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Usage of Chinese Noun Phrases
Get PDFThis paper analyzes Chinese noun phrases by applying principles and methods that combine form and meaning, description and explanation, and structure and function. The research employs parallel transformation tests to systematically examine the syntactic behavior of various noun phrase structures in Chinese. The findings include:1. In addition to subordinate phrases with a nominal center (consisting of nouns, pronouns, numerals, and classifiers), coordinate and appositive constructions can also be classified as noun phrases.2. Phrases with syntactic functions equivalent to noun phrases, where the center is composed of predicative words (predicates and adjectives), belong to nominal phrases.These findings have significant implications for both pedagogical approaches to Chinese language instruction and computational linguistic applications, particularly in natural language processing of Chinese texts
Narrative Deception: Political Misinformation in Nadeem Aslam’s The Wasted Vigil
Get PDFThis study analyzes Nadeem Aslam’s novel, The Wasted Vigil from the perspective of the politics of representation. In contemporary times, the politics of representation takes on new forms, including the role of ‘Native Informers’. Hamid Dabashi’s (2011) theory of ‘Native Informer’ is used while the acquired facts are examined and weighed. Dabashi argues that the US relies on intellectuals from third-world countries to write about their nations in ways that align with US political goals. These informers feign authority and authenticity to justify US Imperialism. With this theory, it is found that the writer of the selected novel has used different strategies to justify the American invasion of Afghanistan, such as the invasion as a humanitarian mission, women empowerment, and educating the natives. The close reading technique, designed by Fisher and Frey (2013), is used to examine issues relating to the politics of representation. Exploring neo-colonialism, specifically the new modes of the politics of representation, this study examines Nadeem Aslam’s role as a ‘Native Informer’ in portraying the U.S.-led Afghan war
United states, China and the role of CISA (Cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency)
Get PDFThe escalating cyber rivalry between the United States and China marks a defining feature of modern geopolitical conflict, with cyberspace emerging as a boundless battlefield targeting national infrastructure and digital sovereignty. This study explores the evolving cyber dynamics with a focus on the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), highlighting its strategies to counter cyber threats, particularly from China. These threats range from state-sponsored espionage to infrastructure attacks, with over 20,000 incidents targeting U.S. critical systems in 2023 alone. Established in 2018, CISA plays a central role in securing national cyber resilience and coordinating responses across sectors. Through qualitative case studies, policy analysis, and thematic review, the research assesses CISA’s operational responses—such as during the 2021 Colonial Pipeline attack—and its partnerships with government, private, and international actors. It also identifies institutional limitations and strategic gaps. This paper underscores the importance of domestic institutional readiness in addressing global cyber threats, advocating for adaptive governance, increased investment, and international cooperation. CISA is portrayed not merely as a reactive entity, but as a strategic asset in the United States’ digital defense architecture
ICT Adoption, Innovation, and Labor Productivity in ASEAN: Evidence from Panel Data Analysis
Get PDFWhy do stark productivity disparities persist in ASEAN despite rapid digitalization? This study investigates the divergent drivers of labour productivity in the advanced ASEAN-6 and the catching-up ASEAN-10 from 2000–2023. Employing dynamic panel models, we demonstrate a fundamental dichotomy. In ASEAN-10, basic internet access and foreign direct investment (FDI) are the primary catalysts, enabling catch-up growth. Conversely, in the more developed ASEAN-6, productivity is driven by frontier innovation - specifically, patentable outputs and long-term R&D - while broad digital expansion yields diminishing returns. Critically, we identify an innovation - productivity paradox: composite innovation inputs show negative returns, whereas tangible patent applications consistently enhance productivity. The findings prescribe a bifurcated policy approach: ASEAN-10 must focus on technology diffusion and strengthening intellectual property, while ASEAN-6 should prioritize mission-oriented R&D and enhancing the commercialization ecosystem to escape the middle-income trap
Reimagining the Divine: Analyzing the Portrayal of Hinduism in the 21st Century Indian Hindi Film 'Adipurush’
Get PDFThis study examines how the 2023 Hindi film Adipurush reimagines one of South Asia’s most enduring sacred narratives—the Ramayana—and how this reinterpretation triggered widespread cultural, religious, and cinematic debate. While Bollywood has long adapted Hindu epics for the screen, Adipurush marked a bold attempt to modernize the story through stylized visuals, contemporary dialogue, and altered character arcs. The analysis shows that these creative choices led to significant departures from Valmiki’s traditional text, particularly in the portrayals of Rama, Sita, Ravana, Hanuman, and Lakshmana. The film also modifies key events such as Sita’s abduction, Hanuman’s journey to Lanka, and the climactic battle, often simplifying or omitting essential symbolic elements. These deviations not only sparked aesthetic criticism but also raised concerns about cultural accuracy, religious sentiment, and the ethical responsibilities of filmmakers adapting sacred narratives in the 21st century. The public response—including media debates, court observations, and calls for censorship—demonstrates how deeply mythological stories remain woven into contemporary identity and collective memory. By analyzing both the narrative distortions and the controversies surrounding them, this study highlights how cinematic reinterpretations can influence communal values and reshape the cultural life of ancient epics. The discussion ultimately reinforces the need for thoughtful, respectful storytelling when adapting foundational religious texts for modern audiences
Community Policing and Security Issues in Nigeria: A Study of Local Vigilante Operations in the South-East Region (2019–2023)
