Language Sciences最新文献

Ecological linguistics and sound change in Chinese dialects: a case study of the entering tone in Pujiang dialect 生态语言学与汉语方言的语音变化——以浦江方言入音为例

IF 1.1 2区文学

Language Sciences Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-12 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101798

Yuzhuo Jin

{"title":"Ecological linguistics and sound change in Chinese dialects: a case study of the entering tone in Pujiang dialect","authors":"Yuzhuo Jin","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101798","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101798","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates mechanisms of sound change in Chinese dialects through an ecolinguistic lens, employing the evolution of the entering tone in the Pujiang dialect of Sichuan as a case study. Field research across twelve dialect localities collected pronunciations of 537 entering-tone characters from both elderly and younger speakers, with data analyzed using Jaccard similarity coefficients to assess geographical distribution and Praat-based acoustic measurements to quantify tonal characteristics. Results demonstrate that the entering tone's retention is shaped by ecological factors: dialect points in central Pujiang exhibit approximately seventy percent similarity between generations, whereas peripheral areas adjacent to Chengdu, Ya'an, and Meishan show accelerated convergence toward Mandarin, with similarity dropping to around sixty percent. Intergenerational shifts reveal a systematic redistribution of entering-tone characters into non-entering tonal categories, particularly Yangping, driven by language contact and sociocultural pressures. These findings underscore the utility of ecological linguistics in modeling dialect change, highlighting how geographic and social environments jointly constrain phonological evolution. The study thus offers empirical grounding for dialect preservation strategies while advancing theoretical integration between linguistic ecology and historical phonology.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"115 ","pages":"Article 101798"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146175254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

A comparative study of trade metaphors across political genres during the U.S.-China trade war 中美贸易战中不同政治类型的贸易隐喻比较研究

IF 1.1 2区文学

Language Sciences Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-17 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101797

Xiaojuan Tan , Alan Cienki , Tina Krennmayr

{"title":"A comparative study of trade metaphors across political genres during the U.S.-China trade war","authors":"Xiaojuan Tan , Alan Cienki , Tina Krennmayr","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101797","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101797","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Currently, applied metaphor analysis often focuses on metaphor use in a particular political genre of a single country, overlooking how metaphors legitimize dominant political ideologies across different political genres and different countries. This paper addresses this gap by proposing an innovative categorization of metaphorical functions to systematically examine how trade metaphors are used across three underexplored political genres to legitimize America’s populist-nationalist ideology of trade protectionism and China’s state-nationalist ideology of trade globalism during the U.S.-China trade war (2017–2021). The findings show that metaphor use varies by genre in the service of ideological legitimation. Quantitative analysis reveals that trade metaphors occur most frequently in the informational and persuasive textual genre (News Reports), less frequently in the involved and persuasive spoken genre (Remarks), and least in the abstract and formal textual genre (Policy Documents). Qualitative analysis further shows that the pragmatic functions of trade metaphors differ by genre in legitimizing trade ideologies. Trade metaphors in News Reports perform persuasive and offsite interactional functions; in Remarks, they serve persuasive and onsite interactional functions; in Policy Documents, they fulfill a textual function. These findings contribute to comparative metaphor analysis and comparative political discourse analysis by highlighting genre-dependent metaphor use. They also lay the groundwork for future research, including experimental studies on the real-world impact of trade metaphors across political genres.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"115 ","pages":"Article 101797"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147386301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Enlanguaged emotions: a pragmatist-inspired proposal 语言情感：实用主义启发的提议

IF 1.1 2区文学

Language Sciences Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-13 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101794

Roberta Dreon , Ad Foolen

{"title":"Enlanguaged emotions: a pragmatist-inspired proposal","authors":"Roberta Dreon , Ad Foolen","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101794","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101794","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper, we propose applying the view of human experience as enlanguaged to the field of emotions and present the hypothesis of “enlanguaged emotions” as a challenging research hypothesis. To support this proposal, we explore the affinity between American Pragmatism and modern research on the relationship between, firstly, language and experience, particularly the so-called Grounded Language Approach, and secondly, language and emotions, especially the so-called Theory of Constructed Emotions. In the first part of the paper, we embrace the idea that human experience and language are not fundamentally separate realms: Human experience is enlanguaged, ontogenetically and phylogenetically. Language is an integral part of human experience and is not primarily experienced <em>per se</em>, as an independent syntactic or semantic system. Rather, it is strictly interwoven in human cognition, emotivity and joint action. Conversely, this ‘integrated view’ suggests that human experience, involving perception, cognition and emotion, is significantly configured through language. In the second part of the paper, we suggest extending the Pragmatists’ assertion that bodily and facial gestures are an integral part of emotional wholes to include linguistic gestures. These are not merely exterior vehicles for expressing internal states that exist in the mind or brain independently of human practices and interactions with a complex environment. More precisely, we argue that linguistic gestures – not only words, but more broadly linguistic habits, i.e. relatively stable ways of interacting and doing things through speech – contribute to the very constitution of human emotions, given the peculiarly enlanguaged experience and environment characterizing our species.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"115 ","pages":"Article 101794"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146175253","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Ecolinguistic analysis of the blame game in Los Angeles wildfire reporting 洛杉矶野火报告中指责游戏的生态语言学分析

