Research in Language (RiL) is an international journal committed to publishing excellent studies in the area of linguistics and related disciplines focused on human communication. Language studies, as other scholarly disciplines, undergo two seemingly counteracting processes: the process of diversification of the field into narrow specialized domains and the process of convergence, strengthened by interdisciplinarity. It is the latter perspective that RiL editors invite for the journal, whose aim is to present language in its entirety, meshing traditional modular compartments, such as phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, and offer a multidimensional perspective which exposes varied but relevant aspects of language, e.g. the cognitive, the psychological, the institutional aspect, as well as the social shaping of linguistic convention and creativity.
Bengali and Dutch: A Phonological Contrastive Analysis of the front Monophthongs
This paper investigates the monophthongs of Bengali and Dutch, analyzing the similarities and differences in the phonetic characteristics between the two languages, particularly focusing on front monophthongs. The study determines the challenges faced by Bengali-speaking learners of Dutch (BLD) and Dutch-speaking learners of Bengali (DLB) as a foreign language. Using a quantitative-contrastive phonemic analysis (Haque, 2015; Haque & Jannat, 2022; Haque & Sharfuddin, 2023), the study mathematically demonstrates that BLD learners face greater difficulty in acquiring their target language, as Dutch has twice as many front monophthongs as Bengali. Additionally, no front vowels in both languages share identical phonetic qualities, and there are no mutual phonemes. These phonological differences indicate significant challenges for learners in acquiring their target languages.
Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Over-The-Phone Commuity Interpreting: A Corpus-Based Analysis of Interpreted Interactions in Community Settings
This paper examines the under-researched field of Polish–English telephone interpreting, with particular focus on the interactional environment and methods of connection. It first outlines the emergence of telephone interpreting, considers its advantages and disadvantages, and then presents a summary of findings from a corpus study conducted in 2024, in which 250 Polish–English interpreting interactions were recorded and analysed with reference to the method of connection between parties and the sectoral distribution of topics or issues discussed in those interactions. As OPI is conducted exclusively through the auditory channel, interpreters are deprived of visual cues; consequently, each method of connection presents both benefits and drawbacks, with the three-way conference call emerging as the most effective format for telephonic interactions between Polish speakers who decide to use the services of Polish-English OPI interpreters.
“Behind Every Successful Woman is a Tribe of Other Successful Women” – A Preliminary Corpus-Assisted Study of Evaluative Adjectives in Women Entrepreneurs’ Blogs
Women entrepreneurs’ blogs represent a unique and evolving form of digital discourse, blending professional authority with personal engagement. Within this genre, evaluative language plays a crucial role in shaping credibility, persuasion, and identity. While evaluative adjectives have been widely studied in formal and academic contexts, their opinion-forming function in entrepreneurial communication remains largely unexplored. This study investigates how opinions and evaluations are constructed through the use of evaluative adjectives in women entrepreneurs’ blogs, examining their distribution, rhetorical function, and impact on audience engagement. Using a corpus-assisted methodology, the analysis is conducted on the lexical data extracted from the Women Entrepreneurs Blog Corpus (WEBC), a dataset of 329,896 words from 318 blog posts. The study identifies evaluative adjectives through frequency-based corpus analysis and categorises them into distinct semantic groups, which serve as the foundation for examining how women entrepreneurs use linguistic choices to construct stance, authority, and persuasion in digital business communication. A quantitative analysis of categorised evaluative adjectives reveals that positive-polarity evaluative adjectives are the most frequent, reinforcing optimism and motivation. Adjectives of importance follow, emphasising authority and expertise, while size- and time-related adjectives occur moderately, highlighting growth and progress. Attitude and emotion adjectives appear less frequently, contributing to a confident and engaging tone. Negatively-charged adjectives are rare and often reframed, whereas certainty and likelihood adjectives are the least frequent, reflecting a preference for flexibility over absolutes in entrepreneurial discourse. By situating this analysis within the broader framework of stance and evaluation in specialised discourse, this study provides insights into how women entrepreneurs use language to formulate and express opinions, navigate professional identity, establish credibility, and engage their audiences. The research contributes to discussions on opinion expression in digital business communication, shedding light on the intersection of gender, entrepreneurship, and linguistic strategies in online discourse.
