This article investigates the syntactic and semantic properties of Chinese flip-flop sentences in terms of Labeling Theory（Chomsky 2013, 2015）. In particular, it is pointed out that a“flip”sentence shares the same basic structure with its“flop”counterpart, and that the different surface structure of the two sentences actually reflects two logical possibilities of solving labeling issues at the v P level. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the interpretive differences between the flip-flop constructions are mainly related to the inflectional layer of the clausal spine. Although both sentences are labeled as Mod（a silent modal category）, the types of modality involved are not entirely the same: while the flip construction may involve either capacity or deontic modality, the flop construction only allows deontic interpretations.
Based on the pragmatic identity theory and rapport management theory, this study analyzed data from the posts of“Voice of Friendly Shandong”, the public account of Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, with the purpose of exploring the construction of pragmatic identities and the implementation of interpersonal functions in the posts according to strategies in the discourse, stylistic and illocutionary domains. It was found that the poster used rapport management strategies to construct the identities of scenery exhibitor, food sharer, product promoter, readers. friend, advocate of history and culture, and information provider, so as to realize the corresponding interpersonal functions, such as shaping a positive face of the institution,maintaining readers. right of equity and association, and achieving the interactional goals of cultural tourism publicity and the building of harmonious relationship. By means of the dynamic construction of pragmatic identities, the poster managed to shape a good image of the tourist destination, improve regional soft power, as well as promote the integrated development of culture and tourism.
Ideational grammatical metaphor（IGM, henceforth） is one of the theoretical innovations in systemic functional linguistics. However, its application in second language studies（L2,henceforth） remains to be enhanced. The present paper aims to show the frontiers and trends of L2IGM studies. We first review L2 IGM in the literature, finding that the research topics cover IGM features in learners-related texts and IGM pedagogy. In terms of research methodology, text analysis is mainly employed, and a combination of quantitative and qualitive analysis is also adopted. Based on the review, we then discuss the directions for future study, including enhancing the study of nonnominalizing IGMs, broadening the pedagogical scopes of L2 IGM, and deepening the theoretical construct of L2 IGM. As IGM indicates the advancedness of language development and plays a critical role in academic discourse, we argue that L2 IGM is significant for Chinese foreign language education.
Multimodal discourse analysis provides a new perspective for the study of legal discourse.In the closing arguments of the trial, the prosecution and defense attorneys deploy multimodal resources to present evidence, demonstrate views, and take stances in order to achieve their communicative intentions. Focusing on the closing arguments in the trial of George Floyd case, this paper builds an analytical framework based on the attitude system and paralinguistic categories proposed by Martin et al., qualitatively annotates and quantifies the language and paralinguistic information in the trial with the help of UAM Corpus Tool and Praat, and analyzes the multimodal representation of the case by both the prosecution and defense attorneys in their closing arguments.This research shows that the prosecution and defense attorneys utilize different multimodal resources such as language and paralanguage to express their attitudes towards different participants, thus constructing different narratives and demonstrating how justice is seen to be done.
Previous studies have disputes concerning whether Chinese native speakers have difficulty in counterfactual reasoning. Using eye-tracking technique, the present study investigated the cognitive process underlying Chinese counterfactual comprehension, as well as the influence of L2 proficiency on L1 processing. Our study had two major findings.（1） Chinese native speakers can quickly integrate upcoming information into a counterfactual world, and their eye-movement pattern was similar to the processing pattern of Indo-European native speakers. The result pattern supports the dual representation hypothesis: both the literal suppositional representation and the implied factual representation are initially activated. But as discourse unfolds, readers can quickly make contextually appropriate inferences and inhibit the inappropriate representation based on evolving linguistic cues.（2） Higher L2 proficiency predicted larger semantic anomaly detection effects in the early stage of counterfactual processing. This positive correlation indicates that more advanced L2 learners are better at inferring and retrieving counterfactual meaning. This paper discussed the present results with respect to bilingual advantage, rather than the reverse conceptual transfer. Bilingual experiences may enhance mental flexibility, which could in turn promote counterfactual processing.
