Directional adposition use in English, Swedish and Finnish

Directional adpositions such as to the left of describe where a Figure is in relation to a Ground. English and Swedish directional adpositions refer to the location of a Figure in relation to a Ground, whether both are static or in motion. In contrast, the Finnish directional adpositions edellä (in front of) and jäljessä (behind) solely describe the location of a moving Figure in relation to a moving Ground (Nikanne, 2003). When using directional adpositions, a frame of reference must be assumed for interpreting the meaning of directional adpositions. For example, the meaning of to the left of in English can be based on a relative (speaker or listener based) reference frame or an intrinsic (object based) reference frame (Levinson, 1996). When a Figure and a Ground are both in motion, it is possible for a Figure to be described as being behind or in front of the Ground, even if neither have intrinsic features. As shown by Walker (in preparation), there are good reasons to assume that in the latter case a motion based reference frame is involved. This means that if Finnish speakers would use edellä (in front of) and jäljessä (behind) more frequently in situations where both the Figure and Ground are in motion, a difference in reference frame use between Finnish on one hand and English and Swedish on the other could be expected. We asked native English, Swedish and Finnish speakers’ to select adpositions from a language specific list to describe the location of a Figure relative to a Ground when both were shown to be moving on a computer screen. We were interested in any differences between Finnish, English and Swedish speakers. All languages showed a predominant use of directional spatial adpositions referring to the lexical concepts TO THE LEFT OF, TO THE RIGHT OF, ABOVE and BELOW. There were no differences between the languages in directional adpositions use or reference frame use, including reference frame use based on motion. We conclude that despite differences in the grammars of the languages involved, and potential differences in reference frame system use, the three languages investigated encode Figure location in relation to Ground location in a similar way when both are in motion. Levinson, S. C. (1996). Frames of reference and Molyneux’s question: Crosslingiuistic evidence. In P. Bloom, M.A. Peterson, L. Nadel & M.F. Garrett (Eds.) Language and Space (pp.109-170). Massachusetts: MIT Press. Nikanne, U. (2003). How Finnish postpositions see the axis system. In E. van der Zee & J. Slack (Eds.), Representing direction in language and space. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Walker, C. (in preparation). Motion encoding in language, the use of spatial locatives in a motion context. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Lincoln, Lincoln. United Kingdo

Integrating ethnographic, multidimensional, corpus linguistic and systemic functional approaches to genre description : an illustration through university history and engineering assignments

Our research aims to describe genres of assessed writing at British universities (ESRC RES-000-23-0800). To this end we have developed a corpus of 2800 texts from four years of study across four broad disciplinary groupings. Our research design integrates a corpus linguistic account of formal features in the corpus with an ethnographic investigation of the disciplinary context, a multi-dimensional analysis of register, and a functional linguistic analysis of genres. In this paper I illustrate this design with examples from history and engineering. The contextual information shows that history students write mostly essays, written as pedagogical genres, while engineering students engage in a wide range of written assignments: scientific papers are written as if to report findings to an academic audience; funding proposals are written as if to persuade a professional readership; posters are designed to inform a lay audience (e.g. visitors to a transport museum); and reflective journals are written for personal and professional development. The writing process also differs. Some assignments are written individually whereas others involve teamwork

Design of a Controlled Language for Critical Infrastructures Protection

We describe a project for the construction of controlled language for critical infrastructures protection (CIP). This project originates from the need to coordinate and categorize the communications on CIP at the European level. These communications can be physically represented by official documents, reports on incidents, informal communications and plain e-mail. We explore the application of traditional library science tools for the construction of controlled languages in order to achieve our goal. Our starting point is an analogous work done during the sixties in the field of nuclear science known as the Euratom Thesaurus.JRC.G.6-Security technology assessmen

An overview of audiovisual translation: Four methodological turns in a mature discipline

