International Journal of Language and Culture - Volume 9, Issue 2, 2022

Abstract

Cultural norms of interactions influence Maasai people to apply animal names to address each other. This article explains that avoidance of personal names of certain categories of people in Maasai influences the use of animal names. In the theoretical framework of Cultural Linguistics, the author analyzed information from an ethnographic exploration through observations and interviews with Maasai informants in Tanzania. The article shows that Maasai’s categorization of people and avoidance system make senior members accumulate more animals through the process of selecting animal names to use. The patriarchal cultural beliefs and conceptualizations of domestic animals have implications on how animal names are applied between men and women. Only women married to polygamous men use animal names to address each other. There are some lexical, morphological and semantic differences between men and women’s names to mark gender categorizations.

Abstract

Cross-cultural variation in the metaphors that are employed by healthcare researchers and professionals when discussing cancer care is a potential impediment to the sharing of expertise. By identifying patterns in the metaphorical language used in these contexts, we can reveal differences in how healthcare practitioners understand cancer and its treatments, thus enabling more effective intercultural communication in the field of oncology. To this end, the use of metaphor in collocations of the word ‘treatment’ in nursing journals published in British English, mainland Chinese, and Taiwanese Chinese is compared. Our analysis reveals differences regarding the agency given to the cancer, its treatment, and the patient; the interrelatedness of different bodily functions and organs; and the emphasis that is placed on the course of treatment as a whole as opposed to its individual stages.

Abstract

This paper presents a cognitive study of the lexical means of conceptualization of time in English and Armenian fairy tales, and outlines the ways in which such conceptualizations are expressed in both languages. A spatial model for the conceptualization of time is introduced, which helps reveal the complexities of lexical expressions of time in these fairy tale texts. The model is depicted by geometric delineations and comprises the schemas which best conform to the folkloristic genre; the depictions consist of a set comprising: point, interval, line, cycle, circle, and segment of a circle. A comparative analysis between the languages reveals that each of these schemas is represented in both languages but to differing extents. Lexically, the schemas are primarily expressed in English by noun phrases paired with prepositions, and in Armenian by prepositions or postpositions or their morphological synonyms. Other means of schema expression in both languages include, with slight differences, number markers, adverbs, adjectives, conjunctions, and deictics.

Abstract

Based on 4 sets of linguistic data (dictionaries, corpus, texts, and surveys), the article explores the way in which the concept of KÆRLIGHED ‘love’ is organized in Danish. Thus, the key factors which play a role in the complex structure of the concept are: the language system, together with the emotion terms it makes available to its speakers; metaphoric models; models at the level of single subcategories; as well as individual experience. There also seem to occur prototype effects within the concept, both with regard to the single attributes of the concept as well as its subcategories. Additionally, the analysis has revealed the unique character of the Danish concept of KÆRLIGHED, which is inherently connected to other parts of the Danish worldview such as gender parity, sex, motherhood, God, the self or homeland, and which uses unique linguistic tools to convey the single conceptualizations.

Abstract

This case study explores how Spanish YouTubers construct affective narratives in terms of self-disclosure in the context of sensitive topics. In addition, it sheds light on how YouTubers take up a stance within the stories, and the components of this stance-taking. Stories and stance-taking will be evaluated through multimodal analysis, observing both the verbal and non-verbal cues used. According to the results, YouTubers’ affective narratives are characterized by emphasis on explicitly named feelings and by non-verbal cues that reinforce the transmission of mediated emotion, as well as functioning to boost self-disclosure. The narratives reveal a kind of stance-continuum that underlines the dynamic nature of phenomena, where YouTubers gradually construct, in conjunction with self-disclosure, the act of stance-taking, starting from self-oriented positioning, then moving toward a more instructive and self-to-others perspective, and finally acting as stance-influencers of the community in which they are involved.

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