IF 1.1 2区文学

Language Sciences Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-26 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101780

Tariq Amin , Wasima Shehzad

{"title":"Ecolinguistic analysis of the blame game in Los Angeles wildfire reporting","authors":"Tariq Amin , Wasima Shehzad","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101780","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2025.101780","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study analyses news media reporting of the Los Angeles wildfires, examining blame and innocence ascription and revealing the blame game in wildfire coverage. A 79,034-token corpus was generated from CNN and Fox News news reports and analysed with corpus linguistic software: AntConc, WMatrix, and GraphColl. A qualitative approach was adopted to analyse linguistic trends, metaphors, and framing devices, using Van Leeuwen's model of discourse analysis and Stibbe's ecolinguistics. The study identified four dominant trends: one, natural forces such as weather and wind were primarily ascribed to the origin of the fires, with human involvement minimised; two, the media constructed the fires as uncontained, disaster-like events; three, the public were constructed as blameless victims, distancing them from fault; and four, government responses were constructed as heroic or non-existent, affecting constructions by the public of political responsibility. This framing has far-reaching consequences for environmental discourse, reducing human culpability for ecological harm and making effective climate policy more difficult, ultimately slowing environmental action.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"115 ","pages":"Article 101780"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147386300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Analysis of the gleam-glum effect and affective interference 微光效应与情感干扰分析

IF 1.1 2区文学

Language Sciences Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-11 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101795

Kathryn M. Vick , Leslie J. Kelley

引用次数: 0

There is a language in the landscape: towards an ecology of meaning 景观中有一种语言：走向意义的生态

IF 1.1 2区文学

Language Sciences Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-11 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101793

Antony Fredriksson

{"title":"There is a language in the landscape: towards an ecology of meaning","authors":"Antony Fredriksson","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101793","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101793","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The main idea for Jakob Meløe is that our concepts originate in what we do: a toddler's expressions come from the lifeworld and environment of a toddler, and a fisherman's concepts originate in the practice of fishing and a life of seafaring. In this way words are related to a certain practice, but also to a certain place. The landscape that we call home reverberates with our concepts, through our engagement with that environment. This way of thinking about concepts goes against the grain of mainstream cognitivist theories on how human language comes about. Meløe's approach, which he mainly got from Wittgenstein, provides us with an understanding in which humans and environment are not separated, but entwined in an inevitable relationality. By elaborating on this view and connecting it with current works in enactivism and phenomenology, the article moves towards an affective account of perception and concepts. How we make sense of an environment is not solely dependent on knowledge, but also on the ways in which a place and its particular qualities affect us, resonate within us and provide us horizons for meaning. This entails a holistic account in which human language is not separated, transcendent or external to the nonhuman realm, but rather an expression of our affectivity and relationality. Tim Ingold emphasizes this when he notes that the word ‘text’ contains the original etymology from the Latin <em>texere</em>, meaning ‘to weave’ (2002, 404). Through concepts we create our relations not only <em>to</em>, but also <em>with</em> the world.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"115 ","pages":"Article 101793"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146175255","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Self-documentation and participatory autonomy in language documentation 语言文档中的自文档化和参与性自治

IF 1.1 2区文学

Language Sciences Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-03-05 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101808

Pablo Fuentes , Marisol Henriquez-Barahona , Sonia Vita

引用次数: 0

Emotion word meaning and grammatical class: do nouns and adjectives mean the same? 情感词的意义和语法类：名词和形容词的意思相同吗？

IF 1.1 2区文学

Language Sciences Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-21 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101807