Digital technology has played a crucial role not only in the process of production and distribution of audiovisual content, but also in the process of localization and consumption of audiovisual products. This has had an obvious impact on audiovisual translation as a field, both in professional circles as well as in scholarly research. To date, this field of research has grown exponentially, parallel to the production, consumption, interaction with and general interest in audiovisual products. At the same time, translation studies have been growing as a discipline and, consequently, has been influencing audiovisual translation (AVT) research. This article presents a due brief overview of the four turns audiovisual translation has taken to date (the descriptive, the cultural, the sociological and the cognitive turns), and identifies some of the major steps already undertaken, as well as possible research avenues that such turns are currently opening

Teaching and Learning English through Corpus-based Approaches in Norwegian Secondary Schools: Identifying Obstacles and a Way Forward

Article 2 has been removed from the digital version, due to copyright issues. It can be read in the printed edition.This doctoral dissertation presents the use of corpus-based approaches to English language learning in upper secondary school in Norway. The research was conducted in two distinct phases. The first phase investigated the pedagogic corpus work of four corpus-trained, in service teachers and their students’ corpus literacy alongside factors that might have influenced this work. Data were collected through a questionnaire to students and teacher interviews. The second phase featured a teacher-researcher collaboration with one of the four aforementioned teachers and two of his first-year, upper-secondary classes to design and implement a corpu-based approach over a two-week period. Data were collected through a case-study design with classroom observations, and subsequent student group interviews. Previous studies have shown that corpus-based approaches to language learning result in positive learning outcomes; however, most studies are at the tertiary level and designed and conducted by corpus scholars. Meanwhile, data-driven learning in secondary school is “relatively uncharted territory” (Wicher, 2020) and there has been a call for more qualitative studies. The current dissertation sought to contribute knowledge of data-driven learning in the secondary-school context and insight into the processes and opinions of teachers and learners related to pedagogic corpus use. In the first phase, it was found that the teachers, despite their formal corpus training, had avoided corpus-based approaches in their practice, and few of their students knew anything about corpora. Factors such as teachers’ beliefs about their students’ digital and linguistic competence and about corpora, teachers’ topic focus and epistemic beliefs, and the inaccessibility and cost of corpus applications contributed to their reluctance to introducing their students to corpora. In the second phase, several opportunities for learning were found including instances of metatalk to describe corpus data, peer scaffolding where students helped each other to learn the tool, and teacher scaffolding where the teacher confronted the students with their socio-economic prejudices that arose while working with corpus data from Irish English speakers. However, students’ impressions of the tool and process were negatively skewed. Their critique focused on the absence of the teacher, the complexity and aesthetics of the corpus tool’s interface and data, and the tool’s irrelevance to their learning process. In addition to the empirical contributions described above, it is argued in the dissertation that there are two major obstacles to data-driven learning that need to be addressed in order for its ii application to be normalized in the classroom. These obstacles concern a) the novelty of the approach and the training and mediation required to overcome this novelty, and b) the relevance of the approach to teachers, students, and the curriculum. Inquiry-based education was brought in as a theoretical framework that has considerable overlap with the concepts of data-driven learning but includes a more pronounced social dimension that foster teacher and peer mediation, collaborative learning, and knowledge sharing.Sammendrag: Denne doktorgradsavhandlingen tar for seg en studie av korpusbaserte tilnærminger til engelsk språklæring i norsk videregående skole. Forskningen foregikk i to separate faser. I den første fasen ble den pedagogiske korpusbruken til fire videregåendelærere undersøkt, samt deres elevers korpuskjennskap. I tillegg ble faktorer som kan ha påvirket korpusbruken i disse klassene undersøkt. Dataen ble samlet via et spørreskjema til elevene og lærerintervjuer. Den andre fasen innebar et lærer-forsker-samarbeid med en av de ovennevnte lærerne og to av hans første års videregåendeklasser, for å designe og gjennomføre en korpusbasert tilnærming over en to-ukers periode. Dataen ble samlet gjennom en kasusstudie med klasseromsobservasjoner og påfølgende gruppeintervjuer med elevene. Tidligere forskning viser at korpusbaserte tilnærminger til språklæring har resultert i positivt læringsutbytte, men de fleste studiene er gjort innen høyere utdanning og er designet og gjennomført av korpusforskere. Datadrevet læring i videregående er derimot relativt lite utforsket (Wicher, 2020) og flere kvalitative studier etterspørres av flere forskere. Denne avhandlingen bidrar til mer kunnskap om datadrevet læring i videregåendekonteksten og gir innsikt i prosessene knyttet til pedagogisk bruk av korpus og meningene lærere og elever har i denne sammenhengen. I den første fasen fant jeg at lærere, til tross for deres formelle korpusutdanning, hadde unngått korpusbaserte tilnærminger i sin egen praksis, og få blant elevene deres visste noe som helst om korpus. Faktorer som læreres oppfatninger [teacher’s beliefs] om elevenes digitale og språklige ferdigheter og korpusferdigheter, lærernes temafokus og epistemiske holdninger, og problemer relatert til tilgjengelighet og kostnader, bidro til lærernes motvilje mot å introdusere korpus til elevene. I den andre fasen ble flere språklæringsmuligheter observert, inkludert tilfeller av bruk av metaspråk for å beskrive korpusdataene, elev-scaffolding hvor elevene hjalp hverandre med å forstå verktøyet, og lærer-scaffolding ved at læreren konfronterte elevene med deres sosioøkonomiske fordommer som kom frem mens de arbeidet med korpusdata fra irsk-engelske språkbrukere. Elevene uttrykte likevel negative oppfatninger av korpusverktøyet og undervisningen. Elevenes kritikk omhandlet opplevelsen av læreren som fraværende, kompleksiteten og estetikken til korpusverktøyet og dataene i korpuset, samt verktøyets manglende relevans for læringsprosessen deres. I tillegg til de ovenfornevnte empiriske bidragene argumenteres det i avhandlingen for at datadrevet læring innebærer to store utfordringer som må løses for at tilnærmingen skal bli normalisert i klasserommet. Disse utfordringene omhandler nyhetsproblemet [the novelty gap] og den treningen og medieringen som kreves for å løse det, samt korpustilnærmingens relevans for lærere, elever og læreplanen. Utforskende arbeidsmetoder [inquiry-based education] er foreslått som et teoretisk rammeverk som i stor grad overlapper med datadrevet læring, men som også inkluderer en tydeligere sosial dimensjon som innebærer lærer- og elev-mediering, samarbeidende læringsformer, og kunnskapsdeling.publishedVersio

