Bilinguals have the unique ability to translate words between their languages. Although translation is a seemingly deliberate and conscious process, recent research has shown that first language (L1) translation equivalents can be automatically and quickly activated during second language (L2) word reading. Automatic translation activation strongly supports the idea of non-selective lexical access. This thesis investigates L1 (Chinese) translation activation during L2 (English) word reading in Chinese-English bilinguals, mainly through using the hidden translation repetition paradigm. In a series of behavioural and electrophysiological experiments using carefully selected stimuli, English words were subliminally or visibly presented to Chinese-English bilinguals in an attempt to seek the source of automatic translation activation (phonology: segment and/or tone, and/or orthography) and to explore to what extent translation activation is automatic. In contrast to previous studies, the behavioural investigations revealed that automatic translation only occurs for target words, which were visible to bilinguals, but not for the invisible masked primes. In addition, in the electrophysiological study, the event-related brain potentials and event-related brain oscillations provided evidence for the dominant role of Chinese segmental (consonants and vowels) activation during English word reading. Possible interpretations for these new findings are provided. Theoretical and methodological implications of the present thesis are also discussed.

This is a study of settlement and society in the parish of Torosay on the Inner Hebridean island of Mull, through the earliest known settlement-names of two of its medieval districts: Forsa and Moloros. The earliest settlement-names, 35 in total, were coined in two languages: Gaelic and Old Norse (hereafter abbreviated to ON) (see Abbreviations, below). The settlement-toponymy provides irrefutable evidence that ON-speakers settled locally and named their settlements in ON. In subsequent centuries, long after ON ceased to be spoken locally, these ON settlement-names were perpetuated by local Gaelic-speakers. Many of these ON settlement-names are still used locally and are recorded on modern maps; others have fallen out of use. The same can be said of the earliest settlement-names of Gaelic origin. New etymological analysis of the earliest known forms of these settlement-names, considered alongside local pronunciation where available, forms the basis of this thesis. Much of this analysis challenges previous research. A number of the settlement-names have not hitherto been located or been subject to etymological analysis, no previous study having comprehensively engaged with their earliest forms. The earliest known forms are recorded in fiscal evaluation dating to the final decade of the 15th century and, as such, the settlement-names provide a window on the Late Medieval period. The settlement-names also provide an invaluable insight into settlement and society in the Norse period; i.e. the period in which ON was spoken locally. Norse is employed here as both an adjective, as in the Norse period, and a noun, in reference to speakers of ON. Thus, application is broadly to what is now Scandinavia and contemporary inhabitants thereof, as opposed to the more typical modern application of Norse to Norway and its inhabitants (see OED s.v. Norse). Individual place-name elements employed in ON settlement-names provide an insight into how the local landscape was perceived and utilised agriculturally by these immigrant ON-speakers. In some cases, proposed personal names identify individuals associated with specific settlements. At least one ON settlement-name is likely to provide evidence of the religion of those who coined the name. Syntactic analysis of the Gaelic settlement-names highlights the possibility that some were coined in the Early Medieval period. It also identifies names which are perhaps unlikely to have been coined before the early 10th century. Loan-words borrowed in both directions, i.e. from Gaelic to ON and from ON to Gaelic, are identified and these reveal something of the chronology of individual settlement-names, in addition to providing evidence for language contact. The distribution of ON settlement-names and the fiscal status of settlements bearing ON names can also reveal something of the status of immigrant ON-speakers and the status of local Gaelic-speaking communities. The date of the earliest known forms probably post-dates the period in which these ON names were coined by around six centuries and this clearly allows for significant displacement of settlement-toponymy. However, settlement-names of ON origin apply to both settlements of principal and of relatively low fiscal status and the implication is that there was a significant amount of continuity in settlement-toponymy up to the date of the earliest known fiscal sources. The dearth of contemporary textual sources for the Early Medieval and Norse periods and of local archaeology relating to these periods identifies these settlement-names as invaluable sources of information for contemporary settlement, society and language in the districts of Forsa and Moloros. Part One Chapter 1 sets the research in context in providing geographical, geological, topographical, tenurial, ecclesiastical and fiscal information for the two districts. Chapter 2 comprises a review of previous studies on local settlement-toponymy. Chapter 3 identifies the sources which provide the earliest known forms and outlines the employed methodology. Chapter 4 provides an historical framework and engages with Norse toponymy furth of Mull across Britain and Ireland. Chapter 5 presents discursive analysis addressing the predominant research questions. Chapter 6 presents conclusions. Part Two The place-name survey presents raw spatial data and etymological analysis, where not included in chapter 5, for each of the 35 settlement-names.