Linguistically Packaging Opinion: A Quantitative Token-Based Analysis of Adjective Structures in English
This study examines the distribution and characteristics of three linguistic structures across three different semantic types of adjectives in English: opinion-based (evaluative), mixed (dimensional), and non-opinion (objective) adjectives. While previous research has explored the perception of subjective adjectives in varied linguistic environments through experimental methods, our research provides quantitative corpus-based evidence from Universal Dependencies English corpora. The analysis focuses on three syntactic structures: modification of a noun (Adj+Noun), predicative construction with nexus (Nexus+Cop+Adj), and predicative construction with noun subject (Noun+Cop+Adj). Results reveal significant patterns: opinion adjectives display greater structural flexibility, appearing with meaningful frequency in both attributive and predicative positions, while dimensional adjectives strongly favor attributive position. The study also identifies consistent positional patterns across all adjective types, with attributive structures typically appearing later in sentences than predicative constructions. Furthermore, register variations were observed, with web language showing distinctive distributional patterns for opinion adjectives compared to more varied texts.
Detection and Classification of Ideological Texts in the Kazakh Language Using Machine Learning and Transformers
Modern information technologies enable the automatic analysis of textual data to detect extremist and propagandistic content. This paper examines deep learning methods and transformers models for the automatic classification of ideologically charged texts in the Kazakh language. A comparison was conducted between neural network models (CNN, BiLSTM, GRU, Hybrid CNN+BiLSTM) and modern transformers (DistilBERT). The performance evaluation of the models was based on accuracy, recall, precision, and F1-score metrics, as well as error analysis. Experimental results showed that hybrid CNN+BiLSTM demonstrated the highest accuracy (95.11%), outperforming other models. CNN, BiLSTM and GRU also achieved high results (92-93%), making them effective for this task. Among transformers, DistilBERT proved to be the most balanced (85.74%). This study demonstrates that hybrid neural network models (CNN+BiLSTM) are the most effective solution, while DistilBERT performs best among transformer models. The findings can be utilized for developing automatic monitoring and filtering systems for Kazakh-language texts, capable of efficiently identifying ideologically charged content.
Testing ChatGPT on Terminology Generation, Definitions: Translation, and Ontology Creation in German, English and Polish
The paper presents the generation process and analysis of Chat GPT-produced terminology, definitions, translation and ontology creation of content derived from a restricted domain of electrotechnology on the basis of German manufacturing instruction (Fertigungsvorschrift) for the assembly and functioning of thermal switches. The first part of the study presents a brief historical sketch of corpus linguistics towards the development of LLMs and their applications. Research steps include the generation of terminology and a basic restricted domain ontology in German and their equivalents in English and Polish as identified in general web resources, followed by the same tasks based on the analysed tool instructions. The tests were first performed on earlier ChatGPTPro, followed by its recent version ChatGPT4, also with regard to their English and Polish equivalents, for different tasks, i.a., relevant thesauri building. An Assistant called SLA (Special Language Assistant) was created for the purpose of analysing prompts, recognising context and intent, and processing data using language models. The tests have been carried out in terms of 4 prompts. First, specialist terms typical of the product and its parts were identified in German and the translation of these terms and of other relevant specialist phrases into English and Polish was performed. Finally, the ontological categorisation and its visualisation were generated. Results indicate areas of fair correspondences with manual intervention needed for the term definition refinement and ontology specification. The presentation emphasizes in the conclusions the effects of AI tasks as a contribution to lexicography, translation and foreign language education. The study can also serve as a reference for NLP researchers to improve the functioning of LLM tools.
