Chinese elements : a bridge of the integration between Chinese -English translation and linguaculture transnational mobility

[Abstract] As the popularity of Chinese elements in the innovation of the translation part in Chinese CET, we realized that Chinese elements have become a bridge between linguaculture transnational mobility and Chinese-English translation.So, Chinese students translation skills should be critically improved; for example, on their understanding about Chinese culture, especially the meaning of Chinese culture. Five important secrets of skillful translation are introduced to improve students’ translation skills

Non-spurious correlations between genetic and linguistic diversities in the context of human evolution

This thesis concerns human diversity, arguing that it represents not just some form of noise, which must be filtered out in order to reach a deeper explanatory level, but the engine of human and language evolution, metaphorically put, the best gift Nature has made to us. This diversity must be understood in the context of (and must shape) human evolution, of which the Recent Out-of-Africa with Replacement model (ROA) is currently regarded, especially outside palaeoanthropology, as a true theory. It is argued, using data from palaeoanthropology, human population genetics, ancient DNA studies and primatology, that this model must be, at least, amended, and most probably, rejected, and its alternatives must be based on the concept of reticulation. The relationships between the genetic and linguistic diversities is complex, including interindividual genetic and behavioural differences (behaviour genetics) and inter-population differences due to common demographic, geographic and historic factors (spurious correlations), used to study (pre)historical processes. It is proposed that there also exist nonspurious correlations between genetic and linguistic diversities, due to genetic variants which can bias the process of language change, so that the probabilities of alternative linguistic states are altered. The particular hypothesis (formulated with Prof. D. R. Ladd) of a causal relationship between two human genes and one linguistic typological feature is supported by the statistical analysis of a vast database of 983 genetic variants and 26 linguistic features in 49 Old World populations, controlling for geography and known linguistic history. The general theory of non-spurious correlations between genetic and linguistic diversities is developed and its consequences and predictions analyzed. It will very probably profoundly impact our understanding of human diversity and will offer a firm footing for theories of language evolution and change. More specifically, through such a mechanism, gradual, accretionary models of language evolution are a natural consequence of post-ROA human evolutionary models. The unravellings of causal effects of inter-population genetic differences on linguistic states, mediated by complex processes of cultural evolution (biased iterated learning), will represent a major advance in our understanding of the relationship between cultural and genetic diversities, and will allow a better appreciation of this most fundamental and supremely valuable characteristic of humanity - its intrinsic diversity

