bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Translation, Equivalence and Fidelity
Authors: Emery Peter G.
Published: September 2007

Abstract

Translation and equivalence are defined in terms of text-author’s pragmatic meaning (intention). Translation is a complex construct comprising both process (translating) and product (equivalent). The translation process is characterized as a double negotiation, consisting of two phases: 1. interpretation of a source text’s pragmatic meaning and 2. rendering this into a target text in line with target-language expectancy norms. As an intertextual negotiator, the translator should be highly sensitive to both sourcelanguage and target-language conversational and conventional implicatures. The operation of both types of implicatures is illustrated through examples from Arabic/English translation praxis. Finally, a distinction is made between the descriptive and evaluative senses of equivalence, the latter being seen as synonymous with fidelity, which is defined in translation in terms of pragmatic success or failure (infidelity).

Résumé

La traduction et l’équivalence sont définies en tant que signification pragmatique (intention) du texte-auteur. La traduction est une construction mentale complexe qui englobe à la fois l’acte de traduire et le produit (équivalent). Le processus de traduction se caractérise par une double négociation comportant deux phases: 1) l’interprétation de la signification pragmatique d’un texte-source et 2) sa traduction dans un texte-cible qui respecte les normes escomptées dans la langue-cible. Le traducteur, négociateur intertextuel, doit être extrêmement sensible aux significations implicites en matière de conversation et de convention de la langue-source et de la langue-cible. Le fonctionnement des deux types de significations implicites est illustré par des exemples tirés de la pratique de la traduction arabe-anglais. Enfin, nous établissons une distinction entre le sens descriptif et le sens évaluatif de l’équivalence, ce dernier étant considéré comme un synonyme de la fidélité qui, en traduction, est définie en tant que réussite ou échec pragmatiques (infidélité).
Translating (dis)ordered speech in drama
Authors: Cunico Sonia
Published: September 2007

Abstract

Although the topic of the representation of madness is a rich and much studied one in literary criticism, so far there has been no systematic attempt to analyse the language of madness in dramatic texts, either within the same language and culture or across them. This paper compares the strategies used to characterise the growing insanity of the king and the dynamics of his interaction with Willis, the doctor, in Alan Bennett’s successful play The Madness of George III (1992) with those in its published translation into Italian (1996). The article shows how an analysis of the strategies used in the source text is a necessary initial step 1) to reveal the systematic patterns of linguistic deviance (drawn from the language of real schizophrenia) which characterise King George’s madness, and 2) to highlight the battle for power between the two characters shown in their linguistic choices. These are key themes of the play which must be successfully transferred across in the target text.

Résumé

Bien que le thème de la représentation de la folie soit riche et ait été beaucoup étudié dans le domaine de la critique littéraire, il n’y a pas eu jusqu’ici de tentative systématique d’analyser le langage de la folie dans des textes dramatiques, ni dans la même langue et culture, ni dans des langues et cultures étrangères. Cet article compare les stratégies utilisées pour caractériser la folie grandissante du roi et la dynamique de son interaction avec le médecin Willis, dans la pièce à succès d’Alan Bennett, Th e Madness of George III (1992), avec celles de sa traduction publiée en italien (1996). L’article montre comment une analyse des stratégies utilisées dans le texte-source est une étape initiale nécessaire pour 1) révéler les modèles systématiques de déviance linguistique (tirés du langage de la véritable schizophrénie) qui caractérisent la folie du Roi George, et pour 2) souligner la lutte de pouvoir entre les deux personnages, qui se manifeste dans leurs choix linguistiques. Ce sont des thèmes-clés de la pièce qu’il faut réussir à transférer dans le texte cible.
Teaching of specialized translation courses in Hong Kong
Authors: Li Defeng
Published: September 2007

Abstract

This article presents a survey of specialized translation courses in tertiary institutions in Hong Kong. By way of an example, a curricular analysis is made of the course Commercial/Business Translation offered at various translation programs in seven universities, following which recommendations are put forth for improving teaching of specialized translation courses. The author argues for the adoption of a combination of Kiraly’s social-constructivist approach and the conventional cognitive approach to bring about the best result of translator training, that is, ascertaining that translation trainees will receive the needed translation methods handed down from our predecessors and meanwhile develop in themselves the learner autonomy which is so crucial for professional translation. In order to strengthen the social-constructive aspect of translation teaching, which is rarely seen in translator training today, a task-based curriculum should be adopted and authentic training promoted. While striving to augment the development of learner autonomy in translation teaching in general and teaching of specialized translation in particular, attention should be given to the training of translation students’ reference finding skills.

