The interaction of text and visual in specialized dictionary definitions

Although visuals have been co-deployed with text in specialized dictionaries as far back as the European Renaissance, the interaction of both representational modalities is relatively under-researched. As a consequence, available knowledge is relatively limited with respect to the kinds of visuals employed in specialized dictionaries, the kinds of definiendum that elicit specific types of visuals, the functions of visuals relative to text in definitions, and the association between particular visuals and visual-text functions. This study sheds light on these questions from the perspective of specialized dictionaries in two fields (Biology and Mechanical Engineering). Significantly, the study underscores how the ontology or nature of Biology and Mechanical Engineering appear to determine both the selections made of visual types and the dominant text-visual relationships. The study further makes a contribution to cleaning up the Augean clutter that is the terminology of visuals.Web of Scienc

Terminologie, sécurité alimentaire et santé publique

Le présent article interroge la place des analyses terminologiques dans le domaine de l’élevage dans la province de l’Extrême-Nord du Cameroun, qui mérite bien d’être qualifié de stratégique et même de critique en matière de sécurité. En effet, les enjeux sont de taille, puisqu’ils concernent non seulement la sécurité alimentaire et la santé publique, mais aussi d’autres objectifs sociaux. L’article présente une analyse d’un corpus de termes de maladies bovines et de descriptions pertinentes, recueilli dans le cadre de discussions en groupe. Cette analyse, fondée sur un classement des termes et sur l’examen de relations terminologiques (équivalence, synonymie), permet de révéler les structures épistémiques différentes qui sous-tendent et peut-être compliquent la communication entre personnel vétérinaire et éleveurs. Les synonymes qui ne sont pas considérés comme tels par tous les acteurs, et les termes dits équivalents qui ne se recouvrent pas conceptuellement, sont autant d’éléments sous-jacents à une communication dysfonctionnelle en milieu pastoral, avec d’éventuelles conséquences pour la sécurité alimentaire ainsi que pour la santé publique.This article examines the role of terminological analyses in animal husbandry in the Extreme North province of Cameroon, a domain in which the stakes (food security, public health, other social goals) are so high that it can rightly be considered as strategic and safety critical. Based on data from several focus group discussions, the article analyses terms for cattle diseases and descriptions of these diseases from the standpoint of a term sorting task as well as equivalence relations, synonymy. The analysis unlocks differences in the knowledge structures underpinning and probably complicating communication between veterinarians and cattle farmers. Communication comes across as taking place against the backdrop of, among others, contested synonymy and differences in the intension of terms said to be equivalent interlingually. This backdrop underscores the link between dysfunctional communication among actors in animal husbandry and such social goals as food security and public health

Diagnostic Assessment of Academic Reading: Peeping into Students’ Annotated Texts

Text annotations are literacy practices that are not uncommon in the reading experience of university students. Annotations may be multilingual, monolingual, or multimodal. Despite their enormous diagnostic potentials, annotations have not been widely investigated for what they can reveal about the cognitive processes that are involved in academic reading. In other words, there has been limited exploration of the insights that signs (verbal and non-verbal) inscribed by students on texts offer for understanding and intervening in their academic reading practices. The aim of this exploratory study is to examine the diagnostic assessment potentials of student-annotated texts. On the basis of text annotations obtained from teacher trainee students (n = 7) enrolled at a German university, we seek to understand what different students attend to while reading, what their problem-solving strategies are, what languages and other semiotic systems they deploy, what their level of engagement with text is, and, critically, how the foregoing provide a basis for intervening to validate, reinforce, correct, or teach certain reading skills and practices. Theoretically, the study is undergirded by the notion of text movability. Data suggestive of how students journey through text are argued to have implications for understanding and teaching how they manage attention, use dictionaries, own text meaning, and appraise text

Writing biology, assessing biology: The nature and effects of variation in terminology

There has been substantial research into terminology as an issue in learning science, especially against the backdrop of concerns over school literacy in science and as sometimes reflected in the poor performance of high school students in assessment tasks. Relevant research has emphasized issues such as lexical load, complexity and metaphor. Variation in the use of terminology has, however, been relatively under researched, although there is evidence that terminology use does vary within and across high school textbooks of science. Drawing on an eclectic theoretical framework comprising transitivity analysis (Halliday 1994), legitimation code theory semantics (Maton 2013a), and the context-specific term model (Gerzymisch-Arbogast 2008), this article identifies and classifies variations in the terminology employed in three high school textbooks of biology in Nigeria. It then determines what impact assessment tasks which use terms that differ from those employed in students’ study materials have on students. Examples are found of variant terminology impeding science literacy and task performance, even though there is reason to suspect such variation might in fact have been leveraged to enhance cognition

Drug trade names: a morpho-semantic study in resourcefulness and perfidy.

