Search Results (195)

In 1978, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie insisted that the first program to write in a new language is one to print the words “hello, world.” From then until now, “hello, world” has frequently been the first exercise in introductory programming courses. On one hand, this does seem like a good first program because it makes something familiar—a greeting—appear on the screen. On the other hand, it is extremely strange. How can it be understood as a greeting? Who is greeting whom? Unfortunately, the bulk of formal means for defining programming languages provides very little help for assigning a meaning to the “hello, world” program. It is argued that the weakness of older theories and methods of programming language semantics is due to the historical, disciplinary segregation (in logic, semiotics, and linguistics) of semantics as a study apart from syntax and pragmatics. Drawing from both more recent work in programming language semantics that addresses side effects and on speech-act-based programming language design, this paper proposes a possible reintegration of semantics and pragmatics in order to better define the meaning of “hello, world” and the programming languages used to produce speech acts more generally. Full article

This study presents the first systematic empirical comparison of neural architectures for Universal Dependencies (UD) parsing in Old English, thus addressing central questions in computational historical linguistics and low-resource language processing. We evaluate three approaches—a baseline spaCy pipeline, a pipeline with a pretrained tok2vec component, and a MobileBERT transformer-based model—across datasets ranging from 1000 to 20,000 words. Our results demonstrate that the pretrained tok2vec model consistently outperforms alternatives, because it achieves 83.24% UAS and 74.23% LAS with the largest dataset, whereas the transformer-based approach substantially underperforms despite higher computational costs. Performance analysis reveals that basic tagging tasks reach 85–90% accuracy, while dependency parsing achieves approximately 75% accuracy. We identify critical scaling thresholds, with substantial improvements occurring between 1000 and 5000 words and diminishing returns beyond 10,000 words, which provides insights into scaling laws for historical languages. Technical analysis reveals that the poor performance of the transformer stems from parameter-to-data ratio mismatches (1250:1) and the unique orthographic and morphological characteristics of Old English. These findings defy assumptions about transformer superiority in low-resource scenarios and establish evidence-based guidelines for researchers working with historical languages. The broader significance of this study extends to enabling an automated analysis of three million words of extant Old English texts and providing a framework for optimal architecture selection in data-constrained environments. Our results suggest that medium-complexity architectures with monolingual pretraining offer superior cost–benefit trade-offs compared to complex transformer models for historical language processing. Full article

Falkland Islands English (FIE) began its development in the first half of the 19th century. In part, as a consequence of its youth, FIE is an understudied variety. It shares some morphosyntactic features with other anglophone countries in the Southern Hemisphere, but it also shares lexical features with regional varieties of Spanish, including Rioplatense Spanish. Che is one of many South American words that have entered FIE through Spanish, with its spelling ranging from “chay” and “chey” to “ché”. The word has received some marginal attention in terms of its meaning. It is said to be used in a similar way to the British dear or love and the Australian mate, and it has been compared to chum or pal, and is taken as an equivalent of the River Plate, hey!, hi!, or I say!. In this work, we explore the hypothesis that che entered FIE through historical contact with Rioplatense Spanish, drawing on both linguistic and sociohistorical evidence, and presenting survey, corpus, and ethnographic data that illustrate its current vitality, usage, and social meanings among FIE speakers. In situ observations, fieldwork, and an online survey were used to look into the vitality of che. Concomitantly, by crawling social media and the local press, enough data was gathered to build a small corpus to further study its vitality. A thorough literature review was conducted to hypothesise about the borrowing process involving its entry into FIE. The findings confirm that the word is primarily a vocative, it is commonly used, and it is indicative of a sense of belonging to the Falklands community. Although there is no consensus on the origin of che in the River Plate region, it seems to be the case that it entered FIE during the intense Spanish–English contact that took place during the second half of the 19th century. Full article

This paper examines the philosophy of language in The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (六祖壇經), demonstrating its centrality to Zen Buddhism and Buddhist sinicization. The sutra emphasizes the ineffability of ultimate truth (至道無言) and the principle that words falter in encapsulating the Dao (言語道斷), framing language as a provisional “raft” (筏) that must be instrumentalized yet transcended through a dialectic of employing and abandoning (用離辯證). It ontologically grounds this view in Buddha-nature’s (佛性) pre-linguistic essence, advocating transcending reliance on words and letters (不假文字) while strategically deploying language to dismantle its own authority. Historically, this constituted a revolt against Tang scholasticism’s textual fetishism. The text adopts a dynamic dialectic, neither clinging to nor rejecting language, exemplified by Huineng’s awakening through the Diamond Sutra, where recitation catalyzes internal insight. Operationally, it utilizes negational discourse, the “Two Paths Mutually Condition” method (二道相因) embedded in the “Twelve Pairs of Dharmic Forms” (法相語言十二對) in particular, to systematically deconstruct dualisms, while promoting embodied unity of speech, mind, and action (口念心行) to critique empty recitation. Ultimately, the sutra orchestrates language as a self-subverting medium: balancing acknowledgment of its limitations with pragmatic instrumentality, it presents an Eastern paradigm where language actively disrupts conceptual fetters to facilitate direct insight into Buddha-nature, reframing it as a dynamic catalyst for “illuminating the mind and seeing one’s nature” (明心見性). Full article

