Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov. Series IV: Philology and Cultural Studies

Partial voicing neutralization in unstressed stop-nasal sequences

A. Munteanu — 2024-12-12

We present the results of a production experiment that explores the realization of voicing in English stop-nasal sequences, a phonological environment with a low functional load. The results imply a separation between primary and secondary voicing cues. Primary cues – aspiration and vocal fold vibration during stop closure – robustly distinguish underlyingly voiced stops from and underlyingly voiceless ones. Meanwhile, secondary cues – vowel duration and stop closure duration – are limited in their use by phonological position or absent entirely. A principal component analysis of the data indicates that all speakers occasionally produce tokens that are ambiguous in voicing cues.

Manner of motion and directional verbs in spoken adult and child Romanian

Ioana Stoicescu — 2024-12-12

This paper presents the patterns of use for manner of motion and directional verbs in a corpus of oral adult-to-adult Romanian, and a longitudinal corpus of child Romanian comprising both adult-to-child and child data. In adult-to-adult speech, as well as adult-to-child speech, manner of motion verbs were much less frequently used than directional verbs. This trend was also found in child speech. In the adult input and child speech, manner of motion verbs were mainly used intransitively, without reference to a Goal of Motion. By contrast, inherently directed motion verbs were used in bare verb constructions, or in association with Goal of Motion prepositional and adverbial phrases.

On the syntax and usage of glossonyms in memes and reels

Mihaela Tanase-Dogaru — 2024-12-12

The paper looks at three major contexts of occurrence for non-standard glossonyms, i.e. in internet reels and memes, which are identified as: Verb + glossonym proper (of the type ‘waits in Spanish’), Manner-of-speaking Verb + covert glossonym (of the type ‘screams in teenager’), and Verb + like X glossonym (of the type ‘stares in wife’). Building on the syntactic analysis in Tănase-Dogaru (2024), the paper shows that all three types of constructions involve the presence of a covert classifier LANGUAGE or WAY. Moreover, all three types of constructions involve the presence of the preposition ‘in’, which, unlike standard glossonym constructions, where it disambiguates between an individual-level and a stage-level reading, introduces an ambiguity between a ‘like X’ and a ‘language X’ reading, which in turn triggers humorous effects.

The acquisition of diphthongs by Romanian-speaking children

Elena Buja — 2024-12-12

The paper aims to identify the factors that may influence the acquisition of diphthongs (such as their position in the word, the stress on the syllable in which they occur, and the type of diphthong under consideration, i.e. falling or rising), the patterns in diphthong acquisition, as well as to trace a developmental path in between the ages 1;6 and 3 years, given the fact that these vocalic sounds emerge before the age of 2 and seem to be acquired when children turn 3 and a half years of age. To achieve these aims, I have employed six longitudinal corpora of children aged between 00;11.172 and 3;1. The findings indicate that, to a large extent, Romanian-acquiring children pattern with the children speaking other languages in terms of the age of emergence of diphthongs, as well as in diphthong simplification to one of the vowels, but they also differ from these in that they present a larger range of error patterns in diphthong acquisition, as well as inter- and intra-child variation.

Aspect and temporality in the Romanian past compound

Csongor Hegedus — 2024-12-12

In this paper, I analyse the Romanian past compound, from temporal and aspectual viewpoint, and I foreshadow that the rewrite condition is a must for the mentioned tense. Starting from Hornstein’s (1993) BTS (Basic Tense Structure), I believe that Romanian past compound can have multiple values, and in many situations its core value, the present perfect, must be either extended or reduced, depending on the scope of the CC (Complex Clause). I reflect about the dubitative meaning of the past compound, more precisely about its impact on perfectivity, how our mind processes time without the proper modification of the tense head. I differentiate 4 types of aspects and I add some tense values to the original classification made by Călărașu (1987); these values are based on different types of clausal arguments, for example the past perfect value of the past compound. The paper also focuses on the hidden meaning of operators, foreshadowing that at S-structure these operators might have a greater influence for TAM marking than an event variable. Many times, the perspective is based on hypothesised situations, in order to illustrate temporal and aspectual conflicts.

Student identity – A membership categorization analysis approach

Gabriela Chefneux — 2024-12-12

The paper uses as its theoretical framework the Membership Categorization Analysis, a way of understanding how interlocutors interpret and give meaning to reality. The concepts underlying the analysis are members, categories, categorization devices, and categorization methods. The data drawn upon are seven interviews recorded with students from the Faculty of Letters at Transilvania University of Brașov. The paper investigates the values the respondents associate with being a student by resorting to categories, categorization devices (considered as expressing moral principles and attitudes), and categorization methods.

Delinquency-associated stereotypes in Gypsy jokes and their connection to social aspects

Noemi Tudor (Uretu) — 2024-12-12

Ethnic humour was scarcely addressed by Romanian studies. Therefore, I propose an analysis of Gypsy jokes, that considers a general linguistic perspective, but the broadest dimension is the pragmatic one. The study focuses on 100 ethnic jokes that portray the Gypsy as a main character. I categorised these jokes according to the main topic they present. From a methodological point of view, I use the Intersecting Circles Model (Yus 2013a, 2013b, 2016 etc.), as it operates with the three dimensions found in ethnicity-centred humour (make-sense frame, cultural frame, and utterance interpretation). The quantitative approach illustrates the number of jokes found in each category as a main theme or as a complementary one. The qualitative analysis copes with delinquency-associated stereotypes: theft, begging, lying, dishonesty, metal obsession, as well as their main cause considered by sociologist – poverty. The paper also introduces a terminological distinction – hypo-stereotype vs hyper-stereotype.

Pre-campaign discourse in the Romanian presidential election of 2024: An analysis of characterisations

Adina Botas — 2024-12-12

This paper analyses presidential election pre-campaign communication highlighting the main themes in the descriptions made by candidates about themselves and their opponents, via online news media. The discourse selected for analysis was collected between August and October 2024. The dataset is composed of extracts from public statements and interviews of top candidates focused on image crafting, i.e. self- and other-characterisation, examined through a 3D lens: componential analysis of speech acts, lexical semantics and Critical Discourse Analysis CDA – agency and representation (van Leeuwen 2008). Starting from a landmark profile of the ‘desirable candidate’, the study outlines the subjective representations of what the candidates consider important themes of self-definition in the preparatory phase of the pre-campaign, in an aim to highlight a general image of ‘the public from the mind of the candidate’.

Coding and robotics to support linguistic and non-verbal interactional practices in Italian preschools: the powerful effect of small group situations

C. Monaco — 2024-12-12

The research started in 2020-2021 and involved 18 Italian preschools: 3-to-6-year-old children have been introduced to experiences of coding and robotics (BeeBot, Cubetto, Lego WeDo 2.0, i-Code). The study aimed at promoting social and discursive interaction among kids within mixed by age small group situations (4-5 children), for improving and increasing their knowledge co-construction. It was composed by different phases that interconnected teachers’ training and school educational practices. Some initial results show that: a) educational robotics represented an effective tool for promoting discursive practices where linguistic and non-verbal dimensions complemented each other; b) within a specific educational planning, coding and robotics allowed teachers to organize learning contexts where children could act and improve several intelligences. This process was always developed within small group situations, where children could “mix and exchange” their individual intelligences.