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A Review of Semantic Studies on the English and Chinese Progressive Operators
Issue:
Volume 11, Issue 5, September 2023
Pages:
148-155
Received:
18 August 2023
Accepted:
28 August 2023
Published:
6 September 2023
Abstract: Recent years have seen a change in formal semantic studies of the English progressive operator from centering on deriving its truth from its non-progressive counterpart to a weaker assumption that the truth of the English progressive operator depends on the conditions available to make it true. It is found that Varasdi (2014), utilizing conditions, not only avoids yielding the truth of invalid propositions and the falsity of valid propositions, but also explains away the “imperfective paradox” and the indeterminacy of the English progressive operator, which makes it a desirable proposal to explain the semantics of the English progressive operator. In contrast, studies on the Chinese progressive operator mainly concentrate on its temporal meaning and have not considered its modal meaning, resulting in the lack of investigations of whether the Chinese progressive operator shows the “imperfective paradox” as well. Therefore, this paper focuses on reviewing previous studies on the semantics of the English and Chinese progressive operators in the field of formal semantics, based on which reflections on the problems of semantic analyses on the Chinese progressive operator are made and insights for future semantic studies on the Chinese progressive operator are pointed out. The suggestion is that future studies on the Chinese progressive operator are expected to check whether Varasdi’s (2014) proposal is applicable to elaborate the semantics of the Chinese progressive operator to solve the problems of explaining the imperfective paradox and indeterminacy manifested in the Chinese progressive operator, on the on hand, and accommodating the semantic and distributional idiosyncrasies of the Chinese progressive operator, on the other.
Abstract: Recent years have seen a change in formal semantic studies of the English progressive operator from centering on deriving its truth from its non-progressive counterpart to a weaker assumption that the truth of the English progressive operator depends on the conditions available to make it true. It is found that Varasdi (2014), utilizing conditions,...
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Culture-Bound Differences in Text Interpretation of K. Ishiguro’s ‘Family Supper’ – A Comparative Cross-Cultural Survey Research
Issue:
Volume 11, Issue 5, September 2023
Pages:
156-164
Received:
14 August 2023
Accepted:
12 September 2023
Published:
8 October 2023
Abstract: In an increasingly globalized world, literature serves as a powerful medium for cultural exploration and understanding. The works of renowned authors often transcend geographical boundaries, yet the interpretations of their narratives can vary significantly across different cultures. The main objective of the article is to explore the impact of cultural background on literary text interpretation, taking a post-structuralist approach to sense-making practices in different cultures. The text chosen for interpretation was Kazuo Ishiguro’s “A Family Supper,” – a short story which exposes broken, strained relationships between adult children and parents. Though tension dominates the communication between the father and the son throughout the whole story, the reasons for it are not completely unequivocal to the reader. The study investigates how multiple interpretations of their communication in specific excerpts from the story can be determined by cultural differences in values, traditions, and judgments. The research employs a qualitative approach for data analysis, involving questionnaires with three sets of questions. The first set included demographic questions, while the second one aimed to reveal the cultural traditions and values of the respondents. The third set consisted of open-ended items, with respondents asked to interpret specific parts of the texts. The researcher’s task was to identify correlating patterns between the text interpretation and respondents' cultural backgrounds, including their absence. The study unravels systematic differences in how readers from diverse cultural backgrounds engage with and understand the same text. These differences manifest in two major patterns, corresponding to two geographical regions of respondents' origin: the first pattern encompasses Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine, while the second one pertains to Middle Asian countries. Differences within the in-group and similarities across the out-group were also identified. However, their frequency was too low to assert any specific regularity.
Abstract: In an increasingly globalized world, literature serves as a powerful medium for cultural exploration and understanding. The works of renowned authors often transcend geographical boundaries, yet the interpretations of their narratives can vary significantly across different cultures. The main objective of the article is to explore the impact of cul...
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Politeness Exchange Through Modality Uses in Vietnamese Doctor Talk
Issue:
Volume 11, Issue 5, September 2023
Pages:
165-178
Received:
9 September 2023
Accepted:
27 September 2023
Published:
14 October 2023
Abstract: This paper bases on lexico-grammar resources of modality in Vietnamese doctor’s talk to evaluate polite practices in doctor-patient consultations. Particularly, the purpose of this study is to investigate proportions and realisations of modality patterns in Vietnamese doctor talks and to discuss the meaning of politeness hidden in the language doctor use at the time of consultation. The study not only shows how Vietnamese doctors conduct their own ways to reinforce the new concept of medical consultation – patient-centeredness but also provides explanations of the limitations toward intimacy in consultation practice although a number of slogans such as the necessity of change in medical discourse, the movement in doctor talk are widely applauded in most of the healthcare environment. The data were taken from natural consultations in four general hospitals in Vietnam, which were later categorized into six selected groups of diseases (Cardiology, Endocrinology, Neurology, Gastroenterology, Oncology, and Otorhinolaryngology) for the aim of data analyses. The scope of data analysis is mainly on modality forms and the discussion of polite patterns in doctor talks within these diversified contexts of doctor-patient interaction. The theoretical framework used to analyze the discourse of doctor talks in this current study is modality components in the structure of Mood in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). This paper concludes that as the Vietnamese language is always changing, it entails the movement of the language Vietnamese doctors use to communicate with patients at consultations. However, to some extent, the Vietnamese doctor’s language in the current study has expressed its limitation of moving towards informality and politeness practices during consultation.
Abstract: This paper bases on lexico-grammar resources of modality in Vietnamese doctor’s talk to evaluate polite practices in doctor-patient consultations. Particularly, the purpose of this study is to investigate proportions and realisations of modality patterns in Vietnamese doctor talks and to discuss the meaning of politeness hidden in the language doct...
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