Showing papers in "Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development in 2004"

The emotional force of swearwords and taboo words in the speech of multilinguals

Abstract: This paper investigates the perception of emotional force of swearwords and taboo words (S-T words) among 1039 multilinguals. It is based on data drawn from a large database collected through a web questionnaire on bilingualism and emotions. t-Tests revealed that the perceived emotional force of S-T words is highest in the L1 and gradually lower in languages learned subsequently. Self-reported L1 attriters were found to judge S-T words in their L1 to be less powerful than those who are still dominant in their L1. Participants who learned their language(s) in a naturalistic—or partly naturalistic—context gave higher ratings on emotional force of S-T words in that language than instructed language learners. Self-rated proficiency in a language and frequency of use of language significantly predicted perception of emotional force of S-T words. Age of onset of learning was found to only predict perception of emotional force of S-T words in the L2.

Bilingual Speakers in the Lab: Psychophysiological Measures of Emotional Reactivity

Abstract: Bilingual speakers report experiencing stronger emotions when speaking and hearing their first language compared to their second. Does this occur even when a second language is learned early and becomes the dominant language? Spanish—English bilinguals who had grown up in the USA (early learners) or those who were first exposed to English during middle childhood while residing in a Latin American country (late learners) listened to words and phrases while skin conductance was monitored. Stimuli included taboo words, sexual terms, childhood reprimands ('Go to your room!') and single words which functioned as a neutral baseline. Consistent with the hypothesis that a second language is less emotional for the late learners, emotional expressions (i.e.reprimands) presented in the first language elicited larger skin conductance responses than comparable expressions in the second language. For the early learners, no such difference was obtained, indicating that age of acquisition of the second language and profi...

'Stop Doing That, Ia Komu Skazala!': Language Choice and Emotions in Parent—Child Communication

Abstract: The goal of this paper is to discuss the role of emotion-related factors in language choice in bi- and multilingual families. Most of the time, factors other than emotions govern language choice and use in such families, among them language dominance, social context and linguistic competence of the interlocutors. However, quantitative and qualitative analyses of bi- and multilingual parents' webquestionnaire responses suggest that perceived language emotionality and affective repertoires offered by particular languages also play a role in language choice and use in parent—child communication, in particular in emotional expression.

The preponderance of negative emotion words in the emotion lexicon: A cross-generational and cross-linguistic study

Abstract: The 'working emotion vocabulary' typically shows a preponderance of words for negative emotions (50%) over positive (30%) and neutral (20%) emotions. The theory of affect-as-information suggests that negative emotions signal problems or threat in the environment and are accompanied by detailed and systematic cognitive processing, while positive emotions signal a safe or benign environment and are accompanied by heuristic, schema-based cognitive processing. Further, the developmental theory of affect-complexity suggests that the ability to coordinate and manage complex emotions develops over the lifespan. More complex interpretation and reasoning about negative experience versus positive experience predicts that negative emotion labels will predominate in the emotion lexicon. The growth of affect-complexity over time predicts that the greater proportion of negative labels will remain constant for both young and older individuals. By asking monolingual Spanish-speakers in Mexico and monolingual English-spea...

The Status and Role of Regional Languages in Higher Education in Pakistan

Abstract: Pakistan, as a multilingual country, faces numerous problems in language planning in higher education There are concerns about the limited role of regional languages, lack of required materials in Urdu, and student difficulties in English The research reported here is a nationwide survey of 2136 students, 121 Subject and English teachers of public and private sector colleges and universities from all capital cities of Pakistan, as well as 63 parents who responded to the questionnaire The survey examines the students' background, their competency and use of mother tongue/ regional languages, attitudes to languages, the availability and quality of materials, the role of regional languages in education, as well as language and sociocultural outcomes Results reveal a language shift in the regional speakers who display low competency and use of their mother tongue/regional languages in formal and informal domains They also display negative attitudes to their own languages as seen in their preference to st

Preface: Bilingual Lives, Bilingual Experience

Abstract: (2004). Preface: Bilingual Lives, Bilingual Experience. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development: Vol. 25, No. 2-3, pp. 94-104.

