Family language policy in the Chinese community in Singapore: a question of balance?

This paper focuses on the language shift phenomenon in Singapore as a consequence of the top-town policies. By looking at bilingual family language policies it examines the characteristics of Singapore’s multilingual nature and cultural diversity. Specifically, it looks at what languages are practiced and how family language policies are enacted in Singaporean English-Chinese bilingual families, and to what extend macro language policies – i.e. national and educational language policies influence and interact with family language policies. Involving 545 families and including parents and grandparents as participants, the study traces the trajectory of the policy history. Data sources include 2 parts: 1) a prescribed linguistic practices survey; and 2) participant observation of actual negotiation of FLP in face-to-face social interaction in bilingual English-Chinese families. The data provides valuable information on how family language policy is enacted and language practices are negotiated, and what linguistic practices have been changed and abandoned against the background of the Speaking Mandarin Campaign and the current bilingual policy implemented in the 1970s. Importantly, the detailed face-to-face interactions and linguistics practices are able to enhance our understanding of the subtleties and processes of language (dis)continuity in relation to policy interventions. The study also discusses the reality of language management measures in contrast to the government’s ‘separate bilingualism’ (Creese & Blackledge, 2011) expectations with regard to ‘striking a balance’ between Asian and Western culture (Curdt-Christiansen & Silver 2013; Shepherd, 2005) and between English and mother tongue languages (Curdt-Christiansen, 2014). Demonstrating how parents and children negotiate their family language policy through translanguaging or heteroglossia practices (Canagarajah, 2013; Garcia & Li Wei, 2014), this paper argues that ‘striking a balance’ as a political ideology places emphasis on discrete and separate notions of cultural and linguistic categorization and thus downplays the significant influences from historical, political and sociolinguistic contexts in which people find themselves. This simplistic view of culture and linguistic code will inevitably constrain individuals’ language expression as it regards code switching and translanguaging as delimited and incompetent language behaviour.

Evidence from neurolinguistic methodologies: can it actually inform linguistic/ language acquisition theories and translate to evidence-based applications?

This special issue is a testament to the recent burgeoning interest by theoretical linguists, language acquisitionists and teaching practitioners in the neuroscience of language. It offers a highly valuable, state-of-the-art overview of the neurophysiological methods that are currently being applied to questions in the field of second language (L2) acquisition, teaching and processing. Research in the area of neurolinguistics has developed dramatically in the past twenty years, providing a wealth of exciting findings, many of which are discussed in the papers in this volume. The goal of this commentary is twofold. The first is to critically assess the current state of neurolinguistic data from the point of view of language acquisition and processing—informed by the papers that comprise this special issue and the literature as a whole—pondering how the neuroscience of language/processing might inform us with respect to linguistic and language acquisition theories. The second goal is to offer some links from implications of exploring the first goal towards informing language teachers and the creation of linguistically and neurolinguistically-informed evidence-based pedagogies for non-native language teaching.

Formal linguistic approaches to heritage language acquisition: bridges for pedagogically oriented research

The goal of this chapter is to lay out the central themes of heritage language acquisition research adopting a formal/theoretical linguistic perspective.  Specifically, we aim to provide a detailed discussion of the nature of heritage language grammars. In doing so, we will address the debates on how to explain heritage speaker competence differences from monolingual baselines and more. This chapter will not be limited to discussions of Spanish as a heritage language, but rather will highlight the important role that Spanish has played and will continue to play in the development of heritage language acquisition studies. Finally, we will offer some comments/insights on how the information covered regarding the formal linguistic properties of heritage speaker knowledge should be considered for and implemented in heritage language pedagogies and thus dealing with heritage speakers in the classroom setting.

The acquisition of verbal paradigms in Dutch and Greek L2 children: cross-linguistic differences and inflectional defaults

Previous research with children learning a second language (L2) has reported errors with verb inflection and cross-linguistic variation in accuracy and error patterns. However, owing to the cross-linguistic complexity and diversity of different verbal paradigms, the cross-linguistic effects on the nature of default forms has not been directly addressed in L2 acquisition studies. In the present study, we compared accuracy and error patterns in verbal agreement inflections in L2 children acquiring Dutch and Greek, keeping the children’s L1 constant (Turkish). Results showed that inflectional defaults in Greek follow universal predictions regarding the morphological underspecification of paradigms. However, the same universal predictions do not apply to the same extent to Dutch. It is argued that phonological properties of inflected forms should be taken into account to explain cross-linguistic differences in the acquisition of inflection. By systematically comparing patterns in child L2 Dutch and Greek, this study shows how universal mechanisms and target language properties work in tandem in the acquisition of inflectional paradigms.