Résumé

Cet article presente une etude sur les cours de traduction specialisee dans les institutions tertiaires de Hong-Kong. Au moyen d’un exemple, il analyse le programme d’etudes de la traduction commerciale, offert dans differents programmes de traduction de sept universites. Ensuite, des recommandations sont formulees en vue d’ameliorer l’enseignement des cours de traduction specialisee. L’auteur preconise d’adopter une combinaison de l’approche socio-constructive de Kiraly et de l’approche cognitive conventionnelle, afin d’obtenir le meilleur resultat de la formation du traducteur. Cela veut dire qu’on doit veiller a ce que les traducteurs stagiaires beneficient des methodes de traduction et des competences necessaires, transmises par nos predecesseurs, tout en developpant chez les etudiants en traduction, l’autonomie d’apprentissage, si cruciale dans la traduction professionnelle. Pour renforcer l’aspect socioconstructif de l’enseignement de la traduction, que l’on rencontre rarement dans la formation actuelle des traducteurs, il faudrait adopter un programme d’etudes base sur des taches et promouvoir une formation authentique. Tout en s’efforcant d’augmenter le developpement de l’enseignement de la traduction en vue d’une autonomie de l’apprenant, en general, et de l’enseignement de la traduction specialisee, en particulier, il faudrait preter attention a la formation des etudiants en traduction en ce qui concerne les aptitudes a rechercher des references.
Thematic Items Referring to Research and Researchers in the Discussion Section of Spanish Biomedical Articles and
English-Spanish Translations
Authors: Williams Ian A.
Published: September 2007

This corpus-based contrastive study examines the thematic use of the semantic field of research and researchers in the Discussion
section of biomedical reports in Spanish native texts and English-Spanish translations. This semantic field was divided into
integral reference (specific named researchers), general nouns for researchers, and singular and plural nouns referring to
research. Themes containing these lexical items were examined with regard to their syntactic manifestations and their
lexicogrammatical relations with the main finite verb. Quantitative analysis was used to establish reference values for the native
texts and to reveal differences between the two subcorpora. Qualitative contextual analysis then investigated how the data might
be applied to the translated texts. The quantitative study showed that the Spanish texts had more integral references and more
general researcher nouns in their themes whereas the translations had more singular research nouns, especially those referring to
the current study. Singular research nouns were associated with more prepositional adjuncts in the Spanish texts but with more
subject themes, either as head or as modifier, in the translations. The distribution of tenses was different in all categories
except for plural research nouns, with a higher percentage of present and present perfect in the Spanish texts and more past
indefinite in the translations. Differences were also found in the distribution of lexical verbs related to integral references
and singular research nouns. The contextual analysis revealed that awareness of these differences and strategic choices based on
them could lead to thematic and discourse patterns that come closer to the target-language norms for this genre.
La traducción de textos de lingüística desde una perspectiva práctica
Authors: Ortiz García Javier
Published: September 2007

Abstract

This paper intends to provide a practical approach to the translation of texts dealing with linguistics. For that, four translations (English into Spanish) are analyzed: Metaphors We live By (Lakoff y Johnson, 1981), Linguistics. An Introduction (Radford et al. 1999), The Language Instinct (Pinker 1994) y Words and Rules (Pinker 1999); these texts were chosen because of the different strategies developed in the translating process. According to these different translating strategies, and studying some examples from the texts, this case study establishes a four-folded categorization and offers a supposedly justified terminology for each of them: (i) the “agglutinant” strategy is the one developed by the translator of Words and Rules who, due to the nature of the source text, is virtually invisible; (ii) the “pseudoisolating” strategy (Linguistics) is positioned between the previous translator’s invisibility and the next strategies, namely, (iii) the “isolating” procedure (Metaphors), and (iv) the “superisolating” strategy (Instinct), which turns the translator into a visible author.

The examples analyzed and the proposed terminology for the four strategies show that the translation of texts dealing with linguistics require the translator a well-defined approach; the translator’s approach (or his/her lack of approach) may well vary the final results of the translation.

Résumé

Cet article présente une contribution à la pratique de la traduction de textes relevant du champ de la linguistique. Nous nous proposons ainsi d’analyser, dans une perspective constructive, les traductions à l’espagnol de quatre livres de linguistique dont la langue originale est l’anglais. Ces quatre ouvrages ont été sélectionnés en raison des différentes stratégies que les traducteurs ont adoptées au cours du processus de traduction: Metaphors We Live By (Lakoff y Johnson, 1981), Linguistics. An Introduction (Radford et al., 1999), The Language Instinct (Pinker 1994) et Words and Rules (Pinker 1999). En fonction des stratégies des traducteurs et à partir de quelques exemples extraits des traductions, cette étude établit une quadruple catégorisation et propose une terminologie qui se justifie pour chacune des stratégies: i) stratégie « agglutinante » adoptée par le traducteur de Words and Rules, lequel, en raison des caractéristiques du texte source, se montre quasiment invisible; ii) stratégie « pseudo-isolante » qui se situe entre l’invisibilité précédente et la visibilité suivante de iii) stratégie « isolante » (Metaphors) et de iv) stratégie « super- isolante » (Instinct).Les exemples analysés et la terminologie proposée démontrent que la traduction de textes de type linguistique requièrent un positionnement bien précis du traducteur. En effet, les résultats inhérents à ce positionnement (ou à son absence) peuvent faire varier substantiellement le résultat final de la traduction.
On the Acquisition of the Indefinite Article
Authors: Coene Martine
Published: September 2007

