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Advances in Cultural Linguistics (Cultural Linguistics)
by Farzad SharifianThis groundbreaking collection represents the broad scope of cutting-edge research in Cultural Linguistics, a burgeoning field of interdisciplinary inquiry into the relationships between language and cultural cognition. The materials surveyed in its chapters demonstrate how cultural conceptualisations encoded in language relate to all aspects of human life - from emotion and embodiment to kinship, religion, marriage and politics, even the understanding of life and death. Cultural Linguistics draws on cognitive science, complexity science and distributed cognition, among other disciplines, to strengthen its theoretical and analytical base. The tools it has developed have worked toward insightful investigations into the cultural grounding of language in numerous applied domains, including World Englishes, cross-cultural/intercultural pragmatics, intercultural communication, Teaching English as an International Language (TEIL), and political discourse analysis.
Chinese as a Second Language Assessment (Chinese Language Learning Sciences)
by Dongbo Zhang Chin-Hsi LinThis book brings together 13 original research papers that address emerging issues in the assessment of Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) in five major areas, including standards in CSL assessment; development of CSL tests; assessment of diverse knowledge and skills; computer-supported assessment; and CSL assessment in relation to instruction and teachers’ assessment competence. It goes beyond the psychometric testing of Chinese and provides cutting-edge examinations of the interfaces of assessment with sociology of language, acquisition, pedagogy, and modern technologies, as well as teacher education. Given its unique features and broad range of topics, the book offers an intriguing and valuable resource, not only for scholars and researchers but also teacher educators and assessment practitioners who are directly or indirectly involved in CSL assessment.
Culture and Communication in Thailand (Communication, Culture and Change in Asia #3)
by Patchanee MalikhaoThis book features research papers that examine a host of contemporary issues in Thailand. Coverage includes culture, gender violence, tourism, human trafficking, environmental and ecological issues, sustainability and the sufficiency economy, the (mis)handling of elephants, and more. It features a sociological and anthropological perspective with a dash of communication for sustainable social change.The papers investigate the various phases of communication technology and its impact on cultural change in the country. They explore the use of social networks and privacy issues as well as ethical journalism in the contexts of Thai Buddhism, Thai culture, and other enabling environmental factors. The contributors focus on documentary research of both quantitative and qualitative data on Thai social change as a consequence of globalization and digital technology. They first provide a general overview of social media and communication in the country. Next, the authors go on to explore the specifics of digital communication. This includes a look at its impact on the various ways of Thai communication given politico-economic and religious influences.
Languages and Genes in Northwestern China and Adjacent Regions
by Dan Xu Hui LiThis book presents an investigation of language contact, focusing on Northwestern China. It breaks down the barrier between human sciences and natural sciences in order to reconsider the diversity of languages on the basis of the latest research findings from genetics, linguistics, and other domains, offering valuable insights into when and how the divergence of languages and genes began and language and gene admixture and replacement occurred. The book focuses on language evolution between the border of Gansu and Qinghai Province in China, but the research doesn’t neglect the area beyond China’s northern borders. Manchu, a dying language belonging to the Tungusic group, is also studied to enhance our understanding of language replacement. This work is the result of a four-year collaboration between teams of geneticists and linguists in France and China.
Social Interactions and Networking in Cyber Society
by Ford Lumban Gaol Fonny Dameaty HutagalungThis book discusses the interactions between societies and examines how people behave in the cyber world. It highlights the effects of the Internet on individuals’ psychological well-being, the formation and maintenance of personal relationships, group memberships, social identity, the workplace, the pedagogy of learning and community involvement. The book also explores in-depth the unique qualities of Internet technologies and how these have encouraged people to interact across communities. It is a valuable resource for academics, practitioners and policy makers who want to understand the capabilities of Internet technologies and their impacts on people's lives.
Acoustics of Bangla Speech Sounds (Signals and Communication Technology)
by Asoke Kumar DattaThis book presents the consolidated acoustic data for all phones in Standard Colloquial Bengali (SCB), commonly known as Bangla, a Bengali language used by 350 million people in India, Bangladesh, and the Bengali diaspora. The book analyzes the real speech of selected native speakers of the Bangla dialect to ensure that a proper acoustical database is available for the development of speech technologies. The acoustic data presented consists of averages and their normal spread, represented by the standard deviations of necessary acoustic parameters including e.g. formant information for multiple native speakers of both sexes.The study employs two important speech technologies:(1) text to speech synthesis (TTS) and (2) automatic speech recognition (ASR). The procedures, particularly those related to the use of technologies, are described in sufficient detail to enable researchers to use them to create technical acoustic databases for any other Indian dialect. The book offers a unique resource for scientists and industrial practitioners who are interested in the acoustic analysis and processing of Indian dialects to develop similar dialect databases of their own.
