Research on collocations still generates plenty of interest among contemporary researchers of linguistics and translation research. The interest stems from the fact that there is a degree of inconsistency in terms of identifying and defining collocations in the literature. Conflicting views put forward by linguists made it difficult to draw a coherent interpretation of collocations. This suggests that collocational units are a fragmented area of research with blurred lines between frequently fixed co-occurrence sequences or a combination of words and free word combination. The collocation debate has hit a conceptual impasse. It rarely moves beyond merely giving broad definitions, overlapped with other technical terms in the field of corpus linguistics. This study examines the extension to which collocations are intertwined with other formulaic expressions such as idioms and free word combinations. Furthermore, the study considers whether Quranic collocations fit into the general standards of collocation. The study examined a sample of five selected English translations of the Quran to evaluate their degree of faithfulness and accuracy. The findings revealed that collocation is too multifaceted to be pinned down to a single definition. Linguists fell short of reaching a consensus or providing concrete empirical evidence on the complex nature of collocation. The findings also showed that the English translation of the Quran remains a work in progress. Views are polarised between those who advocate a close rendering of the Quranic text and those who believe in a ‘natural style’. Translators need to be aware how collocations are formulated and how they are embedded in the Quranic verses to convey their deep and implicit meaning and should not be interpreted at face value.
Mrs. Dalloway is one of Virginia Woolf’s greatest achievements. The novel continues to enthuse scholars across the globe, and there are myriad studies through which readers can gain a finer understanding of it. This paper attempts to show how Woolf implants in Mrs. Dalloway a plentiful range of experiences from her life. It argues that in order to have an ample understanding of a character’s state of mind or behavior, emphasis should be placed not only on the text but also on the role of the writer’s personal experiences in its formation. This paper discusses, more specifically, how Woolf’s own experiences are linked to Septimus’s, and showcases that Woolf’s life is a major influence on the story of Septimus.
This article examined the Igbo native speakers’ perception of request act as well as the linguistic politeness strategies used to achieve this communicative intention in their conversational English as bilinguals. The study participants were 2748 undergraduate Igbo native speakers purposively selected from different Federal and State Universities in the core Igbo-speaking states of South-east/South-south Nigeria. To elicit data, a 10-item discourse completion task (DCT) with guided options written in English and designed to evoke politeness strategies in request discourse projecting hypothetical situations was administered to the participants. The results showed that the study samples brought to fore their sociocultural expectations as Igbo by adopting principally the directness strategy in performing the request act. Also, findings revealed that the participants paid attention to certain sociolinguistic variables such as hierarchy, extent of familiarity, which contributed to the variance, observed in their choice of strategies in some contexts. Furthermore, the study noted a measure of linguistic transfer of a tinge of the native language to the target language (English language) as participants tried to fulfill the communicative goals of the request act in the target language. Notably, the findings demonstrated the possibility of communication breakdowns arising from grammatically correct but pragmatically inappropriate utterances from learners hence the need to further emphasize pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic consciousness - the dearth of which has been implicated in the study.
This study investigates the linguistic dimensions of the songs made popular by One Direction– the British-Irish boy band that captivated young fans around the world in the 2010s. The tailored corpus output was based on One Direction’s five albums (65 songs, 21,566 words). Using Voyant Tools (Sinclair & Rockwell 2016) and discourse analysis framework (Fairclough 1995, 2001), we examined the word frequency, collocation patterns and semantic references found in the lyrics. Further analysis was grounded on the 5-stage model of love and relationships by Levinger (1983). The results suggest that the lexicogrammatical associations found in One Direction’s songs show that words may have similar meaning but carry a different illocutionary message in terms of use patterns within a contextual structure. The semantic and pragmatic references in the lyrics also tell an emotional narrative of a roller-coaster-kind-of-young love and the challenges they face i.e., exhilaratingly titillating and painfully short-lived. From Oh yeah, baby to Oh, love, goodbye, love is indeed like a song; its own rhythm has a beginning and an end– a story that ironically reflects the band’s own fate. This study has major implications for corpus discourse research, particularly in analyzing the semantic references and implicatures of the lyrics and the story behind them.