Many studies have investigated third language acquisition (L3A) as an independent area of research. The core common interest of these studies has been to search for the source of cross-linguistic influence (CLI) among the previously acquired languages (i.e. L1 and L2) in the learning of an L3. In the domain of morpho-syntax, three competing hypotheses have emerged: one attributes a primary role to the L1 as the source of CLI (Jin, 2009; Hermas, 2014); a second proposes the L2 as the main source of transfer (Bardel and Falk, 2007; Falk and Bardel, 2011); while a third considers that the order of acquisition per se is not the significant factor triggering CLI in L3A, but rather the degree of typological proximity between the L1/L2 and the L3 (Rothman, 2011, 2013, 2015). This study set out to test these hypotheses in the learning of L3 French by two groups: L1 speakers of Spanish and L1 speakers of Turkish, both of whom had learned English as an L2. Each group was further sub-divided by their L2 proficiency into lower intermediates (LIs) and advanced (Adv). Using a ‘mixed methods approach’ consisting of quantitative and qualitative instruments, the acquisition of four morpho-syntactic properties was investigated: (i) Gender, (ii) Number Concord, (iii) Definiteness/Specificity and (iv) Verb Raising. Results were consistent with the proposal of Rothman (2011, 2013, 2015); (psycho)typological proximity seems indeed to be a determining factor triggering CLI in L3A. However, unlike Rothman, who always advocates holistic typological proximity, this study found evidence for CLI based on property-by-property structural similarity. In particular, it is argued that in the absence of clear holistic typological similarity, structural similarity on a property-by-property basis (actual and perceived) is the driving variable for CLI at the initial state of L3A. These findings led to the proposal of a new model entitled the property-based structural proximity (PSP) hypothesis.

This study is based on a corpus of the Charles Dickens Complete Works (the DCC), which was constructed to fulfil the aims of this research. The DCC was compiled to represent The Works of Charles Dickens in the National Edition (a set of 40 volumes, including the life of Dickens in the last two volumes, which consists of 6,202,886 tokens in total). This compilation, as the DCC, represents the first complete corpus of Dickens’s works. Employing the corpus stylistic approach was as an underpinning concept, and formed the methodology that has guided the research. The lens of focus is placed on Dickens’s lexicon, in respect to both the lexemes and their relative frequency, alongside the choices of lexis to be found in the context. The rationale for this thesis and value of its aims is primarily the facilitation of non-native English learners’ access to these works, through provision of an enhanced aesthetic appreciation of Dickens’s style with regards to his semantics and lexical choice. Additionally, the methodology aims to enable the acquisition of vocabulary, while providing learners with training in the reading of complex texts. The software tools used in the analysis are the WordSmith Tools 6.0 suite, AntConc 3.4.4w, AntWordProfiler 1.4.0w and the Range programme. The investigation of the DCC was conducted to facilitate Dickens’s works to non-native readers by focusing on the lexicon of his works. The analysis reports, amongst others, the DCC keyword list; the DCC Headword List (with 27,296 headwords); and the DCC Word Family List (approximately 102,753), which contains the family members of each headword in the DCC. These lists represent a valuable resource that can serve to facilitate the teaching of Dickens objectively, and through an evidence-based approach. In essence, the lexical knowledge gained from the DCC is intended to advance the reading and comprehension of Dickens’s works by non-native readers, and then to contribute towards the development of such learners' level of English language proficiency. Therefore, this study builds bridges between corpus stylistics and second language pedagogy. In the analysis of Dickens’s lexical selection, I demonstrate how learners can be assisted to reach the appreciation of Dickens’s style in terms of his lexicon and the semantic level of his works.

The overall aim of this investigation is to identify the strategies adopted for the implementation of gender-based linguistic reform in four European countries (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom). In addressing this aim, firstly the study explores the recommendations to eliminate discrimination of women and men from language at supranational level in order to determine whether international recommendations have influenced legislation in the four countries. Secondly, the recommendations on non-sexist language in each national context have been reviewed taking into account the structural features of each language. The study shows the diverse linguistic resources that each of the four language systems has in order to achieve non-discriminatory language and identifies the key recommendations as well as the main promoters of gender-based linguistic reform in each country. The study has found that in all four countries a significant number of measures designed to combat linguistic sexism have been introduced. The investigation also' aims at providing evidence of the adoption of guidelines for the avoidance of sexist language as well as the stages of implementation in each country. To this end, a linguistic analysis of job offers in the four languages has been carried out. This longitudinal study has helped to identify patterns of language usage across the four socia-linguistic settings as well as the preferred strategy in each language. The main finding is that, although there is no consistent strategy regarding the feminisation of occupational nomenclature in the four languages, the common intention has been to make the language of communication gender-inclusive. The study offers a contribution to the existing work in the area of cross-cultural research. Furthermore, the review of similarities and differences between the recommendations for non-sexist language and their implementation in four linguistic settings aims to provide a framework for further research and practical application which can be drawn from the linguistic analysis of naturally occurring data.

