Professional Documents
Culture Documents
-Jonathan Fleury-
p.1
p.5
p.8
-Gabe Witmonger-
Anarf a h-Armgha
p.12
p.14
-Bichara-
This would be the final part of the series of articles focusing on the Tagalog verb.
(I recommend Tagalog Structures by Teresita Ramos as a reference grammar for this
matter; I used it to guide me in writing the three-part series)
For Part I the following were discussed:
<um> affix completed action
First syllable doubling contemplative
Combination of first syllable doubling plus <um> - continuous
<in> affix changes the roles of particles
The particles ang/si, ng/ni, and sa
The Part II discussed:
1.
Imperative form
2.
<mag>, <ma>, and <mang>
3.
<an> and <in>
4.
<kay> particle
For this final part we shall discuss:
1. Instrumental
2. Causative
3. Social
Causative
There are a set of prefixes for expressing the causative form of the verb, depending on
the focus of the sentence.
<magpa> prefix
The prefix is used to indicate causative form of the verb for actor focus.
<ipa> prefix
<ipa> prefix can be used to focus on the object.
This prefix is object focus, so the <ang> particle precedes the object of the action. The
prefix also assumes the second person as the doer of action, so it is usually left out.
The actor focus equivalent for <paki> is <maki>.
These are the basic forms for learning Tagalog. Prefixing <paki> is not the only way to
express please; the word pakiusap is also utilised:
Using a form of the verb pakiusap is considered formal speech, however. Nowadays
the English word please is common in colloquial discourse.
The three-part series now ends here. Here is a summary:
There are five forms of Tagalog verb, in which four of them were discussed:
completed, contemplative, continuous, and imperative. The other one is the infinitive
form, which was given in the tables but its use not discussed
Three out of five focus/foci were discussed: actor focus, goal focus, and instrument
focus. The other two are benefactive and locative focus.
Three moods are discussed: indicative, social, and causative.
Several particles are also discussed because they play important roles in marking the
focus of the verb: <ang>/<si>, <ng>/<ni>, <sa>, and <kay>.
I believe these important portions of the Tagalog verb conjugation would be enough
for one to be able to start understanding basic sentences in Tagalog. If you want to
ask a question regarding a Tagalog sentence, feel free to contact the author and he will
give the answer in a future edition of Conlangs Monthly.
Dismissing Comparisons
-Tao te Ching- Verse II-
Dismissing Comparisons
All in the world know the beauty of the beautiful, and in doing
this they have (the idea of) what ugliness is; they all know the skill
of the skilful, and in doing this they have (the idea of) what the
want of skill is.
So it is that existence and non-existence give birth the one to
(the idea of) the other; that difficulty and ease produce the one (the
idea of) the other; that length and shortness fashion out the one the
figure of the other; that (the ideas of) height and lowness arise from
the contrast of the one with the other; that the musical notes and
tones become harmonious through the relation of one with another; and
that being before and behind give the idea of one following another.
Therefore the sage manages affairs without doing anything, and
conveys his instructions without the use of speech.
All things spring up, and there is not one which declines to show
itself; they grow, and there is no claim made for their ownership;
they go through their processes, and there is no expectation (of a
reward for the results). The work is accomplished, and there is no
resting in it (as an achievement).
The work is done, but how no one can see;
Tis this that makes the power not cease to be.
-James Legge Translation-
The Sage
Lao Tzu frequently mentions sheng-jen, which
is translated `the sage in almost every English
version of the Tao Te Ching. I spent quite some
time pondering alternative translations, but found
none better. It implies wisdom of a profound kind.
Also, theres an archaic ring to it that fits well
with the traditional Chinese idea about ancient
times being superior, to which Lao Tzu evidently
subscribed.
But the sage is not a person elevated above the rest
of mankind. To Lao Tzu, anyone can be sage by
simply following Tao. Those who do so excel mostly
at being humble, not at all separating themselves
from their fellow men. The sage is someone like you
and me, but he or she has achieved true wisdom.
Sheng-jen is a person with a refined spirit, who
is modest about his place in the world and shows
compassion towards others, whatever the level of
their wisdom.
The word sheng is written with a sign that contains
three parts: an ear, a mouth, and the sign for a king
or sovereign. Someone who listens and speaks
beyond the perspective of common men. A refined
mind. Its closer to what we call reason than to
knowledge. We are reminded of King Salomon of
the Bible, who listened carefully to his subjects and
then spoke wisely to them. He was a sensible ruler,
who knew not to speak before listening. The king
commanded according to what he found out from
using his ears.