Food is useful in the transference of semantic aspects that are vital in the construction of masculinity in society. Consequently, foodsemic metaphors that aid in the conceptualization of omosacha (a man) are pervasive in Ekegusii. Metaphor use may, however, present difficulties in comprehension due to the various interpretations that may be assigned to each of them. The meaning of Ekegusii foodsemic metaphors may, therefore, be elusive to the native speakers of Ekegusii. The paper employs the principle of conceptual mental spaces to interpret Ekegusii foodsemic metaphor within the Cognitive Linguistics framework. The study adopts descriptive research design. First, the terms that are used to describe men in Ekegusii are identified by administering an interview schedule to 48 Ekegusii native respondents purposively sampled on the basis of gender. The data collected is then subjected to the Metaphor Identification Procedure Vrije Universiteit (MIPVU) in which four annotators are used to identify Ekegusii male metaphors. Through the MIPVU, 52 metaphors are identified. The paper then selects one metaphor that describes a man as food hence the Ekegusii foodsemic metaphor for this study. The research reveals that the integration of the four conceptual mental spaces that include two input spaces, the generic space and the blended space is resourceful in structuring a man as a symbol of nourishment in Ekegusii. Moreover, the MIPVU is unveiled as a useful metaphor identification method that provides a clear guide in the establishment of precise metaphors for study. The study concludes that metaphors are integral components of communication and should be explained using the Cognitive Linguistics paradigm. The findings of the study will contribute to Linguistics especially the field of Cognitive Linguistics which is relatively new and has not been subjected to extensive research. In addition, the findings will be useful to metaphor scholars in comprehending Ekegusii male metaphors and culture.
The primary concern of the present study is to provide a critical discourse analysis of Donald Trump’s denial speeches of the 2020 United States presidential election’s results. Using Van Dijk’s framework of critical discourse analysis, this study investigates the linguistic features in five speeches of Donald Trump delivered after announcing the results of the US presidential election. The data analysis is conducted focusing on the use of 25 discursive devices presented by Van Dijk (2006), which represent the micro-level of text analysis to reveal the ideologies of positive self-representation and negative other-representation which represent the macro-level of text analysis. The findings of the study show that Trump made use of the majority of the discursive devices, with a special emphasis on using the following: lexicalization, evidentiality, example/illustration, number game, polarization, actor description, hyperbole, categorization, victimization, and authority. Furthermore, the analysis at the macro-level shows that Donald Trump used the ideologies of positive self-representation and negative other-representation, but he relied more on using negative other-representation. The findings also show that Trump used these discursive devices to justify his denial of the election results and gain the empathy of American people by showing a positive image of himself and his supporters while portraying others negatively by emphasizing their bad deeds during the election.
One of the foundational cornerstones upon which works of literature are built is Religion. It is a motivational ideology that inspires authors to write fiction. Ideological literary works are not mere aesthetic attempts that reflect the unlimited potential ability of literature to present the unthinkable: they are serious works that reflect the very social turmoil that the author has been experiencing in his society. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne perfectly represents this type of genre. He successfully shows the way Religion was ideological manipulated by the authorities in that Puritan society. This paper highlights the different ideological strategies influential individuals employ to change people’s convictions. After a short perusal of the different stages, the theory of ideology has undergone, it presents the most significant ideological factors in the novel depending on various thinkers, mainly Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and Slavoj Zizek. It also shows the domination of ideology over the life of people: it may be observed in their clothes, customs, cultural attitude, and means of communication. Depending on certain theorists, this research finally proves that it is beyond the possibility of anyone to break the chains of ideology and live in a Real world. The illusion of ideology sneaks into every single detail of people’s lives, as represented in Hawthorne’s novel.
Delivered up-to-date news and shown authentic use, the language appeared on the digital platform is an interesting alternative in learning the English language. The present study investigates the English language written on the online logistics magazines published in Thailand by using the corpus tool called Ant-Conc to analyze the frequency of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and collocations. The findings revealed that 1) the most frequent use of nouns was cargo, 2) the word said reported to be the most use of the verb, 3) the word cargo appeared to be the most frequent use among adjectives, 4) among the type of grammatical collocation, noun+preposition was shown as the most frequently used type, whereas the most three used of grammatical collocation was cargo in, important to, and said with and 5) among the type of lexical collocation, noun+verb was reported as the most frequently used type, whereas the top three used of lexical collocation was said Mr., cargo is, and new facility. Furthermore, the present study might have implications for the ESP study and recommend the use of authentic language in the logistics business.