Perspectives on the Architecture and Acquisition of Syntax: Essays in Honor of R. Amritavalli
by Gautam Sengupta Shruti Sircar Madhavi Gayathri Raman Rahul BalusuThis festschrift volume brings together important contributions by expert syntacticians across the globe on tense and finiteness, adjectives, dative and ergative case, acquisition of case, and other topics both within the domain of Dravidian linguistics and in the broader theoretical understanding of cross-linguistic data. Professor R. Amritavalli, a renowned linguist, has spent over three decades in the fields of syntax and syntactic acquisition, making important and landmark contributions in these areas, and this book is a recognition of her work. The contributors cover these themes in the context of English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi-Urdu, Bangla, Dravidian languages, and understudied languages like Huave. The analyses presented here have major implications for current theories of syntax and semantics, first and second language acquisition, language typology and historical linguistics, and will be a valuable resource for students, researchers and teachers.
Modern Chinese Literature, Lin Shu and the Reformist Movement: Between Classical and Vernacular Language
by César Guarde-PazThis Pivot reconsiders the controversial literary figure of Lin Shu and the debate surrounding his place in the history of Modern Chinese Literature. Although recent Chinese mainland research has recognized some of the innovations introduced by Lin Shu, he has often been labeled a 'rightist reformer' in contrast to 'leftist reformers' such as Chen Duxiu and the new wave scholars of the May Fourth Movement. This book provides a well-documented account of his place in the different polemics between these two circles ('conservatives' and 'reformers') and provides a more nuanced account of the different literary movements of the time. Notably, it argues that these differences were neither in content nor in politics, but in the methodological approach of both parties. Examining Lin Shu and the 'conservatives' advocated coexistence of both traditional and modern thought, the book provides background to the major changes occurring in the intellectual landscape of Modern China.
Modern Chinese Literature, Lin Shu and the Reformist Movement: Between Classical and Vernacular Language
by César Guarde-PazThis Pivot reconsiders the controversial literary figure of Lin Shu and the debate surrounding his place in the history of Modern Chinese Literature. Although recent Chinese mainland research has recognized some of the innovations introduced by Lin Shu, he has often been labeled a 'rightist reformer' in contrast to 'leftist reformers' such as Chen Duxiu and the new wave scholars of the May Fourth Movement. This book provides a well-documented account of his place in the different polemics between these two circles ('conservatives' and 'reformers') and provides a more nuanced account of the different literary movements of the time. Notably, it argues that these differences were neither in content nor in politics, but in the methodological approach of both parties. Examining Lin Shu and the 'conservatives' advocated coexistence of both traditional and modern thought, the book provides background to the major changes occurring in the intellectual landscape of Modern China.
Challenging Leadership Stereotypes Through Discourse: Power, Management and Gender
by Cornelia Ilie Stephanie SchnurrThis multidisciplinary volume brings together wide-ranging empirical research that goes behind the scenes of diverse organizations dealing with business, politics, law, media, education, and sports to unravel stereotypes of discursive leadership practices as they unfold in situ. It includes contributions that explore how leadership discourse is impacted by increasing pressures of “glocalization” (the need to communicate across cultures and languages), “mediatization” (leaving ubiquitous digital traces), standardization (with quality management programmes negotiating organizational procedures), mobility (endless fast-paced long distance synchronization) and acceleration (permanent co-adaption and change). The discussion of purposefully chosen case studies moves beyond questions of who is a leader and what leaders do, to how leadership stereotypes are being challenged in various communities of practice, and thereby making change possible. Cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approaches are used to get deeper insights into the competing, multi-voiced, controversial and complex identities and relationships enacted in leadership discourse practices.