The present article argues that the idea of morphology-driven syntax carries over to first-language acquisition. Morphology encodes properties of functional categories, i.e. particular features and feature values that must be set according to the target (adult) language during the acquisition process. In agreement with previous findings concerning the acquisition of functional categories in the verbal domain, we discuss here some cross-linguistic data with respect to the nominal functional domain. In this respect, specificity can be said to develop stepwise, as the result of the valuation of the /number/ before the /person/ feature of noun phrases, which finds its reflection in the emergence of indefinite articles before definite articles.
On the existence of scrambling in the grammar of Japanese elementary EFL learners
Authors: Miyamoto Yoichi , Iijima Yuka
Published: September 2007

This paper examines the representation of English WH-phrase movement in the grammars of Japanese elementary and intermediate EFL learners. It argues that elementary level speakers allow movement of the kind *How manyi did Bill think ti students are smart? and that this is because they treat WH-movement as scrambling. By contrast, intermediate EFL learners do not allow such movement. Given that scrambling is optional, the elementary subjects should also allow WH-phrases in situ. However, this is not the case for some of the speakers. It is suggested that in these cases, informants have an obligatory stylistic WH-fronting rule. It was also found that while the intermediate proficiency EFL learners have acquired the movement property of English WH-phrases, they have not acquired their quantificational force. It is argued that this follows if the Fquant Absorption parameter proposed by Watanabe (2000) has not been reset from its Japanese value.
Exploring a second language
Authors: Lowie Wander
Published: September 2007

A dynamic approach to the acquisition of morphologically complex words assumes that, initially, all words are interpreted holistically. At later stages of acquisition, increasingly more words are analyzed and morphological regularities are discovered. When productivity is defined as the chance that a newly formed word is produced on the basis of a particular affix (Baayen and Lieber, 1991), discovering morphological regularity can be interpreted as discovering productivity. This study finds evidence that contradicts an earlier study (Lowie, 2000) which suggested that morphological productivity starts playing a role only at the most advanced levels of acquisition. The current study used response latencies to test productivity cross-sectionally by comparing English native speaker response rates to those of Dutch learners of English at different levels of proficiency. Using this paradigm, productivity was evident from the earliest stages of acquisition and, at advanced levels, awareness was found even of the productivity of marginally productive affixes.
Language in post-colonial Hong Kong
Authors: Evans Steven , Green Christopher
Published: September 2007

This article reports the findings of an investigation into the roles of English and Chinese in the workplace in post-1997 Hong Kong. The findings are derived from a questionnaire survey of 1 475 professionals, focus-group interviews and case studies. The study found that English continues to function as the unmarked language of internal and external written communication in both the public and private sectors. Chinese professionals who work for foreign-owned organisations in Hong Kong apparently make greater use of English in written communication than their counterparts in Hong Kong-owned companies, while professionals who work for large Hong Kong concerns read or write in English slightly more than those who work for small local companies. Cantonese is the unmarked language of intra-ethnic spoken communication, particularly in informal situations, while English is generally restricted to situations where expatriates are present.
A spectrographic analysis of vowel fronting in Bradford English
Authors: Watt Dominic , Tillotson Jennifer
Published: September 2007

The /o/ vowel in the English of Bradford is produced by many speakers as a monophthong with a clearly fronted or central quality. Description of such a pronunciation is, however, all but absent from the literature, suggesting that such pronunciations are a relatively recent development in Bradford speech. The acoustic characteristics of 337 tokens of /o/ are investigated, with a view to matching acoustic cues to the auditory impression of fronting. The findings are assessed with respect to similar fronting patterns in the vowel systems of varieties of English elsewhere in the UK and worldwide, and to the principles of sound change elucidated by Labov (1991, 1994). We conclude that “internal” factors alone are inadequate to explain the current tendency for varieties of English in northern England to feature /o/ fronting, and suggest that the appearance of this variant in Bradford English is the consequence of contact-induced spread.
Can we watch regional dialects developing in colonial English?
Authors: Bauer Laurie , Bauer Winifred
Published: September 2007

