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In the African cultural context and beyond, personal names are not just unique forms of identifying and individuating their bearers; they also provide relevant windows that resonate with the people's worldviews, values, and cosmology. From a socio-onomastic perspective, this article examines the representation of people and their description in the Ibibio cultural namescape, which is a source of their traditional epistemology. Personal names are symbolic linguistic resources that contain information about the Ibibio universe of meaning, where people are placed at the centre of every social relationship. Drawing on ethnographic data sourced through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 30 participants who were name-givers, name-bearers and name-users, this study reveals that the Ibibio naming tradition provides a medium for the dissemination of its traditional cultural scripts, which capture community solidarity, support, security and a sense of belonging. This article concludes that the Ibibio anthroponymic culture reflects people as sources of empowerment. People provide the foundation for understanding the past and a path for reaching one's life goals. This study offers significant entry points into the way the Ibibio act and react to the strength of its community and reinforces the belief that for the Ibibio, people-related regime of names is an important resource used to foster a positive sense of community and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the African cultural context and beyond, personal names are not just unique forms of identifying and individuating their bearers; they also provide relevant windows that resonate with the people’s worldviews, values, and cosmology. From a socio-onomastic perspective, this article examines the representation of people and their description in the Ibibio cultural namescape, which is a source of their traditional epistemology. Personal names are symbolic linguistic resources that contain information about the Ibibio universe of meaning, where people are placed at the centre of every social relationship. Drawing on ethnographic data sourced through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 30 participants who were name-givers, name-bearers and name-users, this study reveals that the Ibibio naming tradition provides a medium for the dissemination of its traditional cultural scripts, which capture community solidarity, support, security and a sense of belonging. This article concludes that the Ibibio anthroponymic culture reflects people as sources of empowerment. People provide the foundation for understanding the past and a path for reaching one’s life goals. This study offers significant entry points into the way the Ibibio act and react to the strength of its community and reinforces the belief that for the Ibibio, people-related regime of names is an important resource used to foster a positive sense of community and well-being.

The present study tests the precariousness of manhood and the impact of precarious manhood on aggression. In total, 50 undergraduates (25 girls, 25 boys) participated in this experiment. It was found that the male participants used more verbs in the "A man should__" sentence string than in the "One woman should__" sentence string, and similar language patterns were found even after controlling for gender stereotypes. Individuals were found to more often attribute the individual behavior caused by cultural scripts to external situational factors; that is, if individuals agreed that another male's aggression was due to threatened manhood, this behavior was seen to be because of the male cultural script and was due to external circumstances. To test this view, a total of 56 college students participated in this experiment. In total, 25 college students (11 males, 14 females) took part in the attribution evaluation of two male fighters, and 31 college students (15 males, 16 females) participated in the attribution evaluation of two female fighters. It was found that the male participants believed that other male physical aggression that threatened their manhood was induced by situational factors rather than the internal characteristics of the attacker. The differences between the female participants were not significant, indicating that it was part of the male cultural script for men (rather than women) to defend or restore precarious manhood through aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses the way non-native speech can be brought closer to authentic speech (that of native speakers) via a number of key parameters. Arguments are offered in favour of the view that approximation is necessary due to intensification and expansion of international contacts causing the need for deeper cross-cultural understanding. Language teachers face the challenge of forming and developing non-native speech habits exceeding the level of communicative sufficiency. The level of non-native speech needs to be raised so that it sounds like authentic speech. The script-based approach is offered as a solution to the problem. These are dialogues, which reflect the foreign language as it is actually used in practice, focusing on current language usage and culture. Cultural scripts, as they are known, are viewed as constituent parts of the ethnic culture constituting the cognitive substratum of verbal communication. Native speakers’ verbal behaviour ‘moves along the tracks’ of cultural scripts. Therefore, the scripts must be embedded into students’ linguistic and cultural competence and included in the generative models of speech. The research is based on English language material contrasted with Russian language material. The article is intended for experts in speech production and foreign language teaching.