In search for totemic foods: Exploring discursive foodscapes online in Finnish, English and French

This interdisciplinary research investigates how chilli and chocolate emerge as totemic foods in online foodie discourse. The corpus is compiled from Social Networking Services (blogs, community websites, recipe sharing sites, and conversation fora) in Finnish, English and French. The theoretical framework is construed with post-Bourdieusian taste and distinction studies on discourse, complemented by a feminist positioning. A netnographically inspired inquiry in an observer’s position enhances the methodology of critical discourse studies. The study introduces a theoretical concept: discursive foodscapes, contributing on two dimensions to extant theorising. It focuses the observation on multivocal online communities and extends foodscape analysis towards non-concrete consumption, on a discursive level. Moreover, the study suggests new practices for taste engineering, relevant in online consumption contexts. Three research questions draw on chilli and chocolate as totemic substances, interpreted in a framework of contemporary tribalism within the paradigmatic viewpoint of Consumer Culture Theory: emergence of chocolate and chilli as totemic foods; taste and distinction performance; and representations of gender and power. They are studied separately, although perceiving the triad as entwined. The discursive foodscape related to each research question reflects findings: it is described with the combination of discursive themes, frames and strategies identified in the empirical analysis. Findings reveal a more diversified vista on chocolate and chilli as discursive foci than extant research mostly claims: they are ascribed with a variety of totemic significations, shifting contextually from highly indulgent to environmentally concerned. Knowledge-intensive foodie discourse emerges as relatively gender-neutral. However, across embodied, experiential elements in consumption the discourse becomes more gender-flagged, and contextual changes are highly significant. This variation generates discursively interesting constellations where stylistic categories reflect areas of culinary and discursive competence. Cross-linguistic variation is detected with all research questions, introducing a pioneer-type endeavor in terms of discourse analysis of foodie sites online, across three language