Improving Reading and Reading Engagement in the 21st Century: International Research and Innovation
by Clarence Ng Brendan BartlettThis book presents cutting-edge research findings in areas critical to advancing reading research in the 21st century context, including new literacies, reading motivation, strategy instruction, and reading intervention studies.While students’ reading performance is currently receiving unprecedented attention, there is a lack of research that adopts an international perspective and draws on research expertise from different parts of the world to present a concerted effort, discussing key research models and findings on how to improve reading education. Addressing this gap in the literature, the book also responds to the challenge of promoting higher levels of literacy, and supporting and developing readers who can enjoy and critique texts of every genre.
The Case of the iPad: Mobile Literacies in Education
by Cathy Burnett Guy Merchant Alyson Simpson Maureen WalshThis book brings together an international group of literacy studies scholars who have investigated mobile literacies in a variety of educational settings. Approaching mobility from diverse theoretical perspectives, the book makes a significant contribution to how mobile literacies, and tablets in particular, are being conceptualised in literacy research. The book focuses on tablets, and particularly the iPad, as a prime example of mobile literacies, setting this within the broader context of literacy and mobility.The book provides inspiration and direction for future research in mobile literacies, based upon 16 chapters that investigate the relationship between tablets and literacy in diverse ways. Together they address the complex and multiple forces associated with the distribution of the technologies themselves and the texts they mediate, and consider how apps, adults and children work together as iPads enter the mesh of practices and material arrangements that constitute the institutional setting.
Proust, China and Intertextual Engagement: Translation and Transcultural Dialogue
by Shuangyi LiThe book traces the literary journey that Proust’s work made to China and back by means of translation, intertextual engagement, and the creation of a transcultural dialogue through migrant literature. It begins with a translation history of Proust’s work in China and studies the different (re)translations and editions of La Recherche highlighting their culturally conditioned thematic emphases and negligence, such as time and memory over anti-Semitism and homosexuality. The book then moves on to explore three contemporary mainland Chinese writers’ creative intertextual engagement with Proust against the backdrop of China's explosive development from modernity to post-modernity in the 1990s. Finally, back to France, the book examines the multifarious literary relations between Proust and the Franco-Chinese migrant writer François Cheng. It demonstrates how the cultural heritages of China and the West can be re-negotiated and put into dialogue through the fictional and creative medium of literature, as well as providing a means of understanding the economic, political, and cultural exchanges in our current global context.
International Communication Strategies of Chinese Radio and TV Networks: Initial Observations
by Duan PengThis book discusses the effect of communication strategies in the course of China’s national image building from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. The research data are collected via researcher’s in-depth observation as well as focus group analysis and case study of selected Chinese radio and TV networks. On the basis of the empirical study and drawing on theories of international communication and political communication, this book also introduces an analytical framework that can be used to evaluate the effect of communication strategies in practice. Especially, the framework is applied to systematically analyze the formation and application of Chinese Communist Party’s communication strategy with an aim at improving the national image and increasing its global influence. This book is of interest to graduate students and researchers who are interested in the broadcast communication in China.
Discursive Constructions of Corporate Identities by Chinese Banks on Sina Weibo: An Integrated Sociolinguistics Approach
by Wei FengThis book addresses the discursive construction of corporate identities in social media on the part of Chinese corporations, particularly highlighting how followers of corporate social media co-create corporate identities during firm-follower interactions. Toward this end, it pursues an integrated sociolinguistics approach combining e.g. thematic analysis, interactional analysis and in-depth interviews. Readers will also find extensive information on the brand-new dialogic framework of corporate identity formation. The book offers an insightful and revealing guide for both practitioners/trainers and teachers in corporate communication who are faced with the challenges of managing public relations and corporate images in the age of social media. It can also serve as a valuable case study for those readers who are fascinated by the Chinese economy and discourse analysis of the Chinese language.
Critical Discourse Analysis of Chinese Advertisement: Case Studies of Household Appliance Advertisements from 1981 to 1996
by Chong WangThis book reflects the chronological changes in Chinese cultural values, social relations, economy and politics by critically analyzing the Chinese advertising discourse. The work is based on research into the ideological values portrayed in Chinese household appliance advertisements in the 1980s – 1990s. The analytical framework covers a variety of methods: critical discourse analysis, chronological analysis, visual and verbal analysis, and qualitative and quantitative analysis. The findings suggest that ideological values consciously or unconsciously manifested by the visual and verbal devices in the Chinese advertisements moved in a pattern from simplicity to diversity, from being politically-oriented to being economically and profit-oriented, from conservatism to globalization and westernization, in keeping with the progression of the Chinese economic reform. The findings further indicate that the ideological values in the Chinese household appliance advertisements are embedded in the advertising language and illustrations. Lastly, the work reveals the reality of Chinese politics, economy and society at a time when China experienced the growth of the market economy and evolution of Chinese mainstream ideologies, and demonstrates the impacts of these changes on the ideological meanings in advertisements. This book will help readers discover the more profound meanings behind the superficial content of Chinese advertisements.