Switching Codes, Switching Code: Bilinguals' Emotional Responses in English and Greek

Abstract: This paper investigates the verbal construction of emotions in a bilingual/bicultural setting, the target languages and cultures being American English and Cypriot Greek. To examine whether bilingual speakers express different emotions in their respective languages, a study was carried out with 10 bilingual/bicultural professionals. A scenario was presented to them first in English and a month later in Greek and their verbal reactions were recorded. The participants' responses were then analysed through three questions: (1) whether they translate from one language to the other; (2) whether and when codeswitching occurs; (3) whether there is a pattern in the use of emotion words. The analysis of the results shows that respondents displayed different reactions to the same story depending on the language it was read to them in. The paper argues that participants changed their social code, i.e. sociocultural expectations, with the change in linguistic code. These findings raise interesting questions about the...

Different Languages, Different Emotions? Perspectives from Autobiographical Literature

Abstract: Bilingual life writing offers a rare insight into the relationship between languages and emotions. This article explores ways in which some striking contemporary memoirs and novels of bilingual experience approach questions of cultural difference in emotion. The texts considered include memoirs by Eva Hoffman and Tim Parks, autobiographical fiction by Lilian Ng and Nino Ricci, and personal essays by Stanislaw Baranczak and Zhengdao Ye. I focus on these writers' treatment of the role played in their own or their protagonists' lives by forms of emotional expression that do not readily translate between their two languages. These include expressive forms such as diminutives and interjections as well as concepts which invoke specific feelings, like the Polish szcześliwy (happy) and American English 'happy'. Another significant area represented in these texts is the extent to which nonverbal means of expressing feelings translate, or fail to. The narratives explored here suggest that different languages make p...

Bilingualism and Emotion in the Autobiographical Works of Nancy Huston

Abstract: Research on the links between bilingualism and emotion suggests that when a second language is learned postpuberty or in adulthood, the two languages of an individual may differ in their emotional impact. The works of bilingual writer Nancy Huston offer unique insight into the process of ascribing differential emotional value to first and second languages. In her autobiographical writing, Huston explores the process of being and becoming bilingual in French and English, detailing the evolving emotional impact of her two languages across the narrative of her life. While she pointedly attributes her development as a writer to the learning of French, her language of distance and detachment, she also retains and deliberately cultivates strong emotional ties to English, her first language, and in fact, to the creative distance between languages. This paper examines Huston's reflections on bilingualism and emotions as discursive constructions, illuminating the process of electing a new emotional life through a ...

The Influence of Emotional Arousal on Affective Priming in Monolingual and Bilingual Speakers

Abstract: The activation of arousal components for emotion-laden words in English (e.g. kiss, death) was examined in two groups of participants: English monolinguals and Spanish—English bilinguals. In Experiment 1, emotion-laden words were rated on valence and perceived arousal. These norms were used to construct prime—target word pairs that were used in Experiment 2. Monolingual and bilingual participants performed lexical decisions to English word targets in either high arousal, moderate or unrelated conditions. Results revealed positive priming effects in both arousal conditions for both groups of participants. Interestingly, while the baseline conditions were similar across groups, the arousal conditions produced longer latencies for bilinguals than for monolinguals. These data represent the first demonstration of word—word priming in the domain of perceived arousal in a dominant language for monolingual and bilingual speakers. Results are discussed in terms of the representation of emotion words and the struct...

Constructing a normative national identity: the Leitkultur debate in Germany 2000/2001

Abstract: In recent years, public discourse about German national identity has increasingly focussed on the large foreign population within Germany's borders. Whilst right-wing politicians such as Edmund Stoiber foster fears of identity loss ('Uberfremdung'), more liberal observers, and indeed the ruling red-green coalition, acknowledge that multiethnicity has by now become an integral part of this identity. The debate experienced its provisional climax in late 2000 and early 2001. Friedrich Merz, then parliamentary leader of the CDU party, introduced the term 'Leitkultur' into the political discourse. The notion suggests the existence of a clearly identifiable spectrum of German cultural values and proposes that foreigners who wished to live in Germany should adhere to these values. Merz's proposal triggered a wave of highly controversial comments which have been evaluated for the purpose of this paper. It draws on roughly 350 newspaper articles and interviews and aims to introduce the English-speaking reader to the complex range of arguments. The Leitkultur debate is taken as symptomatic of the current state of public discourse about foreigners and national identity in Germany.