Supplementary schools as spaces of hope for a more inclusive world: Challenging exclusion and social injustice in multilingual London

Following a contextualisation of multilingual London, I will explore the ways in which many of London’s – and indeed the UK’s – language communities and the languages they speak suffer marginalisation and exclusion. Based on an exploration of language education policy, the article employs the construct of “monolingual habitus” (Gogolin 2002), which, whilst tending to monolingualise multilingualism, also offers insights into how the habitus might be shifted. Despite the structural forces at play, I argue that, through their supplementary schools, the language communities themselves can be conceived of as “spaces of hope”, able to challenge the constraints they encounter in order to ensure that their languages continue to be spoken and learnt. I support this argument by first considering their creative educational and cultural practices, and then the ways in which they act as spaces of resistance to the challenges they face. However, I also maintain that they have the potential to play a role in shifting the monolingual habitus beyond their communities, co-creating a more linguistically inclusive society. Further research is needed, however, to understand the processes that may be conducive to this shift and lead to a more inclusive and socially just world

Development and empowerment of previously-marginalised languages: a case of African languages in South Africa

South Africa is a multilingual country with 11 official languages and 9 of these languages are Indigenous African languages. The South African government has developed policies and created an environment for these languages to be developed. National and provincial language policies have been adopted and the country has even passed a language Act called the Use of Official Languages Act, 2012. The national Department of Education has also passed policies and Acts that enable indigenous languages to be made compulsory to all learners in all public schools in the foundation phase. Despite all these efforts, very little has been done to implement these policies. The aim of this study is to interrogate the role played by these language bodies in the implementation of the National Language Policies, particularly the development and empowerment of these previously marginalized languages. Using textual analysis, questionnaires and interviews, the study identified the bottlenecks in the system that hinder the development of these languages. Amongst the many obstructions that were uncovered, is the increased economic benefit associated with English and how this continues to undermine efforts to elevate the status of African languages. Further, this linguistic hegemony has created a situation where speakers of the nine indigenous African languages are denied access to social, economic and political developments of the country, a clear violation of language rights enshrined in the Constitution of South Africa. The study concludes by making recommendations on steps that can be taken to develop African languages in South Africa

Curriculum renewal in translator training: vocational challenges in academic environments with reference to needs and situation analysis and skills transferability from the contemporary experience of Polish translator training culture

This work examines the principles underlying curriculum renewal for the training of translators. It considers recent work from Translation Studies on the nature of translation competence, arguing that a more dynamic understanding of the nature of translation must be reflected in a departure from traditional transmissionist pedagogical practices. Consideration of these issues in a curricular framework must also acknowledge the ideological potential of curricula themselves to prioritise certain relationships between the learner and society, relationships which are investigated from the perspective of a socially situated view of the translator. With regard to determining curricular orientation, a methodology of needs and situation analysis is suggested as a means of profiling essential characteristics of the translator’s work in specific contexts, informed by such issues as changing notions of translation, changing employment norms in the language services sector, locally prevailing norms in the educational environment, etc. Major issues impacting on the situational consideration of needs in translator training are examined, in particular the way in which the vocational / academic dichotomy may problematise training in academic environments. The notion of skills transferability is presented as a theme which is important both to the training of translators and to maximising social reconstructionist potentials in university curricula. In the final chapter, the issues presented in the first three chapters are discussed in relation to the challenges facing translator training in Polish universities with the implementation of Bologna Process reforms. In particular, Polish notions of academic and vocational education are analysed and the experience of one particular university philology is presented as a case study. The conclusion takes the themes discussed in the work and presents them in terms of the opposition between ‘training translators’ and ‘teaching translation.’ Future research trajectories are also proposed