An Error Analysis of Orthographic Representation in Written Chinese Characters

This paper reports an error analysis of orthographic representation in written Chinese characters among Mandarin as foreign language (MFL) learners studying at an elementary level at a Malaysian public university in their dictation assessment. A total of 262 stroke error types of their orthographic representation in written Chinese characters were collected and analysed. The errors were consequently classified into four main categories among 165 MFL learners who took part in the study. The study found that participants made most mistakes in the stroke numbers and shape of orthographic representation in written Chinese characters. It was also found that there were detectable mistakes in stroke relation and stroke direction of orthographic representation in written Chinese characters. The cognitive factors contributing to the orthographic representation error types in written Chinese characters are discussed. It is concluded that beginner MFL learners would have a greater tendency to commit several character errors in writing Mandarin because of their low level of orthographic awareness and presumably a high cognitive load given to them as they transit from writing alphabets scripts to writing Chinese characters. Future research could examine how MFL learners cognitively adapt when transitioning from alphabet scripts to Chinese characters. Findings would guide instructors in the teaching Chinese characters more efficient and subsequently, it would allow them to interpret orthographic representations and write Chinese characters more accurately.

Negation in Languages: A Urhobo Perspective

This paper examines negation and types of tense negation in Urhobo. It also identifies negation marker(s) and the manner in which these negation marker(s) are used in sentences. Transformational generative grammar theory of analysis was used in the work. The aim of this study is to determine the syntactic characteristics of negation in Urhobo. The study shows that negative construction in the Urhobo language involves the doubling of the last vowel of the last word in sentences; or what may be called the lengthening of the last vowel of the lexical item in the sentence. Also, the low-high tone can do the same function as the lexical or grammatical tone. It was observed that negation is a natural phenomenon that cuts across Urhobo, and that the orthographic representation of the low tone, which is the copying of the final vowel, is written contiguously while other negative markers are written separately. It was also observed that Urhobo operates suffixation. Finally, the study work reveals ejo, je, odie and and oyen as negative markers in Urhobo.

The essence of ‘word’

This chapter offers general background for the analysis of ‘phonological word’ and ‘grammatical word’ in a cross-linguistic perspective. It outlines the defining characteristics of phonological word (including segmental and suprasegmental features and phonological processes), formulates restrictions on the length of a minimal word, and places ‘word’ within a hierarchy of phonological units. Defining features of grammatical word are outlined next. In most instances phonological words and grammatical words coincide. In some cases a grammatical word can consist of a number of phonological words, and vice versa. Typical instances of mismatches involve reduplication, compounding, and complex predicates, including serial verbs. Clitics—morphological units which form a phonological unit with a word preceding or following them—account for further mismatches. The reality of word and the nature of its orthographic representation are discussed next. The chapter concludes with an overview of the volume, and an appendix containing points to be addressed by fieldworkers.

Dàj guruguiˈ yumiguiì ‘de como apareció la gente del mundo’: leyenda en triqui de Chicahuaxtla

Chicahuaxtla Triqui is an Otomanguean language spoken in San Andrés Chicahuaxtla and in other neighboring communities in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico. There are two other Triqui languages. One is spoken in San Juan Copala and the other in San Martín Itunyoso. The oral text is a legend entitled Dàj guruguiˈ yumiguiì /da1h ɡuruɡwi3ʔ ʃumiɡwiː313/ ‘How the people of the world appeared’ and is a compilation of several legends about Triqui deities and the creation of the human race as we know it today. In this manuscript, I present a map of the Triqui region, a general description of the Chicahuaxtla Triqui language, its consonant and vowel inventories, tones, information about current and competing orthographic systems and a brief grammatical sketch. The article includes an orthographic representation of the legend with broad and narrow transcription using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) along with a free translation of the text in both Spanish and English.