Protestants and the Irish Language: Historical Heritage and Current Attitudes in Northern Ireland

Abstract: The Irish language has long been regarded in the popular mind as a correlate of Irish nationalism. A model expounded by the sociolinguist, Joshua Fishman, is applied to the evolution of Irish as a nationalist icon, and it is demonstrated that its divisive potential developed only gradually. In fact, it was an object of affection and admiration for many influential 19th century Protestants and unionists. In the 20th century, the language became increasingly polarised for political ends, and after Partition was largely rejected in the education system as experienced by unionist children in Northern Ireland. It is argued that such an overwhelmingly anglocentric orientation, not just in language, but also in history and geography, has paradoxically served to exacerbate the Troubles. It has alienated unionists from cultural capital which rightfully and historically belongs to both traditions, and in so doing has promoted a 'frontier mentality' among them. Somewhat in a spirit of definition by opposition, they ...

How to Get Yourself on the Door of a Job: A Cross-cultural Contrastive Study of Arabic and English Job Application Letters

Abstract: This cross-cultural study examined the generic structure of English and Arabic job application letters written by native Arabic speakers and English native speakers to find out the discourse genre text similarities and differences between them A corpus of 60 job application letters written by 60 job applicants was subjected to the form of move structure analysis proposed by Bhatia (1993) The results revealed that writers with different cultural backgrounds showed various types of rhetorical move preferences used in different sequences and frequencies to articulate the same communicative purpose in two text groups The letters of application written by native Arabic speakers were found to contain particular strategic moves, such as 'Glorifying the institution of the prospective employer'and 'Invoking compassion' that do not even exist in the covering letters written by English writers However, the letters written by native English applicants include lengthy supporting discussions to promote the candidat

The Conceptualisation of the Cultural Component of Language Teaching in Australian Language-in-Education Policy.

Abstract: Culture is recognised as an important part of languages teaching in Australia and has been increasingly integrated into policy and curriculum documents and the general rhetoric of languages education. The result is that policies include statements about aspects of cultural competence. However, the nature and scope of the cultural component in languages education has not been clearly articulated in these documents and a variety of competing and conflicting approaches to cultural knowledge are to be found. In particular, there is a key conflict in policy and curriculum documents between the expressed outcomes for the teaching of cultural knowledge as a part of language education and the ways in which this knowledge is conceptualised in the same documents.

The Heart of the European Body Politic. British and German Perspectives on Europe's Central Organ

Abstract: On the basis of a corpus of British and German press coverage of European Union (EU) politics over the 1990s, the paper analyses uses of the geopolitical heart metaphor. Over the course of the 1990s, successive British governments promised to work at the heart of Europe. However, no one ever claimed that Britain was in the heart of Europe, even though other geographically peripheral parts of Europe (e.g. the Balkan peninsula) have been situated there by the British press. Instead, British media and politicians tended to foreground scenarios of heart illness or even heart failure to express scepticism towards further political and economic integration. Conversely, in German public discourse, the heart of europe seems to be most often proudly identified as a German one, with selected places in central Europe (Prague, Vienna, Wroclaw/Breslau) as ‘runners‐up’. On the basis of the corpus evidence, it is argued that the heart of europe metaphor plays a central role in EU-related political discourse, which links...

The Evolution of Multiculturalism in Britain and Germany: An Historical Survey

Abstract: This paper is an introductory survey of the evolution of multiculturalism in Britain and Germany over the past two centuries. The historical approach argues that the main determinants of difference between these nation states lie in their long-term traditional attitudes towards immigrants and ethnic minorities. It focuses upon the patterns of immigration into Britain and Germany as well as the differing imperial traditions, which have both left differing legacies. An equally important historical factor has been the legal position of aliens in the two states, in which, until very recently, Britain adopted a policy of jus solis, whereas Germany pursued one of jus sanguinis. The paper then examines the realities of multiculturalism in the two states. Due primarily to the historical traditions of nationality legislation, immigrants and their descendants in Britain have come to play a more important role in recent British history than their contemporaries in Germany, particularly if we examine their role in th...