Colour words abound with figurative meanings, expressing much more than visual signals. Some of these figurative properties are well known; in English, for example, black is associated with EVIL and blue with DEPRESSION. Colours themselves are also described in metaphorical terms using lexis from other domains of experience, such as when we talk of deep blue, drawing on the domain of spatial position. Both metaphor and colour are of central concern to semantic theory; moreover, colour is recognised as a highly productive metaphoric field. Despite this, comparatively few works have dealt with these topics in unison, and even those few have tended to focus on Basic Colour Terms (BCTs) rather than including non-BCTs. This thesis addresses the need for an integrated study of both BCTs and non-BCTs, and provides an overview of metaphor and metonymy within the semantic area of colour. Conducted as part of the Mapping Metaphor project, this research uses the unique data source of the Historical Thesaurus of English (HT) to identify areas of meaning that share vocabulary with colour and thus point to figurative uses. The lexicographic evidence is then compared to current language use, found in the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Corpus of Contemporary American (COCA), to test for currency and further developments or changes in meaning. First, terms for saturation, tone and brightness are discussed. This lexis often functions as hue modifiers and is found to transfer into COLOUR from areas such as LIFE, EMOTION, TRUTH and MORALITY. The evidence for cross-modal links between COLOUR with SOUND, TOUCH and DIMENSION is then presented. Each BCT is discussed in turn, along with a selection of non-BCTs, where it is revealed how frequently hue terms engage in figurative meanings. This includes the secondary BCTs, with the only exception being orange, and a number of non-BCTs. All of the evidence discussed confirms that figurative uses of colour originate through a process of metonymy, although these are often extended into metaphor.

This study investigated Taiwanese university students’ and teachers’ perceptions of foreign language anxiety in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. The main aims were: (a) to identify the situations, sources, effects of, and coping tactics for the anxiety of Taiwanese tertiary students and (b) to examine tertiary English teachers’ perceptions of their students’ anxiety and how they deal with it. An anxiety scale, the ELCAS, was first administered to English major and non-English major students to identify the ten most anxious students in each group for individual semi-structured interviews. English majors’ teachers and those of non-English majors also had semi-structured interviews. The students’ degree of anxiety was statistically analyzed and revealed by IBM SPSS 20. The interview data from students and teachers were transcribed verbatim, coded, categorized, and then thematized in order to obtain the patterns of their perceptions on the issues. The summarized findings are:  The English major and non-major students were similar to each other in the situations, effects of, and coping strategies for anxiety, except for the sources of their anxiety.  The students reported a number of strategies, but most of these only helped them cope with individual anxious situations, not the root causes of their anxiety.  The English majors and their teachers had similar perceptions of anxiety in class although the latter revealed less specific situations than the former.  The similarity was also quite high between the non-majors’ and their teachers’ perceptions of their anxiety. These teachers also reported relatively broader contexts than their students.  Both groups of teachers employed quite diverse strategies for reducing students’ anxiety. Their tactics demonstrated their attempts to address problems at their sources.

This work attempts to bring together the descriptive concerns of translation studies with the awareness of the multisemiotic nature of the dramatic text. The question of the relationship between written text and performance, which is central to theatre semiotics and to the most recent debates on drama and theatre translation, complements the descriptive approach to the analysis of translated texts. By bringing in the dimension of performance as part of the source material that is carried over in the exchange of dramatic texts across cultures, this work attempts to provide a model for the analysis of dramatic texts which are very reliant on performance practices. The study thus takes the form of a historical investigation of the translation and reception of a semiotically highly complex text: Goldoni's Servitore di due padroni. The case studies of four successive translations of II servitore in Britain explore the changing theatrical and literary norms to which translators through the ages have been bound by the expectations both of their audiences and the literary/theatrical establishment. Each chapter is based on the use of archival material and introduces a different type of translation: covert translation (Chapter Four), philological translation aimed at the acceptance of the text within the literary canon (Chapter Five), translation into dialect as a way of reclaiming national identity (Chapter Six), and collaborative translation where translator, adaptor, director and actor are seen to be contributing to the rewriting of the text in translation (Chapter Seven). Looking at translation from the perspective of the relationship between text and performance makes the study of the translation of drama very relevant to current debates in translation studies as a whole. By questioning the completeness and authority of the source text and showing how performance traditions, acting styles as well as travelling productions affect the translation and reception of dramatic texts, the exploration of II servitore in translation challenges any unproblematic notions of source text from which to begin the process of translation and offers a model for the study of translated drama that allows for the fluidity of the correlation ofperformance and textuality.

No description available.

Poetry translation evaluation from ancient Chinese to English has been subjective in China. This is caused by the indefinable and intangible notion of ‘poetic spirit’, which is often used in influential translators’ criteria, and by the lack of a systematic investigation of translation evaluation. The problem of subjective criteria has remained unresolved for nearly a century. In order to improve the subjective criteria of poetry translation evaluation, this thesis is an attempt to make objective evaluations of the English translations of an ancient Chinese poem using stylistic theories. To make an objective criticism, it is necessary to offer evidence which is based on systematic and reliable criteria and replicable evaluation procedures. By applying stylistic theories to both the source text and the target texts, it is possible to make a judgement based on the stylistic features found in the texts themselves. Thus, objective evaluation of poetry translation from ancient Chinese to English can be made. This research is qualitative with the data consisting of one ancient Chinese poem as the source text and six English translations as the target texts. It carries out stylistic analyses on the data with two approaches based on the cognitive stylistic concept of figure and ground and the linguistic stylistic theory of foregrounding. The target texts are judged by the evidence of locative relations and foregrounding features. This research also explores and proposes a practical framework for poetry translation. The research findings suggest how to make objective poetry translation evaluations and improve translation techniques. They also point out the need to integrate stylistics with translation evaluation to make improvements in the field.