Volume 60, Issue 2

The way and degree to which people in different cultures consider a metaphor to be appropriate, acceptable, or apt has been the subject of controversy in recent decades. According to structure-mapping models, metaphors are understood by mapping relations from the base domain to relations in the target domain. However, previous research lacks literature on cross-cultural contexts and differences in the degree of acceptability of metaphors in different cultures. To address this gap, in this study we examined cross-cultural differences in metaphor aptness among participants from three different cultures. We developed two questionnaires, an acceptability judgment-task and a parallel-relation test using the COCA (English), PLDB (Persian), and KorAP (German) corpus databases. The results suggest striking differences in the acceptance of a metaphor in different cultures where the vehicle of a metaphor is not present. It is suggested that metaphors are considered apt through the process of categorizing the salient features that are considered structurally similar. This idea is partially consistent with studies that support class-inclusion models which suggest that hearers place the topic of a metaphor in a category in which the vehicle fits. The absence of a domain (whether topic or vehicle) may lead to unacceptability of a metaphor. Lack of cultural background in the use of these words hinders the process of finding a salient feature between them and the counter domain in a metaphor to form an appropriate alignment.

Using the GiNZA v4 natural language processing library, this study examines the case marking richness and word order flexibility in Japanese dialects across 47 regions to investigate the dynamic self-adaptation within the language subsystem, specifically morphology and syntax. Case marking richness is evaluated using the moving-average mean size of paradigm, while word order flexibility is assessed through entropy. The findings reveal a positive correlation between case marking richness and word order flexibility, providing empirical support for the “complexity trade-off hypothesis”. Leveraging the distinct morphosyntactic features inherent in dialects, this study proposes a hypothesis for categorizing Japanese dialects.

The V de resultative construction has been an intriguing issue in Chinese linguistics. Theories have been put forth regarding what the morpheme de (here called de result to avoid confusion) does in this construction. In this article, the preexisting theories are empirically questioned. It is shown that the presence of  de result is not obligatory when the result predicate takes some special forms. A procedural account is proposed of how the typical V de result construction and its variants deliver the same logical form although they involve different functional morphemes. As a bonus, this account provides an improved model explaining the phenomenon that the V de result construction can have multiple readings.

Using a corpus-based multi-dimensional analysis, this study investigates the linguistic features and variation of corporate blogs from four industries: Service industry, the Wholesale and Retail Trade industry, the Manufacturing industry, and Information industry. The primary goal of this study is to examine the linguistic variation in corporate blogs from different industries. The data used for the current study is a 570,745-word corpus consisting of 995 textual posts from 40 top-ranked corporate blogs. In the multi-dimensional analysis, 67 linguistic features in the corpus are tagged, counted and normalized by using a Multidimensional Analysis Tagger (MAT). We imported the output files containing relevant statistical information from the MAT and then to SPSS 25.0 for a further t -test analysis. Overall, the corporate blogs are closest to the text type of general narrative exposition. The study finds that, as a hybrid genre, corporate blogs are basically informationally dense, non-narrative, interactive, and contextually independent. There are some statistically significant differences between four sub-corpora in corporate blogs. In particular, the Wholesale & Retail Trade sub-corpus is the most distinctive one that is significantly different from others on many dimensions, characterized by giving instructions, or telling stories, rather than persuading their audiences to do something.