Papers reviewed and determined not to be word norm studies. Use the flag icon to report errors or suggest re-inclusion.
16504 papers
The paper reviews the conceptual and terminological field related to offensive vocabulary of limited usage and to the identification of semantic and pragmatic distinctions between such linguistic categories as pejorative, invective, and obscenity. The study is relevant due to the absence of a clear unified classification of this type of vocabulary in both Ukrainian and international humanities scholarship, which leads to terminological polysemy and hinders the accurate analysis of verbal aggression, emotionality, and ethical markers in speech. The study includes a review of works by Ukrainian (Tkachivska, Stavytska, Bilokonenko, Kulchytska, etc.) and foreign linguists (Finkbeiner, Castroviejo, Popa-Wyatt, Liviu, etc.), which made it possible to systematize existing approaches to the definition, functions, and semantics of offensive vocabulary. It has been established that pejorative vocabulary represents the broadest category, encompassing lexical units with negative connotation that are not necessarily aimed at directly insulting the addressee. Invective, unlike pejorative, is characterized by an intentional orientation toward humiliation or aggressive expression, whereas obscenisms constitute a subclass of tabooed vocabulary that lies beyond socially acceptable norms of communication. The importance of context in the actualization of pejorative meaning, which allows for distinguishing between absolute and relative pejoratives, is taken into special consideration. The article also offers a generalized classification of pejorative vocabulary based on the criterion of contextual application, which is of practical value for further research in translation studies. The findings confirm the necessity of developing a unified terminological system for the study of offensive vocabulary, particularly in the translation of literary discourse, where such vocabulary plays an essential role in constructing the sociolinguistic and cultural authenticity of the text.
The object of the study is the new poetics of French prose of the late 19th — first half of the 20th century and its functioning in the system of Russian translation. The focus is on texts in which the artistic effect is created not so much by the plot composition, but through the syntactic structure, rhythmic organization and intonational heterogeneity. The study is based on the works of such authors as Marcel Proust and André Gide, whose texts are dominated by extended periods, grammatical deviations from the norm, associative logic of the statement and elements of "inner speech". These features complicate translation from French into Russian, where the focus on logical completeness, clarity of syntax and normative design of the text traditionally prevails. In this regard, translation is considered as a form of secondary poetics, capable of both preserving and transforming the original structure. The methodological basis of the study is a linguistic and comparative translation analysis of the original and translation with an emphasis on syntactic-intonational transformations, as well as elements of the functional and rhythmic approaches. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that the emphasis is not on the lexical-semantic, but on the rhythmic-syntactic aspects of translating a literary text. The main conclusions of the analysis are as follows: the structure of the utterance plays the role of a poetic category in modernist prose, and in Russian translation these elements are often simplified or leveled. A special contribution of the author is the identification of patterns of adaptation of intonational and rhythmic structures in interlingual translation. The main conclusions of the conducted analysis are the following: the structure of the utterance plays the role of a poetic category in modernist prose, while in Russian translation these elements are often simplified or leveled. The author's special contribution is the identification of patterns of adaptation of intonation and rhythmic structures in interlingual translation.
The rapid advancement and adaptability of Large Language Models (LLMs) highlight the need for moral consistency, the capacity to maintain ethically coherent reasoning across varied contexts. Existing alignment frameworks, structured approaches designed to align model behavior with human ethical and social norms, often rely on static datasets and post-hoc evaluations, offering limited insight into how ethical reasoning may evolve across different contexts or temporal scales. This study presents the Moral Consistency Pipeline (MoCoP), a dataset-free, closed-loop framework for continuously evaluating and interpreting the moral stability of LLMs. MoCoP combines three supporting layers: (i) lexical integrity analysis, (ii) semantic risk estimation, and (iii) reasoning-based judgment modeling within a self-sustaining architecture that autonomously generates, evaluates, and refines ethical scenarios without external supervision. Our empirical results on GPT-4-Turbo and DeepSeek suggest that MoCoP effectively captures longitudinal ethical behavior, revealing a strong inverse relationship between ethical and toxicity dimensions (correlation rET = -0.81, p value less than 0.001) and a near-zero association with response latency (correlation rEL approximately equal to 0). These findings demonstrate that moral coherence and linguistic safety tend to emerge as stable and interpretable characteristics of model behavior rather than short-term fluctuations. Furthermore, by reframing ethical evaluation as a dynamic, model-agnostic form of moral introspection, MoCoP offers a reproducible foundation for scalable, continuous auditing and advances the study of computational morality in autonomous AI systems.
Stress in interpreting has been well researched over the last few decades. This study takes a multimodal approach to investigate the distinct effects of emotional and cognitive load on interpreter stress. 20 student interpreters consecutively interpreted four first-person mental healthcare narratives from Turkish to English that varied in emotional content and difficulty, within a 2×2 factorial design. Cognitive and emotional responses were captured using galvanic skin response (GSR), prosodic features (pitch and intensity), and three self-report measures (PANAS, STAI, and NASA-TLX). The stimuli were normed using traditional readability indices, expert ratings, and novel natural language processing techniques to control emotional valence and linguistic complexity. The results showed that physiological arousal, as measured by GSR, was primarily driven by cognitive load, particularly during the later stages of interpreting. Emotional load, on the other hand, was more clearly reflected in prosodic markers (especially pitch) and negative affect ratings. The results also hinted at a convergence in pitch between the source speaker and the interpreter. Notably, emotional and cognitive load began to take its toll from the latter stages of the listening phase onwards. However, none of the objective or subjective stress measures predicted interpreting accuracy, suggesting that performance may be mediated by individual coping strategies. The findings are expected to have implications for interpreting pedagogy and the development of cognitive and emotional support strategies in high-stakes interpreting contexts.
The purpose of the study is to investigate how the Turkish and Ukrainian university students cognitively and emotionally processed the COVID-19 pandemic by examining their verbal associations through a psycholinguistic perspective. Research methods and techniques. Grounded in schema theory and a socio-psycholinguistic approach, research employs the Free Association Test (FAT) to capture spontaneous lexical responses to four key stimuli in this area (quarantine, lockdown, social distance, and self-isolation) from 1,130 participants. Associative responses are analyzed thematically to explore semantic fields reflecting emotional, cultural, and social dimensions of pandemic experience. Results. Findings indicate that both Turkish and Ukrainian students primarily associated these terms with negative emotions, including depression, anxiety, and loneliness, highlighting the pandemic’s disruptive psychological impact. However, cross-cultural differences emerged: Turkish participants emphasized obligation, prohibition, and state-enforced restrictions, reflecting centralized governance and norm-enforcement narratives. Ukrainian students demonstrate wider semantic spectrum, combining expressions of emotional strain with pragmatic strategies such as self-development, defense, and references to digital learning tools, reflecting institutional fragmentation and adaptation under crisis. High rates of non-responses suggest emotional avoidance and trauma-related withdrawal. Conclusions. Results reinforce schema theory by showing how extreme situations disrupt and reshape cognitive-emotional frameworks, while underscoring the role of sociopolitical context in shaping linguistic consciousness. The study has implications for post-pandemic policymaking, particularly in designing culturally responsive strategies for student mental health and educational resilience.
