bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
What speakers do and what addressees look at
Authors: Gullberg Marianne , Holmqvist Kenneth
Published: September 2007

This study investigates whether addressees visually attend to speakers’ gestures in interaction and whether attention is modulated by changes in social setting and display size. We compare a live face-to-face setting to two video conditions. In all conditions, the face dominates as a fixation target and only a minority of gestures draw fixations. The social and size parameters affect gaze mainly when combined and in the opposite direction from the predicted with fewer gestures fixated on video than live. Gestural holds and speakers’ gaze at their own gestures reliably attract addressees’ fixations in all conditions. The attraction force of holds is unaffected by changes in social and size parameters, suggesting a bottom-up response, whereas speaker-fixated gestures draw significantly less attention in both video conditions, suggesting a social effect for overt gaze-following and visual joint attention. The study provides and validates a video-based paradigm enabling further experimental but ecologically valid explorations of cross-modal information processing.
Non-lexical conversational sounds in American English
Authors: Ward Nigel
Published: September 2007

Sounds like h-nmm, hh-aaaah, hn-hn, unkay, nyeah, ummum, uuh, um-hm-uh-hm, um and uh-huh occur frequently in American English conversation but have thus far escaped systematic study. This article reports a study of both the forms and functions of such tokens in a corpus of American English conversations. These sounds appear not to be lexical, in that they are productively generated rather than finite in number, and in that the sound–meaning mapping is compositional rather than arbitrary. This implies that English bears within it a small specialized sub-language which follows different rules from the language as a whole. The functions supported by this sub-language complement those of main-channel English; they include low-overhead control of turn-taking, negotiation of agreement, signaling of recognition and comprehension, management of interpersonal relations such as control and affiliation, and the expression of emotion, attitude, and affect.
Distributed cognition
Authors: Harnad Stevan , Dror Itiel E.
Published: September 2007

Some of the papers in this Special Issue distribute cognition between what is going on inside individual cognizers’ heads and their outside worlds; others distribute cognition among different individual cognizers. Turing’s criterion for cognition was for individual, autonomous input/output capacity. It is not clear that distributed cognition could pass the Turing Test.
A framework for thinking about distributed cognition
Authors: Poirier Pierre , Chicoisne Guillaume
Published: September 2007

As is often the case when scientific or engineering fields emerge, new concepts are forged or old ones are adapted. When this happens, various arguments rage over what ultimately turns out to be conceptual misunderstandings. At that critical time, there is a need for an explicit reflection on the meaning of the concepts that define the field. In this position paper, we aim to provide a reasoned framework in which to think about various issues in the field of distributed cognition. We argue that both relevant concepts, distribution and cognition, must be understood as continuous. As it is used in the context of distributed cognition, the concept of distribution is essentially fuzzy, and we will link it to the notion of emergence of system-level properties. The concept of cognition must also be seen as fuzzy, but for a different reason: due to its origin as an anthropocentric concept, no one has a clear handle on its meaning in a distributed setting. As the proposed framework forms a space, we then explore its geography and (re)visit famous landmarks.
Distributed cognition
Authors: Kirsh David
Published: September 2007

Humans are closely coupled with their environments. They rely on being ‘embedded’ to help coordinate the use of their internal cognitive resources with external tools and resources. Consequently, everyday cognition, even cognition in the absence of others, may be viewed as partially distributed. As cognitive scientists our job is to discover and explain the principles governing this distribution: principles of coordination, externalization, and interaction. As designers our job is to use these principles, especially if they can be converted to metrics, in order to invent and evaluate candidate designs. After discussing a few principles of interaction and embedding I discuss the usefulness of a range of metrics derived from economics, computational complexity, and psychology.
Computer-aided translation as a distributed cognitive task
Authors: Dragsted Barbara
Published: September 2007

The present article examines the potential effects on the translation process of working interactively with a translation memory (TM) system, a tool for storing and sharing previous translations. A TM system automatically divides the source text into sentences presented to the translator one-by-one. Based on observations made in an empirical study of six professional translators and six translation students, it is argued that full sentences do not constitute a central cognitive processing category in translation, and that the sentence-by-sentence presentation inherent in TM systems therefore creates an unnaturally strong focus on the sentence, which affects the very task of translation (as well as the translation product). Particular attention is given to the impact of the use of TM systems on the informants’ revision behaviour and their tendency to change the sentence structure.
Parallelism in conversation
Authors: Sakita Tomoko I.
Published: September 2007

