Search

Encountering idioms (hit the sack = "go to bed") in a second language (L2) often results in a literal-first understanding ("literally hit a sack"). The figurative meaning is retrieved later, subject to idiom familiarity and L2 proficiency, and typically at a processing cost. Intriguingly recent findings report the overextension of idiom use in inappropriate contexts by advanced L2 users, with greater L2 proficiency somewhat mitigating this effect. In this study, we tested the tenability of this finding by comparing eye-movement patterns for idioms used literally, vs. literal control phrases (hit the dirt) in an eye-tracking-while-reading paradigm. We hypothesised that if idiom overextension holds, processing delays should be observed for idioms, as the (over)activated but contextually irrelevant figurative meanings would cause interference. In contrast, unambiguous control phrases should be faster to process. The results demonstrated undifferentiated processing for idioms used literally and control phrases across measures, with L2 proficiency affecting both similarly. Therefore, the findings do not support the hypothesis that advanced L2 users overextend idiom use in inappropriate contexts, nor that L2 proficiency modulates this tendency. The results are also discussed in light of potential pitfalls pertaining to idiom priming under typical experimental settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to individual words, the mental lexicon stores lexical chunks, such as idioms, which provide foreign-language learners with the capacity to acquire the language more effectively. Since the role the parts play in the meaning of the whole reduces the learning burden of multi-word expressions, the present contribution addresses the facilitating effect of idiom transparency and learners’ tendency to utilise it in the comprehension process of unfamiliar English-as-a-foreignlanguage idioms. Moreover, as foreign-language learners automatically tend to look for similarities between languages, it was hypothesised that adolescent Estonian (pre)intermediate English-language learners, first and foremost, utilise native-language knowledge in the comprehension process of unfamiliar English idioms. A think-aloud study, which was carried out to provide an in-depth understanding of their strategies, revealed that whereas the majority of the informants relied on semantic analysis, the recourse-to-native-language strategy was more successful. *** Eesti teismeliste inglise keele kui võõrkeele idioomide mõistmisstrateegiad Võõrkeele valmisväljendid nõuavad vähem vaimset pingutust ja neid saab kiirelt nii mõista kui ka kasutada. Eelkõige on oluline nendest arusaamine, kuna kõnelejad võivad ennast väljendada ka uudsete fraasidega, samas kui suutmatus idioome mõista võib põhjustada kommunikatsiooniprobleeme. Käesoleva uuringu eesmärk oli välja selgitada, milliseid arusaamise strateegiaid eesti emakeelega teismelised inglise keele kui võõrkeele tundmatute idioomide jaoks kasutavad ning kas strateegiate tõhususes ilmneb erinevusi. Andmete kogumise meetodina kasutati valjult mõtlemise protokolli. Andmed näitasid, et õpilased eelistasid semantilist analüüsi idioomide tähenduse leidmiseks. Teataval määral toetuti ka teadmistele emakeelsetest idioomidest ning kontekstile hoolimata sellest, et konteksti määr oli minimaalne. Kõige tõhusamaks viisiks idioomi õige tähenduse leidmisel osutus emakeelest saadav tugi. Kogutud andmete põhjal võib anda mõningaid soovitusi idioomide õpetamise kohta. Kuna uurimistulemused viitasid emakeele toele kui kõige edukamale idioomide mõistmise strateegiale, tasuks keeleõppe algtasemel alustada idioomidega, millel on kas identne või sarnane eestikeelne vaste (eriti veel sellistega, millel on lisaks sõnasõnaliselt mõistetav koostisosa). Tulemuste põhjal on õpilastel tõenäoliselt vaja õppida idioome ka emakeeles. Sarnaste eestikeelsete vastete puhul tuleb arvestada ka õpetajapoolse sekkumise suurema vajadusega, et takistada võimalikku negatiivset ülekannet. Kuna tulemused viitasid ka sellele, et edasijõudnumad õpilased eelistavad pigem semantilist analüüsi, siis keeleõpetajad võiksid suunata õppijate tähelepanu idioomi eri omadustele (nt emakeele ja võõrkeele idioomide identsusele/sarnasusele ja läbipaistvusele) ning juhendada neid kasutama erinevaid strateegiaid. Uuringudisainist tulenevad piirangud rõhutavad edasise teadustöö vajadust. Lisauurimist vääriksid strateegiaeelistuste võimalikud põhjused: vähene emakeele idioomide tundmine, keeleoskustase, idioomide omadused japuudulik võime mõista kujundlikku keelt.