Word-level psycholinguistic norms lend empirical support to theories of language processing. However, obtaining such human-based measures is not always feasible or straightforward. One promising approach is to augment human norming datasets by using Large Language Models (LLMs) to predict these characteristics directly, a practice that is rapidly gaining popularity in psycholinguistics and cognitive science. However, the novelty of this approach (and the relative inscrutability of LLMs) necessitates the adoption of rigorous methodologies that guide researchers through this process, present the range of possible approaches, and clarify limitations that are not immediately apparent, but may, in some cases, render the use of LLMs impractical. In this work, we present a comprehensive methodology for estimating word characteristics with LLMs, enriched with practical advice and lessons learned from our own experience. Our approach covers both the direct use of base LLMs and the fine-tuning of models, an alternative that can yield substantial performance gains in certain scenarios. A major emphasis in the guide is the validation of LLM-generated data with human "gold standard" norms. We also present a software framework that implements our methodology and supports both commercial and open-weight models. We illustrate the proposed approach with a case study on estimating word familiarity in English. Using base models, we achieved a Spearman correlation of 0.8 with human ratings, which increased to 0.9 when employing fine-tuned models. This methodology, framework, and set of best practices aim to serve as a reference for future research on leveraging LLMs for psycholinguistic and lexical studies.
Advertisements serve as pivotal cultural tools that shape consumer perceptions, influence purchasing behavior and construct social meanings. In the context of beauty and cosmetics, their persuasive force is particularly directed toward women, often reinforcing the long-standing association between fair skin and desirability. This study examines the semiotic strategies employed in fairness cream advertisements to demonstrate how they commodify the female body and reproduce normative beauty standards among Indian women. Drawing on multimodal semiotic theories from Structuralist Model of Signification of Saussure, Barthes (1972) and Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) the analysis explores how signs, symbols, color schemes, narrative structures and ideological mythologies collectively sustain the notion that fairness signifies beauty, confidence, success and social approval. The study focuses on both lexical and visual semiotics, analyzing linguistic choices, metaphors, presuppositions and transformation narratives that implicitly encode colorist ideologies. Complemented by feminist theory and postcolonial perspectives, the analysis further interrogates the gendered pressures, patriarchal expectations and colonial residues embedded within fairness discourse. Findings reveal that fairness cream advertisements systematically normalize colorism by idealizing lighter skin tones while marginalizing darker complexions. These representational patterns shape self-perceptions of women, contributing to internalized bias, diminished self-esteem, and aspirational conformity to Eurocentric beauty norms. The study highlights the urgent need for inclusive media practices that challenge discriminatory beauty narratives and support diverse representations. By examining the intersections of semiotics, gender and postcolonial identity, this research contributes to broader discussions on beauty, power and inequality in contemporary Indian society.
This dissertation examines the multifaceted role of pitch by focusing on two central issues. First, it investigates whether lexical tones in Standard Chinese exhibit affective iconicity—that is, to what extent their pitch characteristics (e.g., height, range, slope, and contour direction) systematically aid to signal human emotional expression (e.g., arousal and valence). Notably, while arousal appears to be driven by inherent physiological responses, valence is more influenced by lexical meaning and cultural conventions. Analyses of bi-syllabic and monosyllabic words reveal that higher pitch, wider pitch range, and steeper pitch slopes are linked to higher arousal, whereas lower pitch and falling contours are associated with negative valence. In addition, monosyllabic tonemes more strongly predict emotional arousal ratings than consonants, and emotional valence ratings than vowels. Furthermore, lexical tones show adaptive significance for both arousal and valence, suggesting a potential mechanism of affective iconicity. <br> Second, the dissertation explores the developmental hemispheric lateralization of pitch processing in infants learning different languages. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, cross-linguistic comparisons between Dutch (a stress-accent language) and Japanese (a pitch-accent language) infants reveal distinct lateralization patterns. Japanese infants, whose language uses pitch to signal lexical contrasts, exhibit early left-hemispheric specialization for speech stimuli, while Dutch infants exhibit a bilateral response. Together, these studies suggest that pitch perception in language and emotion is shaped by an interplay between the perceptual properties of pitch and linguistic, experiential, and contextual influences.
The rapid rise of digital communication platforms has profoundly influenced the English language�s evolution, altering its syntax, vocabulary, and usage norms. This study investigates how social media, texting, and instant messaging contribute to language change, focusing on the emergence of new lexical items, shifts in grammar, and pragmatic variations. Through qualitative content analysis and corpus linguistics, the research explores the dynamic interaction between digital communication modes and contemporary English, highlighting implications for language teaching, literacy, and cultural identity.
The article studies the vocabulary used in epidemiology and infectious diseases, an integral part of the Ukrainian terminology system. It addresses the issue of whether these terms comply with the requirements of the terminological norm. The lexical and semantic features and inter-changeability of such lexemes are clarified. The terminology in epidemiology and infectious diseases encompasses designations for processes, conditions, disease names, substances, enzymes, allergens, toxins, vaccines, viruses, bacteria, scientific disciplines, subfields, professional titles, individuals, and medical instruments. The analysis indicates that the reviewed terms generally comply with the features of the terminological norm, as they correlate with the concepts they denote, are part of the medical terminology system, have clear definitions in dictionaries, and are stylistically neutral. However, specific terms do not fully meet the criteria of unambiguity, as some exhibit polysemy while others demonstrate synonymy, with both foreign-origin terms and their Ukrainian equivalents being identified.
This study examines the domestic violence endured by Indian women in colonial Malaya as reflected in Malaysian Tamil folk songs. These songs function as cultural archives that document the lived realities, emotional pain and silenced voices of women within the exploitative British rubber plantation system. Drawing on 23 purposively selected songs from major documented collections, the analysis identifies two dominant forms of abuse which were violence committed by intoxicated husbands and violence perpetrated by sober husbands. Across these songs, domestic violence appears through multiple dimensions such as physical assault, marital rape, humiliation, psychological intimidation, emotional neglect, infidelity, abandonment and economic deprivation. Historical, descriptive and explanatory research designs were employed to interpret women’s experiences in their socio-cultural context. Thematic analysis guided by Braun and Clarke’s six-phase framework enabled the identification of recurring patterns of oppression. Narrative and discourse analyses were also used to uncover symbolic meaning, linguistic choices and emotional tone within the lyrics. A translation process was incorporated using Tamil lexical resources to preserve cultural nuances, idiomatic expressions and metaphors while rendering them into English. The findings reveal that domestic violence was deeply rooted in patriarchy, economic dependency, caste norms and the structural conditions of plantation life, leading some women to express death as a final escape from relentless suffering and subaltern existence.
As part of a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) project, which focuses on a case study, this study examines how lexical choices influence gendered ideologies through a study of film reviews of Barbie (2003). The study looks at the language employed in critiques and how gender roles, stereotypes, and feminist themes are written and spoken in the discourse of the film. It looks at how Barbie and Ken get empowered and how Ken is subordinated through certain key choices of lexical meaning, as well as the way Barbie and Ken subvert the traditional norms of gender. It demonstrates that the study revolves around the same lines as those of empowerment vs. subordination, stereotypes, and resistance to gender norms. Barbie is always shown as an empowered and independent figure who challenges traditional femininity, whereas Ken always represents a passive and subordinate identity that mirrors traditional masculinity. While both characters seem to cast their roles at first, Barbie struggles with societal beauty standards, and Ken struggles with a crisis of masculinity. Further, the analysis also discusses the pressure between feminism and commercialization, pointing out how the film criticizes patriarchal structures even when the film takes place in a consumer-obsessive culture. Overall, the study indicates the extent to which language can bring out gendered meaning and contributes to our understanding of how media discourse influences social perception of gender.
This paper examines the use of slang in the Uzbek and Turkish languages and analyzes its influence on cultural processes and language development. Slang is viewed as a dynamic and expressive layer of vocabulary that reflects social changes, youth culture, and contemporary modes of communication. The study explores the sociolinguistic functions of slang, its role in informal interaction, and its gradual penetration into the standard language through mass media, social networks, and popular culture. By comparing Uzbek and Turkish slang, the research identifies both shared tendencies shaped by globalization and language contact, as well as culture-specific features rooted in national traditions and social norms. The findings suggest that while slang enriches lexical diversity and communicative expressiveness, it also raises concerns regarding language norms and standardization. The paper contributes to contrastive linguistics and linguacultural studies by highlighting the interaction between slang, culture, and language evolution.
This article explores the nature, functions, and significance of discursive formulas in academic writing, with a focus on comparing their usage in English and Uzbek academic articles. The study highlights the similarities and differences shaped by linguistic norms and rhetorical traditions.
This study examines how racially charged language in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) has been translated into Arabic, focusing on the ethical, cultural, and pedagogical implications of translation strategies. Using Skopos Theory, Venuti's domestication/foreignization model, and Spivak's postcolonial ethics, the research analyses the rendering of terms such as the racial slur (“Nword”), "boy," "white trash," and African American Vernacular English (AAVE) across multiple Arabic translations. A comparative study, integrating Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with crosslinguistic comparison against the French, Spanish, and German translations, detects a consistent pattern of defensive domestication among Arabic translations, including euphemization, omission, and lexical substitution. Though culturesensitive, the strategies tend to downplay the novel's critique of institutional racism and can efface its historical context. Western translations, however, typically retain racially marked words with Para textual glossing for critical reception. The study highlights the translator as a cultural mediator whose decisions are dictated by sociopolitical norms, institutionally imposed, and audience requirements. It recommends adopting ethical domestication or critical foreignization, facilitated by annotated bilingual editions, pedagogy underpinned by culture, and open translator commentary. These approaches strive to uphold historical faithfulness, foster intercultural understanding, and develop critical literacy. In this way, the research contributes to debates in translation ethics, postcolonial studies of translation, and language pedagogy, and argues for translation as a linguistic and ethical practice.
The article deals with the issue of translating Ukrainian euphemisms and dysphemisms into Korean within the framework of film subtitling. The relevance of the study is driven by the growing need for effective intercultural communication and the increasing interest in Ukrainian culture and cinema among Korean audiences. Euphemisms and dysphemisms play a vital role in artistic discourse, as they carry emotional and cultural connotations. These linguistic units not only contribute to the character development but also reflect national identity, elements of folklore, taboos, and societal values. Translating such expressions presents particular challenges in the context of subtitling, where it is essential to convey not only the core meaning of the utterance but also its communicative purpose within a limited format that aligns with both timing and on-screen visuals.The material for analysis was the Ukrainian historical drama Dovbush (2023) and its Korean subtitles. Based on specific dialogue examples, the study explores various translation strategies, among which communicative translation with modulation, functional substitution, literal translation, and cultural adaptation proved to be the most productive. The article examines the effectiveness of each approach and identifies the difficulties that arise due to cultural differences, lexical taboos, religious norms, and the stylistic characteristics of the Korean language. The findings suggest that the most effective method for rendering Ukrainian euphemisms and dysphemisms into Korean is communicative translation with modulation. This strategy, grounded in cultural awareness of the target audience, enables the preservation of both the semantic content and the emotional-stylistic tone of the original expression.
In human life, the prevention of violence, the revival of principles of humane existence, and the creation of a just world for future generations require eliminating inequality between women and men. In this context, comprehensive scientific exploration of the topic becomes increasingly relevant. In contemporary research, the issue of new terms in languages always takes center stage, which is an undeniable fact. This article introduces, for the first time in the scientific community, the term “unisex names”. In the Kazakh language, there is no specific category dedicated solely to gender, and therefore, this topic is not addressed by language norms. Nevertheless, there are elements that consistently manifest in the form of personal names. In Kazakh society, when choosing a name for a child, their gender is taken into account, but there are names that can be given to both boys and girls. This article explores the reasons for studying unisex names in the Kazakh language, their impact on a child's psychology, and their role in the social adaptation of an individual in society. Research on unisex names in the Kazakh language has been systematized, and a comparison with similar forms in other cultures has been conducted. Special attention is given to the structure and creation of lexical-semantic meanings of unisex names in the Kazakh language, and factors influencing the sociocultural adaptation of the personality have been identified. To validate the findings, a survey was conducted using a specifically designed questionnaire.
Press releases represent a business genre that is widely used by organisations to communicate externally with a range of stakeholders including journalists, investors and the general public. The multipurpose nature of press releases (Bremner 2014) has led to their characterisation as a complex hybrid genre (Catenaccio 2008) with informational, persuasive and promotional communicative purposes. Press releases are also marked by what Jacobs (2006: 201) calls “preformulation”, i.e. “a news style that requires little or no reworking on the part of the journalists who receive” them (e.g. third person self-reference, self-quotation). An examination of the treatment of press releases in a series of business communication textbooks and guidebooks (e.g. Thill & Bovée 2022, Chan 2020, Kennedy 2014) reveals that, while information and guidance about the move structure, format and layout of press releases are generally provided, the actual language typically used in these texts tends to be largely neglected. This paper explores the extent to which findings from corpus-driven research into the language of press releases could be used to inform learning/teaching business communication materials to raise the students’ awareness of some of the key linguistic features associated with press releases written in English. This exploration is based both on an analysis of recurrent sequences of words extracted from a one-million-word corpus of corporate press releases in English issued in by Fortune 500 companies (De Cock and Granger 2021) and on more recent phraseological research conducted within the framework of this paper. Recurrent sequences of words provide a useful starting point to access and identify the preferred ways of saying or of writing things in specific genres and the paper presents and discusses concrete examples of Data-Driven Learning (DDL) activities that could help business communication students develop their press release writing knowledge. References Bremner, S. (2014). ‘Genres and processes in the PR industry: Behind the scenes with an intern writer’. International Journal of Business Communication 51(3), 259-278. Catenaccio, P. (2008). ‘Press releases as a hybrid genre: Addressing the informational/promotional conundrum’. Pragmatics, 18(1), 9-31. Chan, M. (2020). English for Business Communication. Routledge. De Cock, S. & Granger, S. (2021). ‘Stance in press releases versus business news: a lexical bundle approach’. Text & Talk 41(5-6), 691-713. Jacobs, G. (2006). ‘The dos and don’ts of writing press releases (and how learners act upon them)’. In P. Gillaerts & P.Shaw (eds), The Map and the Landscape: Norms and Practices in Genre, 199-218. Bern: Peter Lang. Kennedy, M. (2014). Beginner’s Guide to Writing Powerful Press Releases: Secrets the Pros Use to Command Media Attention. eReleases. Thill, J. V. & Bovée, C. L. (2022). Excellence in Business Communication (13th ed.). Pearson Education Limited.
This article presents an analysis of the most frequent errors in Ukrainian political blogotexts, grounded in the posts of the political blogger, civic activist, and volunteer Serhii Sternenko across the social networks Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, and X. Particular attention is devoted to fragments of his online texts that exhibit linguistic deviations and that yield linguo-pragmatic effects or have already become exemplars of precedent phenomena. The selection of a politically oriented blogger is justified by the increased popularity of political blogging in Ukraine since the onset of the full-scale invasion. Overall, the opinion leader demonstrates considerable linguistic competence in text production; nevertheless, his posts contain errors at various linguistic levels. These inaccuracies may result from the time constraints of composing posts, lack of familiarity with specific language norms, or deliberate use of non-standard lexis or constructions for particular communicative aims. The most prevalent are grammatical errors: incorrect noun declension in the genitive case when used with numerals two, three, and four; the use of comparative rather than superlative adjective forms; erroneous formation of the future tense; employment of active present participles; incorrect noun endings in the genitive case; reliance on constructions with passive‐voice verbs followed by nouns in the instrumental case; incorrect formation of toponymic adjectives; improper suffixation for professional designations; and neglect of the vocative case. Additionally, lexical errors occur, including paronym confusion and the use of Russicisms and calqued constructions. Orthographic errors include violations of the “rule of nine,” incorrect spelling of compound nouns and adjectives, and erroneous spelling of proper nouns. Punctuation errors manifest as omitted dashes between the subject and compound nominal predicate, missing commas around parenthetical words, and omitted commas between clauses in complex sentences. Failure to observe the principles of euphony in Ukrainian is also common in Sternenko’s publications. Given that his audience primarily consists of young people, it is important for this opinion leader to maintain high standards of public discourse and to encourage his followers to do the same.