Machine Learning-Based Hate Speech Detection in the Kazakh Language
Modern text data processing and classification methods require extensive use of machine learning and neural networks. Categorizing text into different classes has become a crucial task in many fields. This paper presents a multi-class text classification model utilizing a Modified TF-IDF (MTF-IDF) approach in combination with Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural networks, XGBoost, and MLPClassifier algorithms. Additionally, the study explores the integration of TF-IDF and CountVectorizer (MTF-IDF) methods for text vectorization, aiming to enhance classification efficiency. The research findings indicate that the LSTM model achieved the highest accuracy rate of 89%, demonstrating superior performance. The MLPClassifier model achieved 85% accuracy, while XGBoost obtained 81% accuracy. Moreover, the integration of TF-IDF and MTF-IDF methods significantly improved the detection of rare but essential words, enhancing the overall performance of the models. This study is dedicated to addressing the problem of automated detection of harmful content in the Kazakh language. Hate speech in the digital space refers to any online material that harms individuals or communities through aggression, manipulation, discrimination, or the intentional spread of socially damaging narratives. The results provide a solid foundation for future research aimed at the early identification and mitigation of hate speech in the digital space, contributing to a safer online environment.
Applications of Computational Linguistics and Language Corpora in Opinion Studies: Editorial to Research in Language 2025 Special Issue Section
Pronunciation Learning Strategies and Motivation: Their Impact on second Language Speech of Japanese EFL Learners
Despite increased academic interest in the factors related to individual differences in second language (L2) pronunciation, little is known about how motivated learners utilise pronunciation learning strategies (PLS) to master the target language sound system. Grounded in the self-regulated learning model, this study examined the interplay between PLS and motivation in shaping L2 comprehensibility among 103 learners in Japan. The participants completed a questionnaire that assessed their individual differences in PLS and motivation and undertook a test that measured their L2 comprehensibility. An exploratory factor analysis revealed a two-factor model consisting of PLS and motivation, which was further analysed using Pearson correlation and structural equation modelling. The analysis showed a statistically significant correlation between PLS and L2 comprehensibility, and between motivation and PLS, whereas the correlation between motivation and L2 comprehensibility was not statistically significant. The structural analysis revealed that motivation exerted a significant effect on L2 comprehensibility through PLS, with PLS being a predictor of L2 comprehensibility. Highlighting the often neglected importance of PLS, the findings suggest that the participants were motivated and goal-oriented, which led to their use of PLS. This implies that PLS use and motivation were significant factors in improving L2 comprehensibility in the classroom.
Mosaic of Translation Teaching: Textual Competence
The present study is based on the interrelation of translation studies, pedagogy and technology in order to develop students’ textual competence by identifying efficient teaching practices in translator training. Textual competence involves also the understanding and application of various sign systems in contemporary digital texts for meaning representation, thus underlying the transdisciplinary status of Translation Studies as its scope of research has been expanded to cognitive science, neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, information and communication technologies, computational linguistics, and information processing. The constant search for novel approaches to text analysis and the continuous improvement of the existing teaching strategies are necessary to develop students’ ability to effectively decode and convey meaning within a required context. Nowadays development of textual competence is mostly based on the improvement of such skills of students as professional competence and special text analysis to be able to decode meaning at different levels. The authors present a mosaic of teaching activities that are proposed taking into account skills and abilities that translation students need to develop from the perspective of continuously changing modes of communication. The research findings can serve as the source of inspiration for developing study modules within such study courses as Text Analysis Methods, Stylistics and Editing in the framework of the theory of translation.
English as an International Language at United World College East Africa: Attitudes to native and outgroup accents: Qualitative method
This paper presents qualitative results on attitudes to English as an International Language (EIL) at a multicultural, highly diversified community of United World College East Africa, Tanzania, Moshi campus. The results reveal that nearly half of the respondents admit to preferring one native variety of English, with most of the outgroup participants expressing the wish to speak with a British or American accent. The most common ways of adjusting speaking for the benefit of communicative partners are paraphrasing, repetition and slowing down. Vietnamese, Asian English in general, and Irish turn out to be the most difficult accents to comprehend. Pronunciation is the most frequent reason for incomprehensibility. Among the ways of adjusting to accents, listening carefully and immersion are the most often used.