The article provides an analysis of the geographic origins of Karaites in four areas where Karaite congregations were commonly found after the Middle Ages, namely, Arabic Middle East (territories of modern Iraq, Syria, Israel, and Egypt), Constantinople/Istanbul and its area, the Crimean Peninsula, and Eastern European territories belonging today to Lithuania and Ukraine. It combines available historical, onomastic, and linguistic data revealing the migrations of Karaites to and inside these regions. For the first two regions, no ambiguity exists about the roots of local Karaites. Their ancestors were Jews who adopted the Karaite version of Judaism. For the Crimean communities, various factors favor the hypothesis about the territories of the Byzantine Empire (which later became Ottoman), and more specifically, Constantinople and its area are the only major source for their development. The Karaite communities in such historical Eastern European provinces as Lithuania (properly speaking), Volhynia, and Red Ruthenia were created after migrations from Crimea to these territories. The article also discusses medieval, cultural, and potentially genetic links between Karaites and Rabbanite Jews in the areas in question. It also addresses one phonological feature, the sibilant confusion, shared by the Galician–Volhynian dialect of the Karaim language and the Lithuanian dialect of Yiddish. Full article

The Diamond Sutra (Vajracchedikā-Prajñāpāramitā-Sūtra) translated by the Sui Dynasty monk Dharmagupta is the fourth Chinese rendition of the Diamond Sutra. Characterized by unprecedented linguistic opacity and syntactic complexity within the history of Buddhist textual transmission, this translation’s distinctive features have attracted significant scholarly attention. This study synthesizes existing academic perspectives and employs Sanskrit–Chinese textual criticism and comparative analysis of parallel translations to conduct a granular examination of Dharmagupta’s retranslation. Our findings reveal that this text fundamentally deviates from conventional sutras designed for religious dissemination or liturgical recitation. Its defining traits, including morphological calquing of Sanskrit structures, simplified pronominal systems, and etymologically prioritized equivalence, collectively reflect a pedagogical focus characteristic of language instructional texts. Dharmagupta’s approach epitomizes a translation-as-pedagogy paradigm, with the text’s deviations from conventional norms resulting from the interplay of religious development, historical context, and translator agency. We argue that the Diamond Sutra retranslation constitutes a radical experimental paradigm in translation history, warranting re-evaluation of its significance within the broader trajectory of Buddhist textual practice. Full article

Oral tradition stories hold a vital place in language education, offering rich repositories of linguistic, cultural, and historical knowledge. In the Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) context, their inclusion provides dynamic opportunities to explore diversity, foster critical and creative thinking, and challenge dominant epistemologies. Despite their pedagogical potential, these narratives remain largely absent from formal curricula, with most SFL textbooks still privileging canonical works, particularly those from the Latin American Boom or European literary texts. This article aims to provide practical guidance for SFL instructors on designing effective, culturally responsive materials for the teaching of vocabulary. Drawing on a methodological framework for material design and a cognitive approach to vocabulary learning, I present original pedagogical material based on a Colombian oral tradition story about the witches of La Jagua (Huila, Colombia) to inspire educators to integrate oral tradition stories into their classrooms. As argued throughout, oral narratives not only support vocabulary acquisition and intercultural competence but also offer students meaningful engagement with the values, worldviews, and linguistic diversity that shape Colombian culture. This approach redefines language teaching through a more descriptive, contextualized, and culturally grounded lens, equipping learners with pragmatic, communicative, and intercultural skills essential for the 21st century. My goal with this article is to advocate for teacher agency in material creation, emphasizing that educators are uniquely positioned to design pedagogical resources that reflect their own cultural realities and local knowledge and to adapt them meaningfully to their students’ needs. Full article