Abstract This study investigates the ecopragmatic roles of insect lexicons in Penginyongan parikan, a traditional rhymed couplet from the Banyumas region of Central Java, Indonesia. Drawing on Capone’s concept of pragmeme and Wong’s triple articulation framework, parikan is examined as a culturally situated speech act where linguistic form, meaning, culture, and ecology intersect. Using qualitative participant observation across 16 rural villages, 128 speakers contributed examples of parikan containing insect references. Analysis integrates speech act theory, ecopragmatics, and ethnolinguistic perspectives. Findings reveal that insect lexicons serve ten illocutionary functions – including stating, asserting, lamenting, and flirting – while embedding ecological knowledge and social norms. Insects such as kinjeng (dragonfly), buli (cicada), ampal (beetle), and coro (cockroach) operate across three interconnected levels: ecological (species traits and environmental context), cultural-symbolic (moral values, social etiquette), and linguistic-aesthetic (rhyme, rhythm, mnemonic appeal). These eco-pragmemes enable indirect communication that preserves social harmony, aligns with Javanese tata krama (politeness), and sustains environmental literacy. The study shows how parikan transforms everyday ecological references into culturally intelligible metaphors, facilitating emotional expression, social negotiation, and moral instruction without direct confrontation. By preserving insect nomenclature in poetic discourse, Banyumas communities maintain an oral archive of ecological observation, despite environmental change and lexical attrition. This work contributes to pragmatics by expanding the typology of pragmemes to include environmental encoding, and to ecolinguistics by demonstrating how poetic tradition functions as a medium for ecological knowledge transmission and cultural resilience.
The article analyzes the views of one of the leading Ukrainian authors in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Volodymyr Samiilenko, on the role of the native language for the Ukrainian nation and language as a general phenomenon of human existence. The study deals with interpretations of language and related concepts – "word", "song", "thought", "poetry", "art". The results show that relying on Shevchenko's traditions, the writer considered the Ukrainian language as the existential foundation and the primary tool for expressing the national identity, the source of the historical memory ("Ukrainian Language (In Memory of Taras Shevchenko)", "Hello to Bukovina", "Ukraine"). Being an opponent of violent confrontations, Samiilenko also believed in the power of words as an intellectual weapon and urged his contemporaries to use this powerful tool (the cycle "Iambus"). The author also addressed the nature of verbal creativity, developing the idea of poetry (song) as a divine gift and an instrument of spiritual purification and enlightenment ("Song"), a source of knowledge and a means of self-improvement ("Eagle", "Elegies"). These ideas and motifs reached a pick in the symbolic image of poetry as an irresistible force and indestructible substance that can outlive humanity itself ("Poetry Will Not Die"). In this regard, Samiilenko refers to the communicative function of language and suggests an international language (Esperanto) as a chance for mankind’s survival through understanding, which would stop constant bloody conflicts (the poem "Gaia"). The article also examines Samiilenko’s linguistic views expressed in the articles "Let’s Take Care of the Phonetic Beauty of the Language" and "Foreign Words in the Ukrainian Language," as well as in reviews of literary and scientific texts. These works are written with deep expertise, and the author’s observations on the orthography, lexical, and stylistic norms in the Ukrainian literary language are still relevant. Volodymyr Samiilenko’s critical and scientific works complement the linguistic and philosophical motives in his art and demonstrate the writer’s desire to protect his native language from destructive influences and to promote its development by interacting with the most widespread and impactful European languages.
Abstract Male reproductive success varies within populations. Models explaining reproductive skew largely emphasize dominance, yet the determinants of male reproductive success in egalitarian societies remain poorly understood. Using nine years of behavioral and genetic data from five parties, we investigated male reproductive monopolization in wild Guinea baboons ( Papio papio ), an egalitarian multilevel society with one-male “units” nested within “parties” and low male-male contest competition. Genetic analyses showed 93% of the 71 infants were sired by the female’s “unit male”, with rare extra-unit paternities consistent with limited control models. Within parties, reproduction was shared among multiple unit males, resulting in low reproductive skew, with top males siring 23-40% of offspring, well below levels in hierarchical species. Female takeovers were rare, suggesting male restraint. Reproductive success, assessed as the number of unit females, was positively associated with dominance ratings, yet males with average ratings held the largest units. Prime-age predicted reproductive success better than dominance. In conclusion, male Guinea baboons’ reproductive success is shaped less by dominance than by age and stable associations with females, who play an active role in inter-sexual relationships. These results emphasize the need to move beyond frameworks focused solely on dominance-based mechanisms and to consider species-specific social organization. Significance statement Current theoretical models of male reproductive success often focus on dominance and males’ ability to monopolize access to females. Yet, less is known about the determinants of reproductive success in societies with egalitarian male relationships, such as the multilevel society of wild Guinea baboons. Using nine years of behavioral and genetic data from five groups (“parties”), we show that unit males almost always sire their unit’s offspring. However, at the party level, male reproductive skew is low. Reproductive success is better predicted by prime-age than dominance and appears to result from long-term associations with females, likely shaped by female choice. Our results highlight the need to examine diverse social systems to understand the evolution of reproductive strategies beyond dominance-centered models.
The article deals with meronymic nouns beyond literary norms - in slang. The aim of the article is to identify the meronymic system of nouns in modern English slang and to establish their lexical-semantic range. The study of three hundred meronyms of modern English slang revealed four lexical-semantic groups: names of parts of the human body, names of time periods, names of substances and pieces of clothing. The most numerous of these ones are the first two: meronymic symbols of body parts that are classified as taboo words in the European culture and names of periods of illegal or socially dangerous leisure (drinking alcohol, taking drugs, being in prison, etc.). According to the results of the study, the meronymy in slang is selective, indicating that not everything in the surrounding world is divided into component parts, which are represented in the lexical system of the English slang. Only those areas of objective reality are divided and named that are important for certain social groups (taboo names for body parts, periods of entertainment and society-condemned pleasures, doses of drugs). Therefore, the meronymy in the English slang cannot be called a comprehensive category.
The article is devoted to the problems of optimising the methodology of teaching English to higher education students in the field of physical education and sports through the use of communicative methods, information and communication technologies, etc.The article proves the necessity of forming communicative and intercultural competence, which will allow future sports professionals to use a foreign language in professional and social spheres, taking into account the parameters necessary for free communication in the conditions of international sports professional activity.The main factors of professional-oriented training, directions of teaching a foreign language to athletes, as well as its application in the educational process are considered.It is proved that the intellectual need as a component of the motivational sphere of a higher education student can also be realised by means of a foreign language.Language is a system built as a result of a high level of abstraction.All the diversity of foreign language speech practice is embodied in a limited set of abstract rules that are necessary for practical mastery of a foreign language.The development of linguistic competence in the course of studying English at a master's level involves purposeful and systematic work on mastering the vocabulary and phraseology of foreign language business communication.It is very important for students to master the lexical and phraseological norms of business discourse in English, to understand the specifics of using lexical items in business verbal communication.The author points out the peculiarities of English business vocabulary, which has its own specifics for each sphere The peculiarities of teaching students to conduct a business conversation on (,, ) 1(47) 2025169 the phone in English are considered.Situations of foreign language business communication over the phone are presented.The article emphasises the difficulty of conducting a foreign language telephone conversation due to the lack of eye contact with the interlocutor and suggests methods of overcoming it.Learning to communicate on the telephone involves both the accumulation of a certain amount of business English vocabulary and the mastery of stable phrases and clichs used in telephone dialogues.The article also discusses the peculiarities of teaching masters to write a business letter.When working with business correspondence, physical education students learn specialised terminology and peculiarities of business paperwork.The authors note that a prerequisite for successful work on mastering foreign language business communication is the use of interactive teaching methods and technologies.
