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The article discusses regular linguistic processes in some proper names which show mutual Polish-Ruthenian linguistic contacts – Hujcze, Hujsko, Nahujowice. Today’s native Polish speakers find those names really expressive and/or offensive. This is caused by the similarity between a part huj and Polish word chuj, which is a swear¬word for penis. The analysis has shown that in every one of those names the part huj comes from a different root and any associations with the word chuj are unfounded. Regular linguistic processes might lead to developing atypical proper names.
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Karin Birkner – Peter Auer – Angelika Bauer – Helga Kotthoff: Einführung in die Konversationsanalyse. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2020. VIII+498 pp.
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This text is a brief academic biography of and interview with Jiří Nekvapil, who turned 70 in 2023.
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This text is a call for papers for the 8th International Language Management Symposium, scheduled to take place at Yangzhou University, China, on October 18–19, 2024.
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Football has been related to various fields of linguistics, and linguistic landscape (LL) research is no exception. The study examines how football fans in a linguistically, culturally, and ethnically diverse region claim the club and the stadium as their own space in the process of reterritorialization (Monaghan 2020), due to numerous linguistic and semiotic resources. The research site is a Hungarian minority context in the public space of a football stadium in Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania. The linguistic landscape of football in Sfântu Gheorghe has never been explored in depth before. The study draws on a corpus based on photographs, videos taken inside and outside of the stadium, and data collected from the social media. The analysis shows that the presence of Hungarian in this particular LL indexes collective identity and describes the positioning strategies of the Hungarian minority speakers. The study also explores the processes of identity negotiation in which they are engaged.
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In this paper, I present a possible interdisciplinary, predominantly linguistic reading of the literary text, taking as a starting point the work of Andrei Dósa entitled Multă forţă şi un dram de gingăşie [Lots of Power and a Touch of Gentleness], published in 2021 by Polirom Publishing House. This way of re-reading allows us to go beyond the basic narrative structure of the text and focus on the underlying meanings constituted by the language used in the shaping of local colour. In the contextualization of the narrative thread, in the case of this novel, translanguaging strategies appear, which are analysed in relation to the evolution of the main character and the constitution of his own identity in relation to the Other. The specificity of the artistic processing of the spoken language, the way in which the complementary activation of languages becomes a tool for characterization, and the creation of local colour can provide stable reading references even for texts written in other languages. In this case, the activation of lexemes, phraseological units, culturemes, quotations from Hungarian (predominantly) and English in the literary text written in Romanian support the presentation of the steps of the individual’s self-definition in finding the local specificity under the imprint of globalization. The present study explores the significance of the secondary semantics of bilingual situations in the architecture of literary texts in general and, at the same time, provides a possible way of re-reading the text by following the processes of individualization of the literary transfiguration of bi- or multilingual existence in the case of a contemporary novel.
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The commentary as a journalistic genre that presents and comments on current events is characterized by intersubjective positioning, whereby the author constructs meaning, seeking alignment or, on the contrary, expressing disalignment with a putative audience. In line with the appraisal theory as developed by Martin and White (2005), which follows the Bakhtian dialogic perspective, according to which utterances and propositions are intersubjectively charged, the paper aims to describe the linguistic means of engagement, one of the central elements of this theory. Engagement is concerned with how the author expresses authorial voice and how s/he negotiates meaning with the readers, opening up (dialogic expansion) or, on the contrary, closing the dialogic space (dialogic contraction). In this sense, the linguistic means of engagement, such as modality, hedging and boosting devices, evidentiality, are understood to transcend the functions attributed to them within a truth-conditional framework, namely epistemic status and reliability of knowledge, and are seen as means by which the author entertains or rejects alternative voices and opinions. Taking this into consideration, the paper intends to analyse a few selected commentaries on the war situation in Ukraine found on the online platform of The Rand Corporation, a global policy think tank that performs research and conducts evaluations of various topics. It analyses the linguistic means of dialogic positioning, focusing on how the authors negotiate the dialogic space with the audience; while presumably all forms of intersubjective positioning can be found in the texts, it is expected that certain forms of engagement will outnumber others. As all commentaries can be found on the website of the above mentioned corporation, the question also arises as to what extent commentaries show similarity with respect to engagement, thereby expressing, albeit indirectly, a certain standpoint with respect to the Ukrainian warfare.