Lao Tzu has little respect for the ones who call
themselves learned and clever. Instead, he stresses
the superiority of simple reason, what we call
common sense. To Lao Tzu, the sage is someone
who excels at common sense.
We will learn more about what Lao Tzu regarded
as true wisdom in the following. He used the
expression sheng-jen more than thirty times in the
Tao Te Ching.
The word jen simply means a human being, a
person. Its often used like the word `man is in
English. It may refer to a male person, but just
as well to human beings of any gender. Lao Tzu
certainly had no problem with the possibility of
women being truly wise. On the contrary, as will
be seen frequently in the following chapters, he
tended to regard the female qualities as far superior
to the male ones.
11
Anarf a h-Armgha
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a second look proved that there was indeed a tail on the man. Only when
she was a few steps away from him did she realise that he was no man but
rather an Armgha or water wolf , a spirit which dwells in lakes or estuaries
with the shape of a slender wolf, they often lure people to get close to them
by pretending to be a friendly stray dog or by taking on other forms, once
someone gets close they wrap their tail around the prey and run into the
nearest body of water and drown the victim, after which they eat them all
except the lungs, but no matter what it looks like it will always be dripping
wet.
Upon her realisation Anarf ran as fast as she could but the slender
Armgha was fast on her heels. She could never outrun the spirit for much
longer so she ran for the lorna stream and jumped in it. As the Armgha
was attempting to stop itself Anarf splashed a lot of the sweet water in the
Armghas direction.
The water caused the spirit to let out a great howl and retreat into the salty
sea water. From then on the fruit of the n tree was often on the menu in
Anarf s cottage.
Notes:
The name Anarf is thought to come from a
corruption of n + ar + f roughly meaning
n removes the wolf .
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2)
Research questions:
This study investigates the perceptions of Moroccan
EFL learners to the different strategies used with
regard to learning English vocabulary. As such, the
present intends to answer the following research
questions:
-Does the learners academic level have a bearing
on his/her attitude regarding the different English
vocabulary learning strategies?
-Is/Are there any common strategy (ies) which is/
are commonly used among Moroccan EFL learners
to learn English vocabulary?
3) Hypotheses:
In Pursuance of attaining the aforementioned
objectives and answering the previously stated
research questions, two hypotheses have been
formulated:
-The learners academic level and cognitive
maturity have an impact on his/her attitude with
respect to the strategies used to learn English
vocabulary.
-Based on their academic level and cognitive
needs, Moroccan EFL learners are likely to use
certain vocabulary learning strategies more often
than other ones.
4) Rationale:
The rationale behind the choice of this topic
stems from a curiosity to have an idea about
how Moroccan EFL learners perceive various
vocabulary learning strategies regarding their
usefulness. Another reason for this choice was
to have a clear depiction of the most common
vocabulary learning strategies that Moroccan
EFL learners make use of when learning English
vocabulary. Moreover, based on my humble
experience as a student I was exposed to a very
limited number of vocabulary learning strategies,
majorly reading and dictionaries; hence, I decided
to conduct this research to feed my curiosity to
know more about other strategies that can be
used to acquire vocabulary. Furthermore, Lack of
research on vocabulary in the Moroccan context is
another reason for the choice of this topic.
5)
Organization of the study:
This paper comprises three chapters. The first
one is dedicated to introduce the reader to the
major realm of the study as well as acquaint him/
her with the basic key concepts the study consists
of. Furthermore, the chapter includes a concise
review of some previous works conducted in the
same context as the present study. The second
chapter outlines the methodology of the study
since it provides an elucidation of the objectives
Clarification/ verification
2)
3)
Deductive reasoning
4) Practice
5) Memorization
6) Monitoring
Communication strategies contribute indirectly to
language learning due to their focus on the effect
of practicing, the participation in a conversation,
and the clarification of the speakers intended
meaning. Learners resort to these strategies when
they face some kind of hardship in communication,
or a misunderstanding during the conversation.
Social strategies are also indirect contributors to
language learning that are defined as the activities
that provide learners with the opportunity of
25
differences,
whereas
small
nonsignificant
differences were shown with respect to the
variables of time spent on learning vocabulary
outside the classroom setting, note-taking, and
use of dictionaries. Furthermore, formed clusters
based on the five variables scores revealed that
there is a strongly maintained correlation between
strategy use and achievement level. For students,
researchers recommended using various activities
of language learning and spending more time on
vocabulary acquisition. For future researches,
writers suggest isolating individual variables and
examining how significant is the importance of
use of a specific strategy more systematically and
in a more controlled way. Moreover, it was also
suggested that an attempt of developing taxonomies
of vocabulary learning strategies should be made by
future researchers in order to check their theoretical
bases and investigate what impacts they can have
on learners if they were trained in their use.
