing with. The results of the paper will discuss the changes, their positive and negative impact on the overall syllabi of the first two localization courses, and improvements and changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a trinocular approach – i.e. from below, from above and from roundabout – to describe Theme as point of departure (POD) in English and Spanish casual conversation (thus avoiding the more controversial 'what-the-clause-is-about' aspect of Theme). This research is part of a long-term contrastive study which includes the description of POD in academic writing and a crosslinguistic comparison of POD in academic writing and casual conversation. Among the main findings in this paper, the following stand out: (a) the identification of a conversational texture characterised by the interplay of textual and interpersonal strands of meaning; and (b) different POD arrangements of English and Spanish clauses in casual conversation, motivated by different ways of enacting communicative exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an ongoing shift in the pronominal system of English that is primarily related to transgender and non-binary identities. Apparent time evidence suggests that this is an ongoing change, and metalinguistic comments support the indexical link between the change and the increased visibility of transgender and non-binary English speakers. Sociopragmatic variation enabled by this change shows that the pronoun system of English functions much less like a grammatical gender (noun class) system, and much more like a system of honorifics. The second half of the paper puts forward a position for social justice around pronoun use and gender autonomy, including advice for professional linguists who work in related fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The papers in this special issue address themes from They, Hirself, Em, and YOU 2019 (THEY 2019), a conference that brought together researchers working on topics relating to nonbinary gender in language, particularly in pronouns. The papers collected in this special issue provide an overview of the current state of research and practice on nonbinary pronouns as they are currently used in English, as well as connecting the current practices in English to nonbinary pronouns in other languages. There are two sections. In the first section are five traditional academic articles on non-binary language and pronouns; the second section features three short technical articles that raise practical and/or pedagogical issues related to non-binary pronouns from a scholarly perspective. Authors in this volume investigate these topics not only for the advancement of linguistic scholarship, but also to make that scholarship visible to other fields and for broader advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including a paper relating to the theme of institutional characteristics of argumentation, three papers related to the theme of argumentation in the medical consultation, and a paper on argumentation in health brochures.

This pilot study examines the recent phenomenon of tablet interpreting. Based on in-depth interviews with six practitioners, which were transcribed and analyzed inductively, the article presents an overview of software, tools, and technology that interpreters currently utilize in their work. Qualitative and quantitative results demonstrate regular, effective tablet use in various consecutive interpreting settings. Participants feel that these tools meet their needs and outstrip the functionalities offered by pen and paper in most contexts. This study compiles best practices for tablet interpreting, discusses their benefits and challenges, and describes features to consider when assessing new and existing tablets, applications, and styluses. The data underscore the need for training in this budding field, which represents a key area for future research and professional practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces a Special Issue of Interaction Studies which includes 21 papers based on presentations and discussion at a workshop entitled “How the Brain Got Language: Towards a New Road Map.” Unifying themes include the comparative study of brain, behavior and communication in monkeys, apes and humans, and an EvoDevoSocio framework for approaching biological and cultural evolution within a shared perspective. The final article of the special issue builds on the previous papers to present “The Comparative Neuroprimatology 2018 (CNP-2018) Road Map for Research on How the Brain Got Language.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue of JHL reconstructs the diachrony of a number of innovations in the coding of argument structure, particularly in the domain of verbal indexation, in four Amazonian language families (Chapacuran, Sáliban, Tukanoan and Tupi). It is one result of an international workshop on “Diachronic Morphosyntax in South American Languages” held in Lyon (France) in 2015, with financial support from the Collegium de Lyon (Institute for Advanced Study) and the LabEx ASLAN of the Université de Lyon. The goal was to encourage methodologically innovative (and more rigorous) historical studies of morphosyntactic patterns in languages or language families of South America. The five papers that comprise this collection all demonstrate the viability of syntactic reconstruction, even in languages with little or no written history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issue 6(1) of the journal Language, Context & Text is the second special issue of The Social Semiotic Forum. It features papers selected, arranged, and edited by Dr. Elizabeth Thomson, Dr. Awni Etaywe, Dr. Ingrid Wijeyewardene, and Ms. Penny Wheeler, who are part of the ASFLA Inc. Semiotics of Peace, Compassion and Empathy – Special Interest Group. The papers cover a range of topics, including Thai resistance movements, vegan discourse, non-violent activism, and acknowledging dispossession of unceded land. This collection of work is seen as pioneering in its attempt to explore new areas within systemic functional linguistics. [Extracted from the article]