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The paper is focused on the sociolinguistic study of borrowings used in twenty-first century American literature to bring out their potential to translate status and high social position of characters. The study is aimed at proving that borrowings are socially charged and function in speech as indices of socially privileged layers of society. The study of modern British novels by Jeffrey Archer carried out earlier revealed four categories of borrowings, serving to represent upper-class characters: 1) terms, 2) a pair of synonymous words of Germanic and foreign origin, 3) U-class words, and 4) loan words used ironically. The study of American novels by Amor Towles A Gentleman in Moscow (2016) and Rules of Civility (2012) allows us to verify this classification and expand it by adding two more categories: 5) a pair of synonymous words of Germanic and foreign origin, like in group 2 but with switched social connotations, and 6) a pair of borrowings, one explaining the meaning of the other. The analysis has proved that borrowings in American, like in British literature, explicitly or implicitly translate the social status of a character. The question to answer is whether classes 5 and 6 have universal or culturally specific nature. Further research is therefore required to shed light on this very subtle use of borrowings in speech.
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The aim of my research study is to identify the barriers that cross-cultural and interracial couples are confronted with and the ways they try to overcome these potential obstacles in order for their marriage to work, with a focus on Romanian–Korean couples (Romanian wives and Korean husbands). At stake are many aspects pertaining to culture such as religious or ideological beliefs (Christianity vs. Confucianism), individualism vs. collectivism, egalitarian vs. non-egalitarian treatment of women, the language adopted by the spouses, family expectations, as well as the discrimination of bi-racial children. The hypothesis underlying the study is that no matter how much the spouses love each other, any difference in values, practices, and behaviours can create problems. Derived from this hypothesis, the following research questions will be addressed in the study: (a) Which particular cultural issues may cause (more) frictions in international, interracial marriages? (b) What steps are taken and by which partner in order to solve the possible culturally triggered problems that appear in their relationship? (c) Are there any advantages to international, interracial marriages?To provide answers to these questions, 7 Romanian–Korean couples have been subjected to a semi-structured interview. The information provided by the respondents has been analysed within the framework of “thematic analysis”, defined by Berelson (1952: 18) as “a research technique for the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication.
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The paper analyses intercultural communication problems in tourism enterprises of Latvia, Lithuania, and Sweden. It gives an overview of intercultural theories and their application to the characteristics of employees in three countries. The methodology includes both primary and secondary types of research: analysis of scientific literature and qualitative research. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted in three countries. The results show cultural peculiarities typical to each country and provide possible solutions to intercultural problems. The research aims to examine intercultural communication problems in tourism and hospitality enterprises and to identify types of strategies and actions required to develop intercultural communicative competence and to solve intercultural communication problems. The article provides company profiles, describes intercultural difficulties encountered and the designed employee-assessment questionnaire. The research findings may be of interest to tourism industry representatives and higher education institution stakeholders, including academic personnel and students who study intercultural communication as an important discipline in the tourism faculty.
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The study of authenticity in sociolinguistics has questioned the notion of the authentic speaker or previous interpretations of place, and it rather focuses on how the social functioning of authenticity is “mediated by and expressed through language” (Lacoste et al. 2014: 4) in different socio-cultural contexts. In linguistic ethnography, the researcher’s positionality also becomes subject to analysis, especially when this has a direct influence on the data obtained. Through the excerpts from interviews conducted at a festival, I aim to discuss the sociolinguistic features of authenticity in the context of the Hungarian–Hungarian encounters. Moreover, the cultural values attributed to the different ways of speaking the Hungarian language are also articulated in these interviews.
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The ways diasporic groups emerge and diasporic identities are constructed have recently become important research topics in sociolinguistics. However, these works have not paid sufficient attention to the spatial-temporal configurations of diasporic imaginations. In this article, I intend to shed light on the ways differing diasporic imaginations are inscribed on what kind of language-related diasporic activities are created by the diasporic subjects. To answer this question, I draw on the data of an ethnographically informed critical sociolinguistic study of diasporization among Hungarians in Catalonia that I conducted between 2018 and 2022. In the analysis, I compare the chronotopic figures appearing in the life journey narratives of Hungarians in Catalonia with the ways the ideal diasporic subject was imagined in the activities of two salient diasporic organizations. The article points to the fact that diasporic imaginations do not only contain moral guidelines on how diasporic subjects should behave, but they are also determined by the time and the space diasporic subjects inhabit.