The Linguistic Potential of the COVID-19 Lexeme in English and Slovak (A corpus-based study)
The aim of this article is to investigate the morphological and lexicosemantic traits of the COVID-19 lexeme as demonstrated in the framework of the English Web 2021 (enTenTen21) and the Slovak National Corpus (web-6.0). The exploration of the word-formation potential of the lexeme is carried out, too. A preliminary step of the research procedure is to recognize recurring patterns in which the studied lexical unit occurs so that we could inquiry into its functions in the given discourse. To achieve its goals, the combination of the lexical analysis and corpus analysis methods is employed. The findings of this study reveal that the lexeme COVID-19 entered all spheres of communication within both the studied languages. Furthermore, it has been adapted to their morphological and lexical systems and can access regular word-formation processes existing in them.
Reflecting on pronunciation instruction in the Polish English classroom: Learners’ perspective
Pronunciation remains a controversial aspect of English instruction, both in theory and practice, with the dichotomy between “nativeness” and “intelligibility” (Levis, 2005) directing research into the exploration of learner and teacher views as to what they want to achieve, and, consequently, which elements of the English sound system should be included in language teaching and learning. Continuing a long tradition of questionnaire studies among Polish learners and teachers of English, this paper explores the presence of pronunciation instruction in the English classroom by inviting students who have chosen English as their BA major to reflect on their experience. The total of 70 students participated in a questionnaire study in which they were asked to reflect on whether they remembered pronunciation to have been included in their English instruction at different levels of schooling, and if it was, how it was taught and which aspects they remembered to have been practiced. They were also encouraged to provide comments and to share their views on the usefulness of instruction as well as to provide recommendations for pronunciation teaching and learning. The results show that pronunciation is only marginally present in students’ learning experience, with a slight increase corresponding to the level of schooling and a growing preference for suprasegmental phonetics. While commenting on their experience, students stress the need for pronunciation practice, correction by the teacher and self-study to be included from the beginning of EFL education.
segmental and suprasegmental phonetics in EFL
EFL learner reflections on pronunciation instruction
Multifunctional che, cleft sentences and presentational c’è in corpora of spoken Italian
This paper is aimed at exploring some traits of neo-standard Italian in four different spoken corpora, such as children’s conversations, adult conversations, parliamentary debates, and film subtitles. The following features are investigated: multifunctional che, cleft sentences, and presentational c’è. Building on scholarly examples and sample phrases containing the traits above mentioned, this paper discusses how to search for, retrieve and analyse neo-standard phrasemes in the four corpora. Other features are also presented and investigated on a case-by-case basis. In addition, relative frequencies of phraseme occurrences are noticed and discussed. In this way, a qualitative and a small-scale quantitative comparative approach is developed. The paper findings report that all the traits appear in the corpora with some notable genre-related differences.
Intelligibility-based Instruction and English as a lingua franca
This paper draws heavily from my previous work on intelligibility (Hodgetts, 2020). It advocates basing pronunciation instruction on intelligibility goals, rather than native-like production goals and investigates the research available on the segmental and suprasegmental features that should be prioritized in order to enhance intelligibility and comprehensibility. First, the Chapter defines and explains the concepts of intelligibility, comprehensibility and accentedness, before discussing the merits of native and intelligibility-based targets of instruction in various contexts. It then examines which elements of segmental and suprasegmental language instruction might be included in an intelligibility-based syllabus. The crucial role of the listener is explored, as is the issue of English used as a lingua franca.
Student Emotions in Online Foreign Language Instruction
Emotions in educational settings can profoundly influence students’ learning and achievement (Pekrun, 2014). Despite the recent increase in interest in foreign language student emotions, emotions in the field of online education remain underresearched (Kruk & Pawlak, 2022). The global shift to emergency remote teaching in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn researchers’ attention to the emotions experienced by learners whose classes were unexpectedly moved online. Thus far, studies have mainly focused on anxiety, enjoyment, and boredom, while other emotions have not been sufficiently explored. This qualitative study examines the full range of emotions experienced by learners, as well as the factors responsible for those emotions. A total of 218 university learners of English, German, Italian, and French participated in the research. Data were collected via an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Participants were found to experience interest, enjoyment, frustration, anxiety, boredom, pride, shame, helplessness, anger, serenity, relief, sadness, and envy. The most frequently mentioned emotion was interest, followed by enjoyment and frustration.