The regional homogeneity of New Zealand English is frequently commented on. Similar observations on varieties such as Australian English were simply precursors to the discovery of regional dialects. In this paper a report is given of a survey of New Zealand primary school children, which showed that in the vocabulary they use in the playground there is considerable regional variation. This might be taken as evidence of the inception of regional variation in New Zealand. However, it is argued that the birth of regional dialects cannot be perceived by the analyst; rather the analyst can observe a stronger or weaker regional distribution of variants. It is also pointed out that the spread of innovations does not always happen in the same way in modern societies as has been reported in traditional dialectological studies.
First year of nations return to government of make you talk your own make I talk my own
Authors: Deuber Dagmar
Published: September 2007

As a language which for the greater part of its history was used only for simple everyday interactions and which lacks any kind of standardization, Nigerian Pidgin (NigP) is not well equipped for the wide range of functions it has to perform in present-day Nigeria. Among educated NigP speakers, borrowing from English is a common strategy, but broadcasters who translate news from English into NigP have to produce a form of the language that will be intelligible to a target audience whose command of English is limited.
The paper offers a discussion of this problem based on a corpus of spoken NigP comprising news and several other text categories. Text samples from the news texts are analysed, and corpus data illustrating Anglicisms and pidginization on the lexical, grammatical and discourse levels are discussed. In addition, the results of an elicitation experiment in which Nigerian informants were asked to evaluate extracts from the corpus by means of a questionnaire are reported. The news texts were found to be less satisfactory than others, and it is argued that this is due not only to Anglicisms but in some cases also to an overuse of pidginization strategies. However, there are also examples of successful adaptation of an English script, and it is argued that even with only a moderate degree of language engineering, one could build on such achievements to make NigP a more viable medium of news broadcasting.
An instrumental study of the monophthong vowels of Singapore English
Authors: Deterding David
Published: September 2007

The formants of the conversational vowels of five male and five female Singapore English (SgE) speakers are measured and compared with comparable measurements of British English (BrE) in order to gain a comprehensive view of the vowel space of Singaporean speakers and to determine which of the vowel distinctions of BrE are not maintained in SgE. It is found that the distinctions between /iː/ and /ɪ/ and also /e/ and /æ/ are not maintained in SgE, and any distinction between /ɔː/ and /ɒ/ is small. It is also found that SgE /uː/ is more back than BrE /uː/. It is further suggested that the fewer number of vowel contrasts in SgE does not contribute to much loss of intelligibility.
An account of distinctive phonetic and lexical features of Gambian English
Authors: Peter Lothar , Wolf Hans-Georg , Simo Bobda Augustin
Published: September 2007

The article discusses the specific features of the English used in The Gambia by looking at the phonetic and lexical markers that distinguish Gambian English from the other national varieties of West African English. The study shows that Gambian English has a number of established and exclusive features owing to the formation of a national norm and the influence of certain indigenous languages, yielding a national quasi-standard easy to identify.
Verb complementation patterns in Indian Standard English
Authors: Ersson Eugenia Olavarría de , Shaw Philip
Published: September 2007

Where English has two or more alternative complementation patterns for the same verb, their relative frequencies might vary among national varieties. This article investigates the relative frequencies of various complementation patterns among nine verbs whose complementation may differ between British and Indian English: provide, furnish, supply, entrust and present ; pelt, shower, pepper, bombard. A method was devised to use on-line Indian and British newspaper archives as a source of more examples than could be obtained from corpora. The results showed consistent differences between varieties. The construction “NP1-V-NP3-NP2” (he provided them money), though not common, was more likely to occur in Indian than in British newspaper English. The construction “NP1-V-NP3-with-NP2” (he provided them with money) was considerably more common for most verbs in British English than in Indian, relative to the alternative “NP1-V-NP2-to/for/at-NP3” (he provided money to them), illustrating the systematic nature of structural nativisation.
African American English in Appalachia
Authors: Childs Becky , Mallinson Christine
Published: September 2007

Recent studies of bi-ethnic enclave dialect communities in the American South suggest that earlier versions of African American speech both accommodated local dialect norms and exhibited a persistent substratal effect from the early African-European contact situation. We examine this hypothesis by considering the sociolinguistic situation in Texana, North Carolina, a small African American community in the Smoky Mountain region of Appalachia. Though its population is only about 150 residents, it is the largest African American community in the Smoky Mountains. This study considers diagnostic sociolinguistic variables for Texana residents in order to examine the extent to which the members of this African American community align their speech with local dialect norms as the basis for evaluating the status of earlier and contemporary African American English (AAE) in Appalachia. Morphosyntactic variables examined are 3rd pl. -s attachment, 3rd sg. -s absence, copula absence, and past tense be leveling; phonological variables include rhoticity, syllable coda consonant cluster reduction, and /ai/ glide weakening. When compared to cohort white Appalachian speakers, data from older Texana residents confirm the regional accommodation of earlier AAE and at the same time point toward substrate influence in the historical development of AAE. However, unlike AAE in other enclave regional contexts, we find that the dialect of younger residents is not moving toward a supraregional norm of AAE. Instead, young speakers are accommodating several key features of Southern American English, specifically the Southern Appalachian English (AppE) variety that is characteristic of the Smoky Mountain region of North Carolina. Explanations for the attested diachronic changes as well as future trajectories of change for Texana speakers must appeal to sociopsychological factors such as regional identity and orientation to explain local community language norms.
‘[T]hunder storms is verry dangese in this countrey they come in less than a minnits notice...’
Authors: McCafferty Kevin
Published: September 2007