* In addition
This piece of research aims at shedding light on
the major strategies employed in L2 vocabulary
acquisition, presenting the different attitudes
towards these strategies according to successful
and unsuccessful learners, and at last illustrating
the effects these strategies might have on their
vocabulary learning. The writer strives to investigate
the hypothesis that states that successful learners
are better and more proficient than unsuccessful
ones in terms of vocabulary acquisition.
Informants assessed in this research were 30 Chinese
university students who are enrolled in the medical
department. Note that no age range or mean age
was provided except for the claim that participants
were about 22 years old. These participants were
randomly chosen. The reason behind choosing
these medical department students was that they
have been studying English for almost ten years
which means that theyre quite familiar with it.
College students are matured enough to be assumed
as independent learners, which implies the fact that
they are aware of the strategies being employed in
their learning process. Informants received English
instruction twice a week and since theyre medical
students, vocabulary used in class must be most of
the times related to medicine.
This means that some vocabulary learning strategies
may be used frequently given the idiosyncratic
nature of medicine vocabulary. Participants in this
study were divided into two groups based on their
proficiency level assessed in terms of the College
English Test. The first group, successful learners,
included 15 learners who passed the CET6 and met
the English proficiency level required in Chinese
universities, whereas the second group involved 15
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* Conclusion
To wrap up, the present chapter has made the
attempt of acquainting the reader with the
fundamental scope of this study i.e. SLA by
tackling its definition, emergence, and basic issues.
Moreover, definitions of and personal reflections
on the basic key concepts were provided based
on some scholars and dictionaries statements.
Furthermore, a section was particularly dedicated
to inform the reader of the necessary background
with regard to the core of this chapter i.e. language
attitudes and the importance of vocabulary
acquisition in SLA. Another section was mainly
concerned with presenting four theories that have
addressed vocabulary acquisition from different
perspectives. Finally, the last section provided a
concise review of two previous studies that dealt, to
a large extent, with the same subject as the present
piece of research.
2)
Research implications
Pedagogical implications
DOI 10.1515/opli-2015-0013
Received September 15, 2014;
accepted May 27, 2015
Abstract:
In this paper I discuss similarities and differences
between a potential new model of language
development - lexical selection, and its biological
equivalent - natural selection. Based on Dawkins
(1976) concept of the meme I discuss two units
of language and explore their potential to be seen
as linguistic replicators. The central discussion
revolves around two key parts - the units that could
potentially play the role of replicators in a lexical
selection system and a visual representation of the
model proposed. draw on work by Hoey (2005),
Wray (2008) and Sinclair (1996, 1998) for the
theoretical basis; Croft (2000) is highlighted as a
similar framework. Finally brief examples are taken
from the free online corpora provided by the corpus
analysis tool Sketch Engine (Kilgarriff, Rychly, Smrz
and Tugwell 2004) to ground the discussion in real
world communicative situations.
The examples highlight the point that different
situational contexts will allow for different units
to flourish based on the local social and linguistic
environment. The paper also shows how a close
look at the specific context and strings available to
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as part of the model. The rest of the introduction (see arguments in Jablonka, Zeligowski and Lamb
will introduce key ideas from both biological and 2014 for example).
linguistic evolution.
Developments in evolutionary theory should,
After introducing the concept of physical replicators however, not be seen as a driving force for linguistic
in biology, Dawkins introduces memes as their
theory. Lexical Selection may one day turn out to be
cultural equivalent:
notably different in its detail. This is certainly not
the first paper to discuss the similarities between
The new soup is the soup of human culture. We language replicators and biological replicators.
need a name for the new replicator, a noun which Pagel (2009) provides an excellent overview of
conveys the unit of cultural transmission, or a unit many of the similarities from a biologists point of
of imitation. Mimeme comes from a suitable Greek view and he reminds us that many of them were, in
root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit fact, suggested by Darwin himself (Darwin 1871).
like gene. I hope my classicist friends will forgive
me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme. If it is any Pagel suggests that words, phonemes and syntax2
consolation, it could alternatively be thought of as are examples of discrete units and that they replicate
being related to memory or to the French word by means of teaching, learning and imitation. He also
mme. It should be pronounced to rhyme with offers ancient texts as the equivalent of fossils and
cream. Dawkins (1976:192)
language death in relation to extinction. The work
focuses largely on the word as the unit of analysis by
Memes then are not physical entities but, as using Swadeshs (1952) list of two hundred common
originally formulated, abstract concepts that exist words such as body parts, pronouns and numerals
in the minds of people (and arguably a number of that could be expected in many languages. The
other species such as songbirds). They replicate work shows that researchers can produce matrices
by being shared in a community and mutate by with the number of meanings on one side against
way of small changes. Dawkins gives the examples the number of languages that have that meaning
of tunes, catchphrases and ways of making pots in a selected set. This allows for statistical analyses
among others.
and comparisons with gene sequence matrices.
