Social Sciences

Abstract: This article establishes a theoretical framework for military translation/interpreting as a specialized branch of translation studies. The research methodology utilizes abstraction, thought experiments, and definitional analysis to systematize specialized concepts and construct theoretical models. Grounded in over thirty years of experience at the Department of Military Translation/Interpreting of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, the study analyzes the defining scholarly features of military translation/interpreting and categorizes its primary, specialized, and supplementary functional-pragmatic types. The research formally articulates the metalinguistic units of the conceptual framework, including the precise parameters of a "military text" and the structural components of "linguistic support for forces." Furthermore, the paper delineates the comprehensive competency matrix of a military translator/interpreter, synthesizing military, philological, and social components. The findings provide an academic substantiation for professional standards and outline prospective research directions, including the integration of artificial intelligence and advanced pedagogic methodologies for military translation/interpreting.

Abstract: Dependency distance is a key measure of syntactic complexity and processing constraints, but as a scalar cannot capture how information is distributed between a head and dependent. We analyze dependency spans—the endpoints and intervening words—as position-aligned units. Interveners lie outside the binary dependency but constitute its sequential processing context. Using Universal Dependencies treebanks and XGLM-2.9B, we estimated word-level surprisal for distances 4–10 across 22 languages, yielding 154 mean curves. Dynamic time warping and clustering identified an approximately monotonic decline and a nonmonotonic contour with an initial decline, stable middle, and final rise. Membership was stable across distances in 20 languages; Russian had three Type 1 and four Type 2 curves, whereas German had six Type 1 and one Type 2 curve. Segmented models favored three stages for both types, differing mainly in the final stage. Principal component analyses revealed a more dispersed latent structure in the middle stage and concentration around fewer variables at the edges. The final-stage contrast was associated with dependency direction and verb roles. Dependency-span analysis thus complements dependency syntax with a position-sensitive account of linear realization, revealing cross-linguistic information patterns that dependency length alone cannot recover.

Abstract: Language development is frequently described as a process of discourse expansion in which learners gradually acquire new lexical and grammatical resources. However, observations from academic and specialized communication suggest that language growth involves more than the accumulation of new expressions. Learners also eliminate inaccurate usages, refine semantic distinctions, and develop sensitivity to stylistic and rhetorical conventions. For this reason, the notion of linguistic enrichment provides a more comprehensive description of language development than the notion of simple expansion. In this paper, we propose a formal framework for modeling linguistic enrichment in academic discourse. The framework views language development as a sequence of enrichment processes that may simultaneously introduce, modify, and remove linguistic elements. Particular attention is paid to the emergence of stable discourse repertoires, representing relatively balanced states in which further enrichment no longer produces substantial changes. The approach also allows for the existence of multiple stable outcomes, reflecting the diversity of discourse communities and communicative goals. The proposed framework is illustrated through examples drawn from everyday language and mathematical academic writing. These examples demonstrate how learners gradually move from broad and often undifferentiated language use toward more precise and context-sensitive discourse practices. The analysis highlights the distinction between vocabulary growth and discourse refinement and emphasizes the role of semantic, stylistic, and rhetorical differentiation in advanced language development. The study contributes to the growing dialogue between formal language modeling and discourse-oriented approaches to language learning by providing a conceptual framework in which language development is interpreted as a process of enrichment rather than mere expansion.

Abstract: Definitions of silence in pragmatics and semiotics face a dilemma. Criteria built on the speaker's choice or on the hearer's perception either exclude clear cases or admit everything that lacks linguistic material, down to the zero morpheme, which the field has kept out by stipulation and not by criterion. This paper proposes the discursive bay: a stretch of interaction in which no linguistic material is manifest and whose indexical load is carried by the marks that open and close it. The unit of analysis moves from the interval to the pair of marks that demarcate it, so that membership is decided by demarcation rather than by absence, and the zero morpheme falls outside without a special ruling. The criterion is not new. Poyatos stated it in 1984 for silence and stillness together and Saville-Troike stated it for verbal silence, and the field cited both without adopting either. Four published descriptions are re-read to show that the criterion reaches material collected under every one of the live definitions.