English as a Medium of Instruction in Higher Education: Implementations and Classroom Practices in Taiwan (English Language Education #8)
by Wenli Tsou Shin-Mei KaoThis book presents the multiple facets of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in higher education across various academic disciplines, an area that is expected to grow constantly in response to the competitive global higher education market. The studies presented were conducted in various EMI classrooms, with data collected from observing and documenting the teaching activities, and from interviewing or surveying EMI participants. Through data analysis and synthesis, cases across disciplines – from engineering, science, technology, business, social science, medical science, design and arts, to tourism and leisure service sectors – are used to illustrate the various EMI curriculum designs and classroom practices. Although the cases described are limited to Taiwanese institutions, the book bridges the gap between planning and executing EMI programs across academic domains for policy makers, administrators, content teachers, and teacher trainers throughout Asia.
Lin Yutang and China’s Search for Modern Rebirth
by Suoqiao QianThis book provides a comprehensive examination of the socio-cultural and political context of modern China in terms of its interaction with America and the West, focusing on the influence of the well-known Chinese writer and intellectual Lin Yutang (1895-1976). Offering a unique study of the life and works of Lin Yutang, it highlights his intellectual legacy in modern China and considers how his cross-cultural life and ideas embodied the modern Chinese cultural experience. It notably focuses on Lin’s reputation as an outspoken critic of the infringement of human rights during the rise of the Communist regime in China, but also on his rediscovery of Chinese cultural resources. At a time when China’s cultural contributions are increasingly relevant worldwide, this book contributes to ongoing critical reflections of Chinese modernity, particularly in terms of its intellectual legacies, but also to a renewed understanding of the cross-cultural interactions between China and America and a re-opening the dialogue and search for a new cultural understanding.
Lin Yutang and China’s Search for Modern Rebirth
by Suoqiao QianThis book provides a comprehensive examination of the socio-cultural and political context of modern China in terms of its interaction with America and the West, focusing on the influence of the well-known Chinese writer and intellectual Lin Yutang (1895-1976). Offering a unique study of the life and works of Lin Yutang, it highlights his intellectual legacy in modern China and considers how his cross-cultural life and ideas embodied the modern Chinese cultural experience. It notably focuses on Lin’s reputation as an outspoken critic of the infringement of human rights during the rise of the Communist regime in China, but also on his rediscovery of Chinese cultural resources. At a time when China’s cultural contributions are increasingly relevant worldwide, this book contributes to ongoing critical reflections of Chinese modernity, particularly in terms of its intellectual legacies, but also to a renewed understanding of the cross-cultural interactions between China and America and a re-opening the dialogue and search for a new cultural understanding.
Translation and Health Risk Knowledge Building in China
by Meng JiThis pivot considers the dissemination of public health terms in Chinese scientific research and printed media. Bringing together quantitative and qualitative analysis from corpus linguistics, translation studies, contrastive linguistics to bear on the study of specialised public health translation, it provides key insights into the translation of key public health policy materials produced by authoritative international health agencies like the World Health Organisation (WHO). The study of the acceptance, assimilation and update of translated health risk terms is embedded within corpus translation studies, one of the most dynamic areas of applied translation studies. This study deploys large-scale data bases of scientific publications and printed media materials to trace and analyse the use of translated public health terms and linguistic synonyms by Chinese researchers and media. It also highlights the limits of research investment on critical public health topics such as health financial risks and considers worldwide concerns about the use of accurate and appropriate terminology in specialized fields of knowledge, and the implications for scholarly research, translator training and professional practice.