Currently, exploring digital immersive experiences is a new trend in the innovation and development of cultural tourism. This study addresses the growing demand for digital immersion in cultural tourism by examining the integration of spatial narrative and digitally gamified architectural scenarios. This study synthesizes an optimized framework for narrative design in digitally gamified architectural scenarios, integrating spatial narrative theory and feedback-informed design. The proposed model comprises four key components: (1) developing spatial narrative design methods for such scenarios; (2) constructing a spatial language system for spatial narratives using linguistic principles to organize narrative expression; (3) building a preliminary digitally gamified scenario based on the “Wuhu Jiaoji Temple Renovation Project” after architectural and environmental enhancements; and (4) optimization through thermal feedback experiments—collecting visitor trajectory heatmaps, eye-tracking heatmaps, and oculometric data. The results show that the optimized design, validated in the original game Dreams of Jiaoji, effectively enhanced spatial narrative execution by refining both on-site and in-game architectural scenarios. Post-optimization visitor feedback confirmed the validity of the proposed optimization strategies and principles, providing theoretical and practical references for innovative digital cultural tourism models and architectural design advancements. In the context of site-specific architectural conservation, this approach achieves two key objectives: the generalized interpretation of architectural cultural resources and their visual representation through gamified interactions. This paradigm not only enhances public engagement through enabling a multidimensional understanding of historical building cultures but also accelerates the protective reuse of heritage sites, allowing heritage value to be maximized through contemporary reinterpretation. The interdisciplinary methodology promotes sustainable development in the digital transformation of cultural tourism, fostering user-centered experiences and contributing to rural revitalization. Ultimately, this study highlights the potential use of digitally gamified architectural scenarios as transformative tools for heritage preservation, cultural dissemination, and rural community revitalization. Full article

This study provides a comprehensive philological analysis of ten Old Uyghur manuscript fragments of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra (Lotus Sutra) in the Berlin Turfan Collection, while systematically examining all extant Old Uyghur Lotus Sutra manuscripts to establish a complete corpus for comparative analysis. By collating this complete corpus with Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation, this research demonstrates a typology of Old Uyghur Lotus Sutra fragments. It identifies at least two distinct translation lineages: (1) early translations (pre-10th century) exhibiting lexical and structural divergences indicative of Sogdian mediation or hybrid source traditions, and (2) late translations (11th–14th centuries) directly derived from the Chinese version, characterized by syntactic fidelity and a standardized terminology. Through comparative textual analysis, orthographic scrutiny, and terminological cross-referencing, this paper aims to reconstruct the historical trajectory of the Lotus Sutra’s transmission. In addition, it discusses some facts indicating linguistic and cultural contact between the Sogdians and the progressive alignment of Uyghur Buddhist texts with Chinese Buddhist traditions. Full article

The work Xingli zhenquan tigang (Sing lii jen ciyan bithei hešen) was written in Chinese and Manchu by the French Jesuit Alexandre de la Charme (1695–1767) and published in Beijing in 1753. The first two sections of this paper provide an introduction to de la Charme’s work biography and to further textual and historical contexts, explore the peculiarities of the subsequent early German reception of the work almost 90 years later, and introduce the content from an overview perspective. The third section explores the most essential contents of Book 1 (of 3) of the Manchu version. The investigation is based on Hans Conon von der Gabelentz’s (1807–1874) German translation from 1840. Camouflaged as a Confucian educational dialogue, and by blurring his true identity in his publication, de la Charme criticizes Neo-Confucian positions from an implicitly Cartesian and hidden Christian perspective, tacitly blending Cartesian views with traditional Chinese concepts. In addition, he alludes to Manchu shamanic views in the same regard. De la Charme’s assimilating rhetoric “triangulation” of three different cultural and linguistic horizons of thought and spirituality proves that later Jesuit scholarship reached out into the inherent ethnic and spiritual diversity of the Qing intellectual and political elites. Hidden allusions to Descartes’s dualistic concepts of res cogitans and res extensa implicitly anticipate the beginnings of China’s intellectual modernization period one and a half centuries later. This work also provides an example of how the exchange of intellectual and religious elements persisted despite the Rites Controversy and demonstrates how the fading Jesuit mission influenced early German sinology. I believe that this previously underexplored work is significant in both systematic and historical respects. It is particularly relevant in the context of current comparative research fields, as well as transcultural and interreligious intellectual dialogue in East Asia and around the world. Full article

A persistent challenge in training future philology educators is engaging students in deep textual analysis across historical periods—especially in large classes where limited resources, feedback, and assessment tools hinder the teaching of complex linguistic and contextual features. These constraints often lead to superficial learning, decreased motivation, and inequitable outcomes, particularly when traditional methods lack interactive and scalable support. As digital technologies evolve, there is increasing interest in how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can address such instructional gaps. This study explores the potential of conversational AI chatbots to provide scalable, pedagogically grounded support in philology education. Using a mixed-methods case study, twenty-six (n = 26) undergraduate students completed structured tasks using one of three AI chatbots (ChatGPT, Gemini, or DeepSeek). Quantitative and qualitative data were collected via usability scales, AI literacy surveys, and semi-structured interviews. The results showed strong usability across all platforms, with DeepSeek rated highest in intuitiveness. Students reported confidence in using AI for efficiency and decision-making but desired greater support in evaluating multiple AI-generated outputs. The AI-enhanced environment promoted motivation, autonomy, and conceptual understanding, despite some onboarding and clarity challenges. Implications include reducing instructor workload, enhancing student-centered learning, and informing curriculum development in philology, particularly for instructional designers and educational technologists. Full article