It has been suggested that use of the Northern Subject Rule (NSR) in Southern Irish English (SIrE) is the result of diffusion from Ulster-Scots dialects of the North of Ireland, where many Scots settled in the 17th century. 19th-century Irish-Australian emigrant letters show the main NSR constraint — which permits plural verbal -s with noun phrase subjects but prohibits it with an adjacent third plural pronoun — to have been as robust in varieties of SIrE as it was in Northern Irish English (NIrE) of the same period. Before British colonisation of Ireland, the NSR was present in dialects of Northern England and the North Midlands, regions which contributed substantially to English settlement in the South of Ireland. It is therefore suggested here that the NSR in SIrE might be a retention of a vernacular feature of NSR dialects that were taken to Ireland from the English North and North Midlands rather than a feature that diffused southwards in Ireland after 1600.
Partial creolization, restructuring and convergence in Bay Islands Englishes
Authors: Graham Ross
Published: September 2007

Bay Islands English has been described in the literature as a variety which shows little evidence of creole features. However, existing accounts are based on restricted data samples taken from communities where restructuring is much less in evidence than among black speakers in the largest island, Roatan. The field-data utilized in the present study are analyzed to give a more detailed picture of the patterns of community-wide language variation. The processes shaping the development of Bay Islands English are considered, and an account is offered based on inter-ethnic contact. It is argued that restructuring has been constrained by processes of convergence and differentiation affecting two distinct ethnic varieties, with some black speech showing a high degree of creole influence.
The Maori presence in the New Zealand English lexicon, 1850–2000
Authors: Macalister John
Published: September 2007

The presence of words of Maori origin in contemporary New Zealand English is regularly commented upon both by linguists and in the popular press. Such commentary is, however, generally based on intuition and observation rather than empirical analysis. This paper begins with a review of published comment from the late nineteenth century to the present on the Maori presence in the New Zealand English lexicon, and then introduces a corpus-based study of that presence from 1850 to 2000. The corpus produced was the largest yet assembled for the study of New Zealand English. Findings confirmed diachronic changes in the number of Maori word tokens and types used, in the nature of Maori words used, and claims that Maori loanwords have entered New Zealand English in two distinct waves. Reasons for these changes include demographic shifts, revitalisation of the Maori language, political and social changes, and changes in attitudes among English-speakers.
Visiting London relatives
Authors: Levey Stephen
Published: September 2007

This small-scale study focuses on variation in the relative marker paradigm in the vernacular of a group of preadolescents recorded in the Greater London area. The distributional and multivariate analyses of variation in relative marker usage in restrictive relative clauses reveal that the wh-forms who and what are well-established in the relative marker paradigm of the preadolescents. Who and what are shown to be sensitive to the animacy of their antecedent heads: Who is strongly favoured by human antecedents, whereas what is preferred with non-human antecedents. The numerically dominant relativizer that is shown to be strongly conditioned by the grammatical function of the relative marker as well as being favoured by indefinite and inanimate antecedent heads. The zero variant is similarly sensitive to syntactic function, and is preferentially selected in non-subject position. Furthermore, the selection of zero relatives is found to be highly constrained by clause length. Cross-variety comparison of the results with previous research on other English dialects suggests that not only are there nuanced differences in the choice of relative marker, but that there are possibly construction-specific differences constraining the choice of specific variants.
The pronunciation of English by speakers from China
Authors: Deterding David
Published: September 2007

Despite the large number of speakers of English in China, little previous work has been done to describe their pronunciation. Thirteen young speakers from north-east, east and central China were recorded reading a passage and participating in a short interview, and their pronunciation is analyzed. The most salient features of their speech include the use of an epenthetic vowel after word-final plosives especially before another word beginning with a consonant, avoidance of reduced vowels especially in function words, heavy nasalization of vowels preceding a final nasal consonant, substitution of [s] for /θ/ and [z] or [d] for /ð/, use of [x] for /h/, and emphasis on sentence-final pronouns. It is suggested that some of these features may become established as part of a unique variety of English that is emerging in China.
“There’s bears back there”
Authors: Walker James A.
Published: September 2007

