<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

The article offers procedures for the linguistic and cognitive modelling of diachronic plurality in the translation of Shakespeare’s plays. Cognitive-discursive analysis is provided to reveal different interpretations of Shakespeare’s ideas embodied in chronologically distant retranslations produced by Ukrainian translators in different historical periods, namely, by Panteleimon Kulish at the end of the 19th century, Leonid Hrebinka in the 1930s, and Yurii Andrukhovych at the beginning of the 21st century. The research proposes the interpretation module as a component part of the cognitive-discursive model of diachronic plurality in translation, presented as a two-component structure consisting of invariant components such as genre, characters and plot, and variant components including historically different social and cultural contexts of Ukrainian retranslations, different literary styles of the corresponding epochs, and translators’ creative personalities. The research postulates the idea that the linguistic and cognitive modelling procedure of the interpretation module is an effective tool in reconstructing the conceptual content of Shakespeare’s plays in chronologically distant Ukrainian retranslations.
</abstract>

The interpretation module in the framework of the cognitive-discursive model of diachronic plurality in the translation of Shakespeare’s plays

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The present study aims to determine the overall language choices that shape emotion-related language preference among bilingual communities. The author also seeks to answer the question of whether those choices are affected by norms or emotional spontaneity. Since the study yields only a slight preference for the second language, it may not necessarily lead to concluding any linguistic system to be more dominant than the other. Yet, the research proves not only that greater emotional weight of the situation results in a greater impact on the emotion-related language choice, but it also suggests that the main determiner of the language choice within bilinguals is not necessarily the different emotive power of both linguistic systems, but sociocultural norms.
</abstract>

Emotion-Related Language Choice theory in the cross-fire: Evidence from Mexican-American bilinguals

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Thanks largely to the affordances of social media, the Covid-19 pandemic has provoked a glut of neologisms, loan-words, abbreviations, calques and other linguistic variants. The crisis was accompanied in most nations by social measures curtailing what have long been seen as fundamental liberties; hence, it has foregrounded the re-emergence of old controversies about individualism vs collectivism, the nature of personal freedom, the role of the state, the right to healthcare, the distribution of wealth, and so on. On the UK side, our study explores some emergent neologisms in English and Russian, especially implicit meaning in terms like “social distancing” and “lockdown”. We consider cross-cultural implications that relate to the way each national group conceptualized, and lived through, the experiences of lockdown. Linguistic practices may reflect deep-seated habits of being that characterize different countries, and thus our research may shed light on long-standing questions of national stereotypes. We look at some of the Covid-19 neologisms produced and/or used in British and Russian contexts, on the assumption that, by comparing these micro-linguistic practices, it is possible to learn something concerning the cultural realities of the countries in question, along the lines proposed in the works of Hofstede (2001) and Wierzbicka (2003).
</abstract>

Poems in lockdown: Cultural aspects of English and Russian “coroneologisms”

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This study examines the linguistic landscape of the two major malls in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, through social distancing posters and signs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study draws on the conceptual framework of linguistic landscape theory, speech acts and semiotics to unveil language dominance, linguistic messages, image-text relations and poster elements that enforce social distancing. A survey questionnaire, primarily aimed at expats, was also administered to find out how they view and interpret the use of bilingual modes in disseminating the social distancing measures. The semiotic analysis reveals that Arabic and English are used in most of the posters, but Arabic remains the dominant language and the preferred medium of information dissemination. Speech acts analysis shows that representatives and directives facilitate implementation of social distancing. The findings also suggest that semiotic modes and signifiers (inscription and materiality) reinforce the effectiveness of the posters. Overall, the use of Arabic and English reflects the country’s stance on language policy and economic vision for Jeddah to be a truly global city amid the pandemic.
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Keep social distance: The linguistic landscape of the major malls in Jeddah amid the COVID-19 pandemic

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This paper aims at dissecting the foremost innovative linguistic features that characterize the hybrid text-based online social network communication of some Algerian Facebook users. It also seeks to emphasize the role of computer-mediated communication, mainly social networking sites (SNSs), in the modernization of stigmatized informal language varieties as in the case of Algerian Dialectal Arabic (ADA). To achieve this, a qualitative research approach, in which both the researcher’s long-term participant observation and a descriptive content analysis of a corpus of 30 hybrid text-based Facebook posts, is adopted for investigation. Moreover, the relevant data was collected from a virtual Facebook group community that was chiefly created by some younger Algerian EFL students at Ibn Khaldoun University of Tiaret in Algeria in order to share information related to their studies. Interestingly, the findings of our case study revealed that the ADA is linguistically accommodated to some nonstandard and unconventional spellings of hybrid informal writing such as transliteration in its two forms, the use of distinctive signs such as numbers for some letters, the partial and/or full removal of vowel sounds for shortenings, the occurrence of written code switching/mixing and loanwords, and deficiency in using punctuation marks. Ultimately, the research ends with some recommendations for future research in the domain of text-based online communication with reference to the sociolinguistic situation in Algeria.
</abstract>