Attributional and relational influence of numerals in S’ncamtho metaphors

Youth varieties in Africa such as S’ncamtho, the Ndebele-based youth variety in Zimbabwe, and urban vernaculars interact with urban and modern experiences which offer them new materials and experiences to base their metaphors on compared to older metaphors in the base languages. This paper explores the use of numeral qualities and associations in the conceptualisation and orthographic representation of S’ncamtho metaphors. S’ncamtho is popular with urban youth and this makes social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, SMS and Instagram key in the performance of the youth variety, a performance that includes the creation, use and contraction of metaphors. Numerals offer phonetic attributes which are exploited in S’ncamtho as metaphors for contracting longer words into shorter ones for fast and economic writing on social media. Numerals are also used as frames to create analogies which elicit euphemistic and general S’ncamtho metaphors. Qualities of numerals such as sound, form and association are used to derive S’ncamtho metaphors and a unique numeral aided orthography to represent some of these metaphors in writing. The research deploys relational and attributional tenets of metaphor theory to analyse the numerical mappings in S’ncamtho metaphors.

Orthographic variation as evidence for the development of the Linear B writing system

This paper investigates the issue of orthographic variation in the Linear B writing system in order to explore ways in which studying a writing system’s orthographic conventions may shed light on the history of its development. Linear B was used in the palatial/administrative centres of Late Bronze Age Greece and Crete (c.1400–1200 B.C.E.) and records an early Greek dialect known as ‘Mycenaean’. The writing system’s structure and orthographic conventions permit flexibility in the spelling of particular phonological sequences: this paper discusses the varying orthographic representation of such sequences and shows that synchronic variation is common or even the norm in many cases. Investigating the factors which underlie this variation demonstrates the potential for a study of synchronic variation to illuminate a writing system’s diachronic development; it also underlines the importance of analysing the ways in which writers actually choose to use writing systems in order to fully understand their development.

Representation of letter and syllable position in Korean orthographic processing

Research suggests that readers of Korean Hangul are characterised by precise orthographic coding. In contrast to findings from many Indo-European languages, the recognition of Hangul words is not speeded by prior masked presentation of transposed-letter or transposed-syllable primes relative to substitution primes. The present studies asked whether evidence for precise orthographic coding is also observed in the same-different task – a task claimed to reflect pre-lexical orthographic representations. Experiments tested whether masked transposed-syllable (Experiment 1) or transposed-letter (Experiment 2) primes facilitate judgments about whether a target matches a reference stimulus. In contrast to previous results using lexical decision, robust transposition effects were observed in both cases compared to substitution primes. These findings add weight to the proposition that position invariance is a universal characteristic of orthographic representation, although results also raise questions about how the orthographic processing stream should be characterised.

Notes on Yurumanguí grammar and lexicon

In this article, I offer a contribution to the philological study of premodern materials of languages of South America that have already become extinct. I am concerned with the Yurumanguí language, whose speakers were encountered in the 18th century in the western lowlands of Colombia by a Spanish expedition. This encounter resulted in the production of a short collection of words and phrases by a priest which is analyzed here anew. Problems of inconsistent and likely highly inadequate orthographic representation of the speech of the Yurumanguí informants and other problems, in this case, make it highly difficult to arrive at consistent analyses, as I show throughout my highly tentative discussion of nominal and verbal morphosyntax. I also offer external comparisons for some of the available Yurumanguí lexical material. Far from being able to demonstrate the genetic connections of the language, such comparisons do allow to identify items the Yurumanguí language shared with neighboring languages and hence to situate it within the former linguistic ecology of this part of South America.

Orthography and speech production in children with good or poor reading skills

Speech production is influenced by the orthographic representation of the spoken word. Although previous work has shown that inconsistencies between the word’s sound and spelling may facilitate or disrupt processing (e.g., Alario, Perre, Castel, & Ziegler, 2007; Saletta, Goffman, & Brentari, 2015; Saletta, Goffman, & Hogan, 2016; Ventura, Morais, Pattamadilok, & Kolinsky, 2004), the developmental course of this effect on new readers remains unclear. The current study examines how children’s production of nonwords changes as a function of exposure to the nonwords’ orthography. We tested nonword repetition in 17 children with typical reading skills and 17 children with poor reading skills. Participants heard and repeated nonword stimuli, or read them aloud when the stimuli were written in either a relatively transparent or an opaque spelling. We quantified participants’ segmental accuracy and speech movement stability both before and after their exposure to the nonwords’ orthography. The children improved only in segmental accuracy (and not speech movement stability) and only as a consequence of practice (and not because of exposure to the nonwords’ spellings). Children with poorer reading skills demonstrated a greater change in accuracy from pretest to posttest than children with stronger reading skills. Thus, one’s automaticity in reading and the reorganization of his/her literacy skills throughout development influence speech production.