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School Names in Selected Districts in Southern Province of Zambia: A Critical Toponymies Perspective
Khama Hang’ombe,
Emmanuel Chabata,
Zvinashe Mamvura
Issue:
Volume 8, Issue 3, May 2020
Pages:
88-99
Received:
8 March 2020
Accepted:
13 April 2020
Published:
12 May 2020
Abstract: Studies have exposed place names as embodiments of the history, identity, culture, and language of their bestowers. Whilst this is true, some place naming practices reflect hegemonic tendencies that have not received adequate scholarly attention, especially in Zambia. This study examines school names in four districts in the Southern Province of Zambia and exposes the hegemonic slant inherent in place naming. The names examined in this study were collected from the Provincial Educational Offices. The names fall into two categories; government and private school names. These names were couched on Critical Toponymies Theory, a theory which politicises place naming and place names. The study found out that there is a toponymic hegemony in both categories of school names. The study argues that toponymic hegemony, as is shown in the study sample, is a manifestation of the dominance of the history, culture, world view, and identity or at least of the interests of the people who named the schools. It is concluded that place names, mundane as they may appear, are embroiled in the (re)production of unequal social power balance.
Abstract: Studies have exposed place names as embodiments of the history, identity, culture, and language of their bestowers. Whilst this is true, some place naming practices reflect hegemonic tendencies that have not received adequate scholarly attention, especially in Zambia. This study examines school names in four districts in the Southern Province of Za...
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Research Hotspots and Frontiers of Language Studies in China in the Context of the Belt and Road Initiative —— Bibliometrics Analysis Based on CiteSpace
Issue:
Volume 8, Issue 3, May 2020
Pages:
100-107
Received:
2 April 2020
Accepted:
20 April 2020
Published:
12 May 2020
Abstract: The Belt and Road Initiative was proposed in 2013, which develops economic partnerships with countries along the route actively, and builds a community of shared future, interests and responsibility, borrowing the historical symbol of the ancient Silk Road. Language plays an important role in serving the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative. Therefore, by means of bibliometrics analysis, the research tool, CiteSpace, was used to analyze the annual output, authors, keywords, institutes, and hotspots of 1430 papers related to the field of language studies in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative by CNKI database from 2014 to 2018. This paper adopts research methods of co-word analysis and co-word cluster analysis, and more specially, uses research yield analysis, cooperation diagrams analysis and strategic diagram analysis methods. The aim of this research is to sort out the relevant research comprehensively and systematically, outline the overall situation and development trend of these researches, summarize and analyze the hotspots and frontiers. The research shows that the overall trend of language studies in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative has rapid and linear growth. In recent years, the focus of research has been on personnel training, translation strategy, education reform, foreign language talents and so on.
Abstract: The Belt and Road Initiative was proposed in 2013, which develops economic partnerships with countries along the route actively, and builds a community of shared future, interests and responsibility, borrowing the historical symbol of the ancient Silk Road. Language plays an important role in serving the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative...
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Language Policies Under Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di Regimes: A Comparative Perspective
Issue:
Volume 8, Issue 3, May 2020
Pages:
108-114
Received:
5 June 2019
Accepted:
9 August 2019
Published:
15 June 2020
Abstract: This study attempts to examine the differences of the language policies formulation and implementation during the two significant early periods of Ming dynasty (1368-1644). It uses a historical comparative perspective to understand the processes involved in language change. In order to deal with the relationship between Mongolian and Chinese and to develop a system to regulate language use for Chinese, the early Ming government enacted a series of language policies. There were both similarities as well as differences in the policies made by Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, the two paramount rulers of the Ming dynasty. Whereas the policies during Zhu Yuanzhang time manifested in repression of Mongolian through implementing acculturation measures such as intermarriage between Mongol and Chinese, Zhu Di paid more attention to language harmony characteristic of liberalism toward Mongolian language. Zhu Yuanzhang standardized written language based on the authoritative Nanjing speech. He set up an education system to propagate both a national lingua franca and a vernacular with latter playing important role in promoting the technological advancement. Zhu Di’s regime was also remembered for its efforts in promulgating foreign language education policies, thus on the one hand to establish a rapport with neighboring countries in East Asia, southeast Asia and the inner Western Asia, and on the other hand, to promote the international spread of Chinese language in these regions.
Abstract: This study attempts to examine the differences of the language policies formulation and implementation during the two significant early periods of Ming dynasty (1368-1644). It uses a historical comparative perspective to understand the processes involved in language change. In order to deal with the relationship between Mongolian and Chinese and to...
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The Multimodal Representational Characteristics of Mandarin Children’s Disagreement —— A Case Study Based on Diachronic Videos
Issue:
Volume 8, Issue 3, May 2020
Pages:
115-121
Received:
8 May 2020
Accepted:
4 June 2020
Published:
15 June 2020
Abstract: Based on a case study, this research collects naturally happened videos of one mandarin-speaking child during the period of her 1.5-3.5 years old, and makes a thorough study of the multimodal representational characteristics of disagreement of this child from the perspective of Multimodal Discourse Analysis. Within a data corpus constituted by 80 hours’ video-recorded life traces of a pre-school child, a corpus of 114 cases of disagreement was selected for a qualitative analysis through the Elan software. It is shown that mandarin-speaking children of this age period usually conduct multimodal communicative behaviors when they are expressing disagreement, the modal forms of which include verbal disagreement, nonverbal disagreement, verbal-nonverbal disagreement. To be more specific, verbal-nonverbal disagreement involves two kinds of modal interactional relationships: equivalent and complementary with the latter containing reinforced and non-reinforced cases. Through this research, parents and early educational staffs are suggested to pay more attention on children’s multimodal expressions on the one hand and to employ more non-verbal resources in interacting with young children on the other hand. What’s more, the point of individual differences of children is a time-consuming but simultaneously a noteworthy one for both parents and preschool teachers. The results of this study bring further light on the knowledge of early education and parental involvement.
Abstract: Based on a case study, this research collects naturally happened videos of one mandarin-speaking child during the period of her 1.5-3.5 years old, and makes a thorough study of the multimodal representational characteristics of disagreement of this child from the perspective of Multimodal Discourse Analysis. Within a data corpus constituted by 80 h...
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