The role of linguistic input in shaping the conversational language of deaf preschoolers with a cochlear implant

This study investigates whether mothers who have children with cochlear implants fine-tune their own vocabulary and sentence complexity to that of their child. Whether and how fine-tuning leads to faster growth in these language skills is explored.

Persuading the Public : A Linguistic Analysis of Barack Obama’s Speech on “Super Tuesday” 2008

This essay examines the persuasive side of language in a speech given by Senator Barack Obama on Super Tuesday in February 2008. It studies how Senator Obama utilizes language to convince and persuade his audience. This is done from an Aristotelian point of view, meaning that the study focuses foremost on how the senator’s word choices relate to Aristotle’s three means of persuasion, ethos, pathos and logos. Those basic guiding principles are relevant to use since Aristotle’s work on the subject of rhetoric is still today one of the most relevant works in that field. The analysis is basically performed through personal observations guided by previous studies, within the frame of Aristotelian rhetoric. The results show how Senator Obama enforces the three means of persuasion through language and how it can be considered persuasive. The study might add to rhetoric studies from a linguistic perspective since it reaches a better understanding of language used in the field of politics, where rhetoric is a prominent component.

The Concept of ’Selling/Buying’ in the Russian Linguistic Picture of the World : from standard to sub-standard

The thesis belongs to the field of lexical semantics studies, associated with describing the Russian linguistic world-image. The research focuses on the universal situation of purchase and sale as reflected in the Russian lexical standard and sub-standard. The work deals also with subjects related to the sphere of social linguistics: the social stratification of the language, the structure of sub-standard, etc. The thesis is a contribution to the description of the Russian linguistic world-image as well as to the further elaboration of the conceptional analysis method. The results are applicable in teaching Russian as a foreign language, particularly in lexis and Russian culture and mentality studies.

A Linguistic Analysis of the Written Production of Second Language Learners : The Variation of Article Usage by Adult Chinese Learners of English

This study aims to test Robertson’s lexical transfer principle, which posits that Chinese learners use demonstratives (particularly this) and the numeral one as markers of definiteness and indefiniteness. This is tested by analysing Chinese learners’ written production collected from the Spoken and Written English Corpus of Chinese Learners 2.0 (SWECCL 2.0). The purpose is to understand the variation of article usage by adult Chinese learners of English. More specifically, the study examines to what extent articles, possessive and demonstrative pronouns are used in Chinese learners’ English and how definite and indefinite articles are used by the Chinese learners. Findings suggest that Robertson’s lexical transfer principle was corroborated by the present study. In addition, Chinese learners prefer to use demonstrative determiners, the possessive determiner our, and the numeral one to perform the function of marking definiteness and indefiniteness. In particular, the learners try to use the demonstrative determiners that and this in the anaphoric function instead of the definite article, and the demonstrative determiner those is frequently used in the cataphoric function. What is more, the learners use the numeral one as a marker of indefiniteness, and it is also used as a marker of definiteness in the anaphoric function. Further, the possessive determiner our is used as a marker of definiteness in larger situation uses referring to something unique. To this end, the study is able to show that the definite article is used to perform the function of marking indefiniteness, and in some particular contexts the definite article functions as a Chinese specifier in Chinese learners’ English. Also, the indefinite article is frequently used in quantifier phrases but is rarely used in other functions. There are three main reasons that may explain why Chinese learners use determiners variously. Firstly, the choice of determiners by Chinese learners is influenced by linguistic contexts. Secondly, because of learning strategies, Chinese learners try to ignore the anaphoric function and cataphoric function that they are not yet ready to process in article usage. Thirdly, interlanguage grammar influences the optionality in the use of articles. 

System for Automated Deduction (SAD): Linguistic and Deductive Peculiarities

In this paper a state of the art of a system of automated deduction called SAD is described . An architecture of SAD corresponds well to a modern vision of the Evidence Algorithm programme, initiated by Academician V.Glushkov.