Linguistic analyses of drug trade names are of interest because they reveal the challenges of uniquely identifying proprietary medicines and because responses to these challenges can have a range of implications: health (medication errors), commercial (compromised sales figures of specific brand names), and legal (protection of industrial property rights). Regrettably, and to the disadvantage of many stakeholders, these perspectives have scarcely been brought to bear on the trade in medicines in a complex environment such as Nigeria, which is a microcosm of environments in the developing world. Based on a corpus of trade names for three categories of medicines (non-opioid analgesics and antipyretics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and antimalarials), we do a morpho-semantic analysis of proprietary drug names marketed in Nigeria. In part, our objectives are to determine how resourceful manufacturers have been in assigning trade names to drugs; to ascertain whether and how trade naming contributes to unfair trade practices and to the potential for adverse drug events; to identify challenges which drug naming practices pose to regulatory authorities and the legal framework within which these authorities operate. This morpho-semantic study shows manufacturers targeting a core of motifs or brand attributes, which are then encoded (often through blending and clipping) into trade names. It is a reflection of the resourcefulness of some manufacturers that they are able to propose different realisations of this core motif set, and thereby maintain some form of distinctiveness. On the other hand, we also see trade names that smack of perfidy or of an intention to cause deception. Remarkable in this respect is the conversion to generic of what is otherwise a unique name-part. This and some of the otherwise resourceful naming practices are shown, through a combination of orthographic and phonetic measures, to have the potential for causing confusion. The health, commercial and regulatory challenges such confusion raises are discussed. The study shows the relevance of linguistic scholarship to public health, thus confirming and extending some of our previous work: text analysis and childhood diarrhea (Antia, Omotara, et al 2003), terminology and animal care (Antia, Mohammadou, Tamdjo 2004), multilingualism and health planning (Antia & Fankep 2004), etc

Shaping Translation: A View from Terminology Research

This article discusses translation-oriented terminology over a time frame that is more or less congruent with META’s life span. Against the backdrop of the place of terminology in shaping professional issues in translation, we initially describe some stages in the process by which terminology has acquired institutional identity in translator training programmes and constituted its knowledge base. We then suggest a framework that seeks to show how theory construction in terminology has contributed to a better understanding of technical texts and their translation. A final section similarly illustrates how this overarching theoretical scheme has driven, or is at least consistent with, products and methods in the translation sector of the so-called language industries.Cet article aborde la terminologie dans l’optique de la traduction (profession, pratique, théorie) durant les cinquante dernières années - période correspondant à la vie de META. Après avoir esquissé ce que le profil contemporain du traducteur doit à la terminologie, l’article examine à tour de rôle: (a) les étapes dans la constitution de cette science des termes, (b) comment cette science a acquis droit de cité dans les programmes de formation des traducteurs, (c) le cadre explicatif contemporain qu’elle propose pour rendre compte des textes techniques et de leur traduction, (d) les retombées de ce cadre pour les secteurs des industries de la langue qui se justifient largement par rapport à la traduction

Epistemological access through lecture materials in multiple modes and language varieties: the role of ideologies and multilingual literacy practices in student evaluations of such materials at a South African University

This paper seeks to address the ways in which ideology and literacy practices shape the responses of students to an ongoing initiative at the University of the Western Cape aimed at diversifying options for epistemological access, specifically the language varieties and the modes in which parts of the curriculum for a third year linguistics module are delivered. Students’ responses to the materials in English and in two varieties of Afrikaans and isiXhosa (as mediated in writing vs orally) are determined, and used as basis to problematize decisions on language variety and mode in language diversification initiatives in Higher Education in South Africa. The findings of the paper are juxtaposed against particular group interests in the educational use of a language as well as differences in the affordances and impact of different modes of language use. The paper suggests that beyond the euphoria of using languages other than English in South African Higher Education, several issues (such as entrenched language practices, beliefs and language management orientations) require attention if the goals of transformation in this sector are to be attained

Multilingual examinations: towards a schema of politicization of language in end of high school examinations in sub-Saharan Africa

In many countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the release of each year’s results for the end of high school examinations heralds an annual ritual of public commentary on the poor state of national education systems. However, the exoglossic/monolingual language regime for these examinations is infrequently acknowledged as contributing to the dismal performance of students. Even less attended to is the manner in which the language of examinations, through shaping students’ performances, may be exacerbating social inequalities. This article politicizes the language of examinations in the region in the hope of generating policy and research interest in what is arguably an insidious source of inequality. The article makes three arguments. Firstly, it is argued that current exoglossic/monolingual practices in these examinations constitute a set of sociolinguistic aberrations, with demonstrable negative effects on students’ performance. Secondly, it is argued that the gravity of these paradoxical sociolinguistic disarticulations is better appreciated when their social ramifications are viewed in terms of structural violence and social inequality. Thirdly, in considering how to evolve a more socially equitable examination language regime, it is argued that the notion of consequential validity in testing positions translanguaging as a more ecologically valid model of language use in examinations

Theorising terminology development: Frames from language acquisition and the philosophy of science

The manner in which our conceptualisation and practice of terminology development can be informed by processes of knowledge change in child language development and a paradigm shift in disciplines, has been relatively underexplored. As a result, insights into what appears to be fundamental processes of knowledge change have not been employed to reflect on terminology development, its dynamics, requirements and relationship to related fields. In this article, frames of knowledge change in child language development and the philosophy of science are used to examine terminology development as knowledge growth that is signalled lexico-semantically through a range of transformations: addition, deletion, redefinition and reorganisation. The analysis is shown to have implications for work procedures, expertise types, critique, and for the relationships between terminology development and translating

Speaking with a forked tongue about multilingualism in the language policy of a South African university

As part of a broader student campaign for ‘free decolonized education’, protests over language policies at select South African universities between 2015 and 2016 belied widespread positive appraisals of these policies, and revealed what is possibly an internal contradiction of the campaign. The discourse prior to the protests (e.g. “excellent language policies but problematic implementation”), during the protests (e.g. silence over the role of indigenous African languages in the “Afrikaans must fall” versus “Afrikaans must stay” contestations), and after the protests (e.g. English becoming a primary medium in some institutional policy reviews) warrant attention to critical literacy in language policy scholarship. Based on a theoretical account of speaking with a forked tongue, this article analyzes the language policy text of one South African university. The analysis suggests, simultaneously, why similar policies have tended to be positively appraised, why students’ calls for policy revisions were justified, but why the changes clamoured for arguably amount to complicity in self-harm