International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation
The International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation (ISSN: 2617-0299) is a double-blind peer-reviewed, monthly, open-access journal published by Al-Kindi Center for Research and Development. It publishes high-quality articles across the breadth of linguistics, literature and translation research. With its uniquely broad coverage, all articles are free to access across the globe, allowing authors to share their research and maximise its impact. The journal is led by expert international editorial board members who take an objective approach to peer review, ensuring each research paper is reviewed and evaluated on its own scholarly merits and research integrity. Publishing your work in the International Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Translation means you will receive prompt and reliable publishing and a global platform for your research to reach its full potential. The journal is published in both online and print versions.
Al-Kindi Center for Research and Development
The Pragmatic Functions of Bass in Jordanian Spoken Arabic: A Function-Based Translation Model
This study investigates the multifunctional discourse marker bass in Jordanian Spoken Arabic (JSA), proposing a function-based translation model grounded in systematic corpus analysis. Building on the foundational taxonomy established by Al Rousan, Al Harahsheh, and Huwari (2020), who identified sixteen pragmatic functions of bass in JSA, the present study extends this work by examining how these functions map onto optimal English translation equivalents. Through analyzing 109 annotated instances drawn from 96 minutes of natural conversations in Roya TV's Caravan program, the research confirms and refines the existing functional taxonomy while establishing explicit links between discourse function and translation strategy. The methodology employs dual validation: linguistic experts classified each occurrence with contextualized analysis, while professional translators verified functional accuracy to ensure reliable identification of pragmatic functions and their optimal English equivalents. Findings reveal that the choice of English translation—whether 'but,' 'just,' 'only,' 'so,' 'well,' or phrasal equivalents—is determined not by lexical substitution but by the specific pragmatic role bass plays in context. This study makes three primary contributions: (1) validation and refinement of Al Rousan et al.'s (2020) functional taxonomy through independent corpus analysis; (2) development of a systematic framework linking each discourse function to optimal translation strategies; and (3) practical guidelines for Arabic-English translation of multifunctional particles.
Discourse markers, Jordanian Arabic, Pragmatics, Translation equivalence, Corpus linguistics, Bass
Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Effectiveness of Task-Based Language Teaching on Vocabulary Acquisition and Retention in EFL Contexts: A Systematic Review
Vocabulary knowledge is central to EFL proficiency and academic success. Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) has been proposed as an effective approach to enhancing vocabulary acquisition and retention, yet its efficacy varies across contexts. This systematic review synthesizes empirical studies published between 2000 and 2025 to examine how TBLT impacts vocabulary learning in EFL settings, including Moroccan universities. Following PRISMA guidelines, the review identifies effective instructional strategies, highlights limitations, and provides pedagogical recommendations. Findings indicate that task-based, contextualized, and strategy-oriented instruction consistently improves vocabulary retention and meaningful use, while isolated or rote-based methods are insufficient. The study underscores the importance of integrated, research-informed models for higher education EFL instruction.
Vocabulary knowledge is central to EFL proficiency and academic success. Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) has been proposed as an effective approach to enhancing vocabulary acquisition and retention, yet its efficacy varies across contexts. This systematic review synthesizes empirical studies published between 2000 and 2025 to examine how TBLT impacts vocabulary learning in EFL settings, including Moroccan universities. Following PRISMA guidelines, the review identifies effective instructional strategies, highlights limitations, and provides pedagogical recommendations. Findings indicate that task-based, contextualized, and strategy-oriented instruction consistently improves vocabulary retention and meaningful use, while isolated or rote-based methods are insufficient. The study underscores the importance of integrated, research-informed models for higher education EFL instruction
Self-regulated Writing: Strategies and Mediators for Chinese Students in UK
This qualitative study explores the specific self-regulated writing (SRW) strategies and their mediating factors among high-achieving Chinese international students in UK higher education contexts, a group that constitutes one of the largest international student populations yet remains largely underexplored in SRW research. Guided by an integrated theoretical framework of social cognitive theory and sociocultural theory, the study adopted semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis with six participants. Results identified three core SRW strategies: outline-making and planning with self-created files, logic-prioritized self-proofreading, and individualized motivational regulation including self-talk, meditation, and self-consequencing. Further analysis revealed that SRW practice is dynamically shaped by the interaction of two categories of factors: sociocultural contextual factors (including feedback quality, in-class writing guidance, and adaptation to UK academic norms) and personal cognitive factors (including self-efficacy and motivational beliefs, with task utility and topic interest emerging as key motivational drivers). The findings verify the integrated theoretical framework’s explanatory power in cross-cultural settings, address the research gap in qualitative investigations of high-achieving Chinese learners’ SRW processes, and further provide targeted pedagogical implications.