Pagels discussion includes a surprising association
It is the linguistic side of Dawkins argument that between the distribution of animal species and
sets up my own thesis for this paper. I argue that the distribution of human languages when plotted
strings of language items let us imagine words against latitude.
for the moment enter into a similar competitive
environment with other strings and that minor Kirkby and Hurfords (2002) Iterated Learning
variations will allow an evolution-like mechanism Model (ILM) moves closer to an actual model of
to operate. Whether this linguistic mechanism language change; it is described as an adaptive
closely follows modern models of evolutionary system that operates on a timescale between
theory remains to be seen; the discussion is only individual learning and biological evolution
just beginning. Note that my argument is not (Kirkby 2007:1) and is well-supported by computer
fundamentally different from Dawkins concept and mathematical models. Such models are,
of memes but that it is argued specifically for however, necessarily abstracted away from real
human language strings without carrying along speakers and actual utterances with work based on
any assumptions about songbirds or pot-making. idealised languages. This is important work that
Dennett (2003) reminds us that the science of highlights the potential of an evolutionary approach
memetics is still controversial seen by critics as but its distance from actual utterances can seem
just a tool or metaphor that cannot be made literal divorced from work in text analysis and corpus
when applied to all of human culture so this paper linguistics which focus more on the behaviour of
should be seen as strictly a linguistic argument. It is strings of lemmas and wordforms. As we move to a
important to clarify at this point one key argument complete theory of language we will need work at
I am not making. I am not arguing that the both ends of the abstract-utterance continuum. An
movement and selection of linguistic replicators is evolution-like theory that explicitly seeks to work
necessarily very close to its biological equivalent. In at the level of utterances is Crofts (2000) Theory of
biology, for example, researchers are beginning to Utterance Selection (TUS).
understand that the gene does not play as central
a role in evolutionary theory as was once assumed
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36
a lexical selection model are not random in the same way as biological mutations are often seen to be; this
view of biological mutation is not necessarily an accurate one, however (see Martincorena, Seshasayee
and Luscombe 2012, for example). It is important to note that important differences do exist between
biological evolution and language and this must be taken into account when exploring the model further.
Words do not occupy a privileged place in this description. Like their role in Lexical Priming (Hoey 2005)
and Wrays heteromorphic lexicon (Wray 2002) they are just short strings that often make convenient
starting points for analysis. (The public view of the word as a unit is, however, a very important contextual
factor). In corpus linguistics we often begin by searching for a node such as bus and then discussing the
linguistic environment around it by means of concordance lines (figure two shows an example).
a selection unit; I also felt it was important to avoid a well known formulaic expression as these could be
seen as extreme cases. As no language user ever needs a frame without a communicative situation I chose,
somewhat arbitrarily, a 4-word string that was well-represented in the data to allow me to move towards
more concrete examples of language use.
It occurs in all four of the free corpora available via Sketch Engine - the ACL is an archive of computer
linguistics publications, British Academic Spoken English Corpus (BASE), British Academic Written
English Corpus (BAWE) and Brown, a corpus of general US English prepared in 1964, as shown in figure 3.
The researcher is also likely to be primed to use the string the accuracy of the * in such a situation. Figure
four shows the number of times each slot in this structure is occupied by the given word; the word accuracy,
for example, occurs once in two occurrences of the * of the suggestion. A second usage in the corpus is the
quality of the suggestions in a different text. This shows us the relatively fixed nature of the accuracy of the *
as a frame with the last slot remaining very open for the writer or speaker to insert the appropriate selection
for the context (in a practical example, of course, the writer would be rather more limited depending on
what system or concept is being described).
In a sample of 300 lines the most frequent complement for this frame was parser so I used the Corpus
Query Language (CQL) term accuracy []{0,2} parser on the full corpus to explore any cases when a
writer may be faced with a genuine choice of terms when they need to describe the accuracy of a specific
parser.
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