This study explores Arabic and English metonymy's literary, semantic, lexical, and aesthetic aspects. It investigates metonymy as a figure of speech and compares its types and functions in the two languages. The study confirms that metonymy is culture-bound - that is the meanings of metonymies derive from the socio-cultural values of societies and can't be separated from the contexts in which they occur. The study stresses the significance of considering the relationship between the two entities in addition to the socio-cultural background in the analysis of metonymies. The study also demonstrates how, in English, metonymy overlaps with other figures of speech, above all metaphor and synecdoche. This analytical study contributes to a better understanding of metonymy. It compares the definitions, classifications, functions, and points of similarities and differences in the two languages for all learners of Arabic and English as second or foreign languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication, which is generally defined as an act of transferring information from a human to another human, involves a linguistic code as their means. In these linguistic codes the encoder (speaker) encodes some ideas and concepts that get decoded by decoder (hearer). Every social set up or group develops its own terms and Jargon to convey ideas and concepts quickly. These terms and jargon simplify communication for insiders1 but make it complex for outsiders2. The data was collected through observation and interviews with the participants. The findings of the study show that jargon is an important aspect of communication in AMU, and it is constantly evolving to meet the needs of its speakers. The study also highlights the importance of pragmatic competence in understanding jargon and its use in different contexts. These ideas and concepts are highly pragmatic in nature and their development seems as a journey which starts from literal meaning and reaches to pragmatic meaning via context. This paper discusses how the lexicalized concept of an utterance changes into an ad hoc concept and how pragmatic inference operates in these changes, in special reference to AMU campus jargon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Encountering idioms (hit the sack = “go to bed”) in a second language (L2) often results in a literal-first understanding (“literally hit a sack”). The figurative meaning is retrieved later, subject to idiom familiarity and L2 proficiency, and typically at a processing cost. Intriguingly recent findings report the overextension of idiom use in inappropriate contexts by advanced L2 users, with greater L2 proficiency somewhat mitigating this effect. In this study, we tested the tenability of this finding by comparing eye-movement patterns for idioms used literally, vs. literal control phrases (hit the dirt) in an eye-tracking-while-reading paradigm. We hypothesised that if idiom overextension holds, processing delays should be observed for idioms, as the (over)activated but contextually irrelevant figurative meanings would cause interference. In contrast, unambiguous control phrases should be faster to process. The results demonstrated undifferentiated processing for idioms used literally and control phrases across measures, with L2 proficiency affecting both similarly. Therefore, the findings do not support the hypothesis that advanced L2 users overextend idiom use in inappropriate contexts, nor that L2 proficiency modulates this tendency. The results are also discussed in light of potential pitfalls pertaining to idiom priming under typical experimental settings.

This study is an attempt to make a comparative study between Arabic and English regarding color idioms. It tends to make a comparison by shedding light on similarities between Arabic and English regarding Color idioms. Eighteen color idioms have been chosen; ten from English and nine from Arabic. Each idiom has been analyzed literally (dictionary meaning) and non-literally (figurative meaning). The analysis has displayed that both languages share some common connotations and literal meanings for a number of idioms. It has showed some differences as well. It can be drawn that although these languages are aliens, descending from two various origins, yet they share some meanings. Besides, the analysis has explored that some idioms might have more than one meaning depending on the context. As a last point, the meaning of these color idioms may differ according to culture, language, customs and traditions, religion, and situations.