Every ideology aims at constructing specific representations of reality that many people can easily adopt. In this paper, mental models described as cognitive representations of reality are used to explain how people come to their beliefs. Applying Johnson-Laird's theoretical concept, I present mental models reconstructed by means of a qualitative analysis of key lexemes in the Crimean speech of Vladimir Putin held in 2014. This reconstruction reveals how the mental models in question target a shared social cognition among listeners using ideologically loaded references articulated in the speech. Furthermore, tracing ideological references allows a preliminary insight into how the speaker aims to affect the discourse formation process of the time. This reconstruction is indispensable to gain a better understanding of the Russian attack on Ukraine, eight years later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes debut interviews of female Israeli politicians, in which the interviewees are faced with questions or statements that imply that their gender, ethnicity or background prevent them from fulfilling their function as politicians successfully, in accordance with the "Gendered mediation thesis" (GoodYear-Grant 2013). We focus on the interviewees' responses to these questions, and particularly on how grammatically negative utterances are deployed in the service of coping with the presuppositions directed at them. The analysis indicates that the negative utterances do not carry the full weight of rejection of implied presuppositions. Moreover, in some cases negative utterances are used by the speakers as part of a hedging strategy. By describing the role of negation in debut interviews of female Israeli politicians, the paper aims to advance a more comprehensive understanding of linguistic patterns used by women, and other silenced groups, to cope with biased representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Union (EU) institutions are highly multilingual environments where international communication is very goal-oriented, as they produce and define policies and regulations applied to all member states. This paper aims at exploring how disagreements and conflicting opinions are conveyed in such contexts through the qualitative analysis of debates in recorded meetings of the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. Two meetings from two different parliamentary terms (2014–2019 and 2019–2024) will be analyzed. The study will adopt a pragma-rhetorical approach, drawing on studies on politeness and conversation analysis techniques and focusing especially on the management of Face Threatening Acts in English turns. Attention will also be paid to language choice, codeswitching, and to the international use of English. Results show that conflict and overt disagreements in the data are very rare, with speakers displaying instead careful mitigation of the language used, especially when English is employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between terminology, the popularisation of scientific and technical knowledge and ideology in the People's Republic of China. Specifically, it presents a study that focuses on an online daily column entitled 'Scientific & Technical Term of the Day' (每日科技名词), a terminology popularisation project promoted by China's contemporary political leadership and implemented through the digital institutional platform Xuexi qiangguo 学习强国. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of critical discourse studies and legitimation in discourse, as well as frame analysis and frame semantics, the paper presents an analysis of expository texts designed to complement the knowledge provided by terminographic definitions of the terms published in the daily column. The focus is on the framing of China and the Party-state in these texts, which, it is argued, can also be interpreted as legitimation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the attempt to make a further step toward a research-based definition of the core professional development needs of teachers of languages for specific purposes (LSP), this paper aims to upgrade the framework of professional development needs of LSP teachers developed by Bocanegra-Valle and Basturkmen (2019). With this objective in mind, the paper will examine the differences in the professional development needs of LSP teachers in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) based on their experience with LSP teaching in higher education, qualification level, and LSP taught. The results suggest that the core LSP teacher professional development needs are distributed across the categories of course development, knowledge of the target discipline/profession/industry, knowledge of language use in the target discipline/profession/industry, peer collaboration, and professional development opportunities. Efficient LSP teacher professional development could be based on a three-stage model: a general LGP teaching methodology course, followed by a general LSP teaching methodology course, and finally discipline-specific acculturation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines language used in five of the largest manosphere communities on Reddit (r/TheRedPill, r/braincels, r/MensRights, r/seduction, and r/MGTOW) to identify idiosyncratic language use within these communities. To do so, a novel methodology which