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Anna Vörös’s collection of short stories, Vadoma (2022), offers a completely novel perspective on refugees in contemporary Hungarian literature. The collection focuses on Vadoma, a young refugee girl of Syrian origin, who is the first-person narrator of most of the short stories. The reader can follow the young girl’s path from Aleppo to Budapest as she faces dilemmas and problems. The main issue of our hero is the fact that she is stuck between two worlds, as her old life and city of origin do not exist anymore, but Budapest has yet to become her home. Her mother tongue and words are no longer enough to express her experiences, but she has not learnt a new language yet. Mariangelo Pallodino’s concept of “islandment”, which refers to landing without arrival, expresses Vadoma’s situation perfectly. The present study examines whether Anna Vörös’s short stories can be read in the context of refugee literature, and it looks at how the figure of the refugee appears in them. Special attention is paid to the themes of cultures, religions, languages, and the in-betweenness of identities.
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Considering the sociolinguistic conception of large and small languages, which belongs to Academician Predrag Piper, the paper postulates the original author’s hypothesis about dominant and recessive language variants. This typology is being tested on the example of the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. From this point of view, there is a problem that arises due to the obligation of a certain state to apply protective measures against a recessive variant of a language under a special glottonym that differs from the name of the dominant variant of the same language. The fact that the Charter is primarily intended for the protection of minority languages as common cultural heritage of the minority and the majority is interpreted as protection of the linguistic rights of all speakers of a state, which are seen as negative, when they are aimed at preventing intolerance and discrimination, and positive ‒ in line with the society’s efforts to support and promote its linguistic heritage. The right of languages to speakers is seen as the basic sociolinguistic framework upon which the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is based. The paper also discusses the good practice of adopting local charters as a reliable way of protecting recessive variants with fewer speakers, as well as one of the ways to overcome certain contradictions that may arise in the practical application of the Charter.
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This text reports on the Yangzhou Symposium on Language Surveys and Censuses held at Yangzhou University, China, on November 11, 2023.
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This paper takes as its point of departure the fact that the loci of many sociolinguistic theories originate from Western, industrial, and ideologically monolingual (and often Anglophone) societies such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and many of the European nation states. This fact leads to a theoretical bias. After an explanation of the problem, this paper proposes ways to decolonise biases in sociolinguistics in practical terms. In general, it is suggested that researchers reach out and collaborate in all kinds of ways. Specific solutions suggested include, amongst others, redetermining what ‘good’ academic English and research constitute, using translation as a tool, proactively soliciting manuscripts, stimulating writing and research cooperation between authors with various backgrounds, making introductions to sociolinguistics broader in their cultural/linguistic focus, providing writing help, and diversifying editorial boards of journals.
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This text provides a critical analysis and assessment of Charles Goodwin’s theory of co-operative action. First, it characterizes Goodwin’s distinctive research style, analyzing his specific way of presenting research findings, as well as drawing on memoir and biographical texts and published interviews. This distinction lies in: a) a strong emphasis on the collection and analysis of empirical data, b) the use of video data, c) the original presentation of data and analysis in collages/assemblages of transcripts, images and analytical commentary, d) a holistic, integrative and interdisciplinary approach to the research object, e) the inclusion of ethnographic knowledge in the analysis, and f) an axiomatic style of thinking. Then the text introduces the conceptual architecture of the theory of co-operative action and discusses the contributions of this theory to the field of (linguistic) anthropology, particularly to questions about the origins of language, the historical diversification of languages and cultures, the situated nature of communication, the distribution of knowledge, and the formation of competent members of cultural communities. It concludes that Goodwin’s theoretical insights have the potential to shape the future of not only linguistic anthropology, but also interactionally-oriented linguistics.
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Interview with prof. Rudolf Šrámek.
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Creating Communicative Context Through the Use of Emoji and Politeness in Online Academic Written Interactions. The current study aims to provide a glimpse into the way higher education students and language instructors establish rapports in the academic written communication framework through the use of emoji and online face-work strategies. Contextualisation cues are created in order to regulate transaction based communicative exchanges that result in positive outcomes, subsequently fostering an inclusive culture. Linguistic display of online discourse is fraught with perils that may impede on appropriate written academic interactions occurring between instructors and students. Negotiation of identity becomes a main objective, as there are differences in status, power and various degrees of communicative achievement between interactants. The study shares results obtained from a questionnaire administered to 92 Romanian undergraduate students offering a framework for embedding emoji and face-work in online identity negotiation via written communication. It aims to offer a digital pedagogical competence approach to cater for the emotional needs of learners whose identities as digital natives take additional effort to create in the context of using transversal skills. The main findings of the study suggest that emoji and face work enable foreign language students to better manipulate their self-image when communicating online.
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