higher education; cross-cultural academic adaptation; L2 academic writing; self-regulated writing process; teacher support; self-efficacy; motivational beliefs
Religion, Power, and Social Discipline in Joyce’s The Dead and Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter
This study investigates the representation of religion as a mechanism of social control in James Joyce’s The Dead and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concepts of power, discipline, and institutional authority, the paper explores how religious discourse regulates individual behaviour and shapes moral life within distinct historical and cultural contexts. Although the two texts emerge from different periods and geographical settings, both depict religion as deeply embedded in everyday practices and social structures. Through close textual analysis, the study demonstrates that Joyce presents religious power in subtle forms, through ritual, silence, internalized guilt, and emotional paralysis, whereas Hawthorne portrays religious authority through overt mechanisms of public shaming, surveillance, and fear of divine punishment. In both narratives, religion functions as a disciplinary system that legitimizes control and normalizes obedience. The paper argues that the relationship between individuals and religious institutions, represented by the church and its clergy, is founded primarily on fear rather than spiritual devotion. By comparing these works, the study reveals how literary texts critique religion not as a transcendent spiritual force, but as a historically situated institution aligned with political authority and systems of power.
James Joyce; Nathaniel Hawthorne; religion; power; discipline; The Dead; The Scarlet Letter
Level, Relationship and Predictive Capacity of Grammatical and Discourse Competence to Communicative Competence of Pre-service Teachers
This study investigated the levels, relationships, and predictive capacity of grammatical, discourse, and communicative competence among pre-service teachers. The descriptive statistics indicated the pre-service teachers were rated moderately competent in overall communicative competence (M=3.50) and grammatical competence (M=3.18). The pre-service teachers were rated competent in discourse competence (M=3.69). The correlation analyses indicated that pre-service teachers showed a strong positive relationship between grammatical competence and overall communicative competence (r = 0.551, p < 0.001), suggesting that an understanding of grammar is a prerequisite for effective communication across various social contexts. A strong positive correlation between discourse competence and overall competence was observed (r = 0.531, p < 0.001), underscoring the need to organize longer stretches of language for effective communication. The linear regression findings presented that grammatical competence and discourse competence were statistically significant positive predictors of overall communicative competence. Grammatical competence predicted a unique variance of 30.3%, and discourse competence was also a unique predictor of 28.2%. Therefore, the study's findings suggest that grammatical competence and discourse competence are both significant, foundational, and vital contributors to a pre-service teacher's overall communicative competence. The researcher recommends that teacher education programs integrate grammar instruction with discourse-based tasks to better prepare pre-service teachers for classroom communication challenges.
Communicative Competence, Discourse Competence, Grammatical Competence, Pre-service Teachers, Philippines
Verbal Humor in The King of Stand-up Comedy from the Perspective of the Cooperative Principle
Humor has long attracted scholarly attention as an important aspect of language and social interaction. Verbal humor is frequently employed by communicators in various contexts to implicitly convey intentions and ease tension, thereby facilitating smooth communication. Recent research on verbal humor has shifted focus from static, isolated words or sentences to dynamic, multimodal texts, such as talk shows, movies, plays, advertisements, and sitcoms. This study adopts the Cooperative Principle as its theoretical framework, using concepts from Incongruity Theory to analyze the processes underlying humor generation in the Chinese stand-up comedy show The King of Stand-up Comedy. The analysis shows that violating the four maxims of the Cooperative Principle is a common pragmatic strategy for producing verbal humor. The stand-up comedians often employ rhetorical devices such as metaphor, personification, pun, and hyperbole to flout the four maxims, thereby creating incongruities and generating humorous effects.
Copyright (c) 2026 Yunrong Li https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Judging Indifference: Social Norms, Emotional Discipline, and Cultural Violence in Camus’s The Stranger
Albert Camus’s The Stranger has long been read as a paradigmatic text of absurdist philosophy, with critical attention primarily directed toward Meursault’s emotional indifference and existential detachment. Such interpretations, however, tend to approach indifference as an individual psychological or philosophical condition, thereby overlooking the cultural mechanisms through which it is rendered socially intolerable. Drawing on perspectives from cultural studies, this article re-examines The Stranger as a narrative of cultural judgment in which emotional norms function as instruments of social regulation. The article argues that Meursault is condemned not for the act of murder itself but for his failure to conform to culturally sanctioned modes of emotional expression. Through a close reading of key episodes—including the funeral, the courtroom proceedings, and Meursault’s narrative restraint—the study demonstrates how emotional discipline operates as a form of cultural power that distinguishes the “normal” subject from the deviant one. The courtroom is thus interpreted not merely as a legal space but as a cultural theater in which moral legitimacy is publicly constructed and enforced. By foregrounding emotional normativity as a mechanism of exclusion, this study reframes Meursault’s indifference as a site where cultural authority, social conformity, and symbolic violence intersect, thereby offering a culturally grounded reinterpretation of Camus’s canonical text.
Camus; The Stranger; cultural normativity; emotional discipline; cultural violence; judgment
Conceptual Metaphor in Kumail Supplication
This paper endeavors to explore how conceptual metaphor can influence the meaning of theology and moral ideology in Imam Ali’s Kumail supplication. Adopting the model of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), the study analyses the systematic structure of abstract religious notions of divinity, sin, suffering, authority, and faith embodied, spatially, politically and materially by metaphors. Outcomes of the analysis reveal that Kumail supplication recurrently utilize the conceptualization of the divine attributes via the scheme of containment, force, light and sovereignty, making such abstract attributes cognitively available and experience based. Not only are these metaphorical arrangements accommodative to cognition, but they also carry an ideological role of naturalizing obedience, internalizing responsibility and redefining themselves as spiritual strength. As such, conceptual metaphor is a key organizing principle in the religious discourse of supplication incorporating thought, feeling, and ideology and providing a whole worldview where human life is placed within a comprehensive divine order.