combines key-key-word analysis with notions from set theory was used to identify and compare keywords between corpora and to find keywords that are used uniquely within – and thus are distinctive to – these five separate communities. The paper achieves the following: it (i) presents a novel method for identifying what we term 'complement keywords' (keywords that are not shared between multiple different corpora when compared against the same reference corpus), and (ii) explores idiosyncratic language use in five separate manosphere communities. The analysis first examines interdiscursive relationships between communities emerging from the complement keywords identified before discussing community-specific preoccupations emergent in the idiosyncratic language use found in these five communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the functions of the reflexive pronoun ko53to21/to21 in Tujia, a Tibeto-Burman (TB) language. Apart from being used as a verb object, the reflexive pronoun in Tujia can be used as an intensifier, indicating "self, non-other", but it can also be used to create "passive" or "causative" meaning. It is argued that both meanings created by the reflexive pronoun can be accounted for under a decomposition approach. Verbal reflexives isomorphic with anti-causative or passive morphemes have been reported for European languages, while a reflexive pronoun with causative meaning is quite rare. The present paper therefore contributes not only to the typology in this area but also to the expression of causative and passive in Tibeto-Burman languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the ritual language of Thadou-Kuki, a Tibeto-Burman language of the Kuki-Chin subgroup spoken in Northeastern India and the Chin State of Myanmar. The paper examines 13 ritual texts to determine the nature of language use and the types of structure that ritual language provides. The paper discusses the general belief surrounding the traditional religion as background information to the types of ritual language discussed in the paper. This is followed by a discussion on the structure of ritual language in terms of composition, grammatical constructions, and the choices of words used in the ritual language of Thadou-Kuki, including archaic expressions that are characteristic of ritual language. From the analysis of the ritual texts, the paper discusses the types of repetition at the level of syllables and paragraphs/stanzas. Each stanza is further divided into couplets of repetitive phrases (differing mostly in the initial words of a phrase or sentence). The paper divides the ritual language of Thadou-Kuki into two, namely invocation and direct address to the spirits. The former makes use of imperatives, namely the request –ô, the invitational –în, and the hortative –hèen. Direct address to the spirits, on the other hand, makes use of the declarative mood, namely, a clause or sentence-final marker –e. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study challenges the notion of Saek as an aberrant member of Tai by proposing that certain features previously considered archaic are, in fact, contact-induced innovations. Specifically, it argues that multiple correspondences involving /j-/ and the alleged split of the Proto-Tai *A1 tone can be traced back to Vietnamese and Lao or Thai influence. Additionally, this paper asserts that Saek is closely related to Fusui, a Northern Tai dialect spoken in southwestern Guangxi. This paper concludes that Saek is a Tai language with some unique retentions and traces of contact with neighboring languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hebrew negation adverbial bilti 'not' seems to function very differently in Biblical Hebrew than it does in Contemporary Hebrew. This paper addresses this difference and discusses its evolution. The main question addressed in this paper is: How has Hebrew bilti, originally an exceptive marker (with sentential scoping), ended up functioning solely as a privative in contemporary Hebrew? First, this paper argues that the biblical usage of bilti was expanded and turned into a polyfunctional (or 'polysemous') item. This happened via a constructionalization process which led to grammatical changes ('grammaticalization'): The initially implicated negation (via a generalized implicature) turned explicit (semantic). In addition, in Hebrew's later periods, the usage of bilti was narrowed and it became a privative. Thus, firstly, a pragmatically motivated path of constructionalization of bilti in Biblical Hebrew is suggested. That is, the "pragmatic negation" that arose via a generalized implicature shifted to the semantic level (performing semantic negation, explicit negation). Secondly, bilti's functions in post-biblical Hebrew periods are outlined, tracing its narrowing functions until its fixation in Contemporary Hebrew as a privative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How are honorifics, which are socially meaningful and socially conditioned, acquired, when their appearance in child-directed speech cannot replicate their use in adult-directed speech? In this paper, we conduct corpus and experimental studies aimed at characterizing the use of honorifics in child-directed speech in Korean. We find that the addressee honorific -yo is present at notable rates in child-directed speech, although the use of -yo in child-directed utterances is rated less natural than its absence. We further find that while -yo is given lower ratings for the presence of relevant social meanings when in child-directed speech compared to adult-directed speech, the use of -yo in child-directed speech is still significantly associated with these meanings. This suggests that while the presence of honorifics in child-directed speech is somewhat unexpected, such uses of honorifics nonetheless carry relevant information about the social meaning of honorifics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Asia-Pacific Language Variation (APLV) is the property of John Benjamins Publishing Co. 