Abstract Older adults consistently report higher emotional well-being despite some physical and mental declines with age. Some theorize this is due to differences in emotion regulation, however no conclusive evidence for age differences in emotion regulation strategies has emerged. Emotion regulation tactics, such as positive-approaching (enhancing the positivity of a situation) and negative-receding (reducing the negativity of a situation), hold promise for uncovering age differences. However, no studies to date have considered whether tactic vary in their physiological profiles. Thus, this study investigated 35 younger (M = 19.06 years, SD = 3.58; 17 women) and 42 older (M = 74.02 years, SD = 4.69; 23 women) participants who viewed emotionally-evocative videos and regulated emotions using positive-approaching and negative-receding techniques (with both regulation blocks compared to a neutral video block to control for baseline differences in psychophysiology). Multi-level linear models revealed significant Age x Sex x Tactic interactions, such that positive-approaching tactics (vs negative-receding) were associated with lower arousal ratings for younger women and older men (but not younger men or older women). While there was no tactic difference in self-reported arousal for older women, Respiratory Sinus Arrythmia (a measure of heart activity associated with calm parasympathetic states) was higher during positive-approaching for them. Interestingly, older men had higher RSA during negative-approaching tactics as compared to positive-approaching. These findings suggest emotion regulation tactics have age and sex differential impacts on self-reported and physiological arousal. Future work may disentangle physiological activation and self-reported behavior by also considering the role of interoceptive awareness.
Kyrgyz remains a low-resource language with limited foundational NLP tools. To address this gap, we introduce KyrgyzBERT, the first publicly available monolingual BERT-based language model for Kyrgyz. The model has 35.9M parameters and uses a custom tokenizer designed for the language's morphological structure. To evaluate performance, we create kyrgyz-sst2, a sentiment analysis benchmark built by translating the Stanford Sentiment Treebank and manually annotating the full test set. KyrgyzBERT fine-tuned on this dataset achieves an F1-score of 0.8280, competitive with a fine-tuned mBERT model five times larger. All models, data, and code are released to support future research in Kyrgyz NLP.
This study investigates the occurrence and functions of nonstandard language variation in Instagram headlines posted by @folkative, a popular digital media account known for its creative use of informal language. Despite the growing attention to social media discourse, little research has focused on how nonstandard forms operate in short, attention-grabbing digital headlines. Guided by Labov’s (1972) variationist sociolinguistic framework, this study employs a descriptive qualitative method complemented by simple quantification. The data consist of headlines uploaded by @folkative throughout September 2025. The analysis reveals four main types of nonstandard variation: code-mixing, nonstandard spelling, colloquial expressions, and lexical innovation. Among these, code-mixing appears most frequently (33.93%). The use of nonstandard language is not arbitrary but rather reflects deliberate stylistic and social choices. These variations serve several communicative and pragmatic functions, including attracting readers’ attention, conveying humor, saving space within limited character counts, expressing solidarity with followers, and constructing a modern, cosmopolitan online identity. The findings demonstrate that nonstandard language in Instagram headlines contributes to meaning-making and audience engagement, showing how Indonesian users creatively manipulate linguistic resources to suit digital communication norms.
The article examines the pragmatic potential of euphemisms in English media discourse and the peculiarities of their translation into Ukrainian.The relevance of the topic is determined by the need to identify sociolinguistic and pragmatic aspects of the functioning of euphemisms, their semantic and communicative integrity, as well as insufficiently studied issues of reproducing pragmatic functions of euphemisms in different types of discourse.An analysis of contemporary research shows that euphemisms have been studied in both domestic and foreign linguistic traditions, in particular from the point of view of general aspects of euphemization, semantics, functional and pragmatic characteristics, motives for their use, and means of formation.At the same time, the issue of translating euphemisms, especially from the perspective of their sociolinguistic and pragmatic potential, remains insufficiently explored.The article examines the nature of euphemisms as units of secondary nomination that have intentional, socio-regulatory, contact-establishing, expressive-emotive, and aesthetic functions.It is shown that the pragmatics of euphemisms is determined by their contextual use, dependence on sociocultural norms, and value-normative orientations of society.Particular attention is paid to politically correct euphemisms that replace words and expressions that may be discriminatory on the grounds of race, ethnicity, age, gender, appearance, or social status.Methods of reproducing euphemisms in Ukrainian translation are examined, including lexical equivalents, calques, grammatical transformations (deletion, transposition), lexical generalization, and the use of phraseological analogues.A comparative analysis of English contexts and their Ukrainian translations was conducted, which allows us to conclude that the function of euphemism cannot always be fully preserved, especially in cases of conveying intentional and expressive components.The article emphasizes that pragmatic and sociolinguistic conditions, i.e., the addressee factor, communicative purpose, and sphere of discourse, determine the choice of translation means.The results confirm the need for an integrated treatment of euphemism translation, being attuned to its pragmatic and functional sense and striving towards the most accurate approximation of the communicative effect in the target language.
The article provides a detailed morphological analysis of pejorative vocabulary used in the novel MUR (“A Small Ukrainian Novel”) by contemporary Ukrainian writer Andriy Lyubka. Pejoratives, as emotionally charged linguistic units, play an important role in creating a sarcastic, ironic, or negatively toned text. The study examines their function in artistic discourse, which helps to underscore the specificity of the characters, their emotional states, and the sociocultural context. The analysis covers 340 lexical units, of which 303 are classified as pejoratives and 37 as invectives. Pejoratives are divided into five main morphological categories: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and participles. The largest portion consists of nouns and verbs, which are used to characterize characters and describe actions. For instance, nouns “fifa”, “hutsul”, and “khakhal” (e.g., фіфа, гуцулик, хахаль) emphasize the social or gender affiliation of the characters, while verbs like “nalysiatysia” (to get drunk), “vydudlyty” (to drink up), and “potykatysia” (to poke around) (e.g., нализатися, видудлити, потикатися) create the dynamics of comedic or ironic situations. It is also noted that the novel’s text contains a number of noun phrases that denote characters or serve to describe and characterize people, characters, and situations. The verbs and verbal phrases of the pejorative lexicon denote processes of consumption, speech, spatial movement, thought, and the emotional state of a person, as well as the negatively evaluative connotation of certain actions – particularly those of an intimate nature and related to human physiology. In terms of frequency, the most common are the verbs and verbal phrases indicating processes of consumption, speech, and spatial movement; a total of 113 such verbs and verbal phrases have been analysed. Adjectives, adverbs, and participles in the novel characterize individuals through the prism of animal traits, physical appearance, and derogatory evaluative norms of behaviour. The study emphasizes the importance of context in determining the function of pejoratives in the text. A contextual approach allows for accounting the interdependence between linguistic units and their emotional connotations. The use of pejorative and invective lexicon adds expression, realism, and a satirical nuance to the text. Special attention is paid to classification by morphological features, thereby broadening the understanding of the functionality of pejoratives in literature. The relevance of this study is underscored by the growing interest in emotionally charged lexicon and its role in literary discourse. The practical value of the work lies in the potential application of its findings in linguistic and literary research, as well as in language instruction.
