Journal

Volume 19, Issue 1 (March 31, 2018)

3 articles

• Meaning in Discourse; A Relevance - Theoretical Approach to EkeGusii Polysemes.
  by Opande Nilson Isaac
  J. CS. 2018, 19(1), 1-34;
  Abstract This study is motivated by assertions made by Bréal (1924 [1897]) claimingthat deciphering of polysemes at a synchronic level should not posit a problembecause meanings of such polysemes are mainly determined by the context ofthe discourse: It is the context that eliminates ambiguity and foregrounds... [Read more].
  Abstract This study is motivated by assertions made by Bréal (1924 [1897]) claimingthat deciphering of polysemes at a synchronic level should not posit a problembecause meanings of such polysemes are mainly determined by the context ofthe discourse: It is the context that eliminates ambiguity and foregrounds themeaning of a particular polyseme. The study is based on the tenets ofrelevance theory, particularly the cognitive and communicative principles,(Sperber and Wilson, 1986/1995; and Carston, 2002) to render a pragmaticaccount of EkeGusii polysemes. It strives to investigate how polysemoussenses of EkeGusii lexical items are established and meaning deciphered.This study deduces that the meaning of a polysemous word is inferredpragmatically as a result of the addressee endeavouring to deduce what aspeaker intends by the particular lexical concepts they encode; hence it isa communicative phenomenon that is highly dependent on the addressee’sability to employ pragmatic inference. [Collapse]
• Conceptual Wandering and Novelty Seeking: Creative Metaphor Production in an L1 and L2
  by Brian J. Birdsell
  J. CS. 2018, 19(1), 35-67;
  Abstract This study examined one dimension of metaphoric competence, specificallycreative metaphor production, and analyzed this ability in both a firstand second language. Viewing metaphoric competence as a multifacetedconstruct that lies on a continuum from the highly conventional to the highlycreative is ... [Read more].
  Abstract This study examined one dimension of metaphoric competence, specificallycreative metaphor production, and analyzed this ability in both a firstand second language. Viewing metaphoric competence as a multifacetedconstruct that lies on a continuum from the highly conventional to the highlycreative is widely recognized in the field of cognitive linguistics (see Goatly,2011; Littlemore, 2010). However, there is scarce research that analyzescreative metaphor production in individuals using multiple languages.Creative metaphors, as opposed to conventional ones that rely extensively onlexical retrieval, require the speaker to combine concepts in unfamiliar andnovel ways. That is to say, it relies on constructing and exploring conceptualcombinations that allow new properties to emerge and this reflects on a smallscale the creative process (Finke, Ward, & Smith, 1992; Miall, 1987). Thisarticle reports on an exploratory study that aimed to measure participants’creative metaphoric competence in both Japanese (L1) and English (L2). Theresults suggest that this ability is an individual difference that underlies one’soverall linguistic competency for it surfaced in both languages and acrossmultiple creative metaphor production tasks. I argue that this ability involvesboth conceptual wandering, which involves conceptual deviance or thestraying from usual or accepted standard associations, and novelty seeking,which involves a motivational desire to seek out the unique and unfamiliar. [Collapse]
• Asymmetric Cross-language Activation of Translations in Korean-English Bilinguals
  by Ji Hyon Kim, Jin Ah Kim, Jin Myung Lee, Jae Hee Yang
  J. CS. 2018, 19(1), 69-98;
  Abstract This study tested the predictions of the Revised Hierarchical Model (RHM) and the Bilingual Interactive Activation Plus (BIA+) model through a translation recognition task in which low-intermediate Korean-English bilinguals decided whether the second word of a two-word sequence was the correct trans... [Read more].
  Abstract This study tested the predictions of the Revised Hierarchical Model (RHM) and the Bilingual Interactive Activation Plus (BIA+) model through a translation recognition task in which low-intermediate Korean-English bilinguals decided whether the second word of a two-word sequence was the correct translation of the first. In the critical distractor conditions, the second word was not a correct translation of the first, but phonologically related to the first word (i.e., phonological neighbors), or phonologically related to the correct translation (i.e., translation neighbors). Results showed that the participants experienced interference for related distractors in both L2-L1 and L1-L2 translation directions. However, an interaction with distractor type was only found in the forward (L1 to L2) translation direction, with a larger interference effect for the translation neighbors. The results of the present study support and extend the predictions of the BIA+ model by showing nonselective phonological activation for different-script bilinguals, while also supporting the predictions of the RHM regarding translation asymmetry. We suggest previous assumptions regarding the mechanisms of the translation recognition task and interpretation of its data may be flawed, and propose a fundamental rethinking of these issues. [Collapse]