Inclusive Teaching Strategies for Discipline-based English Studies: Enhancing Language Attainment and Classroom Interaction in a Multicultural Learning Environment
by Hing Wa SitThis book presents empirical findings that reveal various teaching strategies and responses from two sub-cultural groups of students, i.e. local Hong Kong and Mainland students, with regard to their English studies. It puts forward a constructive model for innovative teaching strategies to enhance language attainment and classroom interaction in a multicultural learning environment in Hong Kong. It highlights inclusive teaching strategies with instructional, inspirational and interactional components to accommodate diverse learners and promote their classroom interaction. In addition to contributing to innovation in higher education in Hong Kong, the lessons learned here can be universally applied to ESL/EFL teaching and education reform around the world. Further, they support better learning and teaching at universities in the context of internationalization.The book will above all benefit undergraduate students in ESL/EFL teacher training programs, and post-graduate research students in applied linguistics, language education and second language teacher education. It also offers a valuable reference book for university lectures in teacher education, researchers in higher education in China, and TESOL/TEFL instructors in English-speaking countries (the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc.).
The Diaspora Writes Home: Subcontinental Narratives
by Jasbir JainThis book by eminent author Jasbir Jain explores the many ways the diaspora remembers and reflects upon the lost homeland, and their relationship with their own ancestry, history of the homeland, culture and the current political conflicts. Amongst the questions this book asks is, ‘how does the diaspora relate to their home, and what is the homeland's relationship to the diaspora as representatives of the contemporary homeland in another country?’. The last is an interesting point of discussion since the 'present' of the homeland and of the diaspora cannot be equated. The transformations that new locations have brought about as migrants have travelled through time and interacted with the politics of their settled lands---Africa, Fiji, the Caribbean Islands, the UK, the US, Canada, as well as the countries created out of British India, such as Pakistan and Bangladesh---have altered their affiliations and perspectives.This book gathers multiple dispersions of emigrant writers and artistes from South Asia across time and space to the various homelands they relate to now. The word ‘write’ is used in its multiplicity to refer to creative expression, as an inscription, as connectivity, and remembrance. Writing is also a representation and carries its own baggage of poetics and aesthetics, categories which need to be problematised vis-à-vis the writer and his/her emotional location.
Not Just a Laughing Matter: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Political Humor in China (The Humanities in Asia #5)
by King-Fai Tam Sharon R. WesokyThis book offers the first comprehensive and in-depth exploration of the way Chinese humor fits into broader discourses on Chinese identity and modernity in an increasingly globalized world throughout the period of modern China. It brings together the expertise of scholars from a variety of disciplines – history, literature, linguistics, anthropology, sociology and the study of popular culture – to examine the many forms and modes in which political humor is expressed in modern China: films, cartoons, the visual arts, oral performances and online satire.
Japanese Language and Soft Power in Asia
by Kayoko HashimotoThis cutting edge collection considers how the Japanese language functions as a key element of Japanese soft power in Asia. Within Japanese culture itself, the promotion of language has been an area of ambivalence. This interdisciplinary book looks across the fields of language policy, language teaching, socio-linguistics, cultural studies and history to identify the links between Japan’s language policies and broader social, economic and political processes. It examines the challenges that undermine Japan’s potential soft power by identifying a gap between the “official Japan” portrayed by the Japanese government and the “cultural Japan” that foreigners perceive. It also reveals historical continuity in the way Japanese language is perceived and promoted by policy makers and how the current practices of Japanese language teaching in Asian countries have been shaped within the framework of “international exchange”, which has been a key concept in Japanese foreign policies since the 1970s. It particularly considers the concept of ‘Cool Japan’ as a symbol of Japan’s interpretation of its cultural power and offers a thoughtful assessment of the future of Japanese as a form of soft power in Asia as the country prepares for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The Reconstruction of Modality in Chinese-English Government Press Conference Interpreting: A Corpus-Based Study (Corpora and Intercultural Studies #1)
by Xin LiThis book investigates a special genre of interpreting in the Chinese context, namely Government Press Conference (GPC) Interpreting. Drawing on the modality system from Systemic Functional Grammar and a corpus of 21 interpreting events, the project explores the regular patterns of modality shifts in Chinese-English GPC interpreting and seeks explanations in the sociocultural context. As a corpus-based project, the book covers qualitative analysis of the sociocultural context, qualitative analysis of the interpersonal effects of modality shifts, and quantitative analysis of modality shifts. This book will contribute to the understanding of the distinctive features of GPC interpreting in China, shed new light on the rendition of modality between Chinese and English in specific contexts, and also inspire new thoughts on the nature of interpreting in general.