Speakers often construct their utterances based on the immediately co-present utterances of dialogue partners. They array their linguistic resources parallel to their partners’ and activate resonance. Based on the theories of dialogic syntax and cognitive linguistics, this study undertakes to explain how speakers activate resonance and how parallelism contributes to constructing linguistic forms as well as to shaping the ongoing flow of conversation. Three phases of resonance activation are illustrated in relation to cognitive processes: (a) parallelism constituted with extension of multiple categories in synthesis; (b) parallelism meeting or failing the previous speaker’s intention due to schematization; and (c) parallelism achieved as a consequence of priming through schematization and extension. It is concluded that linguistic forms develop in the ongoing flow of socially coordinated cognition, where patterns emerge through activation of mapping relations between linguistic elements. This process is anchored in speakers’ concepts of grammatical equivalences, ability of categorization, and grasp of linguistic conventions.
Principles of linguistic composition below and beyond the clause
Authors: Bundgaard Peer F.
Published: September 2007

The present investigation challenges the traditional distinction between cohesion and coherence; i.e., the distinction between the syntactical rules governing the composition of lexical units within the scope of the clause and the semantic-pragmatic rules guiding the composition of text units beyond the scope of the clause. To this end it exposes two major principles of semantic combination that are active through all levels of linguistic composition: viz. frame-schematic structure and narrative structure. These principles are considered as being components of a semantic combinatorial system to be determined in terms of dependency relations.
Why irony sometimes comes to mind
Authors: Gibbs Raymond W.
Published: September 2007

Research on the pragmatics of irony focuses on verbal irony use or on people’s ironic conceptualizations of external events. But people sometimes experience irony within themselves whenever conscious attempts to accomplish something (e.g., fall asleep, quit smoking, not think of a failed relationship) lead to completely contrary results (e.g., staying awake, having a stronger desire to smoke, constant thoughts about the failed relationship). These situations sometimes seem ironic and evoke strong emotional reactions precisely because people understand the incompatibility between what is desired and what has occurred, enough so that the idea of irony may pop into consciousness. Psychological research now reveals that the difficulty in suppressing unwanted thoughts is shaped by distinct “ironic processes of mental control”. This paper describes previous empirical evidence in support of this theory, suggests how this perspective explains why we occasionally recognize irony within ourselves, presents some new data on people’s ironic understandings of and emotional reactions to ironic events, and relates this new work within psychology to contemporary theories of situational irony.
What writing is
Authors: Olson David R.
Published: September 2007

Writing bears an uncertain relation to speech. Either it is treated as a largely autonomous medium of communication or it is treated as a simple adjunct, cipher, image or record of speech. This paper offers a compromise arguing that writing exploits a special and distinctive property of speech, namely, that of quotation. Quotation suspends the contextual, deictic, and illocutionary features of ordinary speech to create a quasi-autonomous linguistic form to which normal referential and intentional features of speech no longer apply. Written documents, it is argued, are distinctive in possessing just those properties characteristic of quotation. Evidence from studies of the metalinguistic effects of learning to read and write is used to evaluate this hypothesis.
Spanish as a world language
Authors: Mar-Molinero Clare
Published: September 2007

The article traces the spread of Spanish across the globe, highlighting the changing nature of this spread, from indicator of local dominance to colonisation, and then, today, globalisation. This article focuses on the role of Spanish in an era of globalisation, raising issues about the nature of a world or global language, and noting how the emergence of such languages mirrors the decrease of a wider linguistic diversity. It seeks to answer such questions as whether Spanish can be called a global language or instead only an international one. It suggests various tests that should be applied in order to consider what constitutes a global language. I will conclude by speculating on the future spread and role of Spanish, particularly in the U.S. and in its interaction with English.
Perseveration of subject expression across regional dialects of Spanish
Authors: Cameron Richard , Flores-Ferrán Nydia
Published: September 2007

Models of communication strictly as a function of intention and control founder when confronted by variationist findings of perseveration at different levels of linguistic structure in use. When Poplack (1981) finds that Spanish [s] leads to more [s] and that “zeros lead to zeros,” it is unclear how speaker intention is involved. But, it is clear that what a speaker says at one point will influence what this same speaker says next. Here we identify perseveration of pronominal and null subjects in three dialects of Spanish: Madrid, San Juan, and New York City. In null subject Spanish, expression of subject pronouns leads to more pronouns, and expression of null subjects leads to more nulls. We argue that a perspicuous account of perseveration may be found within Spreading-Activation Theory (Dell 1986), a psycholinguistic theory of production based on speech errors. Thus, this work integrates quantitative dialect description with psycholinguistic explanation.
Reprendiendo y respondiendo a una reprimenda
Authors: García Carmen
Published: September 2007