This paper uses a multivariate analysis of variable agreement in existentials with plural reference in a corpus of Quebec English to determine the status of variable agreement as a vernacular universal. Excluding the frequent invariant form there’s from analysis, both structural and processing considerations are shown to operate. A separate multivariate analysis provides support for the hypothesis that there’s is a lexicalized form with its own set of constraints. Cross-variety comparison reveals little evidence of regional diversification and suggests instead that differences observed between studies reflect the distribution of data in each corpus. Similarities of language-internal constraints across studies provide support for variable agreement as a vernacular universal.
Lexis, word form and complementation pattern
Authors: Hunston Susan
Published: September 2007

This paper examines the comparative frequency of two complementation patterns (that-clause and wh-clause) with the different wordforms of twenty-six verb lemmas. It is found that in the majority of cases the patterns co-occur differentially with the different word forms. In particular, the wh- clause tends to occur most frequently with the base form while the that-clause occurs with the -ed form. This is explained in terms of the phraseology of the larger unit of which wordform and pattern are a part and in terms of what is construed by the complementation clause. Not all verbs conform to this pattern, however, and alternative combinations of wordform and pattern are also discussed. This paper is intended to test quantitatively the hypothesis that the wordforms comprising lemmas behave differently in terms of their preferred grammatical context. This hypothesis in turn is part of a more general theory that argues for the interdependence of lexis and grammar.
Rhetorical and thematic patterns in scheduling dialogues
Authors: Taboada Maite , Lavid Julia
Published: September 2007

This paper provides a corpus-based generic characterization of appointment-scheduling dialogues — a type of task-oriented conversation — by concentrating on the rhetorical and thematic choices made by the speakers that produce them. The analytical tools used for this study are Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST), the notion of Theme as defined in Systemic Functional Linguistics, and Thematic Progression (TP) patterns. The results of the corpus analysis revealed a generic structure consisting of three clear stages: Opening, Task Performance and Closing, realized by characteristic thematic and rhetorical patterns. These patterns are interpreted functionally as indicative of the genre under study, providing linguistic evidence of the generic structure that characterizes this type of conversations. The paper also shows the usefulness of analytical tools such as RST and TP patterns, typically applied to written monologue, for the characterization of dialogic genres.
A cognitive view of the coordination of predicates
Authors: Pishwa Hanna
Published: September 2007

Coordination of predicates is not, as claimed by many researchers, pragmatically conditioned; neither can it be described or explained satisfactorily in terms of purely syntactic theories. The present study on conjoined predicates shows that this structure is used referentially and covers varying scopes and types of knowledge representations. Its use is examined in various linguistic systems, ranging from contact languages and a developing second language to native usage. While conjoining of predicates is realized in serial verbs in contact languages to expand the deficient lexicon, its function in initial stages of learner language is the creation of tight knowledge chunks. When the scope is widened with the expansion of the general linguistic system, it is extended to cover larger, novel contents. An accompanying investigation of native English shows a whole gamut of usages with the content varying from a narrow to a broad scope as well as to on-line chunking, which means that conjoined predicates symbolize information that is stored, perceived, or imagined and serves as a stylistic device in a large number of contexts. The development and the native use of this structure are described and explained in terms of Role and Reference Grammar, which takes a semantic and syntactic view on linguistic structures.
The continuity of topics in journal and travel texts
Authors: Moya Guijarro A. Jesús
Published: September 2007

Following a functional view of topic as a discourse, cognitive and contextually-referential notion, independent of special language-systematic coding (Cornish 2004), this paper aims to study topic continuity strategies (Givón 1983, 1995; Dik 1997) in news items and tourist brochures.

The empirical analysis carried out reveals that the two subgenres show different relative frequencies of linguistic resources for maintaining topic continuity. While in the news items the use of active voice (25.4%) and anaphoric proforms (20.4%) are the prototypical strategies for topic continuity, in the tourist brochures nominals preceded by definite articles, possessives or demonstratives (24.1%), and proper nouns (12.3%) are the most commonly used resource for maintaining a topical referent alive in the discourse. From a lexico-grammatical perspective significant differences have also been established in the utilization of zero anaphora and nominalizations (the latter being found only in the news items). From a syntactic point of view, the use of relative clauses and passive structures is also distinct in the two text types. Inversions and imperative clauses are exclusive to the tourist brochures.