This study attempts to make a comparison between Arabic and English regarding color idioms. Thirty-six color idioms have been chosen; eighteen from English and eighteen from Arabic. Each idiom has been analyzed literally (dictionary meaning) and non-literally (figurative meaning) by following individualizing comparative method. The analysis has displayed that both languages share some common connotations and literal meanings for a number of idioms. It has shown some differences as well. The conclusion that can be drawn is that although these languages are aliens, descending from two various origins, they share some meanings yet. Besides, the analysis has explored that some idioms might have more than one meaning depending on the context. Finally, the meaning of these color idioms may differ according to culture, language, customs and traditions, religion, and situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Eesti Rakenduslingvistika Ühingu Aastaraamat is the property of Eesti Rakenduslingvistika Uhing (ERU) / Estonian Association for Applied Linguistics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Contribution of the Fathers of the Church to exegesis is one of their greatest gifts to Christianity. Without a doubt, their works reflecting on the Scriptures not only include issues relevant to the development of theology but also, have a great impact on Christian Spirituality. This article is the first of two dedicated to patristic exegesis. In this part, the author made a brief introduction on the development of Christian Doctrine with particular attention to J.H. Newman’s theory on the contribution of the Fathers to theology.

For the Church Fathers the Scriptures constituted more than just Words and they strived to go beyond literal understanding of the text. Therefore, the purpose of this article, which is the second one of a two-part study, is to give a brief explanation of various methods of patristic exegesis and its practical application using as an example the Sacrifice of Isaac in the Book of Genesis.

Figurative expressions, such as idioms, are used orally and in writing in everyday language. An idiom is an expression used by itself or as a part of a sentence, and its meaning cannot be derived from the literal meaning of its constituents. Idioms can add an extra level of difficulty to the language learning process (either L1 or L2) because after understanding the literal meaning of each word, the learner has to make sense of the figurative meaning and how to use it correctly. From a pedagogical point of view, social media platforms appear to be influential with regard to learning literal and figurative meaning because they provide a context where this new language item is being used. This research investigates the role of social media platforms in figurative language learning. Different idioms are retrieved from social media platforms to show the effect of intercultural inclusion between speakers of different languages (English and Arabic). It is expected that watching a video containing figurative expressions or reading the comment section where an idiom is used can help the learners infer the meaning and know precisely how to use it and in what context. Moreover, new idioms are starting to be translated and borrowed to different languages due to L2 learners' exposure to this idiom in different contexts, which gives them an accurate depiction of it. The light is shed on the role of bilinguals and L2 learners who can work as an intercultural link between speakers of Arabic and English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Cografya Fakültesi Dergisi DTCF Dergisi is the property of Ankara Universitesi Dil ve Tarih-Cografya Fakultesi (DTCF Dergisi) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revus: Journal for Constitutional Theory & Philosophy of Law is the property of Revus - European Constitutionality Review and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article, Professor Frederick Schauer argues that the formalism as a theory of adjudication restrict to the relevant decision-makers the scale of practical deliberation in terms of selecting moral and political considerations by placing their deliberation within the closed confines of the literal meaning of the words and the structure of the text itself. This, in turn, reduces formalism to the pure form of “rulism” where the language used in the text itself, completely devoid of the historical and social context or the intention of the drafters, substitutes the complete array of the external factors which could be relied upon in the process of decision-making. Professor Schauer attempts to reconstruct the concept of formalism by supplying its moral and political justification within the configuration of the legal system concerned. In doing so, he sketches the preliminaries of, what he terms as, the theory of presumptive formalism attempting to retain the advantages of the formalism itself and simultaneously accommodating the various criticisms levelled against it. However, it is doubtful whether Professor Schauer intends to develop the comprehensive and fully-fledged theory of decisionmaking based on the formalistic underpinnings. Rather, what he aims is to reestablish the reputation of formalism as the respectable or at least not neglectable account of legal reasoning and adjudication. It is, in view of Professor Schauer, the substantial content of the concept that truly matters and not the label with which the content is conveyed. Therefore, the tendency of its unabashed condemnation – whenever one hears the label – should be resisted and the scholarly attention should instead be redirected on the best understanding the concept itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(In)distinct