Este trabajo presenta una comparación y contraste de las estrategias de cortesía usadas por peruanos y venezolanos en la realización de un evento del habla: la reprimenda y la respuesta a la reprimenda. Los resultados demuestran que al reprender, tanto peruanos como venezolanos prefieren el uso de estrategias de cortesía directa y estrategias que amenazan la imagen del interlocutor (específicamente su imagen negativa). Al responder a la reprimenda, se encontraron importantes diferencias entre peruanos y venezolanos. Los peruanos prefieren estrategias de cortesía negativa y estrategias que amenazan su propia imagen (específicamente su imagen negativa) en vez de la del interlocutor. Los venezolanos, por su parte, prefieren nuevamente el uso de estrategias de cortesía directas. Sin embargo, al igual que los peruanos, prefieren amenazar su propia imagen negativa. Los resultados de este estudio destacan las similitudes y diferencias entre estos dos grupos culturales en cuanto a la expresión de poder y solidaridad.
The linguistic situation in urban Paraguay
Authors: Choi Jinny K.
Published: September 2007

This study examines the current linguistic reality of the urban sector of Paraguay, specifically that of the capital city, Asunción. The main goal is to analyze the linguistic changes that have occurred in the most urbanized city in the country in the last decade of the 20th century. According to the 1990 and 2000 data on language use among asuncenos, there is a clear tendency toward Spanish-Guaraní bilingualism. This may be attributed to the progress observed in the educational, political, and cultural aspects of the Guaraní language. This language, with a long oral tradition, is now recognized by the government and is a part of the school system. Nevertheless, there is still a marked division with respect to the linguistic functions that Spanish and Guaraní fulfill. This article presents a detailed analysis of language function.
El tiempo futuro en el español de California (1800–1930)
Authors: Balestra Alejandra
Published: September 2007

Este artículo investiga el proceso lingüístico de análisis, esto significa el uso de formas verbales perifrásticas en lugar de las formas sintéticas, en el español utilizado en California en el siglo XIX y comienzos del siglo XX. El artículo se centra en el incremento en el uso de la perífrasis ir a + infinitivo. Se utilizar un córpora de 185 cartas personales y oficiales escritas entre 1800 y 1930. En la actualidad el córpora contiene 85,000 palabras que aparecen en cartas escritas por 86 informantes diferentes (28 mujeres y 58 hombres). Se realiza análisis estadístico con SPSS de los 420 casos de las variantes que expresan tiempo futuro. La variable dependiente de tiempo futuro está correlacionada con las variables independientes de género, período histórico, y estilo. Los datos muestran que las mujeres usan la forma perifrástica, ir a + infinitivo, con mayor frecuencia que los hombres desde comienzos del siglo XIX. Además se observa que se acelera el uso de la perífrasis hacia la segunda mitad del siglo XIX. Finalmente se muestra que los hombres adoptan la variante analítica para expresan tiempo futuro a mitad del siglo XIX y la usan con una frecuencia similar a la de las mujeres.
Taboo words in teenage talk
Authors: Stenström Anna-Brita
Published: September 2007

This paper reports on a corpus-based comparison of the use of taboo words amongst middle/upper class teenage girls in London and Madrid. Two corpora of spontaneous conversation were used for the comparison; these showed that the most frequent words used by both groups had sexual reference, followed by words to do with bodily functions. It also pointed to a higher frequency of taboo words in the London girls’ conversations, while the Madrid girls had a slightly higher preference for sexual words.

The qualitative part of the study, which deals with the reasons for teenagers’ use of taboo words and with their various functions in the discourse, reveals that special emphasis is put on phatic use.
Who is more Hispanic?
Authors: Koike Dale A. , Graham Clayton P.
Published: September 2007

This study examines the co-construction of identities, and the pragmatic strategies used by two interlocutors in a U.S. Hispanic political debate, conducted in Spanish, to construct those identities and align with the viewers. The framework used for analysis is informed by the notion of political cognition (van Dijk 2002; Pavlenko and Blackledge 2004), as well as by the concept of alignment (Goffman 1983; Linell 1994; Koike 2003). Among the identities co-constructed by the participants were self- and other-constructed identities. The linguistic strategies used for identity negotiation included deictic markers, speech styles and, especially, pragmatic implicatures. The analysis illustrates the role of political cognition and alignment strategies in the debate context according to the candidates’ perceptions of their audience, which can be seen as a reflection of the Texas Hispanic population today.
The past imperfect in Palenquero
Authors: Swearingen Davis Martha
Published: September 2007

In Palenquero, an Afro-Iberian creole spoken in Colombia, the -ba marker appears in a wider range of environments than other TMA markers, which are commonly pre-verbal. While most creole scholars have assumed that -ba is a past anterior, I argue that this marker is in fact a past imperfect. The crucial cases for demonstrating this involve examples in which -ba occurs with non-stative verbs. The significance of this finding counters the alleged general uniformity of the prototypical creole TMA system which does not include past imperfect marking.
When subjects behave like objects
Authors: Lambrecht Knud
Published: September 2007

This paper is concerned with the cross-linguistic expression of a universal information-structure category called the ‘thetic’ or ‘sentence-focus’ (SF) category. The SF category differs from the unmarked ‘predicate-focus’ (PF) or ‘categorical’ category by the absence of a topic-comment relation between the subject and the predicate and it differs from the marked ‘argument-focus’ (AF) category by the absence of a focus-presupposition relation between an argument and an open proposition. The theoretical issue explored here is the question of the relationship between the form and the function of SF constructions, i.e. the question of motivation in grammar. I argue that the form of SF constructions is motivated by the need to distinguish them minimally from corresponding PF constructions. The form and interpretation of a given SF sentence is thus determined not only by the syntagmatic relations among its constituents but also by the paradigmatic relation between the SF sentence as a whole and the corresponding PF sentence, i.e. in terms of a systemic opposition. Since the distinctive property of SF sentences is the absence of a topic-comment relation between the subject and the predicate, SF marking entails the marking of the subject as a non-topic. I show that across languages this non-topic marking of SF subjects tends to be done via those morphosyntactic, prosodic, or behavioral features which are normally associated with the focal objects of PF constructions.

The analysis confirms the necessity to treat the pragmatic relations topic and focus on a par with the grammatical relations subject and object and the semantic roles agent and patient. In seeking to explain the form-function fit in SF constructions in terms of the structuralist notion of paradigmatic opposition the analysis challenges both functional and formal generative approaches to grammar.
On contact-induced grammaticalization
Authors: Heine Bernd , Kuteva Tania
Published: September 2007

Grammaticalization is based on universal strategies of conceptual transfer. Contact-induced language change on the other hand is an areally confined process resulting from specific historical events. What this suggests is that the two constitute quite divergent phenomena and, in fact, in the relevant literature they tend to be described as mutually exclusive processes. Accordingly, this literature abounds with discussions on whether some specific grammatical change is due to the former or the latter. The position taken in this paper is that the two are in no way mutually exclusive; rather, perhaps more often than not, they jointly conspire in triggering grammatical change.
The relationship between demonstratives and interrogatives
Authors: Diessel Holger
Published: September 2007

This paper examines two types of expressions that seem to exist in all languages, demonstratives and interrogatives. Based on a representative sample of 100 languages it is shown that demonstratives and interrogatives have some striking features in common. They cross-cut the boundaries of several word classes and encode the same semantic features: person, thing, place, direction, manner, time, and amount. It is the central hypothesis of this study that the crosslinguistic parallelism between demonstratives and interrogatives is motivated by their pragmatic functions: both initiate a search for information that is guided by their semantic and syntactic features. Further, it is argued that demonstratives and interrogatives have a special status in language. Although both types of expressions are commonly considered grammatical markers, they do not serve an ordinary grammatical function. Grammatical markers organize the information flow in the ongoing discourse, whereas basic demonstratives and interrogatives are immediately concerned with the speaker-hearer interaction.
Hierarchical constituency in conversational language
Authors: Ewing Michael C.
Published: September 2007

This study investigates the role of constituency in structuring clauses during spoken interaction. It examines transitive clauses in a corpus of conversational Javanese. Do clauses unfold in a flat structure as each element is produced in real-time, or is there evidence of a hierarchical structure among constituents? By looking at adjacency in the production of clausal elements, with prosody as the key to understanding how speakers organize linguistic elements into larger groups, evidence is found for the emergence of a verb phase structure within clauses of lower discourse transitivity, but a lack of hierarchical structure in clauses of higher discourse transitivity.
How irregular is WH in situ in Indonesian?
Authors: Cole Peter , Hermon Gabriella , Tjung Yassir Nasanius
Published: September 2007

Contemporary approaches to Generative syntax lead to the expectation that WH in situ would be subject to few distributional restrictions; but a series of complex constraints apply to in-situ WH in subject position in Standard Indonesian. We argue that this distribution does not follow from principles of formal grammar, but rather from a constraint on the relationship between syntax and information structure.

We then turn to Colloquial Jakarta Indonesian, a variety similar to Standard Indonesian with regard to grammatical restrictions on WH in situ, but lacking the constraint on the relationship between syntax and information structure found in Standard Indonesian. We contend that the seeming differences between the grammars of Standard Indonesian and Jakarta Indonesian do not reflect differences in grammar in the narrow sense but rather in how the dialects relate to formal grammar and pragmatics.
Introduction
Authors: Payne Thomas E.
Published: September 2007

A grammatical description is an essential component of any program of language documentation and preservation. With over half the languages in the world currently in danger of extinction within a century, the need for descriptive grammars is more critical than ever. Potential grammar writers often find themselves paralyzed by the massive prospect of describing a language. Additionally, grammar writing is a long term task, and more immediate concerns often preclude the expenditure of time and energy necessary to accomplish an adequate grammatical description. The papers in the present volume provide suggestions and encouragement from experienced grammar writers and users regarding concrete methods for approaching the complex task of writing a descriptive grammar of a language.
Grammars and the community
Authors: Mithun Marianne
Published: September 2007

The audience for a grammatical description is an important consideration for anyone involved in descriptive linguistics. Potential grammar users include linguists, the interested public, and members of the communities in which the language is spoken. An awareness of the target audiences is necessary in shaping the grammar to meet varying needs. It might, for example, affect the choice of topics to be discussed, the organization and style of the presentation, the depth of detail to include, the use of technical terminology, and the nature of exemplification. It is not yet clear whether one grammar can serve all potential audiences and purposes. Whether it can or not, however, there is a good chance that any grammar will eventually be pressed into service for more than one. This paper offers some suggestions based on the author's experience with Mohawk communities situated in Quebec, Ontario, and New York State.
Antipassive in Matses
Authors: Fleck David W.
Published: September 2007

In this paper I analyze ergative patterns and the antipassive construction in Matses, a Panoan language spoken in western Amazonia. The Matses antipassive appears initially to be fairly typical, but is unique in that, in addition to the cross-linguistically typical indefinite Patient reading, it can also be used to code an unmentioned first-person Patient. Furthermore, only verbs specifying human O’s can take the antipassive suffix, and only verbs coding significantly affected Patients can have an indefinite reading. This is exactly the opposite of what one would expect of an antipassive construction. This atypical distribution of the Matses antipassive is explained by a combination of interacting factors, including a first-person empathy phenomenon and accommodation to a competing functionally similar object omission construction.
Backgrounding and suppression of reciprocal participants
Authors: Behrens Leila
Published: September 2007

According to traditional wisdom, reciprocal predicates can only occur with plural subjects. This is assumed either because the reciprocal predicates in question are constructed by means of a reciprocal anaphor, which is considered as being inherently plural and hence requiring a plural antecedent, or, if there is no binding requirement, the following principle of argument mapping is implicitly assumed: all participants of a reciprocal situation need an overt realization by the same highest syntactic argument. Since a reciprocal relation minimally involves the existence of two participants, and since (in the languages considered so far) the highest syntactic argument is the subject, this mapping principle leads to the idea that the subjects of reciprocal predicates should be confined to plural or conjoined phrases. In this paper, I will show that this principle turns out to be unrealistically strong, once real discourse data are considered, in particular from a cross-linguistic perspective. Under certain structural and pragmatic conditions, participants of reciprocal relations may be backgrounded and also suppressed, with the result that, in the second case, they will lack an overt realization altogether. It will be argued that there is a typological correlation between the following three phenomena: discontinuous reciprocals (where one participant is backgrounded and hence realized as an oblique phrase), “true” singular subject reciprocals (where only one participant is realized overtly, while the other is suppressed), and plural subject reciprocals, admitting the interpretation that each individual among the subject’s referents participates in a reciprocal relation with some other (unknown or arbitrary) individual that is, however, suppressed, i.e. not referred to by the subject phrase or any other phrase in the sentence. I will present data from four languages: Hungarian, German, (Modern) Greek and Serbian/Croatian. In general, a cross-linguistic approach will be favored which considers differences and similarities at all relevant levels of description, e.g. discourse pragmatics, verbal aspect, lexical-semantic fields, interfering effects of ambiguity, etc. in addition to structural constraints in marking reciprocity.
It’s a split, but is it unaccusativity?
Authors: Lüpke Friederike
Published: September 2007

Jalonke, a Mande language of Guinea, exhibits a formal split of intransitive verbs with respect to the possessive construction in which they appear. Whenever the single argument of a nominalized intransitive verb is linked to the possessor of the nominalized verb, an inalienable possessive construction is used with some verbs, and an alienable possessive construction with others. The inalienable possessive construction is also used for nominalized transitive verbs when possessed by their object participants, while the alienable possessive construction is used for transitive verbs possessed by their subject participants. Although synchronically not fully productive, this split points towards a diachronic explanation in terms of unaccusativity. It can be explained, however, without recurrence to different initial grammatical relations, but by relying on semantic differences only.
Aspects of BSL poetry
Authors: Sutton-Spence Rachel
Published: September 2007

The British Sign Language poetry of Dorothy Miles is a major contribution to the canon of BSL poetry. This paper considers her work as an example of “oral poetry”, in the tradition of other oral (i.e. unwritten poetry). Following definitions of oral poetry primarily from Finnegan (1977), I explore the degree to which Miles’ BSL work may be considered “oral” from the perspective of composition, transmission and performance, and linguistic structure. Although there are ways in which BSL poetry does share similarities with other spoken language “oral” poetry, the unique relationship between sign language and spoken language creates situations in which the BSL poetry is unlike either oral or written poetry.
Spatial perspective choice in ASL
Authors: Emmorey Karen , Tversky Barbara
Published: September 2007