The use of specific linguistic strategies and their different frequencies seem to be basically determined both by the emphasis or semantic prominence the writer wishes to give to the informative segment he is referring to, and by the particular communicative purpose of each of the two subgenres under study.
Catchments, prosody and discourse
Authors: McNeill David , Quek Francis , McCullough Karl-Erik , Duncan Susan D. , Furuyama Nobuhiro , Bryll Robert , Furuyama Nobuhiro , Ansari Rashid
Published: September 2007

We present our work on the temporal integration of hierarchies of communicative actions: kinesic, prosodic and discursive. We use the device of the ‘catchment’ as the locus around which this integration proceeds. We present a detailed case study of a gesture and speech elicitation experiment in which a subject describes her living space to an interlocutor. First, we process the video data to obtain the motion traces of both of the subject’s hands using the vector coherence mapping algorithm. We code the gestures to identify the catchments. We recover discourse purposes utilizing a system of guided questions. Finally, we define prosody in terms of the ToBI system. The results of these analyses are compared against the computed motion traces to identify the cues accessible in the gestural and audio data that correlate well with the psycholinguistic analyses. The results show that motion, prosody and discourse structure are integrated at each moment of speaking.

The electronic edition of this article includes audio-visual data.
Children’s gestures are meant to be seen
Authors: Alibali Martha W. , Don Lisa S.
Published: September 2007

This study investigated whether children alter their gestures when their listeners cannot see those gestures. Sixteen kindergarten children viewed four short cartoon episodes. After each episode, the child retold the story to an adult listener. For two episodes, the child and listener sat face-to-face, and for the other two episodes, an opaque curtain was placed between them. Children gestured at a significantly higher rate when they could see their listeners than when they could not. However, the amount, fluency, and content of children’s speech did not differ across conditions. Thus, kindergarten children alter their gestures to suit their listeners, and the observed changes in gesture do not appear to depend on changes in speech.
Home position
Authors: Sacks Harvey , Schegloff Emanuel A.
Published: September 2007

This paper describes a possible formal organizational device that serves to bound episodes of body movement such as gestures, fidgets, instrumental moves and the like. It involves a spate of movement — whether a single move or a series of moves — being completed by returning the moving body part to the position from which it departed at the outset. A series of specimens are examined which display this organizational device across a number of dimensions of variation — in the body part being moved, the characteristics of the mover, the amplitude of the move, etc., underscoring the formality and adaptability of the device.

The electronic edition of this article includes audio-visual data.
Gesture, verb aspect, and the nature of iconic imagery in natural discourse
Authors: Duncan Susan D.
Published: September 2007

Linguistic analyses of Mandarin Chinese and English have detailed the differences between the two languages in terms of the devices each makes available for expressing distinctions in the temporal contouring of events — verb aspect and Aktionsart. In this study, adult native speakers of each language were shown a cartoon, a movie, or a series of short action sequences and then videotaped talking about what they had seen. Comparisons revealed systematic within-language covariation of choice of aspect and/or Aktionsart in speech with features of co-occurring iconic gestures. In both languages, the gestures that speakers produced in imperfective aspect-marked speech contexts were more likely to take longer to produce and were more complex than those in perfective aspect speech contexts. Further, imperfective-progressive aspect-marked spoken utterances regularly accompanied iconic gestures in which the speaker’s hands engaged in some kind of temporally-extended, repeating or‘agitated’ movements. Gestures sometimes incorporated this type of motion even when there was nothing corresponding to it in the visual stimulus; for example, when speakers described events of stasis. These facts suggest that such gestural agitation may derive from an abstract level of representation, perhaps linked to aspectual view itself. No significant between-language differences in aspect- or Aktionsart-related gesturing were observed.

We conclude that gestural representations of witnessed events, when performed in conjunction with speech, are not simply derived from visual images, stored as perceived in the stimulus, and transposed as faithfully as possible to the hands and body of the speaker (cf. Hadar & Butterworth, 1997). Rather, such gestures are part of a linguistic-conceptual representation (McNeill & Duncan, 2000) in which verb aspect has a role. We further conclude that the noted differences between the systems for marking aspectual distinctions in spoken Mandarin and English are at a level of patterning that has little or no influence on speech-co-occurring imagistic thinking.
Origo, pointing, and speech
Authors: Fricke Ellen
Published: September 2007

What happens to linguistic deixis theory if co-speech gestures are considered? In this paper I will argue for a redefined concept of origo. It allows us to eliminate a contradiction inherent in the origo instantiation of local deixis between the verbal and gestural levels. The contradiction demonstrated in my example is that, for the same conceptual relation, the origo of the verbal level is allocated to the addressee, whereas the origo of the gestural level is allocated to the speaker himself.