Languages: Revisiting the Dualism of Literal and Literary Meaning in Roman Jakobson and Donald Davidson The paper traces the relationship between the literal and literary language that is found in structuralism and analytic philosophy. The paper’s gist provides a comparative account of Roman Jakobson’s and Donald Davidson’s notions of poetic language and their relation to the general idea of language as it is given in their work. In reconsidering Jakobson’s and Davidson’s arguments, I propose abandoning the dualistic hypotheses of the oppositions between literal and non-literal language, and between literal and literary language. I contend that the notions of first and literal meanings are necessary for other types of interpretation. The dualistic hypothesis requires the cascade model, which displays a bottom-top transition across hierarchically arranged levels of meanings. Instead, I outline the multilayered structure of language with two thresholds: mimetic and semiotic. Therefore, the cascade model should be replaced with the palimpsest model of concurring, merging, and blending layers of meanings. Języki (nie)odrębne. Jeszcze raz o dualizmie znaczeń, dosłownego i literackiego, u Romana Jakobsona i Donalda Davidsona W artykule poddano analizie relacje między językiem dosłownym a językiem literackim, występujące w strukturalizmie i filozofii analitycznej. W rozważaniach istotna była konfrontacja koncepcji języka poetyckiego Romana Jakobsona i Donalda Davidsona oraz ich związku z ogólną ideą języka, jaką można znaleźć w ich pracach. Rozważając ponownie argumenty Jakobsona i Davidsona, autor proponuje porzucić dualistyczne hipotezy, zasadzające się na opozycji między językiem dosłownym a językiem niedosłownym oraz między językiem dosłownym a językiem literackim. Twierdzi, że pojęcia znaczenia pierwszego i dosłownego są niezbędne w innych typach interpretacji. Hipoteza dualistyczna wymaga modelu kaskadowego, który ukazuje przejście od dołu do góry przez hierarchicznie ułożone poziomy znaczeń. Zamiast tego autor zarysowuje wielowarstwową strukturę języka z dwoma poziomami: mimetycznym i semiotycznym i wskazuje na konieczność zastąpienia modelu kaskadowego palimpsestowym modelem współbieżności, łączenia i mieszania warstw znaczeniowych.

This paper investigates how L2 speakers of English process conventional metaphorical expressions. While much of the literature on L2 processing of figurative expressions focuses on idioms only, the aim of this paper is to investigate how L2 speakers process conventional metaphorical expressions. The results of a cross-modal semantic priming task show that conventional metaphors have a special status in comparison to literal language in the L2 lexicon. The differences in reaction times show that L2 speakers are aware of the connections between literal primes and targets, resulting in slower reaction times, while this effect is not found in the metaphorical condition. This demonstrates that even when metaphorical language is very conventional, it can cause difficulties for L2 speakers. Furthermore, these results show that conventional metaphorical expressions can pose a semantic and pragmatic challenge for language learners, thus creating a need for explicit teaching of metaphorical meanings of polysemous words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of defeasibility has long been a central theme in legal literature. This essay aims to shed new light on that phenomenon by clarifying some fundamental conceptual issues. First, the most widespread definition of legal defeasibility is examined and criticized. The essay shows that such a definition is poorly constructed, inaccurate and generates many problems. Indeed, the definition hides the close relationship between legal defeasibility and legal interpretation. Second, this essay argues that no new definition is needed. I will show that from an interpretative standpoint, there is nothing special about legal defeasibility. Contrary to what some authors maintain, no unique or privileged source of legal defeasibility exists, nor are there privileged arguments to justify it. Specifically, legal defeasibility refers to interpretative outcomes deriving from interpretative arguments that, on the one hand, are very different from one another, and, on the other, are often employed to justify different interpretative outcomes. In the legal field, the problems related to defeasibility have little in common with the problems that this label covers in other areas—such as logic or epistemology—and they are nothing but the well-known problems related to legal interpretation. In conclusion, this paper argues that as far as legal argumentation is concerned, the notion of legal defeasibility lacks explanatory power, and it should be abandoned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some traditional accounts view literal meaning (LM) as the central component in the process of meaning interpretation. This paper supports this view while adding that LM is the first but not the only piece of evidence available to the hearer of the speaker’s meaning. After critically evaluating examples from previous studies and my own examples, the study concludes that discourse comprehension is a sequential and graded process. To understand the significance of LM as evidence in the process of meaning understanding, the study has to reconsider the notion of evidence according to Relevance Theory (RT) and define the vigorously debated term of LM. The results from this study suggest that literal meaning is initial and context is subsequential; while both co-determine the speaker’s meaning in implicature, the latter enriches the speaker’s meaning into a higher order speech act in explicature.