Two studies investigated the ramifications of encoding spatial locations via signing space for perspective choice in American Sign Language. Deaf signers (speakers) described the location of one of two identical objects either to a present addressee or to a remote addressee via a video monitor. Unlike what has been found for English speakers, ASL signers did not adopt their addressees spatial perspective when describing locations in a jointly viewed present environment; rather, they produced spatial descriptions utilizing shared space in which classifier and deictic signs were articulated at locations in signing space that schematically mapped to both the speakers and addressees view of object locations within the (imagined) environment. When the speaker and addressee were not jointly viewing the environment, speakers either adopted their addressees perspective via referential shift (i.e. locations in signing space were described as if the speaker were the addressee) or speakers expressed locations from their own perspective by describing locations from their view of a map of the environment and the addressees position within that environment. The results highlight crucial distinctions between the nature of perspective choice in signed languages in which signing space is used to convey spatial information and spoken languages in which spatial information is conveyed by lexical spatial terms. English speakers predominantly reduce their addressees cognitive load by adopting their addressees perspective, whereas in ASL shared space can be used (there is no true addressee or speaker perspective) and in other contexts, reversing speaker perspective is common in ASL and does not increase the addressees cognitive load.
Interpreting into International Sign Pidgin
Authors: McKee Rachel , Napier Jemina
Published: September 2007

The nature of International Sign Pidgin has been recently described and discussed in various studies and papers (Moody 1987; Coppock 1990; Supalla 1991; Padden 1993; Scott Gibson & Ojala 1994; Webb & Supalla 1994, 1995; Allsop, Woll & Brauti 1995; Allsop 1996; Bergmann 1996). Although international sign has been used in interpreting for almost twenty years, no empirical research has described the unique phenomenon of international sign interpreting. This study analyses data samples of interpretation from spoken English into International Sign Pidgin at international conferences and sports meetings. Predominant linguistic characteristics of the target language output are identified in the first section, while the second section describes strategies that international interpreters use to manage the task of processing input while producing a comprehensible message in a partially improvised language form. Examples demonstrate how international interpreters take a free approach to interpretation, aiming for equivalence at text level in most instances. International interpreters are shown to be more than conduits, as their interpreting decisions indicate extensive use of contextual knowledge, inferencing, audience awareness, and considerations of relevance and efficiency in the process of interpretation.
Form and discourse function of the pointing toward the chest in Swedish Sign Language
Authors: Nilsson Anna-Lena
Published: September 2007

The object of this study is a sign glossed index-c, a point toward the signer’s chest, and its use in Swedish Sign Language. The sign has often been referred to as the first person pronoun of Swedish Sign Language, and it has been claimed that index-c is only used for non-first person reference in reported speech (Wallin 1987; Ahlgren 1991; Simper-Allen 1999). In the analyzed material, however, index-c is also used for non-first person reference when the actions and thoughts of a referent are rendered. A closer look also made it clear that there are actually two different forms of index-c, with different distribution, and that there appears to be an indefinite pronoun in Swedish Sign Language. What is presented here is thus an analysis of the use and meaning of two forms of the sign that was initially glossed index-c.
Question and Negation in Israeli Sign Language
Authors: Meir Irit
Published: September 2007

The paper presents the interrogative and negative constructions in Israeli Sign Language (ISL). Both manual and nonmanual components of these constructions are described, revealing a complex and rich system. In addition to the basic lexical terms, ISL uses various morphological devices to expand its basic question and negation vocabulary, such as compounding and suffixation. The nonmanual component consists of specific facial expressions, head and body posture, and mouthing. The use of mouthing is especially interesting, as ISL seems to use it extensively, both as a word formation device and as a grammatical marker for negation. Interrogative and negative constructions interact in with other grammatical categories in the language; i.e., the distribution of various negation words is determined by the lexical category of the negated word. Thus, the distribution of negation words provides evidence for the existence of Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives as formal categories in the language. Finally, a diachronic comparison between present day ISL and earlier stages of the language reveals interesting traits in the development of these systems.
Sign language poetry and Deaf identity
Authors: Sutton-Spence Rachel , Müller de Quadros Ronice
Published: September 2007