Abstract: Workplace language proficiency functions as career capital because it shapes whose expertise is heard, trusted, and converted into developmental assignments, networks, promotion, and mobility. Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) separates an employee's underlying language proficiency from the communicative performance produced with technological assistance. This critical integrative review synthesises 37 substantive sources across language and careers, AI-mediated communication, multilingual model performance, workplace productivity, identity, and AI literacy. Sources were classified by evidentiary proximity to career outcomes, from model benchmarks and simulated tasks to workplace processes and direct mobility evidence. The evidence demonstrates task-level and workplace-process benefits alongside uneven cross-language performance and unresolved legitimacy concerns. However, no study in the reviewed set directly links GenAI-supported multilingual communication with promotion, pay growth, lateral mobility, or access to strategic assignments. The article therefore distinguishes empirical findings from theoretical inference and extends the Language Needs Analysis (LANA) framework through a five-stage conversion chain from practical access to career outcomes. Two conditional pathways explain how GenAI may flatten language ceilings through improved performance, participation, learning, and visibility, or re-stratify work through unequal access, verification burdens, cross-language error, and authenticity penalties. Five explicitly testable propositions and a multilevel research agenda are advanced. Inclusive career outcomes depend on how organisations distribute, legitimate, evaluate, and govern AI-mediated communication, not on tool availability alone.

Abstract: The English /t/ is among the most phonetically variable consonants in contemporary English, exhibiting multiple realizations that are shaped by linguistic, historical, and sociocultural factors. Although individual variants such as alveolar flapping, T-glottaling, unreleased /t/, and aspirated /t/ have been extensively investigated, existing research has largely examined these phenomena in isolation. This conceptual review integrates ev-idence from phonetics, sociophonetics, variationist sociolinguistics, linguistic anthro-pology, and communication studies to provide a comprehensive interpretation of English /t/ as a socially meaningful linguistic resource. The review first summarizes the principal phonetic realizations and traces their historical evolution across British and American English. It then critically examines how variation in /t/ is associated with major social determinants, including socioeconomic status, education, gender, age, regional identity, and communicative context. Building upon this interdisciplinary synthesis, the article proposes the concept of Linguistic Social Biomarkers and introduces the Theory of Lin-guistic Social Biomarkers (TLSB) as a conceptual framework for interpreting socially meaningful phonetic variation at the population level. Rather than functioning as de-terministic markers of individual identity, linguistic social biomarkers are understood as probabilistic indicators of broader processes of social organization, identity construction, and cultural change. This framework extends the sociological interpretation of pronun-ciation and provides a foundation for future interdisciplinary research on language, so-ciety, and human behavior.

Abstract: This article introduces the concept of Normative Phonetic Inclusiveness (NPI), defined as the degree to which a speech community recognizes multiple phonetic realizations of the same phonological category as equally legitimate within a shared linguistic norm. Using the Dutch rhotic (/r/) system as an exploratory case, the paper argues that the sociolinguistic significance of phonetic variation extends beyond its role as a marker of social identity to include the social organization of linguistic legitimacy. Contemporary Dutch accommodates a wide range of rhotic realizations without systematically privileging a single variant, providing an opportunity to examine how linguistic communities regulate diversity within a stable normative framework. Rather than proposing a causal relationship between pronunciation and broader cultural values, the article suggests that linguistic norms and other social norms emerge within the same historical and institutional ecology. Drawing on sociolinguistics and classical sociological theories of norms, the study conceptualizes NPI as a property of speech communities rather than individual speakers and distinguishes it from established concepts such as phonetic variation, linguistic prestige, and language ideology. The Dutch case serves as a theoretically motivated illustration for developing a broader framework of linguistic legitimacy, with the aim of stimulating future comparative research on how different speech communities organize the acceptance of phonetic diversity.

Abstract: Paper mills pose a serious threat to the reliability of the scholarly record, and public critics have often identified cross-journal patterns that conventional editorial processes failed to detect. The legitimacy of this work, however, does not remove the need to calibrate public terminology. When a severe organisational label such as "paper mill" is combined with a national descriptor, the apparent scope of the claim can expand from a defined set of papers to authors, institutions, or an entire research community. This Perspective develops an evidence-and-scope framework for evaluating that expansion. It draws on research about paper mills, citation manipulation, image anomalies, stigma, and research assessment, and it uses the publicly available Science Integrity Digest post "The Iranian Plant Paper Mill" as an illustrative case. The analysis does not determine whether the papers discussed in that post originated from a paper mill and does not allege misconduct by the post's author, commenters, or any researcher mentioned there. Instead, it examines the relationship among the evidence described, the title's geographic referent, the procedural status of the allegations, the use of pseudonymous observations, and the expansion of claims through comments. The article argues that national descriptors are not inherently improper, but they require an explicit analytic purpose, a defined unit of attribution, proportional treatment of transnational participation, and visible uncertainty and update mechanisms. It proposes a staged evidence-to-label vocabulary and a disclosure standard covering dataset boundaries, geographic meaning, verification, right of reply, comment moderation, and post-publication revision. These safeguards are intended to strengthen, rather than restrain, public research-integrity criticism by making serious warnings more precise, auditable, and resistant to collective overgeneralisation.