The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the translation of new language norms that emerge in social networks.The main interpretations and characteristics of these units were analysed.In addition, four main methods of translating such items, proposed by P. Newmark, were identified and illustrated with examples.The active spread of digital communication and the rapid formation of Internet-based vocabulary determined the main purpose of the investigationto analyse the features of functioning and translation of new lexical units from English into Ukrainian in the context of social media.The object of the research is the peculiarities of the translation and functioning of new language norms in digital discourse.The subject of the research is the specifics of translation of new lexical units from English into Ukrainian.The novelty of this research lies in a comprehensive analysis of how new lexical units that emerge in social networks are translated and function in Ukrainian digital discourse.It provides a systematic classification of translation methods: borrowing, transcription, transliteration; naturalisation; cultural equivalent; descriptive method.Their quantitative distribution was determined based on 50 authentic examples from popular platforms (Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, WeChat, TikTok).The scientific novelty also consists in identifying the tendencies of adaptation of English neologisms to Ukrainian linguistic and cultural norms, which reflects the ongoing influence of digital communication on the evolution of modern Ukrainian vocabulary.The material of the research is 50 lexical units selected from popular social media platforms such as Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, WeChat, and TikTok.
This study, entitled "Language, Power, and Patriarchy: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Gender Narratives in Popular Culture," explores how linguistic choices in media texts reproduce and reinforce patriarchal ideologies. Using Norman Fairclough's three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis as the analytical framework, the research examines selected examples from popular films, advertisements, and television dramas that shape gender perceptions in contemporary society. The study investigates how language constructs and normalizes male dominance while marginalizing female voices through lexical selection, metaphor, and representation strategies. It also highlights the subtle ways in which patriarchal discourse is disguised as entertainment or cultural norm, thus sustaining unequal power relations. Data for this research are collected from widely consumed media texts in English and Urdu, reflecting both global and local gender ideologies. The analysis reveals that despite apparent progress toward gender equality, popular culture continues to embed and circulate discourses that privilege masculine authority and objectify women. The study concludes that a critical awareness of media language is essential to challenge and deconstruct the normalized patterns of gender inequality. Ultimately, the research contributes to feminist discourse studies by linking everyday media communication to broader sociocultural power structures.
Exegesis is a pivotal topic in linguistic studies, explored across multiple levels: phonetic, morphological, syntactic, and semantic, in addition to its connections with other disciplines.This study focuses on exegesis at the morphological level, aiming to define its nature by examining its causes from the perspectives of both the speaker and the listener.It also seeks to establish essential guidelines, document its manifestations in nouns and verbs, and detail the methodologies employed in its analysis.The study's significance lies in its contribution to enhancing the understanding and construction of speech, as well as comprehending the linguistic norms adhered to by Arabs in their expressions.
Abstract In social interactions, we often encounter situations where a partner’s face is (partially) occluded, e.g., when wearing a mask. While emotion recognition in static faces is known to be less accurate under such conditions, we investigated whether these detrimental effects extend to empathic responding, mentalizing (i.e., Theory of Mind), and prosociality in more naturalistic settings. In four studies (N total = 157), we presented short video clips of narrators recounting neutral and emotionally negative autobiographical stories, with their faces shown in four conditions (two per experiment): fully visible, eyes covered, mouth covered, and audio-only. Participants then responded to questions assessing affect, mentalizing performance, and willingness to help. Affect ratings were slightly lower when the narrator’s mouth was covered, and participants were less willing to help narrators with covered eyes. Importantly, however, empathic responding and mentalizing performance remained robust across visibility conditions. Thus, our findings suggest that social understanding – specifically, empathizing and mentalizing – is not substantially impeded by partial or complete facial occlusion, when other cues, such as vocal information, can be used to compensate. These insights may help contextualize concerns about detrimental effects of face coverage in social interactions.
This paper examines how science fiction destabilises ontological categories by measuring conceptual permeability across the terms human, animal, and machine using masked language modelling (MLM). Drawing on corpora of science fiction (Gollancz SF Masterworks) and general fiction (NovelTM), we operationalise Darko Suvin's theory of estrangement as computationally measurable deviation in token prediction, using RoBERTa to generate lexical substitutes for masked referents and classifying them via Gemini. We quantify conceptual slippage through three metrics: retention rate, replacement rate, and entropy, mapping the stability or disruption of category boundaries across genres. Our findings reveal that science fiction exhibits heightened conceptual permeability, particularly around machine referents, which show significant cross-category substitution and dispersion. Human terms, by contrast, maintain semantic coherence and often anchor substitutional hierarchies. These patterns suggest a genre-specific restructuring within anthropocentric logics. We argue that estrangement in science fiction operates as a controlled perturbation of semantic norms, detectable through probabilistic modelling, and that MLMs, when used critically, serve as interpretive instruments capable of surfacing genre-conditioned ontological assumptions. This study contributes to the methodological repertoire of computational literary studies and offers new insights into the linguistic infrastructure of science fiction.
Sentence shifts often occur when a sentence in the source language cannot be directly translated into the target language without altering the meaning or message of the source language. This research investigates sentence-level and its types of transpositions in The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read and examines their influence on translation quality in terms of accuracy, acceptability, and readability. A qualitative method with a single-embedded case study design was used to gather the data from transposed sentences. Findings revealed a predominance of downward rank shifts (189 instances) over upward rank shifts (15 instances), indicating the translator’s tendency to simplify complex source structures into more concise target-language forms. The translation quality achieved high scores in accuracy (2.9) and readability (2.9), suggesting that the intended meaning was preserved and the text remained easy to comprehend. However, acceptability scored slightly lower (2.7), implying that some lexical and syntactic choices did not fully conform to the cultural and linguistic norms of the target language. With an overall mean score of 2.8, the translation is categorised as “good” but could be improved through refined vocabulary selection, enhanced idiomatic expressions, and greater cultural adaptation. These findings highlight the functional role of transposition in balancing semantic fidelity, naturalness, and clarity in English–Indonesian translation.
Timbral blend is a phenomenon that occurs when two or more concurrent acoustic events produced by distinct sources fuse perceptually and give rise to new timbres. Auditory scene analysis proposes that concurrent grouping cues of onset synchrony, harmonicity, and parallel change in pitch and dynamics are involved in the perceptual fusion of events, but research has also shown that several timbral cues can affect concurrent grouping. We investigated potential factors that may cause different degrees of instrumental blend in orchestral excerpts using rating scales ranging from “unity” to “multiplicity” and from “strongly blended” to “not at all blended.” With linear mixed effects modeling, the factors found to affect ratings included the rating scale used, musical training, timbre class (instrument families involved), the degree of parallelism and onset synchrony of melodic lines involved in the blend, the number of different notes present simultaneously, and several acoustic features related to timbre. Musicians differ from nonmusicians in the use of the multiplicity scale, rating excerpts as more multiple, even if they are fairly well blended, whereas nonmusicians ratings are similar for both scales and to musicians’ ratings of blend. Excerpts with bowed strings and/or woodwinds blend the strongest, followed by combinations involving brass instruments, with excerpts involving percussion and plucked strings blending the least. The important finding of this study on real musical excerpts is in demonstrating the relative roles of the score-based and acoustic factors that are associated with the perception of multiplicity and blend in complex orchestral sonorities as well as the influence of musical training.