Supplication, religious discourse, cognitive linguistic, conceptual metaphor, domain
Transmutation, Motivations, and Normative Construction of Transliteration Strategies for Chinese Food Specialties from the Perspective of Cultural Confidence
The English translation of names for Chinese food specialties serves as a critical interface for cross-cultural communication and the development of national soft power. Using “cultural confidence” as a theoretical lens and employing a combined diachronic and synchronic research methodology, this paper systematically examines the phased transmutation of transliteration strategies for Chinese food specialties—moving from “domestication-led” to “hybrid exploration” and finally to the “rise of transliteration.” The study finds that this evolution is not an isolated linguistic phenomenon but a result of the combined forces of national strategic guidance, shifts in social psychology, the revolution in communication media, and the internal laws of linguistics. It marks a shift in China’s external cultural discourse practice from “self-adjustment” to “subjective construction.” The popularization of transliteration strategies is essentially a discourse power practice that anchors Chinese phonetic symbols and their underlying cultural systems directly into the global cognitive landscape. Addressing current issues such as inconsistent standards, over-transliteration, and a lack of interior interpretation, this paper innovatively constructs a “pyramid-style three-level normative model” based on cognitive load and stages of cultural dissemination. Furthermore, it proposes specific implementation plans, such as establishing a dynamic translation database and advocating for multi-modal presentation, aiming to provide theoretical support and practical paths for building an external translation system for Chinese food culture that balances cultural fidelity with communicative effectiveness.
Cultural confidence; Chinese food specialties; Transliteration; Transmutation; Normalization; Cross-cultural communication; Translation discourse
Re-evaluating Overseas Readers’ Acceptability from a Postcolonial Perspective
Grounded in postcolonial theory, this study examines the annotations in Diary of a Madman and Other Stories translated by William A. Lyell, in conjunction with reader reviews of the translation on Goodreads, to investigate the overseas reception of a translated text that preserves cultural heterogeneity. By analyzing how foreign readers respond to culture-specific elements retained through annotation, the paper reflects on the prevailing tendency in the outward translation of Chinese literature to overemphasize fluency and naturalness as a result of underestimating target readers’ acceptability. The study aims to offer insights for the practice of translating Chinese literature for overseas readerships, re-evaluate their capacity for engaging with cultural difference, and thereby contribute to more effective global dissemination of Chinese literature.
postcolonial theory, Diary of a Madman and Other Stories, William A. Lyell; reader reception; outward translation of Chinese literature
Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Between Visibility and Silencing: Gendered Epistemologies in Colonial and Postcolonial Travel Narratives
This article examines the gendered epistemologies embedded in colonial and postcolonial travel narratives, highlighting how women are simultaneously hyper-visible and epistemically silenced. While women frequently appear in travel writing through detailed descriptions of dress, domestic labour, and social roles, they are rarely granted narrative agency or credibility, functioning as objects rather than producers of knowledge. Drawing on postcolonial feminist theory and Miranda Fricker’s concept of epistemic injustice, the study frames women’s representation as a structural question of knowledge production, authority, and exclusion, rather than merely a matter of stereotype or distortion. Using a qualitative, theory-driven approach, the article analyses canonical texts such as Mary Kingsley’s Travels in West Africa (1897) and Isabella Bird’s Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (1880), alongside postcolonial and feminist travel writings. Key insights include: (1) women’s visibility is systematically decoupled from epistemic authority; (2) travel writing operates through a masculinized epistemology, privileging observation, mobility, and interpretive mastery; and (3) postcolonial and feminist rewritings reclaim voice, reflexivity, and epistemic agency, challenging traditional hierarchies of knowledge. By situating women’s marginalization within broader structures of power and representation, the study contributes to debates in literary, gender, and postcolonial studies, offering a conceptual framework for understanding the politics and ethics of knowledge production in travel literature.
Travel writing, Gendered epistemology, Postcolonial literature, Feminist epistemology, Epistemic injustice
Fallacies and Ideological Arguments in Ammar Bendjama’s Speech at the UN Security Council’s Meeting for the Adoption of Resolution 2797 (2025) on the Moroccan Sahara Dispute: A Synergy of Critical Discourse Studies and Pragma-dialectical Theory
This paper analyzes and evaluates the argumentative discourse of Ammar Bendjama, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Algeria to the United Nations, during his speech at the United Nations Security Council’s meeting for the adoption of Resolution 2797 (2025) concerning the Moroccan Sahara dispute. Using a synergy of Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) and Pragma-dialectical Theory, the study examines how fallacies in argumentative discourse stem from Ammar Bendjama’s ideopolitical background, the antagonist, which distorts reasonable and effective argumentation as both a process and a practice. It argues that, instead of providing a constructive contribution to resolving the dispute, Ammar Bendjama’s argumentation represents a derailment of strategic maneuvering. The paper identifies multiple fallacies, including the red herring fallacy, the violation of the standpoint and relevance rules of ideal critical discussion’s ten commandments, and the use of ethos to amplify Algeria’s egocentric political narrative. In addition to pathos, which manipulates the audience’s mental models through an appeal to emotions, Ammar Bendjama’s reliance on ideological arguments structured around empty and floating signifiers, such as ‘decolonization,’ leads to deep disagreement and renders a meaningful exchange impossible. Moreover, the speaker’s contribution flouts Grice’s Cooperative Principle, especially the Maxims of Quantity and Quality, in addition to the sincerity condition of his speech act of argumentation. His contribution to the vote on Resolution 2797 was more destructive than constructive, further obstructing progress towards a resolution. Bendjama commits the appeal to authority fallacy by invoking Woodrow Wilson’s statement on self-determination, implying that his authority on the matter legitimizes the argument. Additionally, his argument is further weakened by the begging the question fallacy, assuming the truth of the point he seeks to prove when he speaks about ‘resistance,’ without providing evidence to support this claim, misleading the audience by promoting a conspiratorial inference. Ultimately, this research is part of a broader and ambitious doctoral thesis about disinformation discourse and deceptive narratives in Algerian electronic news stories on the Moroccan Sahara issue. The study is situated within the transdisciplinary school of Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) and calls for further research into the role of disinformation and propaganda in international discourse, particularly in the context of the Moroccan Sahara issue, emphasizing the power of words, language, and semiotics as the foundation of any discourse involving conflict and controversy.
Moroccan Sahara - Resolution 2797 (2025) - Pragma-dialectical Theory - Critical Discourse Studie - Argumentative discourse – Fallacies - Ideological Arguments
Innovative GPT-Powered Adaptive Assessment for Mobile Language Learning: A Path to Real-Time Personalization and Enhanced Engagement
The fast development of mobile learning has revolutionized the field of language education as we know it today, but conventional formative assessment practices are still rigid and not adaptive to individual learning trajectories. This research put forth a new GPT-based formative assessment model for mobile-based English language studies that is heir to static evaluation paradigms due to incorporating a real-time, intuitive feedback feature. Different from the rigid classes of rule-based and ML approaches that are dependent on static assessment structures, the suggested GPT model adapts dynamically to inputs from students and gives personalized results based on ongoing language growth. With the incorporation of GPT, mobile learning applications can provide instant assessment and situational recommendations thereby increasing learner involvement and the feat of a language. The model attunement was performed on the English Language Learning Dataset from Kaggle and there showed the impressive precision and effectiveness in personalized evaluations compared to such traditional models as rule-based systems and SVMs. This real-time adaptability does not only create more interactive learning scenarios but also timely Addresses challenges, ensures perpetual growth and long-term retention. Comparative assessment from reference models emphasizes on the advantages of the proposed solution over the comparative precision, recall, and F1-score, which creates a new paradigm for mobile-assisted language learning. This research represents a major step forward in the mobile learning applications with its demonstration of the revolutionizing potential of AI-based personalized assessment in language education. Future studies will try to expand this model into different linguistic scenarios, proving its efficiency in unmodified real-life scenarios.
Mobile learning, formative assessment, GPT, personalized feedback, language development
Correlation between Verb Extensions and Object Marking in Kiswahili: Patterns and Implications for Argument Structure
This study investigates the intricate nexus between verb extensions and object marking in Kiswahili, with particular emphasis on morphological and syntactic patterns and their implications for argument structure. Data were collected through documentary review from Kivuli Kinaishi (Mohamed, 1990), Nagona (Kezilahabi, 1990), and Mzingile (Kezilahabi, 1991). The data were analysed using the mapping principle of Lexical Mapping Theory as proposed by Falk (2001). This principle accounts for the alternation or retention of object marking in relation to verb extensions. The findings reveal two major patterns in the interaction between verb extensions and object marking in Kiswahili. First, some single, pairwise, and triplewise verb extensions suppress object marking. Single verb extensions that suppress object marking include the stative, reciprocal, and passive. Pairwise extensions include applicative + passive, applicative + reciprocal, causative + passive, causative + reciprocal, reversive + stative, and stative + reciprocal. Triplewise extensions that suppress object marking include applicative + causative + passive, reciprocal + stative + applicative, and reciprocal + applicative + passive. Second, some single, pairwise, and triplewise verb extensions retain and, in some cases, require object marking in Kiswahili. These include the single verb extensions applicative, causative, and reversive, as well as pairwise extensions such as applicative + causative and reversive + applicative. Among triplewise extensions, only the reversive + applicative + causative pattern was found to retain object marking. These phenomena occur across single, pairwise, and triplewise extensions but differ with respect to the types of derivational suffixes involved and the nature of their combinations. The study is delimited to syntactic (productive) verb extensions. Future research may focus on lexical (non-productive) or non-voice verb extensions and their interaction with object marking in Kiswahili and other Bantu languages.