In this paper, we consider the role of sign language poetry in creating and expressing the Deaf poet’s identity as a “visual person” in a community living within a wider national community. We show how two Deaf poets from different linguistic, national and cultural backgrounds nevertheless have both created similar effects through their sign language poems, drawing on the folkloric knowledge of their Deaf communities and wider national folklore. Analysis of the language and themes in the poems reveals that sign language components including neologism and use of symmetry can be manipulated directly to celebrate the visual experience of Deaf people. The poetic language can be seen as a way to empower poets and their audiences to understand their place better within the world Deaf community and their own national communities.
What is the chin doing?
Authors: Schalber Katharina
Published: September 2007

The aim of this paper is to investigate the structure of polar (yes/no questions) and content questions (wh-questions) in Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS), analyzing the different nonmanual signals, the occurrence of question signs and their syntactic position. As I will show, the marking strategies used in ÖGS are no exception to the crosslinguistic observations that interrogative constructions in sign languages employ a variety of nonmanual signals and manual signs (Zeshan 2004). In ÖGS polar questions are marked with ‘chin down’, whereas content questions are indicated with ‘chin up’ or ‘head forward’ and content question signs. These same nonmanual markers are reported for Croatian sign language, indicating common foundation due to historical relations and intense language contact.
La traduction des textes scientifiques
Authors: Rey Joëlle
Published: September 2007

L’analyse des textes scientifiques dans une perspective discursive fait apparaître que, bien que leur contenu porte sur des sujets universels, leur forme est liée à la culture de la langue dans laquelle ils ont été produits. En effet, ils ont pour but de modifier l’univers cognitif du lecteur, ce qui implique la mise en oeuvre de mécanismes spécifiques souvent associés à des formes linguistiques déterminées. A partir d’un corpus de textes de semi-vulgarisation scientifique en anglais, en français et en espagnol, cet article se propose de montrer que, dans certains cas, les contraintes liées à la progression textuelle obligent le traducteur à calquer des formes de mise en texte de l’original, même si elles sont peu usuelles dans la langue d’arrivée.
Tailoring Translation Programs to Social Needs
Authors: Li Defeng
Published: September 2007

To ensure that translation programs meet the constantly changing needs of the market, it is of paramount importance to first identify what those needs are. This article reports on a data-based study of professional translators undertaken in Hong Kong. The study reveals that recent social-political changes in the country have brought about changes in the needs of professional translators characterized by demand for better bilingual competence including mastery of Putonghua, better command of selective translation and more collaborative translation. It was also found that training in English and Chinese proved most helpful to professional translators at work, whereas training in interpretation and subject knowledge proved inadequate. The author recommends that training in L1 and L2 be strengthened, and translation teaching be brought closer to the real world through authentic training, thus responding to changing social needs.
Towards a Methodology for Investigating the Style of a Literary Translator
Authors: Baker Mona
Published: September 2007

Translation studies has inherited from literary studies its preoccupation with the style of individual creative writers and from linguistics the preoccupation with the style of social groups of language users. It also inherited from both disciplines the association of style with ‘original’ writing. Little or no attention has been paid so far to the possibility of describing the ‘style’ of a translator or group of translators in terms of what might be distinctive about the language they produce. This paper offers a first attempt to outline a methodological framework for investigating the question of style in literary translation—not in the traditional sense of whether the style of a given author is adequately conveyed in the relevant translation but in terms of whether individual literary translators can be shown to use distinctive styles of their own.
Translation, Normalisation and Identity in Galicia(n)
Authors: Millán-Varela Carmen
Published: September 2007

This article approaches the role and position of literary translation in the Galician context during the 20th century. The socio-linguistic situation of the native language, Galego (Galician), and the asymmetrical relations of power with respect to Castilian have been shaping and determining the dynamics of translation, and, to a certain extent, Galician cultural life in general. Translation therefore appears as a crucial and ambiguous activity, both contributing to the process of linguistic and cultural normalisation but also revealing the lingering weakness of the target language. Translation therefore becomes a powerful mirror on which to contemplate pressing domestic debates on language and identity.
Biggles’s friend André
Authors: Fawcett Peter
Published: September 2007

Stuart Gilbert’s 1935 translation of André Malraux’s La Voie royale deploys an entire arsenal oft ranslation techniques to rewrite and rework the text at the levels of le xis and syntax in ways which emphasise one dimension of the novel, and so give the impression that Gilbert was re-siting the work in a sub-system of English literature different from the location it occupied in the French literary system. The techniques he used and their effect on reception are analysed, as are his likely reasons for adopting such a specific translation posture, and, in particular, whether his approach is the result ofa particular personality type, whether it can be seen as an example of a polysystem-governed adaptation, or whether it is a regime-bound translation.
Adding towards a nationalist text
Authors: Gürçağlar Şehnaz Tahir
Published: September 2007