No full textThe persistent inefficiency and shortcomings of the Nigeria Police Force and other state security apparatuses in safeguarding lives and property, particularly at the grassroots level have prompted the emergence and reliance on local vigilante groups across the country, including in the South-East region. This study investigates the role of community policing in addressing Nigeria’s security challenges, with a particular emphasis on the activities and contributions of vigilante groups in the South-East geopolitical zone between 2019 and 2023. Guided by deterrence theory, as conceptualized by early utilitarian thinkers Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham, the research explores how the threat or application of punitive measures influences criminal behavior. The study utilizes qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders such as community leaders, law enforcement personnel, and members of vigilante organizations. The findings indicate that while community-based security structures, such as vigilante groups, have been instrumental in curbing various security threats including armed robbery, kidnapping, cult-related violence, herdsmen incursions, and communal unrest their overall effectiveness remains constrained. Key limitations include insufficient training and financial support, poor collaboration with formal security agencies, and undue political interference. The paper concludes that despite these challenges, local vigilante groups hold considerable promise for enhancing public safety in the South-East. It recommends targeted interventions, including improved training, adequate funding, and proper equipping of these groups, to bolster their capacity to function as effective instruments of community policing in the region
Constructing Suspense and Psychological Tension: A Corpus-Based Stylistic Analysis of Contemporary Crime Thriller Fiction
Get PDFThe crime thriller genre engages readers through sustained suspense, psychological depth, and narrative tension, effects that are fundamentally constructed through language. This study examines the stylistic construction of such effects through a corpus-based analysis of twenty-five contemporary crime thrillers in contrast to the BNC Fiction Sub-Corpus. Drawing on the corpus stylistics framework of McIntyre and Walker (2019) and Dutta-Flanders's (2017) model of suspense, the study focuses on such micro-level linguistic characteristics as intensifiers, modal verbs, passive voice, and punctuation. The results indicate that suspense in crime fiction is achieved by a cumulative influence of minor linguistic tactics as opposed to explicit thematic cues. The modal verbs carry the sense of uncertainty and hesitation and open the reader to the space of speculative interpretation. The passive voice denies the agency and the emphasis is on the outcomes of violence and the ambiguity of the narratives is inflated. The intensifiers provide the emotional urgency and the pauses break the sentences and signify the mental instability. These are characteristic of the crime thrillers as they represent a certain tendency of style to concentrate on character perception, emotional disintegration, and suspenseful delay in comparison with general fiction. The study offers a replicable framework for stylistic genre analysis, contributing to the field of literary linguistics by highlighting how crime fiction inscribes tension not just in its content but through the subtle deployment of language
Cinematic Memories of Partition: Visualizing Trauma, Otherness, and Reconciliation in South Asian Cinema
Get PDFThe Partition of India in 1947 remains an unresolved trauma whose reverberations continue to shape South Asian identities and intercommunal relations. This paper explores how Partition cinema engages with the politics of memory, trauma, and reconciliation through three films: Deepa Mehta’s Earth (1947), Vijay Raaz’s Kya Dilli Kya Lahore, and Sabiha Sumar’s Khamosh Pani. Drawing upon Michael J. Shapiro’s theory of the cinematic gaze and aesthetic politics, E. Ann Kaplan and Joshua Hirsch’s trauma cinema, and Marianne Hirsch’s concept of post memory, this study examines how filmmakers employ visual form—mise-en-scène, camera movement, sound design, and symbolic imagery to transform historical pain into acts of remembrance and critique. The analysis reveals how Earth visualizes communal violence through destabilized framing and sensory dissonance; how Kya Dilli Kya Lahore negotiates psychological othering within confined spaces; and how Khamosh Pani contrasts rural tranquility with gendered trauma and Islamization. Collectively, these films challenge habitual viewing expectations and nationalist historiographies, reimagining Partition not as a closed event but as an ongoing affective and political process
Weaving the Voices of Pakistan: A Barthesian Semiotic Analysis of Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke
Get PDFThe aim of this study is to analyze Mohsin Hamid’s novel “Moth Smoke” by using semiotics theory of five codes which Ronald Barthes has proposed for textual analysis. By keeping in view, the Five Codes of Barthes’ Theory, the concealed meanings and voices are also interpreted. The qualitative descriptive method is used for textual analysis and quantitative method is used to make frequency list of cultural codes. This study is based on the textual analysis of the novel, “Moth Smoke” by Mohsin Hamid by using Ronald Barthes Narrative Model as analytical framework while Pierre Bourdieu Cultural Capital Theory is used as theoretical framework in order to find out Barthes’ codes in the text. By applying Barthes’ Narrative Model, the results of the current study show that this novel is consist of all the five codes such as the hermeneutic code, the proairetic code, the semantic code, the symbolic code and the cultural code which have enigmatic, suspensive elements, hidden meaning and voiced which needed to be interpreted for better understanding. The selected novel is full of enigmatic, suspensive elements, connotative meanings, binary oppositions and cultural references. Almost thirty-six cultural codes are found in the text. In short, the novel contains all the five codes
Gendered Nationhood and Female Agency: Mumtaz’s Subversion in Moth Smoke
Get PDFThis article examines Mumtaz Kashmiri in Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke (2000) as a literary case study to foreground how her subversive female agency evokes and erases the nation’s gendered scripts about sexuality and motherhood. The imagined political communities of nation bank on specific imagined gender roles to sustain themselves. Nira Yuval-Davis (1997) theorizes how gender relations affect and are affected by national projects and processes (and women are integrated into this project as biological and cultural reproducers, boundary markers and symbolic signifiers of the collectivity. At the heart of all these mechanisms is the institute of motherhood, which is co-opted by the nation and state under the guise of protection of the national honor to justify control of female bodies. This research article seeks to incorporate this theoretical framework in the analysis of the character of Mumtaz from Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke (2000) and inspect how she exercises her agency while facing the constraints of gendered nationhood. Her refusal to be a part of this sociological solidity and homogeneity comes at a hefty price. It ultimately exposes the hypocrisy of the system of gendered expectations which deny women their humanity