International Journal of Language and Culture - Volume 9, Issue 1, 2022

Abstract

Nowhere is the interface between language, culture and cognition more clearly visible than in word meanings and in cases of translational non-equivalence between words of different languages. One such case is that of the meanings of stage-of-life words in different languages. This paper presents a contrastive analysis between the English boy and the Italian ragazzo made adopting the principles and methods of cross-linguistic semantics. The analysis demonstrates that the semantic non-equivalence between these two stage-of-life words results from the different age and time spans covered by each word and different cultural assumptions about the transition to manhood, showing how these differences are reflected in discourse in the respective languages. First, a discourse analysis is made for each word; after that, two separate semantic explications are produced with the Natural Semantic Metalanguage methodology and then contrasted to highlight the differences in meaning and the role of culture in the formation of different conceptualisations of the human life cycle.

Abstract

There has been little longitudinal research on the relationship between how sojourners define their personal face and how this influences their use of the host language in intercultural settings. This study employs the Cultural Linguistic Perspective developed by Sharifian (2011, 2017), using repeated episodic interviews to explore the process of reschematization of face among three Chinese overseas students in Australia. The students’ schemas of face gradually moved away from the Chinese ideals of sociality and indirectness towards Australian norms of individual autonomy and directness in both English use and social relationships. This study points to the need to examine the contribution of personal, situational, and cultural factors to this process.

Abstract

Swearing is a verbal act in which the main language structure is composed of multiple swear words. The reasons for studying swearing include the need to know what lexical items might be used for swearing. For this reason, it is critical to determine the pragmatic principles and cultural beliefs which underlie curse words. This paper constructs a thesaurus of the swearing vocabulary used in the late-Yuan and early-Ming dynasty novel, Shuǐhǔ zhuàn (水浒传). It analyzes the pragmatic principles and cultural beliefs surrounding swearing during those dynasties by means of exhaustive measurement, offering a better understanding of those pragmatics and beliefs and showing how Chinese people swore or used abusive language at that time. This paper indicates that those Yuan and Ming pragmatic principles and cultural beliefs also underlie the ways in which modern Chinese people swear.

Abstract

This paper presents two remarkably similar characterological figures who are stereotyped embodiments of working-class personas: Haagse Harry in The Hague and chavs in England. The two figures have similar attires, class positions, attitudes, and associated attributes. We compare and contextualize the indexical links between their linguistic features and their social characteristics. Firstly, while chavs can be both men and women, the fictional persona Haagse Harry represents an all-male lower-working-class subculture. Secondly, while Haagse Harry consistently speaks Broad Haags, the language of chavs is not rooted in any single regional dialect but invariably indexes working-class features. Thirdly, Haagse Harry, and his sociolect, has a higher social status compared to the language and persona of chavs, who embody British class prejudice. We demonstrate that the repertoire of linguistic features deployed in the stylisation of characterological figures is strongly dependent on patterns of variation and ideas that are prevalent in the local speech community.

Abstract

This study examines language preferences to express anger and happiness among 15 Russian Australians belonging to the 1.5 generation, who acquired Russian as first language (L1) and English as second language (L2), after migration during childhood. While most research into these topics has focused on L1-dominant bilinguals, this study offers a novel perspective, as 1.5-generation migrants are generally L2-dominant or multidominant (L1+L2-dominant), and possibly L1 attriters. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and underwent qualitative thematic analyses. From the results it emerges that these speakers mostly express emotions in the L2 or both languages, in line with their language dominance, but their choices do not seem to relate to language emotionality, as the L1 maintains the highest emotional resonance for them. While research on multilinguals’ expression of emotions has mainly focused on anger, this study calls attention to the expression of happiness, and points to the importance of L2-dominant and multidominant multilinguals.

Abstract

This article explicates the cultural conceptualizations of the word for salt (namak) in Persian. The concept of namak reveals an important aspect of Persian sociality, hospitality, mutual respect, and playfulness. For instance, a person’s face or words can be perceived to ‘have salt’, or one’s hand is declared to ‘not have salt’ in the Persian language. To examine the conceptualization of namak, this article makes use of corpus data as well as the metalanguage proposed by Natural Semantic Metalanguage to spell out the nuances of salt-related cultural concepts in Persian. Three senses are identified for namak from a historical perspective: namak0 for the substance of salt; namak1 the cornerstone of Iranian sociality and hospitality; and namak2 the pleasantness, which has changed its semantic content from referring to being pleasant and eloquent to being amusing and playful.

Abstract

In spite of its prevalence in Iranian Persian-speaking communities, the issue of self-sacrifice expressions as a culture-specific verbal behavior has remained almost ignored in the existing literature on speech acts. The current study is an enquiry into the use of self-sacrifice expressions by Iranian Persian speakers in performing different speech acts such as thanking, sympathizing, and expressing affection and love. Serving as a device of encoding emotion into speech, self-sacrifice expressions have been found to be of variety in diction as well as variation in frequency across such social factors as age, gender, and education level. The results indicate pragmalinguistic variations in the use of self-sacrifice expressions in terms of social context, gender, age, and educational level. The tenets of this study are intended to be of insight into socio-cultural aspects of self-sacrifice expressions in language use.

This article reviews What if Babel was just a myth? / Et si Babel n’était qu’un mythe?