The Science of Pronominal Usage: He and It in Co-Reference to Inanimate Objects in Late Middle English Texts on Alchemy

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The published version can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0075424210384225This article explores the variation between he and it in coreference to inanimate entities (such as mercury, sulfur, and salt). Using alchemical texts from the fifteenth century as material, the article demonstrates that there was much more variation in pronominal reference in this period than has previously been shown. Of the possible explanations suggested by previous research, the earlier grammatical gender system and transference from Latin do not seem to play a role, while pronoun clustering and pronominal reanalysis appear to influence the quantitative distribution. The scale of individuation used by Siemund and Stenroos to explain similar usage is shown not to be a straightforward predictor. Other factors such as personification and perceived similarities between animate and inanimate entities may affect the degree of perceived individuation. The choice of he over she seems to be influenced by pronominal reanalysis and straightforward personification in some cases. In other instances, it is speculated that the he usage reflects (stereotypical) gender conceptions in the Middle Ages

Singaporean students' language repertoires and attitudes revisited

Singapore has received a large amount of scholarly interest with regards to the structural and sociolinguistic properties of its local variety of English. In contrast, there is comparatively less empirical data on individual linguistic repertoires and usage patterns. Building on previous research into the linguistic and sociological background of young Singaporean adults, our study examines 450 students recruited from three distinct educational institutions: a university, polytechnics, and vocational training schools. A detailed language background questionnaire reveals the degree of multilingualism, patterns of language use, as well as language attitudes towards different languages. We find important differences between the three student cohorts examined here and are able to relate them to their social and ethnic backgrounds

Multilingualism and the role of English in the United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has witnessed an unprecedented economic and cultural development since its foundation in 1971. Foreign labor and investment play a central role in this development, yielding a sharp imbalance between the Emirati and the foreign population. A population of no less than 85 per cent of highly transient foreigners strongly impacts the local linguistic landscape, with many languages competing in the public sphere. English occupies a special role in this multilingual texture, as it is used as a foreign language, a second language, and a lingua franca. It occurs in its standardized varieties, but also in several non‐standard forms, as foreign labor is recruited from places formerly under British or American influence. Based on a new questionnaire study of 692 university students, we explore the tension between English and Arabic, the prominence of English, the increasing use of English as a home language, and the emergence of a new variety of English: 'Gulf English

Multilingualism and the role of English in the United Arab Emirates, with views from Singapore and Hong Kong

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) offers a unique linguistic laboratory in which the interaction and competition of Arabic and English can be studied in a superdiverse linguistic environment, in addition to the blending and perhaps levelling of English non-standard varieties. In the present contribution, we present evidence from the ongoing research project Language Attitudes and Repertoires in the Emirates (LARES), exploring the tension between English and Arabic, the use of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in relation to local forms of Arabic, the prominence of English in specific sectors of society (education, economy, tourism), the increasing use of English as a home language, as well as the presumed emergence of a new variety of English that may tentatively be called 'Gulf English'. We conclude by comparing the situation in the UAE with the similarly high-contact urban areas of Singapore and Hong Kong, which are city-states that differ in their histories and their local use of English in several ways. Specifically, we argue that while Hong Kong and Singapore (to a lesser degree), remain firmly situated within Kachru's outer circle, the UAE shows signs of moving from the expanding circle towards the outer circle. Moreover, due to the high influx of foreign labor from former British and American colonies (India, Philippines, etc.), the UAE has developed into a melting pot of different varieties of English that we endearingly refer to as 'Milton Keynes II'

Cerebral Perfusion Imaging in Hemodynamic Stroke: Be Aware of the Pattern

Reduction of the cerebral perfusion pressure caused by vessel occlusion or stenosis is a cause of neurological symptoms and border-zone infarctions. The aim of this article is to describe perfusion patterns in hemodynamic stroke, to give a practical approach for the assessment of colour encoded CT- and MR-perfusion maps and to demonstrate the clinical use of comprehensive imaging in the workup of patients with hemodynamic stroke

SpeechDat(E) - Eastern European Telephone Speech Databases

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