Cristina Soriano , Christelle Gillioz , Johnny R.J. Fontaine , Klaus R. Scherer

{"title":"Emotion word meaning and grammatical class: do nouns and adjectives mean the same?","authors":"Cristina Soriano , Christelle Gillioz , Johnny R.J. Fontaine , Klaus R. Scherer","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101807","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101807","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the study of emotion across disciplines emotion labels such as ‘<em>anger’</em>, ‘<em>fear’</em> or ‘<em>joy’</em> are frequently used in experiments as stimuli or as response prompts. Both nouns (e.g., ‘<em>anger’</em>) and adjectives (e.g., ‘<em>angry’</em>) are used indistinctly, assumed to mean the same. However, grammatical class has been claimed to carry meaning, with nouns construing entities as “things” and adjectives as “qualities”. This could influence the way emotional experiences are represented in speakers' minds when emotions are coded in one or another grammatical form. Whether labels like ‘<em>anger’</em> and ‘<em>angry’</em> elicit different types of mental representation is an empirical question. To address it, we employ the GRID instrument, an interdisciplinary research tool designed to study the meaning of emotion words across languages and cultures. In the GRID studies, native speakers rate the likelihood that a number of emotion features may belong to the meaning of emotion words in their language. Earlier studies investigated the most representative 80 emotion nouns in English. In the current study we use the same instrument to study the adjectival form of those nouns. The results reveal no structural differences between the affective space captured by nouns and adjectives in English, and very high semantic profile correlations between both grammatical forms for each emotion concept. Specific differences between some noun-adjective pairs are presented. Finally, the study limitations and implications for the cross-disciplinary study of emotion are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"115 ","pages":"Article 101807"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147386303","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The pro-spatial and pro-temporal structures in Chinese and English news discourses: a cognitive-cultural contrastive analysis of topic chains 中英新闻语篇的亲空间和亲时间结构：话题链的认知文化对比分析

IF 1.1 2区文学

Language Sciences Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-09 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101796

Wenbin Wang , Ke Li

{"title":"The pro-spatial and pro-temporal structures in Chinese and English news discourses: a cognitive-cultural contrastive analysis of topic chains","authors":"Wenbin Wang , Ke Li","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101796","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101796","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper aims to explore the pro-spatial and pro-temporal structures in Chinese and English news discourses by contrastively analyzing their topic chains from a cognitive-cultural perspective. Specifically, this study analyzes a self-built corpus of news reports on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, collected from major Chinese and English newspapers using the equivalent keywords. The corpus covers the period from October 7, 2023 to January 14, 2024, and comprises 50 randomly selected news articles in each language, totaling 61,374 tokens in Chinese and 64,240 tokens in English. The findings suggest that, while both Chinese and English news discourses employ similar types of topic chains to signal topic progression, their chain structures differ. Chinese news topic chains, either intra-chain or inter-chain, tend to be fragmentary, as semantics typically guides their structuring, whereas English ones are more continuous, as syntax tends to lead and organize their progression. Consequently, when construing Chinese topic chains, the conceptualizer tends to follow a discrete path characterized by discrete summary scanning; on the contrary, when engaging with English topic chains, the conceptualizer traces a consecutive path that primarily relates to sequential scanning. The topic chain and conceptualization differences correspond to the cultural inclinations towards spatiality in Chinese and temporality in English.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"115 ","pages":"Article 101796"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146175257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Metaphor, ideology, and climate policy in Moroccan news: a corpus-based analysis 摩洛哥新闻中的隐喻、意识形态与气候政策：基于语料库的分析

IF 1.1 2区文学

Language Sciences Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-25 DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101809

Abdelhakim El Moene

{"title":"Metaphor, ideology, and climate policy in Moroccan news: a corpus-based analysis","authors":"Abdelhakim El Moene","doi":"10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101809","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.langsci.2026.101809","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Metaphors play a constitutive role in how individuals conceptualize abstract and complex issues such as climate change. In climate change communication, metaphorical framings influence public understanding and policy debates, which makes them central to both conceptualization and persuasion. Yet, despite the growing body of scholarship, existing meta-analyses reveal a pronounced geographical imbalance: perspectives from the Global South remain underrepresented in scholarship, even though these regions are among the most vulnerable to climate impacts. This study addresses this gap by investigating metaphorical framings of climate change and climate action in Moroccan online news discourse. Drawing on a corpus of 195 articles from three leading news outlets, the analysis employs corpus-based metaphor identification techniques within the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the Event-Structure Metaphor. The corpus exhibits multiple metaphorical patterns; among these, the analysis identifies three interrelated conceptual metaphors: CLIMATE CHANGE IS RAPID MOTION, CLIMATE ACTION IS A JOURNEY, and CLIMATE ACTION IS A RACE—each of which draws on the embodied domains of motion, journey, and racing. Findings demonstrate how these metaphorical framings reproduce urgency, progress, and competitiveness while embedding neoliberal ideological orientations that align with global climate narratives and national policy agendas.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51592,"journal":{"name":"Language Sciences","volume":"115 ","pages":"Article 101809"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147386294","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0