Linguistic Forum (LinFo) (E-Journal)
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The Afro-Ecuadorian Chigualo: A Ritual to Face Death and Racism
No full textThe Afro-Ecuadorian chigualo, a traditional funerary ritual performed for deceased children under seven years old, stands as a powerful expression of cultural resilience, spiritual continuity, and resistance to systemic marginalization. This sociolinguistic research explores how chigualo functions not only as a mourning practice but as a dynamic sociocultural tool through which Afro-Ecuadorian communities confront historical and contemporary forms of racism and omission. Through the analysis of oral histories and literature searches, primarily in the provinces of Esmeraldas, Guayaquil and Manta, this study highlights the role of chigualo in transforming death into a celebration of life, identity, and communal solidarity. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews with cultural leaders, journalistic and scientific publications, this research stablishes the difference between chigualo, arrullo and alabao and affirms that the chigualo in Ecuador is not simply a funerary custom, but a living archive of resistance. As such, it plays a crucial role in sustaining Afro-Ecuadorian identity. The Afroecuadorian arrullo, in its modern form, explores the theological search for divine presence amid human suffering. It contrasts despair and faith through symbolic and liturgical language. Symbols such as God, the high altar, and stars convey spiritual transcendence and resistance to racial violence. These symbols transform communal grief into a ritual of hope, reconciliation, and theological resilience.
Keywords: Ecuador, chigualo, arrullo, funeral, racis
Concord Feud: An Analysis of Subject–Verb Agreement Errors among Undergraduate English Majors
No full textThis qualitative study investigated subject-verb agreement (SVA) errors in the writings of Semester 4 English major students at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA). Guided by the Contrastive Error Analysis (CEA) framework, the study examined how first language (L1) siSwati and second language (L2) English interactions shaped grammatical performance accuracy. Data were purposively collected from student essays and reflective writings, from which 55 sentences containing SVA errors were extracted and analysed for patterns and causes. The findings revealed a hierarchy of error types: omission (most frequent) → addition (moderate) → misinformation (least frequent). These patterns were primarily attributed to interlingual and intralingual influences (overgeneralization, incomplete grammatical knowledge) and processing difficulties. Omission errors dominated due to the low salience of English inflectional morphemes, while addition and misinformation errors resulted from L1 transfer, overgeneralization, and syntactic complexity. Contributing factors included incomplete understanding of grammatical rules, test anxiety, time constraints, and inadequate editing. The study recommended supportive pedagogical interventions such as low-stakes writing tasks, time management guidance, and constructive feedback to reduce learner anxiety and improve grammatical accuracy
Cross-Linguistic Overlap in English-Spanish Vocabulary: A Data-Driven Approach to Lexical Similarity :
No full textThis study presents a computational methodology for identifying shared vocabulary between English and Spanish to support second language acquisition. Similarity indexes (S.I.) were calculated to determine the percentage of orthographic and semantic overlap between the two languages. Both Spanish and English use the Roman script, which allowed for string-based comparison. English has received multiple loanwords from Latin, from which Spanish also derives. This study analyses the most frequent vocabulary in both languages to assess the similarity level and extract similar lexical items. The results show that a lexical similarity level of 53.13% corresponding to 1594 shared lexical terms was calculated using a lexico-statistical computational method to compare the 3000 highest frequency terms of the basic vocabulary of English and Spanish, identifying shared vocabulary as a pedagogical tool
Lexical Variation and Standardization in Prosodia (1634–1750): Evidence from a Digitally Processed Historical Corpus
No full textThis paper examines linguistic innovation and lexical variation in the bilingual Portuguese Jesuit dictionary Prosodia, published between 1634 and 1750. Through an analysis of the two dictionaries, the Latin-Portuguese and Portuguese-Latin, components of the lexicographic set, the study reveals how Prosodia not only reflected but also contributed to the development and stabilization of the Portuguese language at the end of the 17th century. The research draws on the Corpus Lexicográfico do Português and applies digital humanities methodologies, described in the article, to uncover patterns of lexical change, the coexistence of archaic and innovative forms, and the editorial strategies underlying the dictionary’s evolution. Three case studies—variants that coexist in the Prosodia corpus (e.g.,the words for ‘knee’ and ‘fruit’), predominance of a variant over the other (e.g., words ending in -airo), and registration of the renovated form mentioning the disused one (e.g., ‘aspeito’)—illustrate the persistence and eventual selection of standard forms in Portuguese. The findings highlight Prosodia’s value as a resource for documenting linguistic renovation and its lasting influence on subsequent Portuguese lexicography
English Slang as a Linguistic Trend in Greek Social Media
Get PDFThe integration of English slang into social media communication has significantly shaped the vocabulary of non-native English speakers, particularly those belonging to Generation Z. Social media platforms, as hubs for global interaction, have enabled the rapid spread of English slang, which frequently adapts to fit the linguistic and cultural frameworks of local languages. Despite its prevalence, the use of English slang among Greek speakers remains underexamined in academic research. This study employs corpus analysis to examine the types and functions of English slang within social media interactions among Greek speakers. The findings highlight the frequent incorporation of English slang by Greek social media users, underscoring the profound impact of English language and culture on digital communication in Greece. The study also illustrates the adaptability of slang as it crosses linguistic boundaries. Overall, it offers valuable preliminary insights into the dynamics of multilingual expression within Greek digital environments, paving the way for further investigation