The development of lexicalized grammars, particularly Tree-Adjoining Grammar (TAG), has significantly advanced our understanding of syntax and semantics in natural language processing (NLP). While existing syntactic resources like the Penn Treebank and Universal Dependencies offer extensive annotations for phrase-structure and dependency parsing, there is a lack of large-scale corpora grounded in lexicalized grammar formalisms. To address this gap, we introduce TAGbank, a corpus of TAG derivations automatically extracted from existing syntactic treebanks. This paper outlines a methodology for mapping phrase-structure annotations to TAG derivations, leveraging the generative power of TAG to support parsing, grammar induction, and semantic analysis. Our approach builds on the work of CCGbank, extending it to incorporate the unique structural properties of TAG, including its transparent derivation trees and its ability to capture long-distance dependencies. We also discuss the challenges involved in the extraction process, including ensuring consistency across treebank schemes and dealing with language-specific syntactic idiosyncrasies. Finally, we propose the future extension of TAGbank to include multilingual corpora, focusing on the Penn Korean and Penn Chinese Treebanks, to explore the cross-linguistic application of TAG's formalism. By providing a robust, derivation-based resource, TAGbank aims to support a wide range of computational tasks and contribute to the theoretical understanding of TAG's generative capacity.
This paper explores worldwide researchers’ perspectives on e-learning policy in higher education, focusing on an approach that examines English-language and Chinese-language literature, which elucidates the intricate nature of e-learning policy. Despite a number of studies on e-learning policy in higher education context, few have considered using two linguistic databases (English and Chinese) for evaluating global perspectives on e-learning policy. To make sure that the review was composed systematically, the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis was utilized, four English (Scopus, ERIC, Google Scholar, &amp; SAGE) and three Chinese databases—China National Knowledge Infrastructure, the Chinese University of Hong Kong Library, and Airiti Library—were used to screen pertinent studies for analyzing. Authors reached a consensus on coding 60 studies into six categories, which encompass perceptual, portraying, theory, literature reviews, comparative study, and discourse analysis. The review reveals a clear focus on theoretical articles in both English- and Chinese-language literature, with these articles being the most common across six segments. To further explore emerging trends on e-learning policy research, three primary themes and 19 sub-themes are identified from 60 studies. Implications for advancing future research are outlined.
The ubiquity of digital technologies has increased assessments of thoughts, behaviors, and experiences via electronic devices. Surveys on smartphones or laptops often implement Visual Analogue Scales (VAS), recording responses on a continuous slider (0-100). This is particularly relevant for data collection in daily life, such as ecological momentary assessments (EMA), which repeatedly present items on mobile devices. However, the accuracy of digital VAS has been questioned, particularly regarding tactile precision (e.g., ability to accurately select values) and the consistency of scale interpretation both between- and within-persons over time (e.g., change in scale interpretation or reactivity to repeated measures). Participants (N = 3,761, 67.03% female; Mage = 47.09; SD = 14.41) from the Critical Incidents and Psychological Adaptation (CIPA) Study completed a 30-day EMA assessment. We investigated the accuracy of VAS in terms of (1) tactile precision, (2) respondents’ perception of the neutral point post-EMA, and (3) test-retest consistency of affect ratings pre- and post-EMA. (1) Tactile precision was assessed by asking participants to enter exactly 31 on a 0-100 slider. Results showed high precision (M = 31.01; SD = 3.28; 87.0% scored between 30-32). (2) Between-person agreement on scale perception was assessed by asking participants to determine the neutral score on two affect items (unipolar and bipolar). 82.19% and 88.89% indicated the expected scale midpoint (50 and 0, ± 5) as neutral, respectively. Neutral points deviating from the expected midpoint were correlated (r =.71-.73) with the person-specific means across the EMA period on the respective item. (3) Test-retest consistency was evaluated by asking participants to rate how happy/sad they/others would rate affective events (e.g., a serious argument) pre- and post-EMA. Consistency across time was high (median change = 0-5). Findings support the accuracy and consistency of digital VAS, within the scope of the current methods.
Collocate spans of adverbials configure their semantic representations in discourse. Various models aim to improve the functional classification of adverbials, but little attention has been devoted to the dynamic interaction of lexical features between collocate spans and semantic vectors. This study identifies and quantifies the connectivity between lexical features and pragmatic inferences encoded by adverbials to deliver semantic representations of truth conditions, i.e. veridicality. It proposes a dynamic span vector model that measures the distances between default semantic representations and contextual pragmatic realizations by calculating the vectors of evidentiality and stance among collocate spans of modal adverbials from eight domain-specific corpora. The norm-referenced setting of semantic vectors in collocate spans offers a self-contained approach to accessing and assessing veridicality across diverse language experiences.
This study examines bilingualism in children within the "Kimbab Family" YouTube channel from a sociolinguistic perspective. The increasing number of bilingual and multilingual individuals globally, as a direct consequence of globalization, highlights the complex cognitive, social, and cultural aspects of bilingualism. In bilingual families, language choices are often shaped by family language policies and social norms, reflecting a speaker's social identity and communication strategies. This research aims to describe and analyze the phenomenon of bilingualism in the Kimbab Family children, specifically identifying patterns of code-switching and code-mixing, and the social factors influencing their language choices. Employing a qualitative descriptive approach, the study uses video content from the "Kimbab Family" YouTube channel as its primary data source, focusing on the verbal utterances of Suji, Yunji, and Jio that exhibit code-switching and code-mixing between Indonesian and Korean. Data collection involves observation, transcription, and systematic notation, while data analysis follows Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña's interactive model, comprising data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The findings indicate that the children's bilingualism is manifested through code-switching, primarily triggered by changes in interlocutor, aligning with communication accommodation theory. Code-mixing, the more frequent phenomenon, is driven by lexical factors (e.g., Korean terms without direct Indonesian equivalents) and expressive factors, demonstrating that both languages function as a unified linguistic system for them. Additionally, the topic of conversation and pragmatic functions significantly influence language choice, reflecting a functional domain separation between the two languages and serving as markers of their hybrid identity.
Abstract The paper introduces Parallel Trees, a novel multilingual treebank collection that includes 20 treebanks for 10 languages. The distinguishing property of this resource is that the sentences of each language are annotated using two syntactic representation paradigms (SRPs), respectively based on the notions of dependency and constituency. By aligning the annotations of existing resources, Parallel Trees represents an example of exploiting pre-existing treebanks to adapt them to novel applications. To illustrate its potential, we present a case study where the resource is employed as a benchmark to investigate whether and how BERT, one of the first prominent neural language models (NLMs), is sensitive to the dependency- and constituency-based approaches for representing the syntactic structure of a sentence. The case study results indicate that the model’s sensitivity fluctuates across languages and experimental settings. The unique nature of the Parallel Trees resource creates the prerequisites for innovative studies comparing dependency and phrase-structure trees, allowing for more focused investigations without the interference of lexical variation.
This article examines the names of days of the week (панядзелак, etc.) in the pages of the second Belarusian-language newspaper „Nasza Niwa” („Naša Niwa”), published in Vilna (Vilnius) in 1906–1915 (from December 1906 to January 1913 it was the only Belarusian-language newspaper in the world). The article focuses in particular on the first year of publication of this newspaper. Materials from the subsequent years of publication of this newspaper are also used for comparison. This data is compared with dialect materials from the second half of the 19th – early 21st centuries and with dictionaries of the modern Belarusian literary language. The article uses data from Polish, Old Russian, Church Slavonic, and other languages for diachronic and areal analysis. The aim of the article is to compare all lexical units that functioned in „Nasza Niwa” and in dialects in order to determine which forms were appropriate for the literary language of the early 20th century and what application they have in contemporary literary Belarusian. The issues raised in the article have not yet been considered in scholarly work. This study uses the following research methods: linguistic description, the retrospective method (in reconstructing vocabulary from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries), the statistical method (in analyzing extensive material from newspapers), etc. Based on the analyzed material, this article concludes that, in general, the names of the days of the week in the Belarusian literary language of the early 20th century coincide with the norm of the early 21st century, despite the fact that, both in „Nasza Niwa” and in the dialects, there were variants of the names of the II (аўторак – уторак), IV (чацвер – чэцвер) and V (пятніца – пяток) days of the week. On the other hand, the variants of the name of the VI (субота) day of the week – сыбота, сабота – present in the dialects were not found in the pages of „Nasza Niwa” or in academic dictionaries of the early 21st century.