In this study, answers were sought about how instruction reading activities affect pre-service teachers’ instruction reading behavior, the opinions of pre-service teachers about instruction reading activities, how to apply instruction reading activities in Text Grammar in a French course, and how instruction reading activities affect pre-service teachers’ awareness of delivering the instructions. The study was designed as action research. For this purpose, following the literature review, teaching materials were developed and applied to improve instruction reading skills. The participants of the study consisted of students studying at the French Language Teaching Program in a state university, who are attending a second-year spring semester Text Grammar in a French course. Different qualitative and quantitative data collection tools such as video recordings, observations, interviews, researcher diary, and achievement tests were used to collect data in the study. As a result of the analysis of the data, it was observed that instruction reading activities had a positive effect on the students’ instruction reading skills, increased the students’ awareness of instruction reading, and supported the use of strategies in instruction reading. Instruction reading activities conducted during the action research influence the development of instruction reading skills of French teacher candidates. And these activities created an awareness of the instruction in pre-service teachers and supported instruction reading behaviour. In addition, instruction reading activities had positive effects on the academic achievement, strategy use, and professional development of participants.
In order to reveal how Donald Trump is crucially involved in inciting riot and instigating insurgency, this pragmatic study strictly investigates and analyzes Donald Trump’s tweets over the past months that preceded the unprecedented mob attack on the Capitol in January the 6th to impede the Congress endorsement of the US presidential elections that resulted in Biden’s victory. The analyses in this study mainly draw on Austin’s (1962) Speech Act Theory and it’s sub-versions of Searle’s (1969) and the Subsequent taxonomy of Searle (1976). Although Twitter has been created to be a social media platform, Trump used it to run the US foreign and local affairs and policies during his four-year term in office. Due to the thematic limitations and diversity of those tweets, the researcher does not by any means intend to explore Trump’s tweets during the first three years; rather, she primarily focuses on examining the last year because it has abundantly and crucially witnessed what Trump really DID with words in his tweets, and this is the utter essence of Austin’s How to Do Things with Words. The tweets he made were not pragmatically representatives nor expressives as they might look; rather, most of them were directives and commissives in force oftentimes so that he exploited millions of Americans to rally violent support for him in his ignoble and criminal cause as well as rallying thousands to attack the Us emblem of democracy and freedom in the “Land of the Brave and the Land of Free” as furious crowds stormed and breached the Capitol’s barriers while the Congress Session was convening to certify the then president-elect’s victory. Such a huge load of explicit and an implicit incitement has lead to the attempt of second time impeachment of an incumbent president in the history of the united states and the ongoing legal endeavors of Trump’s indictment months after he left the oval office.
The current study comparatively investigated the employment of metadiscourse items in 40 post-method sections/chapters of research articles (RAs) and master’s dissertations (MAs) in the field of applied linguistics. Utilizing Hyland’s (2005a) model of metadiscourse in analysing metadiscourse elements detected in both sets of texts, the findings indicated that interactive metadiscourse features were more frequent in both sets of texts than interactional metadiscourse items, and that the master’s dissertation subcorpus included significantly higher occurrences of most metadiscourse devices. Results indicated that transitions are the most used category of metadiscourse in research articles and master’s dissertations, while hedges are the most frequent interactional metadiscourse category used in both subcorpora. Results also showed that the master’s dissertation subcorpus consists of significantly higher occurrences of some metadiscourse devices, which might be due to the nature of both genres. The findings have important implications, particularly for L2 student writers, by facilitating their understanding of metadiscourse use in this field. The study concludes with the limitations, as well as recommendations for future research.
Questioning is an instructional process that is not only central to verbal interaction in the classroom but also essential to negotiation of meaning in discourse. Existing studies dealing with functions of questions have only identified few functions which questions perform in discourse probably because the scholars who worked on them have not explored varied situations and contexts which necessitate asking questions whose functions are totally different from the ones already identified in the literature. Hence, the current research investigates the pragmatic functions of questions in Chimamanda Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun. The major advantage of using this source of data is that, it, unlike previous studies which investigate data from premeditated sources, this source provides rich and varied naturally-occurring contexts for asking different questions which perform different functions. The study is driven by insight from the concept of pragmatic competence. On the whole, the research identified nine novel pragmatic functions of questions which have not been documented in the literature. These include questions to indicate annoyance, questions to foster interpersonal relationship, questions to persuade somebody to do something, questions for showing disapproval and so on. These findings implicate that in a bid to build on a learner’s competence in a particular language, such a learner should be introduced to the importance of contexts in determining the function which a particular question is meant to perform in any communicative encounter.
