The Effect of Chinese Proficiency on Determining Temporal Adverb Position by Native Japanese Speakers Learning Chinese

The present study aimed to investigate how native Japanese speakers learning Chinese choose preferred positions for temporal adverbs depending on their level of Chinese proficiency. A naturalness judgment task conducted on native Chinese speakers showed that the most natural position for Chinese temporal adverbs was before the subject and that placement after the locative prepositional phrase was incorrect. The same task applied to native Japanese speakers found the most natural position for Japanese temporal adverbs was also before the subject. Further, when they appear at the beginning of a sentence, they provide the time for the entire sentence. Accordingly, temporal topicalization appears to influence naturalness decisions by both native Chinese and Japanese speakers. A point of difference was that in Japanese, a temporal adverb placed after a locative prepositional phrase was judged to be acceptable. When the same task was given to native Japanese speakers learning Chinese divided into three Chinese proficiency level groups, placement before the subject was the most preferred by the higher Chinese proficiency group. In addition, placement after the locative prepositional phrase was unfavored by them while the same position was frequently selected by the lower level group. As Chinese proficiency increases it appears that the preferred temporal adverb position is before the subject and the placement after the locative prepositional is judged to be unnatural. Thus, a sense of suitable temporal adverb positions in Chinese is influenced by the level of Chinese proficiency of native Japanese speakers.

The Effects of Mandarin Chinese Lexical Tones in Sound–Shape and Sound–Size Correspondences

Crossmodal correspondences refer to when specific domains of features in different sensory modalities are mapped. We investigated how vowels and lexical tones drive sound–shape (rounded or angular) and sound–size (large or small) mappings among native Mandarin Chinese speakers. We used three vowels (/i/, /u/, and /a/), and each vowel was articulated in four lexical tones. In the sound–shape matching, the tendency to match the rounded shape was decreased in the following order: /u/, /i/, and /a/. Tone 2 was more likely to be matched to the rounded pattern, whereas Tone 4 was more likely to be matched to the angular pattern. In the sound–size matching, /a/ was matched to the larger object more than /u/ and /i/, and Tone 2 and Tone 4 correspond to the large–small contrast. The results demonstrated that both vowels and tones play prominent roles in crossmodal correspondences, and sound–shape and sound–size mappings are heterogeneous phenomena.

The Potential of the Zoomorphic Metaphor with the Target Domain “the Future of Russia” (on the Material of the Chinese Language)

The article presents the analysis of the zoomorphic metaphor with the target domain “The Future of Russia” in the context of the US sanctions policy against Russia in the Chinese non-institutional political Internet discourse. The chronological scope of the study covers the period from 2014 till the present. The Chinese website 悟空回答 (Wukong Q & A) was chosen as the source of the material. The analysis of metaphors is carried out within the framework of the methodology of linguistic political prognostics, using the methods of metaphorical modeling, linguistic, cultural, cognitive and discourse analysis. As a result of the analyzed 313 metaphorical contexts, it was found that one of the most frequent metaphorical models with the target domain “The Future of Russia” is a zoomorphic metaphor. The most frequent frame in this metaphorical model is the “Animal kingdom” frame, which contains three slots: “mammals”, “birds” and “fish”. The study showed that while representing the future of Russia in the Chinese non-institutional political Internet discourse in the context of anti-Russian sanctions, negatively colored metaphors which appear in the slots “mammals”, “birds” and “fish” prevail, depicting a “dark” future of Russian-American relations. Positively colored metaphors in the slot “mammals” are especially active in modeling the future of Russian-Chinese relations. The analysis of the metaphorical model showed that the activation of metaphors depends on the axiological attitudes of Chinese speakers and on changing political events.

Investigating Heritage Language Processing: Meaning Composition in Chinese Classifier-Noun Phrasal Contexts

The aim of the present study was to investigate how Chinese-Malay bilingual speakers with Chinese as heritage language process semantic congruency effects in Chinese and how their brain activities compare to those of monolingual Chinese speakers using electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. To this end, semantic congruencies were manipulated in Chinese classifier-noun phrases, resulting in four conditions: (i) a strongly constraining/high-cloze, plausible (SP) condition, (ii) a weakly constraining/low-cloze, plausible (WP) condition, (iii) a strongly constraining/implausible (SI) condition, and (iv) a weakly constraining/implausible (WI) condition. The analysis of EEG data focused on two event-related potential components, i.e., the N400, which is known for its sensitivity to semantic fit of a target word to its context, and a post-N400 late positive complex (LPC), which is linked to semantic integration after prediction violations and retrospective, evaluative processes. We found similar N400/LPC effects in response to the manipulations of semantic congruency in the mono- and bilingual groups, with a gradient N400 pattern (WI/SI > WP > SP), a larger frontal LPC in response to WP compared to SP, SI, and WI, as well as larger centro-parietal LPCs in response to WP compared to SI and WI, and a larger centro-parietal LPC for SP compared to SI. These results suggest that, in terms of event-related potential (ERP) data, Chinese-Malay early bilingual speakers predict and integrate upcoming semantic information in Chinese classifier-noun phrase to the same extent as monolingual Chinese speakers. However, the global field power (GFP) data showed significant differences between SP and WP in the N400 and LPC time windows in bilinguals, whereas no such effects were observed in monolinguals. This finding was interpreted as showing that bilinguals differ from their monolingual peers in terms of global field power intensity of the brain by processing plausible classifier-noun pairs with different congruency effects.

Emerging Phonology Under Language Contact: The Case of Sino-Russian Idiolects

The main aim of this study is to examine what kind of phonological system emerges because of language contact wherein adult speakers of L1 (Chinese) attempt to speak L2 (Russian) without any previous instruction in L2. The main findings of this study are as follows: a) The speakers of L1 largely adopt the phonetic inventory and phonotactics of L2 and b) the only underlying (distinctive) features in the emerging phonological system are those of place of articulation while voicing plays no distinctive role in the emerging phonological system of Chinese speakers. Moreover, the speakers of L1 faithfully replicate the stress system of L2, even though L1 (Chinese) is a tonal language and L2, Russian, is a stress language. The most important finding of this study is that speakers of L1 discern the entity ‘word’ in L2. The emerging phonological system is geared towards assuring the identifiability of words in L2 rather than towards consistency of phonological rules.

The impact of audio on the reading of intralingual versus interlingual subtitles: Evidence from eye movements

This study investigated how semantically relevant auditory information might affect the reading of subtitles, and if such effects might be modulated by the concurrent video content. Thirty-four native Chinese speakers with English as their second language watched video with English subtitles in six conditions defined by manipulating the nature of the audio (Chinese/L1 audio vs. English/L2 audio vs. no audio) and the presence versus absence of video content. Global eye-movement analyses showed that participants tended to rely less on subtitles with Chinese or English audio than without audio, and the effects of audio were more pronounced in the presence of video presentation. Lexical processing of subtitles was not modulated by the audio. However, Chinese audio, which presumably obviated the need to read the subtitles, resulted in more superficial post-lexical processing of the subtitles relative to either the English or no audio. On the contrary, English audio accentuated post-lexical processing of the subtitles compared with Chinese audio or no audio, indicating that participants might use English audio to support subtitle reading (or vice versa) and thus engaged in deeper processing of the subtitles. These findings suggest that, in multimodal reading situations, eye movements are not only controlled by processing difficulties associated with properties of words (e.g., their frequency and length) but also guided by metacognitive strategies involved in monitoring comprehension and its online modulation by different information sources.

An Innovative Mental Health Model for Treating Culturally Diverse Older Adults

The mental health needs of older adults are largely unmet, a finding even more prevalent within culturally diverse older adult populations. Added to this is the high rate of social isolation. Research has indicated increased connection to mental health services when services are embedded within physical health care settings. For those attending community centers, 85% indicate that they are socially isolated, 68% indicate they are lonely, and 53% have a mental health need (compared to 20% nationally). The need for innovative programming is evident. When examining the needs of diverse older adults, it is increasingly important that new and innovative approaches address social isolation, loneliness, and mental health problems experienced by this cohort. Utilizing this knowledge an innovative model of embedding and integrating mental health services, provided by bilingual and bicultural clinicians, into congregate sites (older adult centers) was implemented. Those that participated were mainly female (72.1%), 68.5% English-speaking, 14.5% Spanish-speaking, 13.6% Chinese-speaking and 3.4% other. Spanish-speakers had more depression than English-speakers and both had more depression than Chinese-speakers. English and Spanish-speakers reported more social isolation and Chinese-speakers compared were more likely to participate in engagement. Chinese-speakers were less likely to be in clinical services with a positive screen compared to English-speakers. Overall, 75% engaged in treatment; 37.3% and 41% showed a 3-month improvement of depression and anxiety, respectively. This presentation focuses on the innovative components of this model, how to engage diverse older adults to utilize treatment, steps needed for replication, and policy implications around integrated mental health treatment.

Linguistic Dimensions of Accentedness, Comprehensibility and Intelligibility: Exploring Listener Effects in American, Moroccan, Turkmen and Chinese Varieties of English

The present study examines accentedness, comprehensibility, and intelligibility of American English, Moroccan English, Turkmen English, and Chinese English, from the perspectives of three groups of listeners: native speakers of English and Chinese speakers of English with or without international experiences. Of the 145 listeners, 38 had face-to-face interviews. These listener groups were asked to listen to the recordings of the four English varieties and fill in a cloze test. Results indicated that the three listener groups differed significantly in rating comprehensibility of American English, Moroccan English and Chinese English but they did not give Turkmen English statistically different ratings; there were no significant differences in accentedness ratings except for Chinese English; and there were significant differences in the intelligibility scores of the four English varieties. In addition, with respect to seven linguistic variables—speed, clarity, intonation, smoothness and fluency, vocal intensity, pause, vocabulary and grammar, there were significant differences in three listener groups’ rating of six variables in American English except the one of “speed”. By contrast, Chinese English received significantly different ratings only in “proper speed”. No differences were found in the ratings for Moroccan English and Turkmen English. Finally, unlike Chinese listeners without international experiences, native listeners and Chinese listeners with international experiences shared some similarities in correlations between the ratings of accentedness and comprehensibility and those of linguistic variables on Moroccan English, Turkmen English, and Chinese English. However, the results for American English from Chinese listeners without international experiences and native listeners seemed to be more alike. Linguistic variables correlating with accentedness and comprehensibility of American English showed a mixed profile. Qualitative data provided more variant elaborations on the pronunciations and language uses of the speakers.

“Please Don’t Come Back”: A Pragmatic Study of Chinese Netizens’ Complaints Under Pandemic of COVID-19

This article aims to analyze Chinese netizens’ speech act of complaints under pandemic of COVID-19 by Searl’s felicity condition of speech act (1969) and discuss with politeness theories. Researchers collected data from the comment area of a short video on Douyin in September 2021. The result shows that there are 11 strategies employed to complain about the returnees, namely Suggestion, Statement, Order, Irony, Expectation, Expressing negative emotions, Request, Criticism, Asking for reasons, Calling for empathy, and Exclaiming strategies according to the order of most to least. In uneasy situations, Chinese speakers still try to employ polite strategies to express their dissatisfaction, however, they may threaten listeners’ “face” inevitably.