This article is a partial response to Lu（2022a）’s criticism to the author’s“N-V Inclusive Model”（verb as a subclass of noun） as elaborated in Shen（2016）, concentrating on the issue of noun ’ s definition in Chinese. The author reiterated the view that the difference between the N-V Distinctive Model and the N-V Inclusive Model is not a superficial matter of terms but rather a substantial issue which concerns both connotation and extension of the two terms. In the former model noun should have a positive definition but in fact it does not and is defined from the negative[-Verb]. Only in the latter model has noun a positive definition [+ Referential]. The author emphasizes the motivation of linguistic exploration is to draw a clear and simple picture which matches the language phenomena well, and therefore we should act on the principle of simplicity and avoid basing our account of a language on a priori categories.
This paper analyzes Space-Time-Axiology（S-T-A） models and their grammatical manifestations in 100 pieces of news discourse, dated from 2018 to 2020, on Sino-American trade negotiations from the perspective of proximizaton. Results show that the“entities”of both inside deictic center（IDC） and outside deictic center（ODC） are forcibly construed by applying various grammatical lexicons in the news discourses, which not only violate readers ’ Spatial（S） cognition,but also reversely affect the construal of“entities”from ODC to IDC in the domains of Time（T） and Axiology（A）, so as to reconstruct readers’ dynamic cognition on the“reality”of Sino-American trade frictions. Different S-T-A models reveal discourse writers’ political propositions and stances, and present these forcibly vectored viewpoints known to readers by means of proximising lexis. This research provides insights into Sino-American trade negotiations and discourse analysis.
Interlanguage is an approximative system between the native language and the target language and keeps getting closer to the target language. Will the linguistic typology of interlanguage change in the course of its development? Based on a self-built annotated corpus of Chinese EFL learners ’ writings, this study uses the dependency direction to measure the linguistic typology. The results show that:（1） Chinese-English interlanguage at the early stage is a head-final natural language;（2） the dependency direction of Chinese-English interlanguage gradually approximates that of the target language, indicating that its linguistic typology comes closer to that of the target language. At the intermediate level, it changes from a head-final language to a headinitial one; and（3） the typological variation of the Chinese-English interlanguage is related to the changes in some syntactic structures of adverbials and attributives, but not of subjects or objects.
概念隐喻理论(Conceptual Metaphor Theory,以下简称CMT)的早期研究主要采用内省方法且更多关注体验普遍性问题.随着认知语言学的社会转向和文化语言学的兴起,近十年来,隐喻的文化多样性开始获得越来越多关注,为CMT研究带来了新的增长点——跨文化隐喻研究.
This study explores the effects of learners’ emotions and peer interaction patterns on their affective engagement in English collaborative learning through social network analysis. The findings show that:（1） the emotions are abundant, with seven positive and seven negative emotions displayed;（2） the emotions are dynamic. The frequency of out-degree and in-degree of positive emotions is significantly higher than that of negative emotions;（3） the emotions exhibit complexity.The collaborative pattern possesses the richest emotion nodes, the highest network density, and the most frequent transitions; and（4） the affective engagement of English learners under various interaction patterns are significantly different. The collaborative pattern has the highest affective engagement and the dominant/passive pattern has the lowest. Accordingly, English teachers should pay attention to the emotions of learners in the process of peer interaction. They should set up appropriate interaction patterns to effectively stimulate learners’ positive affective engagement, thus achieving a virtuous circle of positive emotions-effective interaction-efficient English learning.