The concept of Theme is regarded as a functional linguistic element that exists in many languages. The main aim of this study is to explore the functions of Theme in Arabic, applying the Systemic Functional Linguistics framework adopted by Downing (1991). Methodologically, several related real examples have been selected from the written discourse of Modern Standard Arabic and then analyzed contextually. The empirical analysis has revealed that (i) Theme can provide different functions, such as Individual, Circumstantial and Subjective and Logical Frameworks for the interpretation of the Rheme, and (ii) Theme can interact dynamically with different grammatical functions (e.g. Subject, Object, etc.) and have different pragmatic functions (e.g. Topic, Given and New information). Therefore, the view that makes a necessary link between Theme on the one hand and Noun Phrase, Topic or Given information on the other hand is proven incorrect and empirically invalid. Similar results have been obtained in the context of English (Downing 1991) but not yet for Arabic? This strengthens not only the universality of the concept of Theme but also its functions.
This paper offers a generative minimalist investigation to the derivation and interpretation of mirativity information in Central Najdi Arabic (CNA), arguing that grammar of CNA morphologically marks mirativity in syntax by means of the discourse particle wara. Implementing minimalist mechanisms (Chomsky 2001), it is shown that wara instantiates a functional, discoursal projection MrvP in the left periphery of the sentence, articulating the feature [Mrv] at the PF-interface. LF-interface analyses demonstrate that [Mrv] on wara is interpretable/valued, while the counterpart on the subject DP that wara marks is uninterpretable/unvalued. Agree between wara and the subject DP creates a PF-chain wara>SubjectClitic>SubjectDP that results in the subject DP being marked with and interpreted mirativity at LF-interface. Further explorations show that movement of the subject DP across wara is only legitimised if the subject DP has a discourse, information structural feature beyond [Mrv]. Evidence for this claim comes from the fact that when wara marks the subject DP with mirativity, the subject DP remains in situ. Thus, on minimalist empirical groundings, movement is argued to be motivated by interpretive reasons beyond mirativity. Further analyses show that Agree between wara and subject is of mutual manner; wara u-[φ]-probes the subject goal, while the goal seeks valuation of u-[Mrv] on it (Alshamari 2017).
One of the most important activities in which we engage, is communication. It plays a vital role in our lifestyles, careers and demeanors. This paper, which can be considered a continuation of early observations and then a study, touches upon the types of nonverbal means of communication in the modern Mongolian language, based on examples that have used the word “tolgoi (‘head’ in English)” and cited modern Mongolian literature. In modern Mongolia, nonverbal means of communication have their own special types, forms and grammar, which all use real words and expressions related to Mongolian culture, customs and lifestyle. For this research paper, 23 nonverbal means of communication using the word tolgoi were recorded, and most of them expressed ignorance, sadness or regret, which indicated a negative attitude.
In the poem “In the White Giant’s Thigh,” Dylan Thomas projects the contemporary poets’ wild passion for Eliotian amoral art song and their suffering and the contradistinction of his own occasional love of Yeatsian Grecian altruistic art song and his delight. The poem is at bottom optimistic as it offers the metaphysical and the metempirical wild lovers an alternative process of art song and also carries salvation to transcend their sorrowful failure. It is Thomas’s faith in the Yeatsian process of transfiguration and transformation, the possibility of deliverance from the bondage of experience and ignorance that assures him of success and appeal in his art songs, that Auden repudiates in his metaphysical process of transgression and transmigration and his immortal vision of aesthetic amoral art song. The poem implies that Auden, as a result of his continual ignorance of the human reality of life and death, his stoic love of metaphysical art and reality, loses his grandeur and literary reputation and stoops to the level of a common man susceptible to hatred and indignation, violence and vengeance like the victims of his art songs, the political, the war and the Movement poets who remain equally ignorant of the metaphysical process and the reality of breath and death.
This study aims to compare the youth guides’ speaking scores before and after learning through English for Geotourism Instruction Innovation at Khorat Geopark Area in Nakhon Ratchasima, investigate the differences among their tasks’ mean scores and their speaking components. The sample group consists of 109 youth guides who are Grade 11 English-major students from, Mueang Nakhon Ratchasima, Sung Noen and Chaloem Phrakiat Districts. The instruments include lesson plans for English for Geotourism Youth Guides, Students Manual, English Instruction Innovation for Geotourism Communication at Khorat Geopark Area Nakhon Ratchasima, and Pre-post speaking tests for English for Geotourism Youth Guides. Paired-samples t-test, One-Way ANOVA, descriptive statistics including minimum, maximum, means and standard deviations are used in data analysis. Results showed that the youth guides had a significant difference between pre-and post-test scores at.00 level in English for Geotourism. They gained significantly higher post-test scores than that of the pre-test scores. A significant difference indicates that learning through English for Geotourism Instruction resulted in higher post-test tasks scores. The significant differences are also found in pre- and post-task scores and the speaking components’ scores at.00 level. These findings confirm that this language innovation instruction is an effective open learning resource that can facilitate self-regulated learning and languages used in English for Geotourism. The findings can be applied to construct language innovation instruction to exclusively develop speaking skill in other English for specific purposes field.
