Connecting the Different Lexical Category Domains: Cognition in the Zero Derivation of Adjectives from Nouns in Macedonian

Cognition is a basis of cognitive linguistics and a driving force in the noun to adjective zero-derivation. By expanding the meaning of the first lexeme, cognition enables the speaker to derive a new lexeme, and empowers the hearer to understand the semantics of the newly zero-derived element. The paper studies the process of noun to adjective zero-derivation through cognition. It studies the semantic similarity between the same-form lexemes – the source and the target lexeme, which belong to different lexical categories, one is a noun and the other is an adjective, in the case when cognition and association links enable the process of zero-derivation to take place. The research method applied here is that Macedonian nouns are taken, compared to Macedonian adjectives with the same form, but similar meaning, when it is exactly the similarity in meaning that is studied, actually, the speaker’s and hearer’s motivation to zero-derive an adjective from a noun. The conclusion of the paper notes that the morphological identity (derivationally) and the semantic similarity (through cognition), between the two lexemes in Macedonian, can be accompanied by inflectional suffixes for number, definiteness and gender - modifications that can be made to both lexemes. Consequently, the natural-class noun from the left is zero-derived into an adjective on the right, when, in most cases of this kind of zero-derivation, it appears in, what is originally, a two-noun phrase, in which the second remains to be a noun, while the first becomes a zero-derived adjective

Words Matter: School Leaders’ Language in the Covid-19 Pandemic

As the coronavirus pandemic has affected all walks of life, education has not been an exemption; in fact, it is one of the most severely hit sectors. The unknown crisis created unprecedented circumstances for all participants in the education process, and school leaders have had a double job: to navigate their institutions and look after their employees. The latter is a pretty delicate task – they have had to keep doing business and running their companies while minding the language, since physical distancing necessitated the use of electronic communication, thus making room for vagueness and many misinterpretations. For this research, ten education leaders of private language schools and public primary and secondary schools in North Macedonia were video-interviewed on everyday COVID-19-related situations from their workplace context. Discourse completion tasks were employed as a data elicitation method. Being given the open-ended, only topically specified scenarios, the respondents were asked to recreate their language reaction to situations that really happened in their newest pandemic work life, recollecting the period since 16 March 2020. The interviews were transcribed, and the leaders’ language choices were analysed. The findings show that the leaders have been mindful about their words and have mostly chosen to use positive, calm, and encouraging language

The Ninth Dimension of National Culture: Unpacking Cross-Cultural Communication Styles

This article aims to study the communication styles among different national cultures, that is, we examine the relationship between national culture, based on Hofstede model, and communication styles. In order to investigate the role of national culture, it is fundamental to first analyse the communication styles and then identify how these are related to each other. With a purpose to identify differences (or similarities) in communication styles across selected countries, a factor analysis was conducted, combined with an ANOVA test. Based on a sample from 10 different cultures: Germany, Sweden, Japan, China, Russia, Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, Serbia and North Macedonia, and using communication assessment instrument as well as the data on Hofstede’s six dimensions of national culture model, the findings show that different national cultures practise different communication styles. When Professional-Casual communication style is concerned, Germany is the most professional, while Japan is the most casual; that is, the least professional of all, while the analysis of the Cold-Warm communication styles leads us to the fact that Sweden is the coldest, and the US is the warmest country. The study’s significance is hopefully fundamental since it proposes an additional dimension, which is as frequent among cultures as it is rooted deeply in each culture. In this way, the article recommends that the countries ought to both comprehend their national culture and utilise it as a “tool” for understanding other cultures as well

The Ninth Dimension of National Culture: Unpacking Cross-Cultural Communication Styles

This article aims to study the communication styles among different national cultures, that is, we examine the relationship between national culture, based on Hofstede model, and communication styles. In order to investigate the role of national culture, it is fundamental to first analyse the communication styles and then identify how these are related to each other. With a purpose to identify differences (or similarities) in communication styles across selected countries, a factor analysis was conducted, combined with an ANOVA test. Based on a sample from 10 different cultures: Germany, Sweden, Japan, China, Russia, Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, Serbia and North Macedonia, and using communication assessment instrument as well as the data on Hofstede’s six dimensions of national culture model, the findings show that different national cultures practise different communication styles. When Professional-Casual communication style is concerned, Germany is the most professional, while Japan is the most casual; that is, the least professional of all, while the analysis of the Cold-Warm communication styles leads us to the fact that Sweden is the coldest, and the US is the warmest country. The study’s significance is hopefully fundamental since it proposes an additional dimension, which is as frequent among cultures as it is rooted deeply in each culture. In this way, the article recommends that the countries ought to both comprehend their national culture and utilise it as a “tool” for understanding other cultures as well

The Impact of Covid-19 Crisis on a Company’s Internal Communication

The goal of the article is to identify whether the COVID-19 crisis has had an impact on the company’s internal communication – both from leader’s and organization member’s perspective, that is, to compare the leaders’ perceptions of their leadership and communication style on one hand, with the organization members’ perceptions of the communication model they use with same-level colleagues and the descriptions of their leaders’ philosophy on the other hand. 16th March 2020 is the turning point that marks the start of the pandemic – communication before and after this date was analyzed. Two questionnaires (one for leaders and one for organization members) designed by the authors of this case study were administered to these two targeted hierarchical levels in a privately-owned company in North Macedonia. The analysis showed what both groups stated – after the pandemic outbreak face to face meetings were replaced by virtual communication, shorter meetings became more common, leaders were involved by giving feedback, and they led by logos, with the most welcomed difference being in the leadership model: leaders maintained that their leading was by example in both periods, while organization members claimed that after the start of the crisis their leaders’ priority was work-life balance

Doing Business in the ‘New Normal’: COVID-19 School Leaders’ Language Manners

As the not-so-new-now coronavirus pandemic has affected all walks of life, education has not been an exemption; what is more, it is one of the most severely hit sectors.  The unknown crisis created unprecedented circumstances for all participants in the education process, and school leaders have had a double job: to navigate their institutions and to look after their employees. The latter is a pretty delicate task - they have had to keep doing business and running their companies while minding the language since physical distancing necessitated the use of electronic communication, thus making room for vagueness and even misinterpretations. Ten education leaders of primary and secondary schools in North Macedonia have been video-interviewed on everyday COVID-19-related situations from their workplace context. Discourse completion tasks (DCTs) have been employed as a data elicitation method. Being given the open-ended, only topically specified scenarios, the respondents are asked to recreate their language reaction to situations that have happened in their newest pandemic work life. The interviews have been transcribed, and the leaders’ language choices have been analyzed. The findings show that, luckily, the leaders have been mindful about their words and have mostly chosen to use positive, calm, and encouraging language. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License