The author reviews some current ways of thinking about adult education in general and explores possible parallels in transactional analysis. The models of semantic polarities and positioning are considered as means of understanding differing approaches to training and qualification systems. Potential reasons for disruptions in these processes are noted, and methods leading to change and resolution are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El presente artículo discute un estilo comunicativo típico de muchos hispanohablantes, que a menudo ha sido caracterizado en la literatura sobre pragmática y comunicación intercultural como de cercanía interpersonal y de confianza. El punto de partida teórico y metodológico es la teoría de la Metalengua Semántica Natural (NSM, por sus siglas en inglés), que propone el uso de un minivocabulario de conceptos básicos para explicar otros más complejos. En este caso, presentamos descripciones (que en la teoría se denominan guiones culturales) de distintos aspectos de este estilo comunicativo de cercanía y de palabras claves culturales y rasgos gramaticales relacionados con este modo de comunicar al que, consciente o inconscientemente, adhieren muchos hispanohablantes. Nos basamos en trabajos ya realizados por otros autores dentro de la NSM y proponemos también nuevas descripciones. This article discusses a communicative style typical of many Spanish speakers, which has often been characterized in the literature on pragmatics and intercultural communication as interpersonal closeness. The theoretical and methodological starting point for the present analysis is the theory of Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM), which proposes the use of a minivocabulary of basic concepts to explain complex ones. In this case, we present descriptions – called cultural scripts within the theory – of different aspects of this communicative style of closeness and analyze cultural keywords and grammatical features related to this way of communicating, which, consciously or unconsciously, many Spanish speakers adhere to. We rely on work already done by other authors within NSM and we also propose new descriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experience of the description of the cultural scenario of marital strife as one of the integral components of family life is presented. The material are the proverbs and sayings of the pre-Soviet period. The author relies on linguistic and cultural interpretation of quarrel as an open family conflict, having the verbalization in proverbial fund of Russian national culture - the source of knowledge about the views of the people, in particular on the code of family behaviour. About 300 paremiological units are analyzed. Phases of quarrel as a communicative event depicted in the analyzed linguistic units are identified. Causes of family discord named in the proverbs are fixed. The ways of verbal and nonverbal gender behaviour are named. The views and values of the spouses in a conflict interaction are revealed. The origins of gender conflict are commented. The author argues that male “chauvinism” is manifested in the stereotypical view on the woman, who is vested with such features as stupidity, talkativeness, obstinacy, etc. The idea is stated that harmony and discord as value and anti-value are important in the national family axiosphere, integrate and dezintegrate members of the family miсro-collective.

The article analyses the way non-native speech can be brought closer to authentic speech (that of native speakers) via a number of key parameters. Arguments are offered in favour of the view that approximation is necessary due to intensification and expansion of international contacts causing the need for deeper crosscultural understanding. Language teachers face the challenge of forming and developing non-native speech habits exceeding the level of communicative sufficiency. The level of non-native speech needs to be raised so that it sounds like authentic speech. The script-based approach is offered as a solution to the problem. These are dialogues, which reflect the foreign language as it is actually used in practice, focusing on current language usage and culture. Cultural scripts, as they are known, are viewed as constituent parts of the ethnic culture constituting the cognitive substratum of verbal communication. Native speakers' verbal behaviour 'moves along the tracks' of cultural scripts. Therefore, the scripts must be embedded into students' linguistic and cultural competence and included in the generative models of speech. The research is based on English language material contrasted with Russian language material. The article is intended for experts in speech production and foreign language teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the representation of the speech act of apology through cultural scri pts. The research has been done on a corpus of students’ responses gathered through an interview of the Discourse Completion Task (DCT) type. The speech act of apology is analysed within the politeness theory originated by Brown and Levinson (1987) and the category of ‘ face ’ . The complexity and specificity of this speech act in Montenegrin led us to establish six semantic components of apologizing for which we devised cultural scripts. Furthermore, two broad categories of apologies were identified: non - verbal and verbal which we labelled ‘ to do is to say ’ and ‘ to say is to do ’ respectively, which further resulted in the creation of two master scripts. The analysis in this paper relies heavily on the idea of cultural scripts developed by Anna Wierzbicka and Cliff G oddard, executed through the semantic primes of Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM).