Linguistics-Conference Papers

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    Open Access
    The Philosophical Indoctrinations of Laozi (384–362 BCE)
    (Ambedkar University Agra U.P (INDIA), 2014-04-08) Banwo, A. O.
    Laozi lived in a time of turmoil and political strife, he was stricken by the political decay of his town and decided to move on, however, in the process, he decided to live yet one of the most controversial documents that sets out the way to live an ideal life even in an unjust society. The Dao de Jing, a controversial document of its authorship provides an insight of achieving the ideal man that Laozi characterizes, he also sets out a precise philosophical ideal for the government to rule the state. He propounds a theory that uses nature to understand human nature and personal events; he sees nature as an impartial judge who treats everything equally. He therefore tried to provide a collaboration of the concept of nature to that of human life. In view of this, he tries to symbolize what the ideal man in this natural phenomenon would be, an ideal man would be that puts himself last and others first, one who welcomes any situation and values everything around him, and acts in the simplicity of form but precious at heart This work sets to examine the core concepts of Laozi, his moral claims, his philosophical ideas, political views and make a comparison with an important Chinese Ideology.
  • Item
    Open Access
    Symbolic Meanings of Colors in Cultures
    (Ife Journal of Languages and Literatures, Department of Linguistics and African Languages, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, Vol 7, No. 1, ISSN 2467-8635, 2021-07-27) Banwo, A. O.
    Since the early Palaeolithic era, colours have always been part of human life and they have been important images that have shaped the normal existence of our civilisation today. Colours across cultures have been found to influence human perceptions and their mode of communication verbally or non-verbally. The fact remains that different cultures associate’ different notions to colours and these values are deeply crafted in the subconscious mind of the people in these cultures. This study examines the symbolic meaning of different colours in two diverse cultures and societies while understanding that colours hold strong expressive connotations and psychological differences. Data for this research work were obtained through critical case sampling and content analysis was used to study this work. Certain factors such as mythical, religious, historical and cultural meanings were selected for this work. This study adopts the symbolic interactionism theory as conceived by George Herbert Mead and Charles Horlon Cooley. Symbolic interactionists whose main focus were on the micro-level aspects of culture but also centre their attention on how culture is sustained through symbols, values, norms, ideas and objects because they are core elements in which humans use to reinforce and create social realities. Therefore, this work argues that symbolic connotations of colours are universal and are reinforced through human social interaction and their perceptions. It concludes that colours as societal symbols have a large influence on human behaviour and beliefs thereby influencing societal actions and values. Keywords: Symbols, values, norms, ideas and objects
  • Item
    Open Access
    Children’s Wh-questions acrossLanguages: Some Preliminary Results
    (Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, 2022) Yatsushiro, K.; Dal Farra, C.; Gonzalez, A.; Hein, J.; Silleresi, S.; Avellana, A.; Huang, A.; Ilọri, J.F.; Krishnan, G.G.; Pintér, L.; Guasti, M.T.; Sauerland, U.
    This paper investigates the acquisition of wh-questions in five different languages: German, Hungarian, Malayalam, Mandarin and Yoruba. It does so by focusing on the production of five structures, which were tested across all languages on the basis of (nearly) identical material. These included subject who-questions (1a) and object who-questions (1b), subject which-questions (1c) and object which- questions (1d), and object what-questions (1e). In this paper we will focus only onwho- and which-questions. (1) a. Who is pushing the ant? b. Who are the horses pulling? c. Which ladybug is waking the cats? d. Which duck is the rabbit pushing? e. What is the woman drawing? Acquisition of wh-questions has been extensively investigated in the litera- ture, but most of the studies focused on the comprehension of these structures