Slogans políticos em campanhas eleitorais no Rio Grande do Norte: a mídia na disputa ideológica.

To the observe the periods of electoral campaigns, we can realize sharply the abundance of political propaganda that announces the candidates, their campaign record, their proposed and everything that can carry them to the victory in the urns. The propaganda is today an essential tool in the votes dispute, in consequence of this, there is, in Brazil, the increasing participation of the Politics Parties in seminars of electoral marketing. They are varied strategies of the media used in the divulging of the candidacies, among them the slogan. Instigated by the explicit relation media/political, this work intends to investigate the ideologies (values) announced by the slogans of political propaganda that circulated in electoral periods. Thus, we base on the theory of the Circle of Bakhtin, who considers the statement as unit of the verbal communication, and that conceives the language as phenomenon dialogical, and, too, in the conceptions of alien words, social voices and dialogical relations formulated by the referred theory. We use, for better to comprehend, the slogan as strategy mediatic, of the classical study done by Olivier Reboul concerning the slogan; and, like starting point of a conception about ideology, studied John Thompson to comprehends the ideological phenomenon. Our corpus it constitutes of 14 political slogans announced in the campaigns for mayor of the cities in Natal and Mossoró, both located in Rio Grande do Norte s state, Brazil, in 1996, 2000 and 2004. For the analysis of these slogans, we consider the social-historical context in which were announced, being contemplated the linguistic and discursive aspect, according to the following methodological order: the identification of alien words (interdiscours); the social voices and the kinds dialogical relations established; and, finally, the ideology announced by the statement. This way, we can arrive to the conclusion that in the electoral context occurs a true ideologies war , in other words, in the political game of an electoral campaign, the slogans announces different values, which vary in several factors function, for example, the historicity, the subject that enunciates, the discursive positionings.

Ave! Mossoró! : os mecanismos discursivos sobre o episódio da resistência ao bando de Lampião

This thesis has as objective the interdiscursive relations in the process of language construction in use in the poetic and in the journalistic spheres, with the purpose of perceiving how the genre news is constituted in different fields of social activity, as well as to analyze the argumentative processes that structure the written discourses about the resistance episode to the group of Lampião in Mossoró in the year of 1927. The corpus of the research is constituted by the news of the period informed in the printed newspapers: Correio do povo and O Nordeste, both from Mossoró/RN, and the narratives presented in the cordéis de acontecido : Mossoró in the resistance to the group of Lampião; Lampião in Mossoró in 1927, and Mossoró attacking to the group of Lampião, all potiguar poets. The analysis of the texts had as theoretical background the studies of: The texts analysis had as theoretical background The Discourse Analysis; The Argumentation Theory and the studies about Discourse Genres. We focused our discussion in the emphasis given to the news in the discursive perspective of the social-historic memory constructed in the cordéis, from ideological values (political, economical, religious etc.) that pass to be a fundamental element in the constitution of the image of the resistance. Methodologically, this is a documental research, since it makes use essentially of the written document. Regarding to the nature of the data, the research is characterized as a qualitative one. In the analysis, we considered the argumentative techniques adopted in the defense of the thesis, the meaning effects suggested, and the genres mentioned, that revealed to us the manner in which the episode was informed by the newspapers and the cordéis. That way, we affirm, based on the positions assumed by the announcers of the genres analyzed who defended clearly positions in favor of the defense of Mossoró, that the relation between both is captured interdiscursively, since they are asked by the same ideology, and converge to the same discursive formation, defending identical positions, and structuring their discussions with resembling argumentative techniques, reason by which take us to believe that the discourse presented in that social activity demonstrates and develops traces of a manipulation of the subject. In this case, the discursive construction of the text points towards determining standard of repetition, since the linguistic context is characterized in the journalistic field, and in the poetic field assuming, in the first instance, a local expression

Computational linguistic systematization of a lexicon from the ibitinga embroidery industry conceptual domain

This work discusses a proposition for organizing the lexical items from the conceptual domain labeled THE EMBROIDERY INDUSTRY OF IBITINGA in terms of a natural ontology. It also aims to establish the alignment between this ontology and the bases WordNet.Pr and WordNet.Br. © 2009 IEEE.