Verb extension, object marking, syntax extension, lexical extension, mapping
Translation Analysis of Hadil Assayeda Alhora by Al Bashir Damoun
This study is carried out to scrutinize the concept of gender, particularly; women’s imperious role in Moroccan history through the process of translating the work of Al Bashir Damoun entitled “Assayeda Alhora” and to explain the roots of this subject using the English Language. This translating study is set up based on approaching this work within literary and feminist frameworks generally and draws on different linguistic theories and other language-related disciplines. This paper investigates the idea of refuting women’s subordination and subjugation while forgetting about her imperious touch in Moroccan History. This research methodology adopts a qualitative approach to describe the subjective study of translation. Furthermore, it seeks to examine, analyze, and present the challenges, strategies, and approaches adopted in the translation of the historical reply against the stagnation and the subordination of women in history. The analysis of this study contributes to deepening the understanding of the issue of women, as well as enlightening readers about the challenges the translators confront during the process of translation.
Women- Gender- Translation- History- Challenges- Techniques
Accusative Nouns as Textual Intentions in the Structure of the Verbal Sentence
In Arabic grammar, a sentence is essentially a predication to which adjuncts are regarded as surplus that can be dispensed with; however, in actuality, the sentence is built syntactically that has a meaning partially associated with the text in which it is placed, and adjuncts are the means through which the sentence is linked to its text—this is where the issue arises: is the core construction of a sentence predication alone or predication plus adjuncts? Old grammarians and most contemporary linguists still argue that predication is the sentence and that anything past that is simply non-compulsory adjuncts, which leads to the scenario of sentence-text separation and the profiling of Arabic grammar as sentence-bound instead of text-oriented. This study addresses this issue through a detailed explanation of the position of accusative nouns in sentences and texts, highlighting them as adjuncts: indispensable for sentence structure and the main textual element connecting sentence to text—particularly the absolute object, which is the foundation of sentence building and its deep semantic structure. Other accusative nouns and prepositional phrases function as textual modals; the subject commences text and sentence, while the verb has two components: the event (absolute object) and time, which are characteristic of both verbal and nominal sentences.
Accusative nouns, sentence, text, adjunct, structure
Copyright (c) 2026 Mahmoud Sulaiman Al-Hawashah, Adnan Bataineh, Sabra Muradjan Al Balushi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Investigating the Role of Using Palindromes in Developing Our Daily Life Activities
The study aims to identify how Palindromes (P)s can affect and enrich our daily life activities?”?. To highlight that using Palindromes (P)s can affect and enrich our daily life activities. Therefore, the analysis concentrates on observation and Fairclough’s Method of Constraints. These means have been chosen as secondary tools for the analysis because they are closely related to the non-linguistic features that are taken as samples in this study. These non-linguistic features are set to clarify the positive perspective of Palindromes (P)s. The study is concerned with analyzing how Palindromes (P)s can affect and enrich our daily life activities as a form of development. The analysis has shown that using Palindromes (P)s to enrich and enhance our daily life activities as a form of development is highly recommended.
A Study on Human-AI Collaboration Modes in Lyric Translation from a Translator-Centered Perspective
With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, machine translation has become an important tool for translators to enhance productivity. However, lyric translation, which demands high levels of musicality, poetic sensibility, and cultural adaptability, represents a complex act of artistic recreation. At present, translators lack systematic methodological guidance for using AI in translation, making it difficult to effectively leverage artificial intelligence to improve translation quality. To address this, this study adopts a translator-oriented perspective to construct a human-computer collaborative workflow led by the translator, consisting of three stages: “pre-translation planning and prompting—critical screening during translation—post-translation precise editing and artistic refinement.” The paper emphasizes that translators should guide AI in generating draft translations through structured instructions while reinforcing their dual roles as translation project managers and artistic decision-makers during the interaction. By applying this model to the translation practice of the lyrics 《爱在》 its comprehensive effectiveness in coordinating rhythm, transforming imagery, and preserving poetic meaning was validated. The study concludes that the key to improving lyric translation quality in the era of artificial intelligence lies in the translator's mastery of the tool. It provides an actionable methodological framework for lyric translation and offers theoretical reference and practical insights for translation teaching and translator competence development.
Copyright (c) 2026 Jiaying Lai, Li Gao https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Language Attitudes and Reported Practices of Parents of Preschool Children in Cyprus
This paper examines the language attitudes and reported language practices of parents of children at the kindergarten level in the Greek-Cypriot community of Cyprus. The two varieties spoken in this community are in a diglossic relationship: the high variety, Standard Modern Greek (henceforth SMG), which is also the official language of Cyprus, and the low variety, the Greek-Cypriot dialect (henceforth GC), which is the non-standardised native variety. Examining the parental attitudes and reported practices of diglossic speakers in the home is crucial for the vitality of both varieties as well as for the speakers’ confidence and sense of identity. Data were collected using questionnaires and interviews. The results from the questionnaires, which are discussed in this paper, show that although most parents consider both SMG and GC to be part of their national and cultural heritage and linguistic identity and express positive attitudes towards both varieties, they encourage their children to use the standard variety from a preschool age. This could be due to the fact that the official language of education in Cyprus is SMG, parents, as diglossic speakers, wish for their children to express themselves fluently in writing in the high variety (SMG), and generally to succeed at school. These language attitudes and reported practices reveal how strong the ideology of the standard language (Milroy, 2007) is in diglossic settings such as Cyprus.
Language Attitudes; Language Practices; Dialect; Diglossia; Language Ideology
Human vs Machine Translation: A Comparative Study of Contextual Accuracy
Translation has a significant impact on the process of intercultural communication, international business, and transfer of knowledge. In recent decades, major advancements in machine translations (MT) have been experienced especially with the emergence of neural machine translations (NMT), which has significantly enhanced significantly the levels of fluency, grammar, and accessibility. Whether or not MT can maintain contextual accuracy, particularly in areas where subtlety and idiomatic phrasing, emotional appeal and cultural sensitivity are more important, still hangs. In this paper, a comparative analysis of human and machine translation is provided mainly on the contextual fidelity. A combination of the mixed-methods development process included a corpus of legal texts, literary texts, medical texts and marketing texts in Arabic, French and Japanese, which were translated by professional human translators, and the most popular systems of machine translators (Google Translate, DeepL, Microsoft Translator). A five-criterion evaluation system, that is, semantic fidelity, cultural appropriateness, idiomatic accuracy, emotional tone, and grammatical correctness, was used to evaluate translations. Objective data also reveal that, although MT scores close to human functional levels of grammar and fundamental semantics faithfulness, it perpetually performs poorly when it comes to the expression of idioms, tonality, and cultural subtext. Qualitative results also support the fact that MT cannot process light contextual clues, including irony, formality hierarchies, and culturally associated metaphors. In comparison, human translators are better at cultural adaptation as well as cost-effective and scalable. The research finds that hybrid systems in which MT delivers initial translations that are further processed with the assistance of human post-editing are the way to go. The implications of these findings for the research of translation, AI ethics, and professional training are immense, as they can confirm that there is ongoing relevance of human judgment in a translation field that is becoming more automated.
Human translation, machine translation, contextual accuracy, neural machine translation, cultural nuance, idiomatic expressions
Constructing the International Business Image of Guangzhou: A Corpus-driven Discourse Analysis of Business News on Government Website
In the context of globalization, cities serve as pivotal actors in international competition, where their international image and business environment play decisive roles in attracting investments, talents, and fostering economic growth. Guangzhou, as southern China’s economic nucleus, strategically constructs its international business persona and disseminates business environment information through official platforms like government portals. This study conducts a comprehensive discourse analysis of business news on Guangzhou’s government website, aiming to reveal linguistic characteristics, rhetorical strategies, and their impact on the city's commercial identity. Employing a corpus-driven discourse analysis framework, this research collected and analyzed English business news published on Guangzhou Municipal Government’s official portal (gz.gov.cn) from August 2023 to June 2024. The theoretical framework includes LDA topic modeling, Sinclair’s extended meaning unit theory, and Wodak’s discourse strategies, exploring the construction mechanism and optimization pathways of Guangzhou’s international business image. The research identifies four core business images: a global trade hub, an innovation-led tech hub, a highly attractive investment destination, and a dynamic and livable metropolis. It reveals the synergistic application of four key discursive strategies: nomination, predication, argumentation, and intensification/mitigation. Furthermore, specific enhancement pathways are proposed from three dimensions: linguistic optimization, government website upgrading, and cross-dimensional collaboration. This study provides a theoretical framework and practical reference for the international communication of urban business images.
Guangzhou; International Business Image; Government Website; corpus-driven discourse analysis
Copyright (c) 2026 Fangyuan Yan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Application of Specification in the Translation of Three Hundred Tang Poems——Cases Study of the Xu Yuanchong’s Version and Witter Bynner & Kiang Kang-Hu’s
Three Hundred Tang Poems is a treasure trove of ancient Chinese wisdom that has become a world treasure through skillful translation. In rendering these poems for international readers, the translator must not only accurately convey their artistic conception and bridge emotional nuances, but also reconstruct their cultural connotations. To achieve such a translation effect, the proper application of specification—a strategy of representing the original ideas or concept in a more concrete or explicit way—becomes quite necessary. This paper, taking the English translation of Three Hundred Tang Poems made by Xu Yuanchong and Witter Bynner & Kiang Kang-Hu as examples, makes a comparative analysis of their application of specification in poetry translation, focusing on three dimensions: context, emotion and culture. It tends to reveal the use of different degrees and types of specification on the effect of translation, with a view to offer some insights for the translation of Chinese poems.