Examining Cohesion in Academic Writing: A Comparative Study of Organizational Skills in Pakistani and International Research Abstracts
Get PDFEffective writing demands strategic language use for both communicative impact and structural accuracy. Cohesion is one of the keys to achieving these goals (Sutherland, 2015). This study investigates the use of cohesive devices in Pakistani and Native writers’ research article abstracts, identifying the different used types and their functions, using the framework of Halliday and Hassan (1976). To achieve this, 50 abstracts were collected from two prominent international research journals (25 from each) of ‘W’ categories, compiled into a corpus, and analyzed manually. The findings revealed differences in grammatical and lexical cohesive device usage between the two groups. Native writers frequently used reference, clausal ellipsis, reiteration, and collocation, while Pakistani writers' abstracts showed a higher frequency of conjunctions, nominal ellipsis, and verbal ellipsis. Consequently, the abstracts by Native writers exhibited greater interconnectedness and flow of ideas. The results indicated that Pakistani writers primarily organized their texts at a syntactic level, suggesting the need for organizing texts at a semantic level
Toward a Model for Analyzing the Rhetorical Move Structure of the Master Thesis Introductions in Applied Linguistics
Get PDFGenres are characterized by their purposes (Bhatia, 2014). Accordingly, the MA thesis and research articles (RAs) differ in their communicative purposes (Károly, 2009). The former aims to examine students’ research capability, while the latter aims to communicate research among scholars to spread knowledge. Nonetheless, since Swales’s (1990) CARS model, no model has been developed for studying the MA thesis introductions regarding their rhetorical move structure (RMS), particularly in the ELF context. This paper addresses the gap and contributes to the field of genre analysis by creating a model for representing and analyzing the RMS of MA thesis introductions in applied linguistics, taking the CARS Model as a starting point. The proposed model is created by systematically and critically reviewing existing theories and empirical research on the topic. Subsequently, a pilot study involving 10 MA theses from a Hungarian university was conducted to test the reliability and validity of the model and make necessary refinements. The results showed that some sub-moves, such as “Stating research focus,” “Stating study framework,” “Stating historical context,” “Stating research relevance,” “Methodological gap,” and “Quotation/hook,” are missing from the model and were added. The proposed model holds implications for understanding the RMS and provides a tool for researchers to analyze MA thesis introductions, particularly in Applied linguistics. Such studies are important pedagogically for teachers as well to understand the students’ writing with the view of communicative functions
Decoding Depression: A Psycholinguistic Lexical Analysis of the Urdu Speech
Get PDFDepression is one of the most prevalent mental health issues with a significant impact on both individuals and society. This study focuses on identifying linguistic markers of depression in the Urdu speech of Pakistani participants to aid in its early detection. Despite extensive research on linguistic markers of depression in various languages of the world, the Urdu language was still completely unexplored. This study addresses this notable gap by exploring and describing linguistic markers in the Urdu speech of Pakistani participants. Linguistic markers of depression can enable timely intervention by people around affected individuals and support mental health professionals in improving diagnosis and assessment. Additionally, they can aid developers of artificial intelligence in creating tools for automatic detection. This support is important for individuals who, due to internal loss of motivation or external negative social pressures, may not disclose their condition, seek medical help, and continue to suffer silently or even contemplate suicide. In this study, sixty Pakistani Punjabi-Urdu bilinguals, comprising an equal number of depressed and non-depressed participants, were selected using criterion sampling. Through semi-structured interviews, their speech was elicited, manually transcribed, and analysed for both context-independent and context-dependent lexical markers. The analysis revealed significant differences in the use of absolutist, negative emotion, positive emotion, cognitive, religious, and health-related words between the two groups
The Relationship between Fear of Making Mistakes and Self-Confidence Level in Language Learning: A Review Article
Get PDFIn parallel with recent developments, today it is obvious that the investigation of emotional factors shows a gradual increase in terms of language learning. Therefore, this review identifies the connection between fear of making mistakes and self-confidence levels in order to delineate the literature. Moreover, probable solutions are demonstrated with the intense emphasis on details of the issue. Taking the individual differences into consideration, the paper discusses and reviews the studies through the lens of underlying reasons that can be revealed with the sources ranging from classroom contexts to possible interactional opportunities that trigger the fear of mistakes and self-confidence levels. This review article contributes to the theories and gives additional evidence for further development in accordance with the present literature while also providing the theoretical portrait of a better and ideal language learning journey through the necessary steps that need to be taken
Pedagogical Approach of Enhancing Speaking Skills in EFL Classroom
Get PDFThis study explores the concept of enhancing students' speaking skills and its beneficial impact on communicative competence (CoCo). By investigating the positive impact of classroom interaction as well as other (what other be specific) approaches for improving students' speaking proficiency. The study aims to enhance students' oral proficiency, develop strategies that align with their speaking abilities and level of achievement, and promote interaction among students, the teacher, and the course material. Based on the findings of this study, it is hypothesized that creating effective interaction in the classroom will greatly contribute to the teaching process and lead to increased speaking proficiency among learners