Copyright of Slavia Meridionalis is the property of Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Slavic Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the notional and pragmatic components of the meaning of the Czech phrasemes containing names of fairy-tale creatures. We do not aim for exhaustive evidence of phrasemes from thematic unit Names of fairy-tale creatures, but we are trying to prove on a few concrete examples that phrasemes 1) can solely convey literal meanings (either notional or pragmatic, or both notional and pragmatic), or, 2) in addition to verbatim meaning, they can also acquire figurative and/or transferred meaning (namely notional, or pragmatic, or both national and pragmatic concurently). In this paper, we prove that the traditionally postulated concept of Czech phraseology does not apply, namely that each phrasemes is represented by both (a notional and a pragmatic) component of meaning. On the contrary, it appears that some phraseological units can only be of notional significance, other phrasemes can only have pragmatic significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Analisi e Diritto is the property of Edizioni ETS s.r.l. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Djoussour El-maarefa is the property of Association of Arab Universities and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Non-linguistic components of metaphor understanding, emotions and mental images, have recently received attention within neurolinguistics and cognitive pragmatics, suggesting a role in differential representation and processing of language: metaphors are considered richer in affective connotations than their lexical or sentential non-emotional counterparts and images may be used in the recovery of propositional meaning. Assuming that the above characteristics of metaphors can trigger inferential processing, we explored the impact of their modulation on metaphor understanding in a second language (L2). We thus manipulated the nature of prime sentences in relation to the original target metaphors (e.g. Obama presided over a topic of discussion of epochal proportions) and created less emotional literal paraphrases (synonymous; historic proportions) which we compared against emotionally loaded counterparts (implicatures; amazing proportions), and examined the performance of seventy-four Greek-English bilinguals on a reading comprehension and a meaning-matching task. The results showed that both experimental conditions elicited fewer errors in comparison to the control condition but did not differ between them in accuracy or in reaction time (RT). We discuss these findings in view of the role of emotions and mental imagery in the understanding of metaphorical meaning, especially in the context of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). • Metaphor interpretation in L2 was explored using a meaning-matching task. • Literal paraphrases and emotionally-loaded implicatures were compared. • Fewer errors were yielded in comparison to the control but no difference in RT. • Same impact of literal and emotional/imagistic meaning on metaphor interpretation. • When literal meaning is fragmented in EFL it may be recovered via imagery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical work has shown that patients and physicians have markedly divergent understandings of treatability statements (e.g., "This is a treatable condition," "We have treatments for your loved one") in the context of serious illness. Patients often understand treatability statements as conveying good news for prognosis and quality of life. In contrast, physicians often do not intend treatability statements to convey improvement in prognosis or quality of life, but merely that a treatment is available. Similarly, patients often understand treatability statements as conveying encouragement to hope and pursue further treatment, though this may not be intended by physicians. This radical divergence in understandings may lead to severe miscommunication. This paper seeks to better understand this divergence through linguistic theory—in particular, H.P. Grice's notion of conversational implicature. This theoretical approach reveals three levels of meaning of treatability statements: (1) the literal meaning , (2) the physician's intended meaning , and (3) the patient's received meaning. The divergence between the physician's intended meaning and the patient's received meaning can be understood to arise from the lack of shared experience between physicians and patients, and the differing assumptions that each party makes about conversations. This divergence in meaning raises new and largely unidentified challenges to informed consent and shared decision making in the context of serious illness, which indicates a need for further empirical research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]