Copyright (c) 2026 Yujie Luo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Creative Catalyst or Cognitive Crutch? Moroccan EFL University Students’ Perceptions of AI in Guided Reading
This paper explores the perceptions of Moroccan EFL university students regarding the adoption of AI as a cognitive partner in guided reading classes. The researcher examines whether AI tools, particularly ChatGPT, enhance or erode student’s divergent thinking skills. A qualitative methodology was employed, using semi-structured interviews, to gather in-depth insights of 60 Moroccan EFL university students who have attended guided reading classes at the Faculty of Languages, Lettres and Art in Kenitra, Morocco. Following the survey, the researcher invited voluntary students for further exploration. 08 volunteers took part in a focus group interview to discuss their perceptions and perspectives in detail. The findings of the study indicate that students' perceptions regarding AI tools were favourable in terms of Creativity and Idea Generation, and Cognitive Support and Metacognition. However, some challenges are unavoidable when employing these tools, resulting from factors like Cultural and Literary Interpretation, and Ethical Awareness and Trust. In sum, this study contributes to the growing discourse on AI in EFL higher education by highlighting how AI can function as a cognitive partner in guided reading when its use is pedagogically guided, culturally sensitive, and critically framed.
Artificial Intelligence; Guided Reading; Literary Analysis; Divergent Thinking; EFL Learners; Student Perceptions
Connected and Free Exceptive Constructions in Najdi Arabic
In the syntactic literature, two types of exceptive constructions have been identified, namely connected exceptives (CEs) and free exceptives (FEs). While the exceptive phrase appears adjacent to its associate in CEs, it appears non-adjacent in FEs. Within the Arabic context, two competing lines of analysis have been proposed. The first treats the exceptive marker as a coordinating conjunction, conjoining two DPs in CEs and two CPs in FEs. The second, by contrast, analyzes the exceptive marker as a functional head projecting either an exceptive phrase (ExP) or a subtractive exceptive phrase (S-ExP), which may adjoin to the main clause or the associate DP either as an adjunct or as an apposition. The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of the two exceptive types in Najdi Arabic (NA). Following the first line of analysis, I argue that the exceptive marker ʔillaa ‘except’ in NA functions as a coordinating conjunction that conjoins two XPs. Specifically, in NA CEs it conjoins two DPs within a mono-clausal structure, while in NA FEs it conjoins two CPs within a bi-clausal structure. In the latter, the exception XP moves to the left periphery of the exceptive clause before the TP-ellipsis applies. Multiple strands of evidence, such as multiple exceptions and speaker-oriented adverbs, support this analysis, which considers the exceptive phrase as a phrase in CEs but as a clause in FEs. It is hoped that the analysis advanced here contributes to the ongoing discussion on the syntax of exceptive constructions.
Exceptive constructions, connected exceptive, free exceptive, Najdi Arabic, syntax
Copyright (c) 2026 Bader Alharbi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A Corpus-Based Comparative Study of Arabic and English Prepositions among Arabic-Speaking EFL Learners in the Saudi Context
Prepositions play a crucial role in English for expressing relationships of time, place, manner, and possession; however, they can be challenging for Arabic-speaking learners due to the syntactic and semantic differences in structure. This study scrutinises how Saudi EFL learners use English prepositions and compares their usage with that of native English writers. Corpus-based approaches (CBAs) have been utilised for identifying the cooccurrence of prepositions in learner text. The study compiled 500 written texts (150,000 words) in the Arabic Learner Corpus (ALC) and 2,761 texts (6.9 million words) in the British Academic Written English (BAWE). The study’s key findings reveal that in the writings of English learners whose first language is Arabic, the preposition لـ / li (“for, to”) appears 2614.08 times, بـ / bi (“with, by, in”) appears 285.25 times, and كَ / ka (“like, as”) occurs 187.14 times. In contrast, the prepositions فوق / fawq (“above, over”) appear only 0.66 times, تحت / taḥta (“under, beneath”) 0.87 times, and أثناء / athnā’ (“during”) 0.87 times in learner writing. On the other hand, the most frequently occurring English prepositions are to (67.23), of (39.26), for (31.71), as (24.06), by (23.79), with (21.85), and in (22.21). The least commonly used prepositions include beneath (0.01), beyond (0.13), and concerning (0.13), along with other low-frequency items such as upon (0.37) in BAWE. The findings demonstrate that first language influence and limited exposure to abstract prepositions contribute to these patterns. This study fills a research gap and provides the empirical evidence to guide pedagogical strategies that target underused prepositions in Saudi EFL contexts.
Prepositions, Arabic Learner Corpus (ALC), British Academic Written English (BAWE), Saudi EFL learners, corpus-based method
Copyright (c) 2026 Marzoog Alhothaly https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Initiation of Chinese-American Daughters in The Joy Luck Club and Everything I Never Told You
The protagonists in The Joy Luck Club and Everything I Never Told You face multiple challenges related to identity, family expectations, and social pressures within different cultural backgrounds and family environments. In The Joy Luck Club, the protagonist, June, embarks on a "journey of self-discovery" that leads her to gradually recognize and embrace Chinese culture, ultimately achieving a balance between her Chinese and American identities. The protagonist Lydia, in Everything I Never Told You, suppresses her true self under the weight of family pressures and social isolation. Though she experiences an epiphany that helps her realize her true needs, she is ultimately unable to escape her predicament. This paper uses the theory of the Bildungsroman to compare and analyze the growth experiences of the Chinese-American daughters in these two works, revealing how, in a multicultural context, ethnic daughters seek cultural identity and self-recognition, and examining the roles that family and social environments play in this process.