A Grammar of Eastern Geshiza : A Culturally Anchored Description

This dissertation describes Eastern Geshiza, a previously insufficiently known Trans-Himalayan (Sino-Tibetan) Horpa language spoken primarily in eastern Geshiza Valley of Danba County in the People’s Republic of China. The approximately 5000 speakers of Eastern Geshiza are categorised as ethnic Tibetans, practice agriculture, and follow the religious traditions of Bön and Tibetan Buddhism. Adopting a functional-typological framework and following an approach that emphasises linguistic ecology, the dissertation aims to anchor the grammatical description to the various contexts of the language. Eastern Geshiza is currently endangered. Almost all speakers of the language are bilingual: Eastern Geshiza functions as an in-group language while Sichuanese Mandarin, also acquired since childhood, is used for external communication as a regional lingua franca. Knowledge of Tibetan lects and Written Tibetan, however, is low among the speakers. A substantial influx of new lexical loans from Chinese and a gradual language shift towards Chinese among the young constitute issues that will greatly affect both the future shape and vitality of the language. Eastern Geshiza exhibits complex phonology. It possesses an extensive phoneme inventory that contains 8 fully phonemic vowels and 37 fully phonemic consonant phonemes. The language abounds in complex consonant clusters of up to three members. Eastern Geshiza is morphologically complex. The complexity is particularly prominent in verb morphology that is characterised by an argument indexation system based on accessibility hierarchy and a set of multi-functional verbal prefixes that encode orientation, aspect, and mood. Like many of the other regional languages, Eastern Geshiza is also rich in evidential categories and includes the grammatical category of engagement. Typological peculiarities of the language make it an important source of data for typological research. The dissertation is based on first-hand field data collected on five major field trips during 2015-18 with the total duration of approximately eight months. The fieldwork was primarily carried out in Balang Village and the surrounding area, the easternmost Geshiza communities closest to Danba County Town. As its theoretical foundations, the description builds on Basic Linguistic Theory and linguistic typology. I hope that this description of the language’s most prominent features will be helpful in advancing our knowledge of Horpa studies and Trans-Himalayan linguistics together with providing new material for linguistic typology and other branches of linguistics.Tämä väitöskirja kuvaa itäisen geshizan kielen. Geshiza on aiemmin riittämättömästi tunnettu sinotiibetiläinen (transhimalajalainen) horpakieli, jota puhutaan pääasiallisesti Geshizan laakson itäosissa Danban läänissä Kiinan kansantasavallassa. Itäisen geshizan noin 5000 puhujaa luokitellaan etnisesti tiibetiläisiksi. He harjoittavat maanviljelystä ja seuraavat uskontoinaan sekä böniä että tiibetinbuddhalaisuutta. Lähestymistavaltaan tämä funktionaalis-typologiseen viitekehykseen nojaava deskriptiivinen kielioppi painottaa kieliekologiaa ja pyrkii ankkuroimaan geshizan kielen sen moninaisiin konteksteihin. Itäinen geshiza on muuttunut uhanalaiseksi. Lähes kaikki itäisen geshizan puhujat ovat kaksikielisiä: itäinen geshiza toimii ryhmän sisäisenä kielenä, kun taas sichuanin mandariinia, jonka geshizat myös oppivat lapsuudessaan, käytetään ryhmän ulkoiseen kommunikaatioon lingua francana. Tiibetin kielimuotoja tai kirjoitettua tiibetiä ei kuitenkaan tunneta laajalti geshizojen keskuudessa. Suuri määrä uusia lainasanoja kiinasta ja asteittainen kielenvaihto kohti kiinaa nuorten geshizojen parissa ovat tällä hetkellä kaksi keskeistä asiaa, jotka vaikuttavat geshizan kielen tulevaan muotoon sekä sen elinvoimaisuuteen jatkossa. Itäisen geshizan kielessä on kompleksinen fonologia. Kielessä on laaja foneemi-inventaario, joka sisältää 8 täysin foneemista vokaalia sekä 37 täysin foneemista konsonanttifoneemia. Konsonantit muodostavat laajan kirjon konsonanttiyhtymiä, joissa voi olla jopa kolme jäsentä. Lisäksi itäinen geshiza on morfologisesti kompleksinen kieli. Tämä kompleksisuus tulee vahvasti esille verbimorfologiassa, jossa keskeistä osaa näyttelee saavutettavuushierarkiaan (accessibility hierarchy) perustuva argumentti-indeksaatio ja monikäyttöiset verbiprefiksit, jotka merkitsevät orientaatiota, aspektia, sekä modusta. Kuten monet muut alueen kielet, itäinen geshiza sisältää runsaasti evidentiaalisuuden kategorioita ja kielessä on tämän lisäksi myös hiljattain tunnistettu engagement-kategoria. Kielen typologiset ominaispiirteet tekevät siitä tärkeän lähteen typologiselle tutkimukselle. Tämä väitöskirja perustuu ensikäden kenttätutkimusaineistoon, jonka keräsin viiden keskeisen aineistonkeruumatkan aikana vuosina 2015-2018. Aineistonkeruumatkojen yhteenlaskettu kokonaiskesto oli noin kahdeksan kuukautta. Suoritin kenttätutkimuksen pääasiallisesti Balangin kylässä sekä sitä ympäröivällä alueella, jotka muodostavat itäisimmät geshizankieliset yhteisöt Danban läänikaupungin läheisyydessä. Teoreettisena pohjana kieliopille toimii Basic Linguistic Theory ja kielitypologia. Toivon, että laatimani kielioppi geshizan keskeisimmistä ominaisuuksista auttaa edistämään horpakielten ja sinotiibetiläisten (transhimalajalaisten) kielten tutkimusta sekä tarjoaa lisäksi uutta materiaalia kielitypologialle ja muille kielitieteen haaroille

A network of Spanish consecutive discourse markers from a usage-based perspective: corpus and experimental evidences

Esta tesis se plantea la necesidad de describir las diferencias entre determinados sintagmas preposicionales y marcadores del discurso y de representar cómo estas se reflejan en un cline evolutivo, donde la primera categoría avanza gradualmente hacia la segunda. Una premisa fundamental del trabajo consiste en que el esquema sincrónico conformado por unidades que comparten origen composicional y muestran, en cambio, diferentes propiedades formales o funcionales nos proporciona un marco fiable del proceso diacrónico que han recorrido. En este sentido, las unidades consecutivas del español por eso, por ello y por esto han sido frecuentemente diferenciadas del marcador del discurso por tanto en virtud de ciertas propiedades distintivas. Así pues, el estudio de este paradigma consecutivo nos permite obtener una imagen ilustradora del mencionado cline, por lo que deviene en nuestro objeto de estudio particular. Tales diferencias en su comportamiento formal o funcional son, de acuerdo con la perspectiva adoptada en esta tesis, el resultado de procesos de cambio que afectan a las construcciones, a saber, cambios construccionales y construccionalizaciones. Estos procesos pueden dar cuenta del estatus actual de las construcciones, y las relaciones que estas mantienen se representan adecuadamente en una red construccional con múltiples vínculos que aspira a conceptualizar de manera más dinámica la noción tradicional de paradigma. Otro presupuesto del trabajo se refiere a la metodología que puede reflejar mejor el estatus de estos marcadores consecutivos, soslayando los problemas que este tipo de unidades plantean desde un punto de vista evolutivo. En este sentido, se ha llevado a cabo una combinación de métodos en la que se investigan y se ponen en correlación dos dimensiones: por un lado, el lenguaje como actividad, a través de un estudio de eye-tracking; por otro lado, el lenguaje como producto, a partir de un estudio de corpus. Esta correlación no solo consiste en una triangulación de métodos en un sentido tradicional, sino que concuerda realmente con los enfoques basados en el uso, en los que la lengua se concibe como el reflejo de la categorización de los hablantes a partir de eventos de uso. Por tanto, los métodos experimentales en línea, como el eye-tracking, nos proporcionan una herramienta complementaria para este tipo de análisis, en la medida en que ofrecen un esbozo de los patrones de procesamiento desencadenados por cada marcador, que puede ponerse en relación con los patrones de uso que exhiben las distintas unidades analizadas en enunciados reales de corpus. La combinación de los estudios de corpus y de eye-tracking realizados revela una arquitectura del paradigma de conectores consecutivos ciertamente compleja. Todas las unidades despliegan una estrategia de procesamiento que encaja con los principios de procesamiento de la marcación del discurso. Un escrutinio mayor de algunos parámetros demuestra que ciertas diferencias del estudio de eye-tracking se pueden correlacionar con los distintos patrones de uso que se hallan en el estudio de corpus. Se confirman, por tanto, los beneficios de la combinación de corpus y métodos experimentales y de las perspectivas basadas en el uso para la descripción sincrónica y diacrónica de los marcadores del discurso y de las categorías y unidades vecinas

Contact-induced change in Dolgan : an investigation into the role of linguistic data for the reconstruction of a people’s (pre)history

This study explores the role of linguistic data in the reconstruction of Dolgan (pre)history. While most ethno-linguistic groups have a longstanding history and a clear ethnic and linguistic affiliation, the formation of the Dolgans has been a relatively recent development, and their ethnic origins as well as their linguistic affiliation have been a matter of debate. According to some scholars, the Dolgans, who inhabit the Taimyr Peninsula and the Anabar district of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), are Turkic people who adopted a Tungusic name and certain Tungusic cultural features. Others hold the view that they have Tungusic origins but shifted to a Turkic language. Migrations and frequent contacts with other ethnic groups complicate a reconstruction of their past. Accepting the idea that contact settings may correlate with linguistic outcomes, contact-induced changes in Dolgan are analysed and used to infer information about the nature of the contact settings in which they occurred. The linguistic conclusions are interpreted in a multidisciplinary context, integrating insights from history, ethnography as well as from population genetics. In particular, linguistic patterns of contact influence are correlated with genetic admixture patterns, providing new insights into the prehistoric migration patterns of the Dolgans. Due to its holistic approach, this study provides an example of the innovative ways in which data from different disciplines can be combined to gain a deeper understanding of a people__s past and identity, and provides a valuable contribution to the investigation of Siberian history.Max Planck SocietyLanguage Use in Past and Presen

Looking for a disappearing voice : place making, place-belongingness, and Naxi language vitality in Lijiang Ancient Town : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

This thesis aims to examine the vitality of Naxi language in Lijiang Ancient Town (LAT) after the town was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997 and has since experienced rapid growth in tourism and significant social, cultural, and economic changes. To do this I explore the visibility of Naxi language in the Linguistic Landscape (LL) of LAT, the intersection between place-making efforts by government agencies and UNESCO and feelings of place-belongingness among the Naxi ethnic community, and perceptions of value towards the Naxi language among a range of stakeholders in the town. The thesis is orientated by epistemological constructivism, and I utilise a case study approach with a mix of qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were undertaken via the LL data to identify the public visibility of Naxi language within LAT. Thirty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted with a range of actors but predominately with Naxi people in order to explore their feelings, attitudes and relationship to LAT and the Naxi language. Through a series of field site visits, I also collected empirical data from observations within the town to supplement the LL analysis and interview data. Secondary textual analysis on laws and regulations was also employed to understand the place making initiatives and development trajectory of LAT through various governing bodies: China central and local government as well as UNESCO. The findings highlight that there are a number of contradictions and tensions that exist between place-making efforts by government agencies and UNESCO, and feelings of place-belongingness among the Naxi ethnic community. These contradictions and tensions are evident in the dominant tourism economy in the town and the impacts of excessive commercialisation, environmental degradation, out-migration of the Naxi population, marginalisation of the Naxi culture, interrupted social ties and declining language use. The study also reveals how in line with regulatory requirements and the promotion of LAT as a traditional Naxi homeland, the Naxi language is displayed within the LL. However, this is largely a decorative role. While it provides a visual reminder of the Naxi history and culture in LAT, it is a weak demonstration of Naxi identity and unlikely to genuinely contribute to the vitality of Naxi language. Furthermore, the value of the Naxi language and its usage in commerce and daily lives of the Naxi community relies on people’s subjective attitudes and feelings towards the language. These attitudes and feelings within the Naxi community have shifted in recent decades with the pervasion of Han culture and the predominance of Mandarin Chinese. They undermine perceptions of the positive value of the Naxi language and lead to an apathetic attitude to language learning. Place-making efforts by governing bodies and the growth of mass tourism have led to the production of an ‘inauthentic’ representation of Naxi language and culture within LAT and have interrupted the intergenerational transmission of Naxi language contributing to its state of endangerment. Naxi is a Disappearing Voice. Key words: Language vitality, place making, place-belongingness, Linguistic Landscape, Lijiang Ancient Town, World Heritage site, touris

Examples of works to practice staccato technique in clarinet instrument

Klarnetin staccato tekniğini güçlendirme aşamaları eser çalışmalarıyla uygulanmıştır. Staccato geçişlerini hızlandıracak ritim ve nüans çalışmalarına yer verilmiştir. Çalışmanın en önemli amacı sadece staccato çalışması değil parmak-dilin eş zamanlı uyumunun hassasiyeti üzerinde de durulmasıdır. Staccato çalışmalarını daha verimli hale getirmek için eser çalışmasının içinde etüt çalışmasına da yer verilmiştir. Çalışmaların üzerinde titizlikle durulması staccato çalışmasının ilham verici etkisi ile müzikal kimliğe yeni bir boyut kazandırmıştır. Sekiz özgün eser çalışmasının her aşaması anlatılmıştır. Her aşamanın bir sonraki performans ve tekniği güçlendirmesi esas alınmıştır. Bu çalışmada staccato tekniğinin hangi alanlarda kullanıldığı, nasıl sonuçlar elde edildiği bilgisine yer verilmiştir. Notaların parmak ve dil uyumu ile nasıl şekilleneceği ve nasıl bir çalışma disiplini içinde gerçekleşeceği planlanmıştır. Kamış-nota-diyafram-parmak-dil-nüans ve disiplin kavramlarının staccato tekniğinde ayrılmaz bir bütün olduğu saptanmıştır. Araştırmada literatür taraması yapılarak staccato ile ilgili çalışmalar taranmıştır. Tarama sonucunda klarnet tekniğin de kullanılan staccato eser çalışmasının az olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Metot taramasında da etüt çalışmasının daha çok olduğu saptanmıştır. Böylelikle klarnetin staccato tekniğini hızlandırma ve güçlendirme çalışmaları sunulmuştur. Staccato etüt çalışmaları yapılırken, araya eser çalışmasının girmesi beyni rahatlattığı ve istekliliği daha arttırdığı gözlemlenmiştir. Staccato çalışmasını yaparken doğru bir kamış seçimi üzerinde de durulmuştur. Staccato tekniğini doğru çalışmak için doğru bir kamışın dil hızını arttırdığı saptanmıştır. Doğru bir kamış seçimi kamıştan rahat ses çıkmasına bağlıdır. Kamış, dil atma gücünü vermiyorsa daha doğru bir kamış seçiminin yapılması gerekliliği vurgulanmıştır. Staccato çalışmalarında baştan sona bir eseri yorumlamak zor olabilir. Bu açıdan çalışma, verilen müzikal nüanslara uymanın, dil atış performansını rahatlattığını ortaya koymuştur. Gelecek nesillere edinilen bilgi ve birikimlerin aktarılması ve geliştirici olması teşvik edilmiştir. Çıkacak eserlerin nasıl çözüleceği, staccato tekniğinin nasıl üstesinden gelinebileceği anlatılmıştır. Staccato tekniğinin daha kısa sürede çözüme kavuşturulması amaç edinilmiştir. Parmakların yerlerini öğrettiğimiz kadar belleğimize de çalışmaların kaydedilmesi önemlidir. Gösterilen azmin ve sabrın sonucu olarak ortaya çıkan yapıt başarıyı daha da yukarı seviyelere çıkaracaktır