Personal Resources in AI-Assisted Translation
Translation has been fundamentally reshaped by artificial intelligence (AI) technology, which increasingly dictates workflows that boost human efficiency but diminish human agency. While these tools may indeed enhance efficiency, they simultaneously erode the cognitive and reflective dimensions of translator practice and education. This article highlights personal resources as essential for sustaining judgment and professional autonomy. AI-assisted tools have indeed transformed the ways translators work and learn, but they cannot replace the uniquely human capacity for purposeful self-development, which is the central focus of this article. The article emphasises how fostering personal resources in translator education can empower future professionals to not only adapt to technological change but to shape it consciously and ethically. The underlying assumption is idealistic, perhaps, yet essential for preserving translation quality and the evolving identity of translators. Translator education should nurture individuals who are not only competent but also human, humane and fully engaged in their professional and personal growth.
Revisiting Reflection: AI-Driven Transformation of Translation Reflection
This conceptual article extends Chesterman’s 1997 stages of translation by three additional stages – problem solving, processing, and co-evolving – and redefines translation through reflective practice. In response to the growing complexity of AI-mediated translation workflows, it positions reflection as a key pedagogical and epistemological tool that supports translator agency and adaptive expertise. Drawing on interdisciplinary insights, the article highlights established and emerging reflective methods and calls for a comprehensive theory of translation reflection. It identifies theoretical, empirical, interdisciplinary, and pedagogical gaps in current scholarship, arguing that translation pedagogy is uniquely positioned to lead development of reflection theory. The article aims to contribute a conceptual framework that strengthens the role of reflection in translator education and practice in the age of AI.
Less Is More? Microcredentials as an Alternative to Degree-Awarding Translator Education
Microcredentials have recently attracted substantial attention in academia. While short, practice-oriented courses and the concept of lifelong learning (e.g. Jarvis 2009) have been around for decades, the idea of receiving credit in the form of open digital badges and stacking them to form a personal portfolio is new – and exciting. Add to it the ongoing discussion on the decline of the university diploma as such, and a viable alternative to traditional translator education looms in the distance. This paper explores the rise of microcredentials in general and in language and translation studies in particular. The numerous approaches to translation competence (see Quinci 2023 for a more recent one) seem to be in agreement that it is a construct made up of several subcompetencies. It is logically sound, therefore, to acquire these subcompetencies separately in the process of competence development that is individual and free from the typical constraints of university education, such as completing it in the allotted time. However, this system means that there is no authority to tell the trainee that they are „competent enough”, other than perhaps the employer, who chooses to hire them or not. As regards the translation market, microcredentials are too new to be universally recognised, so for the time being translation agencies will prefer more traditional qualifications. This, in turn, leads to higher education institutions shying away from offering them (and students from taking them), since they do not yet constitute a fully-fledged qualification. The paper includes a presentation of a pilot microcredential on offer at University of Lodz, as well as the results of a focus group survey on microcredentials in translation.
Tackling Nominal Chains in a Specialized Translation Classroom
Nominal chains are regarded as a feature of specialized discourse in English and their disambiguation as a challenge for translators and translation trainees. They occur in all types of specialized discourse and include legal terms, technical terms or institutional terms. In Czech the relations between the constituents need to be expressed more explicitly. The chapter draws on an experiment aiming to test how well translation trainees can decipher the relations between individual constituents of nominal chains and identify types of nominal chains most susceptible to wrong interpretation. Based on these results, this chapter discusses how the analysis of nominal chains may be supported in a specialized translation classroom and proposes a series of specific activities to the effect.