The Joy Luck Club; Everything I Never Told You; Bildungsroman; Mentors; Epiphany
Copyright (c) 2026 Yingying Li https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Social Stances: Comparing Engagement of Chinese and American Mental Health News Discourse
This study investigates mental health news discourse in Chinese (China Daily) and American (The New York Times) mental health news discourse with an engagement framework (Martin & White, 2005), examining how news writers utilize engagement resources to convey value positions on mental health issues. The results show that both corpora prefer heterogloss to monogloss, indicating a common practice in acknowledging multiple voices. In dialogic strategies, American media use monogloss significantly more than Chinese media do, indicating a more categorical and assertive baseline. Within heterogloss, Chinese media is expansion-dominant, with typical endorsement and entertaining resources; the American counterpart favors contraction, especially with deny and acknowledgement utterances. These dialogic patterns indicate that the Chinese media foreground mediated, evidential, and collective guidance on mental health issues, while the American news discourse emphasizes assertive, contestatory authority and experiential advocacy. These findings suggest that Chinese reporting would treat mental health as a collective public project, and American news frames it as an individual issue requiring social advocacy.
engagement system; mental health; news discourse; corpus
Copyright (c) 2026 Jiaying Yan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Journey Narrative in The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Its Self- Redemption
In The Snows of Kilimanjaro, American journey writer Ernest Hemingway constructs a dual-threaded narrative that intertwines the protagonist’s, Harry, journey experiences in memory and reality. Through the journey narrative, Harry ultimately attains a form of redemption, endowing life with sacred significance. Harry, attempting to escape from reality in order to grapple with the existential crises of the Lost Generation, confronts death in his journey experiences, contemplates the void of existence, and embodies masculinity against nothingness, which is the approach for Hemingway and his generation for the pursuit of meaning and identity. In the modern era, journey remains a crucial means of understanding the world. Thus, an interpretation of journey experiences and the journey narrative as a metaphor for modernity offers valuable insights into human identity.
Ernest Hemingway; The Snows of Kilimanjaro; journey narrative; self-redemption; metaphor of modernity
Copyright (c) 2026 Mingyue Yu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Plasticity of Discourse: A Critical Multimodal Analysis of Language and Gender in Barbie
Greta Gerwig's 2023 film Barbie provides a dynamic and culturally resonant framework for examining the interplay between language, gender ideology, and popular media. This study conducts a critical multimodal discourse analysis of the film’s linguistic and semiotic strategies, focusing on how dialogue, visual composition, and musical elements collectively construct and deconstruct normative gender scripts. By analyzing key sequences—including the utopian discourse of Barbieland, Gloria’s metacritical monologue on feminine contradictions, and the Kens’ parodic performance of patriarchy—this paper argues that Barbie functions as a form of public metalinguistics. It not only reflects but actively engages audiences in critiquing the ways language shape’s identity, authority, and social possibility. The film navigates the tensions between neoliberal co-optation and feminist critique, ultimately proposing that discursive awareness can serve as a catalyst for reimagining entrenched gender norms. This research contributes to the fields of cinematic linguistics and feminist media studies by illustrating how mainstream film can foster critical language awareness and public discourse on gender performativity.
Critical discourse analysis, multimodal analysis, gender performativity, feminist film studies, popular culture, sociolinguistics
Exploration of Colloquialization and Cyber-localization in Streaming Media Subtitle Translation
With the rise of global streaming platforms represented by Netflix, Disney+, and iQIYI, the practical environment and reception ecology of audiovisual translation (AVT) have undergone a fundamental transformation. Distinct from the “hallowed” and “elitist” orientation of traditional film and television translation, subtitle translation on streaming platforms exhibits a prominent new trend toward “colloquialization” and “cyber-localization”. This paper aims to systematically explore the underlying drivers, specific manifestations, theoretical challenges, and practical reflections triggered by this trend. The paper first analyzes how the immediacy, interactivity, and “circle-based” (interest-group) characteristics of streaming platforms reshape translation contexts and audience expectations. Subsequently, through a comparative analysis of subtitle versions for several streaming series (such as The Queen’s Gambit and Everything Everywhere All at Once) against traditional translation versions, it elaborates on the translation strategies of “colloquialization” (e.g. life-like dialogues, creative use of modal particles, and splitting of long sentences) and “cyber-localization” (e.g. internet slang, adaptation of meme culture, and interactivity presets for danmaku) across lexical, syntactic, pragmatic, and cultural dimensions. The study finds that this trend is a product of the synergy between media convergence, technological empowerment, and youth subculture. Although it significantly enhances the immediacy, intimacy, and communicative power of the translated text, it also harbors risks such as over-domestication, obsolescence traps (temporality pitfalls), and cultural discounts. The paper concludes that streaming subtitle translation is evolving from an “invisible” interlingual conversion toward a “visible” form of cultural adaptation and community co-construction. This research offers important insights for deepening translation ethics, quality assessment, and talent cultivation in the digital era.
Audiovisual Translation; Streaming Platforms; Subtitle Translation; Colloquialization; Cyber-localization