Teacher continuous professional development (CPD) is perceived as a significant way of improving schools, increasing teacher quality, and enhancing student learning (Vangrieken et al., 2017; Day, 1999). Therefore, educational scholars and policy makers demand CPD opportunities for teachers to help them enhance their knowledge and develop new instructional practices. However, the effectiveness of CPD initiatives and the impact they have on teaching and learning is questionable as reported by many research studies both locally in Oman and internationally (e.g. Al-Balushi, 2017; Antoniou & Kyriakides, 2013). This paper reports the findings of a study, which critically examined the effectiveness of the CPD activities run by the Ministry of Education-Oman for TESOL teachers and the impact of these activities in improving schools, increasing teacher quality and improving the quality of student learning. Data were collected using questionnaires, observations, semi structured and focus-group interview with EFL teachers in Oman. The findings revealed that a number of factors affect English teachers’ CPD in Oman; some of these factors facilitate teachers access to CPD and its’ success while others inhibit that. The data indicates that CPD timing and location can facilitate teachers’ access to CPD while workload and family responsibilities are key inhibitors to CPD access. The findings further showed that suitability and relevance of CPD activity in terms of the topics presented in it and the ideas discussed was reported as an important factor to effective CPD whereas CPD done by unqualified teacher educators can hinder the success of CPD. The study further indicated that the centralised top-down nature of the current CPD system seems to negatively affect the success of CPD in the in-service TESOL context in Oman. The findings suggest that the role of teachers themselves in the provision of CPD is significant; the way teachers are currently marginalized and seen as grateful recipients of CPD do not provide the conditions for intelligent and responsive teaching profession
Researchers have recognized pre-service teachers’ field experiences as a pivotal element for enhancing teaching practices. Research indicates pre-service teachers usually are optimistic about teaching. However, when pre-service teachers encounter complexities in classrooms, their optimism fades. There is little research about ESOL pre-service teachers’ perceptions of field experiences. In this inquiry, we focused on pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their first field experience with ESOL students in a southeastern United States public school. We selected a multiple case study to conduct this qualitative research. We collected the data through student interviews, field experience reports, and the participants’ journals before and after the field experience. Our discoveries through constant comparative analysis centered on ESOL pre-service teachers’ perceptions of field experience, teaching strategies and pedagogical competence, and development stages of teachers. The findings of the present study indicated that field experience serves as a catalyst to facilitate the learning process for ESOL pre-service teachers. Teacher educators can adopt field experiences to challenge preservice teachers. Field experiences can be helpful tools in the developmental stages of teachers. These experiences can help preservice teachers gain insight into the culturally sensitive strategies required for ESOL courses. The findings of this study proved Khoshnevisan’s (2017) developmental stages of teachers.
This study examines lecturers’ and learners’ perceptions on humor use in Tunisian tertiary classrooms, focusing specifically on the English major. The ultimate aim is to explore the types and frequency of humor use on the one hand and whether teachers regard humor in the same light as their students on the other. To this purpose, a mixed-methods approach consisting of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews is adopted to collect quantitative and qualitative data for analysis. The findings revealed that, in terms of frequency, humor is used by all interviewed teachers irrespective of their gender. Yet, the general percentage of humor use remains moderate and limited to specific oral subjects as confirmed by the students. The results also indicated the participants’ agreement on the efficiency and preference of verbal, spontaneous and relevant humor types. However, it has been shown that the lecturers use a very limited repertoire of humor forms, neglecting jokes which are more appreciated by their students. Inconsistencies between the participants’ responses are further traced at the level of their attitude towards humor use in class. While most of the teachers believe that the merits of humor are undeniable, they expressed skepticism and discomfort in dealing with this tool in class. To overcome these lacunas, this study builds on the students’ recommendations to improve their teachers’ practices and can therefore be a starting point for EFL curriculum designers in Tunisia to revise current materials for a better humor integration in higher education.