Anglicising Postapartheid South Africa

Abstract: The apartheid state deliberately encouraged linguistic diversity and actively built cultural infrastructures which impeded Anglicisation With the end of apartheid has come de facto Anglicisation So although South Africa has, since 1994, had 11 official languages, in reality, English is swamping the other 10 languages Afrikaans has, in particular, come under tremendous pressure Whereas before 1994 Afrikaans was one of two official languages, and was extensively used in government, business, the media, education and as a lingua franca; since 1994, the usage and status of Afrikaans has been rapidly declining This paper will explore some of the reasons for this emergent Anglicisation of contemporary South Africa

Accounting for Context and Experience in German (L2) Language Acquisition: A Critical Review of the Research

Abstract: With its focus on simplification universals, developmental orders, teachability, and functional-grammatical bases for acquisition, the well-known research on German (L2) language acquisition has contributed much to SLA research in general. At the same time, sociolinguistic investigations focus squarely on the difficult social conditions that accompany non-native language acquisition in Germany. In keeping with emerging approaches in SLA in general, German language acquisition (GLA) research requires a more holistic focus if we hope to account for individual experience as well as universal influences on attainment. This broad survey of the research highlights several significant factors in L2 German: (1) informal contact with native speakers, offering personal, interactive practice; (2) formal instruction, representing targeted practice focused on linguistic accuracy and complexity; and (3) affective orientations, particularly identity and affiliation, as reflections of learner engagement in the process. T...

Languages and Emotions: A Crosslinguistic Perspective

Abstract: (2004). Languages and Emotions: A Crosslinguistic Perspective. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development: Vol. 25, No. 2-3, pp. 93-93.

Emotion and Language Politics: The Brazilian Case

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to make a case for the claim that exclusive focus on the rational has only helped isolate linguists and prevented them from having a say on important political issues relating to language. One important feature of the ordinary person's view of and involvement with language is that emotions play an important role in both. And it is precisely this feature that linguists, as a matter of general rule, fail to take into account when addressing issues related to practical affairs involving language. Language loyalty, bilingualism, codeswitching etc. can only be fully addressed provided we also take into account their emotional connotations. Theoretically oriented in its thrust, this paper discusses (1) how linguistics has from its inception sought to downplay or altogether ignore the importance of emotions as they figure in what is depreciatively referred to as 'folk linguistics' and (2) how, largely in consequence of that inaugural decision, the science is threatened with becomin...

The Creation and Comprehension of English Loanwords in the Japanese Media

Abstract: Nearly all Western loanwords in Japanese are first introduced to the public by a small number of individuals with most Japanese people having never heard or read the word before, and having no role to play in their borrowing. Because of this presumptuous use of foreign words by, for example, academics, government bodies, and the media, the meanings of many of the words used are little understood. In this paper, I examine how well understood the most commonly appearing loanwords are. After a literature survey, I examine corpus and frequency data based on the 2001 issues of the Mainichi newspapers. Nearly a quarter of the sampled items tested were found to be not understood by young, Japanese adults. However, it would appear that the confusion caused by the flood of Western loanwords is but a developmental condition, and as various borrowings compete for survival, they are propelling the lexical expansion of the Japanese lexicon.

Telling Tales out of School: Assessing Linguistic Competence in Minority Language Fieldwork

Abstract: This paper treats methodological issues involved in assessing linguistic competence in the field, specifically in bilingual fieldwork situations. First, the various means of assessment of linguistic competence that have been described and/or used are listed and commented on. Then the authors explain the choice of assessment methods for fieldwork in the Slovene minority region of Austria: among other fieldwork tests, self-assessments of two different kinds (more general and situation-specific selfassessments) were combined with third-party assessments of taped storytelling. The specific fieldwork methodology and assessment methods are described. The results that bear on methodology suggest that self-assessments of linguistic competence are unreliable; that fieldworkers should pay attention to the kind of linguistic competence they wish to characterise; and, when storytelling proficiency testing is used, that different types of storytelling tasks should be employed.

Writing Germany in Exile – the Bilingual Author as Cultural Mediator: Klaus Mann, Stefan Heym, Rudolf Arnheim and Hannah Arendt

Abstract: This paper examines the process of self-translation undertaken by German exile writers who translated their own works, written in English, the language of their host country, back into their mother tongue, German. It postulates that the necessary precondition for self-translation is not just bilinguality but also biculturality and that it is this bicultural status of the self-translators as cultural mediators and not their poetic licence that leads to the significant changes and restructurings that the self-translators make in their German version. The awareness of the heteroskopic nature of the translation, that is, differences in knowledge base between the readerships of the English original version and the German version with regard to the German intertext are the motivation for restructuring their original version. In this process, self-translators differ from other translators and cultural mediators only in their access to the pre-stage of composition, access to the intertext, the intention and the i...