The electronic edition of this article includes audio-visual data.
Aspects of aspect
Authors: McNeill David
Published: September 2007

Performing an action and concurrently describing it creates possibilities for observing how speech and action are synchronized and mutually shape each other. The results to be described show that iconicity is an organizing principle of motion control — actions are performed in relation to speech in such a way as to create an image of the meaning in part. Four English-speaking subjects described their goal-directed actions, step by step, as they assembled a small aquarium. Among the factors observed to have an impact on synchrony are, in speech, perfectivity (imperfective or perfective) and, in action, the logical form of the action (Vendler’s activities, accomplishments and achievements). These factors must be considered jointly. Depending on the logical form, speakers placed the linguistic center (‘L-Center’) of the description — the satellite or a preposition in the case of activities and accomplishments; the verb itself in the case of achievements — in such a way as to recreate the aspectual viewpoint concurrently encoded in speech. Imperfective aspect was indexed with progressive verbs. L-Centers with this aspect were placed inside or prior to the completion of the action. Perfective aspect was indexed with non-progressive verbs. L-Centers of this kind were placed after the action. In addition, the actions themselves were longer with imperfective aspect, even when the same logical form of action was involved. Non-functional movements were added to goal-directed actions to help create the imperfective aspect, and both speech and action timing were adjusted to create the aspectual viewpoint. These patterns are reminiscent of the perfectivity differences in gesture performance described by S. Duncan (2003) for Mandarin and English. Motor movements adapt to language in a way similar to gestures. Theoretically, there is a three-sided synchrony of two forms of motor action (speech, manual manipulation) and the logical form of the action. The theoretical discussion considers two ramifications: the implications for ‘cognitive being’ of building aspect into action, which suggests a mechanism of the mutual shaping of speech and action; and the brain organization that might underlie the three-sided synchrony, with emphasis on the role of BA 44 and BA 45 (‘mirror neurons’), collectively ‘Broca’s Area’, in the orchestration of actions under some meaning (actions of gesture, manipulation, and speech); these areas include language but are broader in function than the classical term ‘language area’ implies.
From cutting an object to a clear cut analysis
Authors: Calbris Geneviève
Published: September 2007

The representation of the concrete world is an abstraction. The elements that are physically pertinent to reality are synthesized in a gestural, schematic and ergonomic representation. Although schematic, this representation is nuanced: the gestural variants are numerous in order to account for the way we cut things: differences in size and configuration of blades as well as in their manipulation in a single or repeated movement. Representing an abstract notion derived from the act itself, gesture evolves towards increasing simplification and integrates the representation of other notions that enrich the first: cf. the semantic nuances supplied by the plane of the hand and the orientation of the palm in order to evoke ‘cut plus division’, ‘cut plus obstacle’, etc. Moreover, on the semantic level one witnesses a process of generalization: the passage from concrete to abstract, and in the abstract world, from one domain to another: the individual knows how ‘trancher / to decide’ and is ‘tranchant / abrupt’. From the physical and symbolic comparison of the gestural variants referring to all kinds of cuts, a common percept emerges: a gap in a continuum, a representative schema explaining the cut as an interruption. The question addressed is: does gesture not directly account for the abstract schema loaded with imagery from diverse perceptual experiences (representation of acts and their results) at the basis of the concept (representation of the notion)?
Multiple modalities in collaborative turn sequences
Authors: Bolden Galina B.
Published: September 2007

The article investigates resources used by parties in interaction to successfully complete each others’ utterances. Among the different ways in which recipients can demonstrate their understanding, collaborative completions are the most convincing since they display not only recipients’ understanding of the stance or the import of a turn-in-progress, but the minute analysis of the action itself. The article starts with a discussion of syntactic and action-sequential features of talk that can account for collaborative turn sequences and then focuses on other, non-verbal resources that may be made relevant at particular interactional junctures. An analysis of the several instances of collaborative completions illustrates the use of visually accessible features of the surround, gestural and postural conduct, and gaze direction in collaborative turn sequences. It is suggested that an interplay of these multiple modalities enables the participants to collaborate in co-constructing single syntactic units of talk.

The electronic edition of this article includes audio-visual data.
Gestural phrases and gestural exchanges by a pair of zoo-living lowland gorillas
Authors: Tanner Joanne E.
Published: September 2007

Previous study of the spontaneous gestural communication of the great apes has been primarily of individual gestures and their sequels. Such analysis gives only a partial picture of the quality of gorilla interaction. The repertoire of gestures of a pair of gorillas at San Francisco Zoo have been described by Tanner and Byrne (1993, 1996, 1999). These gorillas often used gestures in continuous sequences or phrases. Both single gestures and phrases were used in exchanges between gorillas. Phrases included a variety of syntactic functions, and exchanges seemed to negotiate matters such as location, initiator, and type of play. Both single gestures and phrases could be modified by “negative’ gestures. Detailed transcription of gorilla communicative events show that gestures are continually being modified and varied by the communicative partners, rather than being ritualized elements of a finite repertoire.

The electronic edition of this article includes audio-visual data.