Mental Health in the Context of Training Future Interpreters: The Case of Slovakia
Mental health is increasingly recognized as a critical issue in interpreter training. Interpreters frequently encounter cognitive and emotional stressors (Moser–Mercer et al., 1998; Valero-Garcés, 2005). Despite growing awareness, interpreter education often lacks structured support for emotional regulation and stress management – skills essential for maintaining performance and well-being. In Slovakia, the mental health of interpreters gained attention following the Ukrainian refugee crisis, which saw many interpreting students thrust into crisis situations with little preparation (Hodáková and Ukušová, 2023). This chapter, based on survey data from 116 students and 12 interpreting teachers across Slovak universities, highlights the urgent need to integrate resilience and personality-focused training into interpreter education. Recommendations include expanding Nitra’s 'Mental Hygiene' course and embedding personality-based activities into practical interpreting training, especially for future public service interpreters.
Remote Interpreting in the Context of University Training in Slovakia During the Covid-19 Pandemic
Remote interpreting experienced rapid expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although there are no pandemic restrictions today in Slovakia, the interpreting market has not returned to its pre-pandemic state. Presented chapter examines how Slovak universities prepared future interpreters during online education, especially in regard to remote interpreting. Focus group and individual interviews were conducted with 15 interpreting teachers from all Slovak universities that are offering translation and interpreting program. Analysis revealed a lack of systematic integration of remote interpreting in the university training before and during the pandemic; problems with finding a suitable videoconferencing platform for the training; both good and bad practices. Exploring remote interpreting during the pandemic era helps understand the current practices in the training and the market.
The Role of AI and Machine Translation in Students’ Translation Training
The purpose of this study is to examine what influence the machine translation tools using the elements of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have on students’ translation training. In the theoretical part such notions as machine translation, AI and machine translation education are presented according to Fengqi, Yuxuan (2025), Kruk, Kałużna (2024), Chiu et al. (2023), Bahdanau et al. (2016). The analysis is based on the translation project in which students are asked to compare the applicability of the selected machine translation tools using AI with those machine translation tools that are not equipped with AI. Additionally, students’ interviews are examined as to their opinions about AI machine translation tools in students’ translation training. The findings are scrutinized quantitatively and qualitatively. Finally, conclusions are drawn.
How To Collect Cross-Linguistic Data On Valency Online
The paper presents a method of online collection of linguistic data from informants, developed in a cross-linguistic project on verbal valency in the languages of Europe. The method is essentially an online questionnaire. The rules of the creation of its contents as well as specific problems related to data provision and data annotation are discussed in detail. The proposed method ensures the appropriate level of detail needed, enables the collection of a database sizeable enough and secures the comparability of the data.
The Pragmatics of Person and Imperatives in Sign Language of the Netherlands
We present new evidence against a grammatical distinction between second and third person in Sign Language of The Netherlands (NGT). More precisely, we show how pushing this distinction into the domain of pragmatics helps account for an otherwise puzzling fact about the NGT imperative: not only is it used to command your addressee, it can also express ‘non-addressee-oriented commands’.
Copyright (c) 2013 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Remember Gerhard Richter in the Thunderstorm of Beethoven: The Influence of Cross-Sensory Coupling on Memory, Intercultural Communication, and the Verbalization of Paintings and Sounds
This interdisciplinary study focuses on the perception and verbalization of messages conveyed through instrumental music, soundscapes, and contemporary paintings. International young-adult university students learning German participated in a series of experiments conducted at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany. To incorporate globalization and cultural difference into this analysis, the author compared the reactions of Western and Asian participants to auditory and visual stimuli. This paper explores the concepts of mixed media, cross-sensory coupling, and esthetic synesthesia, and throws new light on the contribution of cross-sensory coupling to verbalization and to long-term memory processes, from encoding to retrieval. In addition, the author demonstrates how intercultural communication is based upon universal emotions aroused by contemporary paintings, instrumental music and soundscapes.