Deconstructing the linguistic features of hybrid text-based online social network communication among Algerian Facebook users: A case study

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This study identifies, analyses and describes the devices and functions of focus in information structuring in Hadiyya, a Highland East Cushitic language. Data, which were collected from native speakers, were dealt with based on the theory of Functional Grammar (Dik 1997). For focalization, the language uses morphological, lexical and syntactic means. The latter involves word-order change and cleft construction (including pseudo-cleft). Comparatively, the morphological mechanism is the most dynamic and frequent in use while the lexical means is limited both in the number of items employed and in frequency of occurrence.
</abstract>

The focus system in Hadiyya

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Self-repetitions as a compensation strategy potentially have a powerful influence on maintaining communication in L1 and L2 contexts. By subjecting two comparable corpora to contrastive interlanguage analysis, in the present study we explored the use of self-repetitions by L1 speakers of English and Turkish speakers of English and their structural and functional distributions. The results indicated that while L1 English speakers tended to utilize repetitions as fillers, L2 English speakers employed considerably more repetitions as self-initiated self-repairs. The results of the study suggest that, despite being used for different purposes, self-repetition occurs in L1 and L2 English speech indicating that self-repetitions cannot be associated with disfluency as long as they do not hinder the flow of speech. For this reason, raising L2 learners’ awareness might help them prevent breakdowns in L2 communication.
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Forms and functions of self-repetitions in spoken discourse: A corpus linguistics analysis of L1 and L2 English

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 24 (2023): Issue 2 (December 2023)

Volume 24 (2023): Issue 1 (June 2023)

Volume 23 (2022): Issue 2 (December 2022)

Volume 23 (2022): Issue 1 (June 2022)

Volume 22 (2021): Issue 2 (December 2021)

Volume 22 (2021): Issue 1 (June 2021)

Volume 21 (2020): Issue 2 (December 2020)

Volume 21 (2020): Issue 1 (June 2020)

Volume 20 (2019): Issue 2 (December 2019)

Volume 20 (2019): Issue 1 (June 2019)

Volume 19 (2018): Issue 2 (December 2018)

Volume 19 (2018): Issue 1 (June 2018)

Volume 18 (2017): Issue 2 (December 2017)

Volume 18 (2017): Issue 1 (June 2017)

Volume 17 (2016): Issue 2 (December 2016)

Volume 17 (2016): Issue 1 (June 2016)

Volume 16 (2015): Issue 1 (December 2015)

Volume 15 (2015): Issue 1 (June 2015)

Volume 14 (2014): Issue 1 (December 2014)

Volume 13 (2014): Issue 1 (June 2014)

Topics in Linguistics

 Topics in Linguistics is a double-blind, peer-reviewed international scientific journal issued twice a year by the Department of English and American Studies, the Faculty of Arts, at the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra.  The journal aims to foster interdisciplinary, cross-linguistic and cross-cultural approaches to language research. Topics in Linguistics seeks to publish high-quality, original papers which adopt diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives in exploring a wide range of current issues in linguistic studies. Although papers on world languages are considered, we especially encourage submissions dealing with the majority and minority languages spoken in Europe.  Subject areas of study include, but are not limited to:   general linguistics (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics)  interfaces with general linguistics (neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, computational linguistics)  cognitive linguistics  comparative linguistics  corpus linguistics  applied linguistics  stylistics  (critical) discourse analysis  intercultural communication   Topics in Linguistics is published in English. Authors are requested to submit their papers (doc. format) anonymously. The authors will receive an automatic confirmation email and are notified within one month of submission of the results of the initial screening of their manuscript.From Volume 13, 2014 onwards, Topics in Linguistics has been published by De Gruyter Open (now Sciendo). Since 2016 Topics in Linguistics has been an electronic-only journal.  Acceptance Rate (2020-2021)   11.85%   Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 