This is a study of a “concealed translation” of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in Turkish. Ali Riza Seyfi, who was known as an author and translator of historical fiction and books on Turkish history, produced a version of the novel under the title Kazikli Voyvoda,which was published in 1928 and reprinted in 1946. Kazikli Voyvoda combines the original gothic aspects with a Turkish nationalist discourse, exemplifying the kind of role translation can assume in the making of national identities. The article traces the matricial norms employed by Seyfi to reveal those of his additions to Dracula that resulted in a highly nationalist text. It is further pointed out that Kazikli Voyvoda stands in a specific relationship with the notions of “national” and “nationalist” literature, which were rather topical around the time the text was published.
A three-level methodology for descriptive-explanatory Translation Studies
Authors: Calzada Pérez María
Published: September 2007

Drawing mainly on Vidal (1998), Tymoczko (2000) and Harvey (forthcoming), Hatim and Mason (1990, 1997) and Mason (2000), the present paper proposes a threefold analytical methodology consisting of: description, ideological explanation, and perlocutionary exploration of texts. In practice, the article examines the speeches uttered in Spanish and English before the European Parliament (EP) on 9th March 1993. The main focus of the study is transitivity shifts and their connection to ideological issues. This corpus has been chosen for various reasons. Amongst them, the paper sets out to test the conclusions reached by prior research (Trosborg 1997a; Koskinen 2000). Three basic questions are posed: 1. Are EP speeches odd, ‘out of place’/ ‘strange’/ ‘unusual’ (in short literal) as Koskinen (2000) maintains? (Descriptive component of analysis); 2. Does translation affect the ideological output of original texts? (Explanatory component of analysis); 3.Which perlocutionary questions may be raised as a result of the previous questions? (Perlocutionary component of analysis).
Voiced-over television documentaries
Authors: Franco Eliana P. C.
Published: September 2007

As a relatively new field of research, audiovisual translation still lacks conceptual and terminological consistency, especially when the object of study is factual output and its modes of transfer. Based on an empirical investigation of voice-over translations of television documentaries, the article gives a brief illustration of the commonest terminological and conceptual difficulties faced by the researcher, identifies some of their causes, and goes on to suggest some of the deplorable consequences for research. It is argued, above all, that research on audiovisual translation still has a lot to develop as far as television informative content is concerned.
Propositions on cross-cultural communication and translation
Authors: Pym Anthony
Published: September 2007

Cross-cultural communication can be characterized by a relatively high degree of effort required to reduce complexity, by relatively high transaction costs, by relatively low trust between communication partners, and by relatively narrow success conditions that create points of high-risk discourse. To communicate successfully between cultures would thus require a special kind of risk management. Translation, as a mode of cross-cultural communication, is held to share those same features, as well as at least two specific representational maxims concerning discursive persons and textual quantity. It is argued that the related concepts of complexity, success conditions and risk can describe not only the act of translating as a mode of cross-cultural communication, but also certain features of the professional intercultures to which translators belong. Step-by-step propositions thus synthesize an approach that runs from an analysis of cross-cultural communication to a description of professional intercultures, their sources of power, and the reasons for their apparent lack of power in a globalizing age.
Inculturation and acculturation in the translation of religious texts
Authors: Alves Filho Paulo Edson , Milton John
Published: September 2007

This article examines the translation of religious texts by the Jesuit missionary Joséde Anchieta in Brazil in the 16th century. The article shows that Anchieta used a large amount of inculturation, a readiness to mix Catholic and native Indian terms, in order to achieve the catechism of the Indians, their acculturation into Catholicism. However, this inculturation always remained at a superficial level as Anchieta used terms from the spiritual world of the Tupi Indians but made no attempt to understand the deeper meaning of these terms. The article describes the background of Spanish and Portuguese colonizers in Latin America, lists the characteristics of the Tupi Indian language and analyzes a number of Anchieta’s writings in Tupi in which he translated certain important Christian concepts into Tupi.
Mining defining contexts to help structuring differential ontologies
Authors: Malaisé Véronique , Zweigenbaum Pierre , Bachimont Bruno
Published: September 2007

In this paper, we present an experiment dealing with corpus-based construction of “differential ontologies”, which are organised according to semantic similarity and differential features. We argue that knowledge-rich defining contexts can be useful to help an ontology modeller in his task. We present a method, based on lexico-syntactic patterns, to spot such contexts in a corpus, then identify the terms they relate (definiendum and genus or “characteristics”) and the semantic relation that links them. We also show how potential co-hyponyms can be detected on the basis of shared words in their definiens. We evaluate the extracted defining sentences, semantic relations and co-hyponyms on a test corpus focusing on childhood and on an evaluation corpus about dietetics (both corpora are French). Definition extraction obtains 50% precision and recall of approximately 40%. Semantic relation identification reaches an average of 48% precision, and co-hyponyms 23.5%. We discuss the results of these experiments and conclude on perspectives for future work.