This paper presents a comprehensive synchronic and diachronic analysis of the Sino-Vietnamese negative prefixes bất (Chinese 不 bù), vô (無 wú), and phi (非 fēi), examining their historical development and modern usage in Vietnamese, with a comparative perspective on their Chinese equivalents. By investigating the interaction between these prefixes and Vietnamese sentential negators—such as the native chẳng and the Chinese-derived không—the study explores the evolution of negation in Vietnamese over several centuries. The research draws on a corpus of three bilingual Classical Chinese–Vietnamese translations of Confucius’s Analects from the 17th, 19th, and 21st centuries, two written in traditional Nôm script and one in the modern Quốc ngữ alphabet. This corpus provides valuable insights into linguistic shifts driven by language contact in Vietnam. The findings reveal that in the 17th century, the Sino-Vietnamese prefixes bất, vô, and phi were largely absent, with native chẳng dominating. By the 19th century, chẳng persisted, but không emerged as a sentential negator, and bất appeared, both reflecting Chinese forms and demonstrating innovative uses. In the 21st century, không became the dominant negator, with bất and vô seeing increased usage, reflecting broader trends of linguistic modernization. This study situates these changes within the broader context of 20th-century East Asian literacy expansion, where Japan played a pivotal role in disseminating modernized Chinese-based vocabulary. By examining the selective adaptation and integration of Sino-Vietnamese elements, this paper contributes to a deeper understanding of language contact, syntactic influence, and lexical innovation in the evolving Vietnamese lexicon. Full article

African cities are experiencing rapid, unregulated growth, characterized by high land pressure and growing demand for housing and urban infrastructure. New arrivals often settle in vulnerable areas (wetlands, hills, flood) where land is cheaper and unregulated by public authorities. This type of settlement is accompanied by numerous land conflicts, exacerbated by the coexistence of formal and customary land tenure systems, which struggle to harmonize. In this context, public land regulation policies often remain centralized and ill-adapted, revealing their limitations in ensuring equitable and sustainable management of urban land. Faced with this gap, our systematic study explores the socio-environmental dynamics of this normative pluralism in land governance within Cameroonian cities. Our findings highlight the tensions and opportunities of this complex coexistence, which vary significantly according to city size (small, medium, and large), the colonial heritage (Francophone and Anglophone), and the dominant legal framework (civil law and common law). The analysis highlights the need to take into account historical, linguistic, and politico-administrative roots, which profoundly influence local forms of the institutionalization of normative pluralism and the associated socio-environmental vulnerabilities. This normative plurality underlines the importance of a hybrid system of land governance capable of integrating local specificities while ensuring land security for all. Future research will include comparisons with other African countries in order to understand transferable mechanisms for better land governance. Full article

The objective of this essay is to demonstrate the fictional nature of the character Mosca in Xenia I and Xenia II, the first two sections of Eugenio Montale’s collection Satura (1971), and to illustrate the strategies through which the author makes this possible. Although Mosca is inspired by the historical figure of Drusilla Tanzi, the poet employs a series of macrotextual, thematic, linguistic, and rhetorical devices to elevate the female figure to that of a poetic character. The study briefly addresses these various devices and seeks to refute the hypothesis of a diary-like memorial structure in Xenia, advocating instead for a “narrative–novelistic” structure, which leverages the typical mechanisms of narrative fiction. The contribution demonstrates how the combination of these strategies significantly influences the character of Mosca, ultimately leading to her absorption within the fictional world of narrative poetry. Full article

Language-in-education policies often serve hidden political and economic agendas, and thus language policy research must examine policies beyond official state discourse. This article critically analyzes Morocco’s Language Alternation Policy (LAP), introduced in 2019, using the historical–structural approach. It examines the broader historical context and structural factors that shape the adoption and implementation of LAP. While the official policy discourse frames LAP as an egalitarian reform aimed at promoting balanced multilingualism by alternating instructional media in science education, its de facto implementation reveals a stark contradiction. The ideological underpinnings of LAP are the resurgence of French as the exclusive medium of instruction in science and technology classrooms. This policy undercuts a decades-long Arabization of science and the promotion of the Amazigh language, as well as denying Moroccans the potential advantages of learning English. The disparity between official policy discourse and implementation reveals the influence of France’s neocolonial agenda, exercised through Francophonie, international clientelism, and financial patronage. Through implementing LAP to align with France’s interests in Morocco, French-trained political actors undermine the country’s decolonization efforts and preserve the long-standing socioeconomic privileges of the francophone elite. We analyze how LAP functions ideologically to resolidify France’s cultural and linguistic hegemony and reinforce pre- and post-independence linguistic and social inequalities. Full article