Using the event-related potential（ERP）, this research examined the influence of different determiners（i.e. referential determiners and quantificational determiners） on Chinese-speaking learners’ processing of English subject-verb agreement. The results indicated that the ERP timelocked to the verb showed a P600 in response to subject-verb agreement violations with omission errors. ERP processing patterns were affected by referentiality and number specification of determiners. Referentiality led to differences in scalp distribution of P600 and number specification gave rise to distinctive P600 latency and ERP components. The study revealed that:（1） L2 learners were sensitive to subject-verb agreement violations with omission errors and P600 was elicited when the syntactic feature [+singular] of thematic verbs was used as a cue but failed to retrieve the number-matching subject in the working memory; and（2） L2 processing patterns of subject-verb agreement varied with different features of determiners. The findings provide new L2 ERP evidence to cue-based models of memory retrieval and have pedagogical implications for L2 subject-verb agreement acquisition.
There exists a type of morphosyntactically parsimonious yet semantically anomalous copular constructions across languages. Previous studies place a premium on their syntactic as well as semantic mechanisms. In this study, it is argued that cognitive-pragmatic factors, which have been understudied in existing analyses, play a crucial role in the production and interpretation of the copular constructions under question. Given their salient property of context-dependency, it is then claimed that（1） the seemingly anomalous copular constructions should be construed as instances of conceptual metonymy-a very powerful and efficient mode of expression which is widely employed during the course of verbal communication; and（2） from a relevance-theoretic perspective, both the production and the comprehension of the copular constructions at issue are essentially a relevancebased process of ostensive-inferential communication.
From the perspective of embodied cognition, this study examined the relationship between interactive intensity and alignment under two variations（digital + reinforced vs. nonreinforced） of a continuation task. One-hundred and one Chinese EFL learners were assigned to either the digital + reinforced or the non-reinforced group randomly. Both versions of the continuation task resulted in alignment but the magnitude was stronger in the reinforced mode: the number of speech turns, output length, and the amount of alignment of different constructions were more in the reinforced one. Furthermore, the reinforced group showed more alignment on complex structures than the non-reinforced group. Therefore, the VR reinforced digital+ continuation model can enhance the alignment effect and the alignment of complex constructions.
The present study investigates the effect of corresponding frequency（i.e., the respective usage frequency of multiple Chinese/English words corresponding to an English/Chinese word）,translation direction, and their interaction on unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals’ processing of translation-ambiguous words. A corpus-based calculation is conducted to obtain the corresponding frequencies of the translation-ambiguous words. Specifically, the frequencies of correspondence between different words and their most frequent translation equivalents as well as the correspondence between one word and its various translation equivalents. This is used in two masked priming lexical decision experiments with reaction times as the index. The results show that:（1） translationambiguous words with higher corresponding frequencies are more rapidly processed;（2） translationambiguous words in the L2-L1 translation direction are processed faster; and（3） corresponding frequency and translation direction interact in different ways in the two experiments. The findings display that the influence of translation direction on the corresponding frequency is revealed merely in the L2-L1 direction in Experiment 1, whereas in both directions in Experiment 2.
The present study designed a situation to induce context recurrence of the reading material in the continuation task and explored its effects on L2 learners’ willingness to communicate（WTC hereinafter） and alignment in the task. Two groups of L2 learners completed a WTC questionnaire and two versions of the same unfinished story with and without the situation respectively. Results show that（1） the situation in question did not reduce participants ’ WTC but enhanced it, the strength of participants ’ WTC hinged on whether there was context recurrence of the reading material in their writings, with context recurrence leading to higher WTC, and in the parts of writing where no context recurrence was found, the situation proper functioned to reduce participants’ WTC; and（2） the situation increased learners’ use of words and multiword chunks in the reading material. Taken together, the results indicate that the situation for context recurrence is capable of enhancing L2 learners’ WTC and alignment in the continuation task, thus providing an effective way to optimize the task and other means of L2 learning by extension.