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 paper illustrates what can be revealed by a linguistic analysis of the discourse strategies deployed in a bilingual text acknowledging the dispossession of Indigenous peoples in Mindanao (Philippines). The analysis draws on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) descriptions of English, which model language as a resource for making meaning. It explores the choices involved from the perspective of critical discourse analysis (CDA), exposing language in the service of power, and positive discourse analysis (PDA), appreciating language as an instrument of social change. In doing so we exemplify the role of SFL-informed CDA/PDA in processes of reconciliation, including personal and public acknowledgements and apologies, alongside considerations of "making peace" with dispossessed Indigenous people through existing, renovated or emerging genres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our interconnected world, exposure to hate, fear, violence and adversarial communication is commonplace. Yet, this exposure underscores the urgent need for a more just, peaceful, and inclusive society. While research stresses the importance of nurturing peace, compassion and empathy for enhanced well-being and social justice, these three terms are rarely discussed at length in linguistics and communication studies. Little systematic work explores how language and semiotic resources actualise these ideals across contexts. This special issue, grounded in systemic functional linguistics, addresses this gap. It aims to contribute to a more just world, promote non-violent efforts for social justice, and lay the foundation for future research on the semiotics of peace, compassion and empathy. This paper outlines key definitions and contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural ergonomics aims to integrate the dimension of culture into systems and products to make them safer, more useful, and more accessible to a wider range of multicultural users. This makes it an effective conceptual tool to create a localized product that is more inclusive. By using the example of security questions in drop-down menus replicated across North American English websites, this paper argues that overlooking 'culture' as a site of diverse experiences leads to a harder-to-navigate product for the multicultural user. By juxtaposing the reality of a multicultural context with the monoethnic, middle-class, and heteronormative cultural dimensions of security questions, the cloning of questions across websites can be seen as satisfying the needs of the dominant power rather than the subordinated peoples – both immigrant and non-heteronormative. Operationalizing cultural ergonomics in the translation workflow provides a means to recognize and address this power imbalance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows how horse-riding instructors vocally depict, and thereby co-design and mobilize the unfolding progression of horses' and riders' actions through gradually escalating prosody. Escalating prosody involves the stepwise raising of a speaker's overall pitch across a series of turn components, often accompanied by increases in overall loudness and occasionally by changes in voice quality. Escalating prosody can accompany instructed activities from beginning to end or only during certain phases of the activity. The prosodic delivery mirrors the building and subsequent sustaining of physical effort expected of the horse-rider pair. It can occur with lexical instructions to perform series of actions or with repeated directives to sustain the current activity. It can also occur with repeated praise as a successful performance unfolds, and with repeated corrections, which temporally frame moments of trouble. Prosody is shown to be a resource for co-designing the actions of others, specifically, their mobility, physical effort, and sequential progression. The data are horse-riding lessons recorded in the UK and in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on L2 interactional competence (IC) has become increasingly focused on how L2 speakers develop and recalibrate linguistic resources to do interactional work, i.e., how L2 speakers develop a grammar-for-interaction (Pekarek Doehler 2018). In this paper, I use interactional linguistics to track one L2 German speaker's IC development over 11 months by analyzing her use of German also (English 'so') in formulations (see Deppermann 2011; Heritage & Watson 1979, 1980). In initial months, the L2 speaker uses also exclusively to do work on her own prior talk, e.g., in upshots, consequences, and unpackings. The L2 speaker's initial also uses contribute to moves that maintain intersubjectivity by ensuring her co-interactant's understanding of her own talk. In later months, the L2 speaker diversifies her uses of also, including uses oriented to co-interactants' prior talk that address manifest problems of intersubjectivity: to preface an other-correction of an incorrect candidate understanding, and to preface turns addressing a co-interactant's problem of understanding. The L2 speaker's changing also uses demonstrate her ability to contribute to interactional organization in increasingly diverse ways, evidencing a developing grammar-for-interaction. I end by calling for more research on the L2 development of linguistic resources that primarily serve interactional functions, such as particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]