This study employs Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework, including textual analysis, discourse practice analysis, and socio-cultural practice analysis, to examine China’s 2023 White Paper a Global Community of Shared Future: China's Proposals and Actions. The analysis investigates how China constructs a self-image as a cooperative, peace-loving, and responsible global power. Drawing on key lexical items such as “cooperation” (合作), “community” (共同体), “peace” (和平), and “win-win” (共赢), as well as traditional concepts like “harmony” (和合) and “all under heaven as one family” (天下一家), the White Paper projects a culturally rooted narrative of inclusive global governance. China’s initiatives such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI) are framed as practical efforts to promote shared development and civilizational dialogue. However, the discourse is not without tension. The study identifies discursive strategies that aim to counter international skepticism over China’s transparency, debt practices, and assertiveness in contested regions. By unpacking the language and framing of the White Paper, this research contributes to understanding how discourse functions as a tool of soft power and legitimacy in global affairs. It also underscores the importance of critically engaging with strategic narratives in the study of international relations and emerging global norms.
This paper presents the creation of a Universal Dependency (UD) treebank for Amahuaca (Peru), marking the first UD treebank within the Headwaters subbranch of the Panoan family, spoken mostly in Peru and Brazil. While the UD guidelines provided a general framework for our annotations, language-specific decisions were necessary due to the rich morphology of the Amahuaca language. The paper also describes specific constructions to initiate a discussion on several general UD annotation guidelines, particularly those concerning clitics and morpheme-level dependencies.
The article is devoted to determining the reasons for the differentiation of the conceptual and categorical apparatus of the branches of law, one of the manifestations of which is the differentiated content of the conceptual and categorical units “use” and “protection” of water resources in the context of different branches, and also to establishing a possible solution to this problem. The author outlines the main stages of formation of the conceptual and categorical apparatus of law, including in terms of differentiation of branches, which outline the specifics of formation of branch terminology systems in which a certain lexical unit may be used to denote similar, but not the same phenomena and processes as those for which it is used in the terminology systems of other branches of law. The author establishes that the first stage is the formation of the basic legal terminology, which is covered by the temporal period from the beginning of the development of the first social norms and ends with the stage of differentiation of branches of law. The second stage begins with the differentiation of branches of law and continues to the present day. It is characterized by the process of filling the universal legal terminology formed at the first stage with a new meaning within each branch of law, as well as the formation of branch-specific terminology systems. The third stage characterizes the current level and vector of development of legal terminology systems. It is concluded that differentiation of terminology in different branches of law, whereby some terms denote completely different in nature or, although similar, but different in essence legal phenomena and processes, impedes the effective formation of comprehensive mechanisms for legal regulation of the relevant relations. In addition, this state of affairs may reduce the effectiveness of law enforcement practice, hindering the formation of unified methods for resolving specific practical cases. It is determined that an important area for the development of natural resource law, as well as other branches of law, should be the development of terminology, in particular, in terms of its unification and universalization in order to avoid misinterpretations, to increase the efficiency of law enforcement practice and legal regulation of the relevant relations.
Arengulist keelepuuet esineb võrdselt üks- ja kakskeelsete laste seas. Kakskeelsetel on aga suurem valediagnoosi risk, kuna kakskeelsete laste veatüübid mittedominantses keeles sarnanevad ükskeelsete keelepuudega laste veatüüpidele. See risk on aktuaalne paljude vene kodukeelega suktsessiivsete kakskeelsete laste jaoks, kes käivad eestikeelses lasteaias. Et toetada keelepuude diagnoosimist, on vaja kakskeelsel valimil normitud teste. Artiklis kirjeldame taolise eestikeelse sõnavaratesti koostamist 4–7-aastastele lastele. Test on välja töötatud rahvusvahelise LITMUS võrgustiku sõnavaratesti põhimõtete ja protokolli alusel. Materjali väljavalimiseks viisime läbi kolm eeluuringut täiskasvanud kõnelejatega ning kaks prooviuuringut lastega. Anname ülevaate ka 2024. aastal läbiviidud normimisuuringu I etapi tulemustest. Tulemuste põhjal võib järeldada, et test on jõukohane nii üks- kui kakskeelsetele lastele, eristab mõlemas rühmas keelepuudega lapsi eakohase arenguga lastest ning sobib koos teiste LITMUS testikomplekti testidega kasutamiseks keelepuude diagnoosimisel ja laste keeleliste oskuste kirjeldamisel. *** "Developing Estonian Cross-Linguistic Lexical Tasks for identifying DLD in bilingual children" *** Developmental language disorder (DLD) is as prevalent among bilingual as among monolingual children (Calder et al. 2022). However, bilinguals face a greater risk of misdiagnosis, as the error types of typically developing bilinguals in their non-dominant language often resemble those of monolingual children with DLD (Boerma, Blom 2017). With the transition to all-Estonian instruction in Estonian education scheduled for 2024–2030, many more successive Russian-Estonian bilinguals face this risk. Language tests developed for and normed on bilingual populations are necessary for more reliable diagnosis of DLD among bilinguals. In this paper, we describe developing such a vocabulary test for children aged 4–7: the Estonian Cross-Linguistic Lexical Tasks (Haman et al. 2015). The test is designed according to cross-linguistic principles set out by the international working group. To select stimuli for the Estonian test, we conducted three preliminary studies with adult speakers: a picture naming task, subjective age of acquisition survey and a complexity evaluation. To test the material’s suitability for children, two pilot studies with mono- and bilingual children were conducted. Stimuli that contributed less to distinguishing DLD and typically developing children were changed (Labent 2023), and the revised test was then used in a norming study. First results of the norming study indicate the test is suitable for use both with monolingual and bilingual children and distinguishes DLD children from typically developing peers in both groups. A correlation analysis with results from the LITMUS Sentence Repetition Task reveals moderate to strong significant correlations between the two test scores, suggesting the tests complement each other well in describing bilingual children’s language skills and diagnosing DLD.
Lexical semantic norms characterize each lexical concept in terms of a set of semantic features for the words of a language. They provide essential resources for behavioral, computational, and neuro-cognitive studies of language and human cognition. Recent research advocate for the need for cognitively motivated feature sets, arguing that semantic representations grounded in human cognition can facilitate cross-linguistic modeling and even enable the prediction of a word’s semantic features based on its translation in another language. In this study, we present a new dataset of brain-based, Binder-style semantic norms for Chinese. Using the corresponding English dataset and the representational power of multilingual language models, we conduct systematic experiments on semantic norm prediction both within and across languages. We evaluate monolingual and English-Chinese cross-lingual norm prediction using two different methods: embedding-based regression vs. prompting with large language models. Our results show that bidirectional models from the BERT family and GPT-4 achieve a good level of accuracy, with moderate-to-high correlations with human ratings. Notably, in the cross-lingual setting, the best and the worst predicted features align with the higher and lower end of levels of human agreement when comparing norms of words between translated words. Our results support a novel computational approach for supplementing and expanding cognitive semantic norms, highlighting the potential of language models to bridge cross-linguistic semantic representations.