Crossroads. A Journal of English Studies

Phonetics and phonology of sound perception in a changing system

Yurii Chybras — 2024-11-07

Since the establishment of phonology as a separate branch of linguistics, scholars such as N. Trubetzkoy, C. B. Chang, E. de Leeuw, D. LaCharité, and others have demonstrated that phonological principles serve as the fundamental framework for sound perception. In particular, the key concepts of phonological sieve, approximation, language attrition and language drift show steady patterns of phonology driven sound perception. However, not all instances of sound perception adhere strictly to such phonological principles. This article examines a case of sound perception in Ukrainian revealing that, under the circumstances of phonological instability, the basic principle of sound perception may tend to shift from phonologically to phonetically driven sound perception.

An invisible storyteller or a loud recreator? A translator-centered approach to the translation of children’s literature

Aida Alla — 2024-11-07

This paper aims to demonstrate that, like the original author, a translator of children’s literature (hereafter CH. L.) possesses a distinct style or idiolect, shaped by both linguistic and extralinguistic expectations. The study focuses on the first three books of the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, translated into Albanian by Amik Kasoruho, who is renowned for his contributions to the translation of classic adult literature. Given the study’s scope, the analysis will concentrate exclusively on Kasoruho’s creative use of the lexicon in the Albanian translation. Both internal and external factors are considered to identify and analyze translator Kasoruho’s idiolect at the lexical level. Internally, sentences containing words and phrases with common patterns (e.g., archaic terms, dialectal expressions, phraseological units, substandard words) are selected from the target text. These are compared with their counterparts in the source text to determine whether such patterns reflect the author’s style or the translator’s linguistic preferences. Externally, these lexical clusters are assessed against the norms of children’s literature translation (Ch. L. T.) to ascertain whether the translator adhered to or deviated from these norms. The findings suggest that the translator’s linguistic idiosyncrasies significantly influence the translation process.

Power bottom, gay versatile, top persistant, and other borrowings from English in erotic biographies of gay and bisexual porn stars on French adult websites

Mateusz Białas — 2024-11-07

This paper examines lexical borrowings from English in the erotic biographies of gay and bisexual porn actors available on French websites. The study adopts an anthropological perspective, drawing on David Le Breton’s concept of the ‘liberated’ body and Marie-Anne Paveau’s typology of pornographic discourse. Three main types of borrowings have been identified: full borrowings (e.g., bareback), hybrid borrowings (e.g., hardeur), and semantic calques (e.g., versatile). The analysis reveals that full borrowings are predominant in the corpus, particularly in conceptual and lexical anaphors referring to specific antecedents, namely male porn stars. Moreover, these borrowings serve various functions in constructing the representations and identities of porn actors within the discourse examined, reflecting both their physical attributes, social roles, and sexual preferences. The investigation emphasizes the significance of borrowings as one of the key mechanism for enriching the French language, especially in the context of persuasive discourse, which mirrors the evolution of societies and contemporary cultural and social phenomena. Ultimately, the study may contribute to the understanding of how linguistic borrowings shape the portrayal of marginalized groups in media and influence the broader discourse on sexuality and identity.

English as a barrier on the pathway of professional transitioning of Ukrainian migrant teachers in Australia

Larysa Chybis — 2024-11-07

Australia is seen as a promised land by migrants pursuing a better future for themselves and their families. Highly qualified migrants with vast work experience frequently encounter hurdles on their way to professional realisation, including the official language of the country – English. This study investigates the difficulties Ukrainian teachers face with the English language on their professional transition pathway in Australia. The research involves Ukrainian migrant teachers who obtained a specialist or master’s degree in Ukraine or another post-Soviet country, whose professional experience in Ukraine was in the teaching field, and who identify as Ukrainians. Narrative interviews, memos, documents, and artefacts are the data collection methods; thematic analysis is used to unpack the data. The participants were chosen using non-probability purposive snowball sampling, which engages contacts within the community and benefits projects with a small number of respondents. The inquiry elucidates the extent of the English problem for Ukrainian migrant teachers on their way to professional transition in Australia. The research will benefit other migrant teachers facing similar barriers when trying to re-enter their profession in the new environment and inform apposite institutions about the existing hurdles to facilitate positive changes in the field.

Putting languages into perspective: A comprehensive database of English words and their Croatian equivalents

Jasmina Jelčić Čolakovac — 2024-11-07

Numerous studies have addressed the issue of English words in the context of their adaptation, but there still exists the need for a systematic perspective on English words in terms of their number and frequency of appearance. This article will outline the procedure behind the compilation process of unadapted English words in the Croatian language with a comprehensive description of the final product – an open-access database of single- (SWE) and multi-word (MWE) English expressions extracted from Croatian web corpora (ENGRI and hrWaC) by means of computational-linguistic tools and manual extraction. The final version of the database contains 2,982 English words in their unadapted form (e.g. blockbuster), and 18 words which appear with English orthographic properties in combination with Croatian inflectional affixes (e.g. downloadati). Each SWE and MWE entry in the database is accompanied with frequencies of appearance in both corpora as well as its Croatian equivalent where available (29.58% of all entries are listed without an equivalent). The database serves as the first systematic representation of English words in Croatian and provides an indispensable tool for further research into the phenomenon while at the same time opening the door to a new line of research – cognitive processing of English words in Croatian.

Do sex and gender go hand in hand? A study of their collocational profiles in EU documents regarding equal treatment of men and women

Katarzyna Mroczyńska — 2024-11-07

The study of collocations has a long history that goes back to Firth (1957/1968). However, scholarly attention has focused mostly on collocations in general language, with research on this phenomenon within Language for Specialised Purposes (LSP) being a newer and not thoroughly explored line of research. The present article attempts to bridge this gap by looking at the way sex and gender are employed in the European Union legislation and documents regarding equal treatment of men and women. In particular, the study contrasts and analyses the combinatory potential of sex and gender as employed in the equal opportunities and non-discrimination regulations and other documents issued by the European Union and its bodies. It also offers a diachronic perspective on how sex and gender are used in the EU’s primary and secondary legislation as well as in guidelines and recommendations. The findings suggest that the two terms in question show completely different collocational profiles and their combinatory potential also varies, with sex appearing in a limited number of well-established collocations and gender being far more productive and frequent, especially in more recent documents.

Employee, worker, jobholder, agent, staff and workforce in UK employment legislation: A genre-specific corpus study on synonymy, collocations and meaning

Agnieszka Rzepkowska — 2024-11-07

In legal texts, synonymy may lead to confusion, especially if the synonymous words are terms which, by definition, should be unambiguous. This paper addresses the issue of synonyms in legal language through a genre-specific corpus study of employee, worker, jobholder, agent, staff and workforce – legal terms that appear similar in meaning – in the corpus of UK employment legislation. Specifically, the study looks at (a) the distribution of the terms in the corpus to determine the areas of law in which they are used, (b) the definitions of these terms in legal dictionaries, as well as general and business English dictionaries if the legal dictionaries fail to provide definitions, along with legal definitions from the 12 legislative documents constituting the corpus, (c) the immediate context of use (the co-text) to identify the most typical word combinations with the terms (candidate collocates), and (d) the differences between the terms based on the definitions and the collocational profile of the terms. The findings suggest that, to some extent, the meanings of the terms overlap, indicating that they function as synonyms. However, they are not interchangeable in legislative acts as indicated by both their distribution in the corpus and their immediate context. Additionally, the study identified not only candidate collocations but also several multi-word terms defined within the legal acts.