Copyright (c) 2013 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
The Phonological Process with Two Patterns of Simplified Chinese Characters
This paper analyzed word recognition in two patterns of Chinese characters, cross referenced with word frequency. The patterns were defined as uni-part (semantic radical/component only) and bi-part (including the phonetic radical/component and the semantic radical/component) characters. The interactions of semantic and phonological access in both patterns were inspected. It was observed that in the naming task and the pronunciation-matching task, the subject performance involving the uni-part characters showed longer RT than the bi-part characters. However, with the lexical decision and meaning-matching tasks the uni-part characters showed shorter RT than the bi-part characters. It was also observed that the frequency, which is regarded as a lexical variable, displayed a strong influence. This suggests that Chinese characters require lexical access in all tasks. This study also suggested that the phonological process is primary in visual word recognition; as there is a significant phonological effect in processing the Chinese bi-part characters, resulting in either the facilitation or inhibition of phonology due to the differing demands of the two tasks.
Gloomy Images of Yellow and Żółty in a Corpus-Based Cognitive Study
The paper reports on a comparative corpus-based semantic analysis of one colour term as it is used in two languages: English yellow and Polish żółty. The investigation of central and peripheral meanings, based on analyses of corpus concordances draws upon the methodology and constructs of cognitive linguistics, such as prototype-based categories, domains, conceptual metonymy and metaphor. The first objective of this parallel study is to determine the prototypical reference points for yellow and żółty, followed by descriptions of those motivations and mechanisms of meaning extensions which lead to ‘figurative’ usages. The results are tentatively suggested in the form of a general network of related meanings, the entrenchments of which are established on the basis of frequencies attested in samples of 1,500 citations. The outcomes confirm a conceptual proximity reflected in the semantics of these colour terms, which seems to be – perhaps surprisingly – incongruous with the popular association of yellow/żółty with the sun. As the evidence provided by the British National Corpus and the Polish Scientific Publishers' corpus (PWN) reveals, the central and peripheral readings are inspired by the imagery of autumnal and physiological changes, while the semantics of both yellow and żółty reflect the significant influence of cultural factors, unparalleled in the polysemies of the other five basic colour terms.
Key Components of Musical Discourse Analysis
Musical discourse analysis is an interdisciplinary study which is incomplete without consideration of relevant social, linguistic, psychological, visual, gestural, ritual, technical, historical and musicological aspects. In the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis, musical discourse can be interpreted as social practice: it refers to specific means of representing specific aspects of the social (musical) sphere. The article introduces a general view of contemporary musical discourse, and analyses genres from the point of ‘semiosis’, ‘social agents’, ‘social relations’, ‘social context’, and ‘text’. These components of musical discourse analysis, in their various aspects and combinations, should help thoroughly examine the context of contemporary musical art, and determine linguistic features specific to different genres of musical discourse.
Foreign Accents in Polish: Non-native Speakers’ and Native Listeners’ Views
As in recent years a growing number of foreigners have been settling in Poland and learning our language, Poles have found themselves in a fairly new situation of being increasingly exposed, both in direct contacts and through the media, to their mother tongue pronounced with a variety of foreign accents. In a series of studies (SzpyraKozłowska and Radomski 2012, in press, Szpyra-Kozłowska 2013b) we have undertaken an examination of how such accents are perceived and evaluated by Polish listeners. The issues that have come under scrutiny so far concerned identification of the speakers’ origin, evaluation of different accents in terms of their intelligibility, degree of accentedness and acceptance, establishing the major perceptual properties of several accents and examining their salience. In the present paper we focus on the participants of communication which involves accented Polish, i.e. non-native speakers and native listeners, and their views on this phenomenon. We examine them in two questionnaire studies, one administered to 40 foreign learners of Polish and the other one to 80 native listeners. Thus, our study sets itself the following goals: to examine what attitudes Poles take towards Polish-speaking foreigners and their accents in particular (Questionnaire 2); to juxtapose these opinions with foreign learners’ experience of Poles’ reactions to accented Polish (Questionnaire 1); to draw implications for the phonetic training of foreigners who undertake to learn Polish.
foreign accent perception and evaluation