Perceptions of Germany and the Germans in Post-war Britain

Abstract: Although Anglo-German relations since 1945 have by and large been friendly at the level of the political elite, on a wider scale British perceptions of Germany and the Germans are for the most part negative and still dominated by images of the Third Reich and the Second World War. It has even been suggested that ‘kraut-bashing’ is the only form of racism in Britain which is still considered socially acceptable. Going beyond the simplistic but commonly expressed view which dismisses these negative British perceptions of Germany as envy of Germany's post-war economic revival, this paper will argue that there is a range of other reasons which help to account for the negative perceptions British people hold of Germany and the Germans such as the legacy of the Second World War and post-war challenges to British national identity, the nature of the Holocaust and the way history and languages are taught in Britain.

The Conceptualisation of the European Union in Polish Public Discourse, 2002-2003.

Abstract: Based on recent theoretical insights into the conceptual role of metaphors, this paper investigates figurative discourse in the current conceptualisation of the European Union (EU) in Polish. The metaphorical expressions found in the data present a cline of conventionality, and many of them display processes analysed by Lakoff and Turner (1989), as the established mappings are extended, elaborated and questioned. Moreover, some mappings enjoy local intertextuality, as, once they enter the public domain, they are adopted by other participants in the discourse. Most of these recurrent metaphors seem to be directly embedded in more fundamental and embodied conceptual structures, among which PATH, UP–DOWN orientation, LINK and PART–WHOLE seem to be the most dominant. In general, it may be concluded that although many source domains allow both positive and negative interpretations of the target, there are some schemata which, once adopted, have a strong tendency to promote positive axiology. For instance, a jo...

Balkan Identity: Changing Self-images of the South Slavs

Abstract: This paper provides an analysis of texts containing the noun the Balkans and the adjective Balkan in a small corpus of approximately 80 journalistic texts from different south Slavic regions currently available online The texts were published over the last 10 years The term the Balkans and its derivations currently play a significant role in constructing both self-images and heteroimages in the south Slavic regions The aim of the analysis is to ask whether there are differences in attitudes towards a ‘Balkan identity’ among the south Slavs and to highlight the cultural and historical background of the images of the Balkans

Metaphor practices in the German Wende discourse

Abstract: This paper introduces a method for computer-based analyses of metaphor in discourse, combining quantitative and qualitative elements. This method is illustrated with data from research on German newspaper discourse concerning the ongoing system transformations of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Methodological aspects of the research procedure are discussed and it is argued that quantitative elements can enhance comparability in cross-cultural and cross-lingual research. Some basic findings of the research are presented. The peculiarities of the German Wende discourse – especially the salience of a passive perspective on the ongoing political and social changes – are outlined.

The Otherness of Eastern Europe

Abstract: This paper analyses an extensive corpus of texts from the German media and existing studies of German perspectives on Poland, Russia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia in order to demonstrate that there are two idealised culture cognitive models (ICCMs) that function as overarching categories for Europe: the ICCM west (the members of the European Union (EU) until 2004) and the ICCM east (the central and east European countries) as opposing constructions. These ICCMs are seen as hyperonymic categories to the construction of frames on a lower level. Frames are multielement cognitive models through which a society or nation views and structures its image of itself and that of other societies, countries or nations. The function of the frame is to present a simplified, often manipulative schema of a complex social, political and cultural reality. Frames are structures that include a variety of linguistic devices: metaphors that conceptualise, and nouns, verbs and adjectives that describe and evaluate. This paper...

Intercultural Identities in W.G. Sebald's The Emigrants and Norbert Gstrein's Die englischen Jahre

Abstract: This paper analyses W.G. Sebald's The Emigrants and Norbert Gstrein's Die englischen Jahre from the perspective of intercultural identity. In Sebald's work, intercultural identity emerges as a political crisis that leads to a series of devastating personal crises: Sebald's protagonists’ inability to fully abandon early ethnic and national identifications results in life-long melancholy whose issue can only be death. For Gstrein, the problem of intercultural identity is one of ethnic impersonation. Gstrein explores performative notions of identity, but is alert to the ethical dubiousness and, indeed, potentially regressive aspect of performance, in contradistinction to some contemporary theorists who see the performative approach to identity as emancipatory. In conclusion, the role of the narrator in the texts is examined. Both narrators thematise the question of empathy, from both an ethical and an epistemological point of view. Although they come to different conclusions about the value of empathic ident...