Compensatory adaptation emerges when individuals encounter pragmatic impairment.Though researches are plentiful in pragmatic impairments, discussions about multimodal compensation remain further explored in its performance and mechanism. To fill the gap, this paper first explores the phenomenon of multimodal compensation in language disorders and its corresponding pragmatic functions. It then distinguishes three types of performances in multimodal compensation: compensation from inter-and intra-personal perspectives, compensation across language levels, and compensation across semiotic systems and modalities. These performances are on account of interconnection among multiple sensory organs and their neural networks. To further illustrate that, two types of interpretive mechanisms are proposed, i.e., the compensation mechanism spans multiple linguistic levels, and the multimodal compensation as the result of the mutual compensation among different sensory modalities and their neural systems in the brain. The study of pragmatic disorders should uphold a holistic view, which can expand the theoretical dimension of pragmatics.
Based on Chinese EFL learners’ acquisition of at, on and in, three high-frequency English temporal dimensional prepositions, this study examined the relationship between frequency effects and crosslinguistic conceptual similarities and differences, and explored the issue of transferability.The results showed that:（1） crosslinguistic conceptual similarities and input frequency both contributed positively to the acquisition of at and in, and input frequency strengthened the positive effect of the crosslinguistic similarities to a great extent;（2） crosslinguistic conceptual differences caused negative L1 conceptual transfer to some degree even though input frequency considerably diminished their negative influences. The negative influences were mainly manifested in the acquisition of at and in, because Chinese language tends not to distinguish points of time from time span on the one hand, and not to differentiate lengths of time span on the other; and（3） input frequency had a very positive effect on the acquisition of on, but more errors were committed than those of at and in, since the crosslinguistic conceptual non-equivalence had a negative effect on its acquisition. Taken together, these findings indicate that conceptual transfer is largely determined by crosslinguistic conceptual similarities and differences, but input frequency is also an undeniable factor which would strengthen or weaken the effects of conceptual transfer in L2 acquisition.
Emergency call as a typical institutional interaction is highly task-driven. The call-taker at the emergency service needs to have qualified professional knowledge, including communication ability, so as to maximally use the information provided by the caller, to make sound judgement,and to correctly decide whether to provide the required emergency service or not. Communication failure between the parties not only damages the institutional talk itself, but also causes loss in life and property. This paper, categorizing contingency from the conversation analytic perspective, and using one naturally-occurring emergency call in X Province as its datum, probes into the call-taker’s improper dealings with the sequence contingencies in this emergency call. It is hoped that the current research will inspire the society to attach importance to the call-taker ’ s communication ability so as to prevent similar events from occurring.
Using keystroke logging with retrospection, this study investigated the pausing behaviors of 35 Year-3 senior high school students during completing the NMET continuation task on computer to explore their cognitive processes and therefore to examine the cognitive validity of the continuation task. The findings indicate that:（1） test-takers ’ pausing indices（i.e. frequency and duration） at linguistic locations（between words and between sentences） are in line with those of independent writing tasks and other integrated writing tasks, whereas the pausing indices at different intervals demonstrate unique patterns;（2） test-takers ’ cognitive processes during the continuation task mirror the similar cognitive processes during independent reading, independent and integrated writing, while also reflect the unique processes such as alignment and inferencing;（3） test-takers ’cognitive processes that the continuation task elicited are aligned with the theoretically based expectations, which suggests that the continuation task is cognitively valid.
This paper reviews the analytical frameworks of materials use from three aspects:materials use orientation, materials use strategy and behavior, and factors influencing the use of materials. It then generalizes three major topics from previous research. Specifically, the theoretical discussion mainly focuses on the relationship between materials users and materials, and the empirical studies involve users’ views on materials, materials use strategies and factors influencing their materials use, and the effects of materials use on teachers’ professional development. Finally,this paper proposes that future research on materials use can be furthered through expanding the definition of foreign language teaching materials, examining wider contexts of materials use,exploring the interactions between key factors in materials use, promoting and probing into the training of teachers’ materials use, and adopting more diversified research methods.