Abstract: This repeated cross-sectional study examined how English and Chinese home literacy activities were associated with receptive vocabulary among Chinese–English bilingual children in British Columbia, Canada. The study included 123 children in Grade 1 and 126 children in Grade 2. Children’s English and Chinese receptive vocabulary was assessed using standardized vocabulary measures, and parents reported the frequency of five home literacy activities in each language: book or magazine reading, computer or laptop use, television or movie watching, storytelling, and singing songs. Descriptive analyses showed that English home literacy activities were generally more frequent than Chinese activities across both grades. However, correlation and hierarchical regression results showed that Chinese receptive vocabulary was more strongly and more broadly associated with Chinese home literacy activities. In Grade 1, Chinese book or magazine reading significantly predicted Chinese receptive vocabulary, while English singing songs significantly predicted English receptive vocabulary. In Grade 2, Chinese book or magazine reading, computer or laptop use, and storytelling significantly predicted Chinese receptive vocabulary, whereas English book or magazine reading was the only significant home literacy variable for English receptive vocabulary. These findings highlight the language- and activity-specific nature of bilingual home literacy environments.

Abstract: Background The habit of reading is recognised as an essential element of academic learning and professional growth in higher education, especially in teacher education programs. Teachers are expected to engage critically with academic texts and cultivate enduring reading skills that will further influence their instructional methodologies and literacy modelling in educational settings. Empirical research is increasingly showing that digital-oriented, fragmented, and requirements-driven practices characterise student reading engagement. Purpose This study seeks to investigate the framework of teachers’ reading habits by defining the underlying characteristics of reading behaviour and studying the structural interactions among these dimensions. The study aims to ascertain the interplay of organised reading practices, motivation, reading intensity, and reading choices within a cohesive explanatory framework. Materials and Methods A quantitative cross-sectional survey was used, including 1,595 pre-service teachers enrolled in teacher education programs in one Indonesian province. Data were collected using a standard questionnaire graded on a four-point Likert scale. This research was carried out in several phases, including descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and path analysis. Result The results showed that teachers were mostly engaged in reading digital media and episodic academic texts. Factor analysis validated a four-dimensional framework consisting of organised reading and resource management, dual motivation, reading intensity and focus, and casual reading preferences. Structural studies show that structured reading practices and motivations indirectly affect reading engagement, whereas reading intensity and focus serve as the most significant direct predictors of long-lasting reading preferences. Conclusion Research shows that teachers’ reading habits are best understood as a behavioural system mediated by structural factors. Consistent reading engagement relies more on the frequency and concentration of reading activities than motivation alone.

Abstract: Multimodal machine translation aims to integrate visual context, such as images, with textual data to improve the translation of ambiguous source text. However, the evaluation of these systems still largely relies on traditional automatic metrics, which do not account for additional modalities during evaluation. The lack of dedicated evaluation methods often results in inconsistent findings and creates uncertainty regarding the actual contribution of visual context in translation. In this work, we examine the performance of state-of-the-art trained and untrained automatic evaluation metrics, particularly when comparing multimodal and text-only systems. Our evaluation focuses on whether existing metrics are sensitive enough to distinguish between multimodal and text-only machine translation systems. We further investigate whether automatically generated image descriptions can serve as effective contextual signals for improving metric sensitivity to multimodal tasks. Our results show that incorporating such visual information into supervised metrics yields better alignment with human judgments. While all metrics successfully distinguished image-aware from image-agnostic systems on general test sets, both n-gram–based and embedding-based metrics struggled on a contrastive evaluation set designed to capture context-dependent errors. Furthermore, we discuss how the presence of visual context influences human evaluators' judgments, as ratings were often substantially revised, further emphasising the critical role of context in the evaluation of multimodal machine translation systems.

Abstract: This study investigates the semantic friction between colloquial language and chemical discourse, exploring how technical terminology functions as a tool for “narrative technocracy.” Focusing on terms such as “law”, “energy”, “resonance,” the paper demonstrates how ostensibly familiar words, when adopted by science, acquire precise, often exclusionary meanings. This process can lead to either a false sense of understanding or an imperative of blind trust for non-expert audiences, thereby stabilizing expert authority. Using a qualitative analysis of a series of “Word-Cards” designed for LinkedIn, the study examines how visual mediation can navigate these interpretative contingencies. The findings suggest that deliberate linguistic reflection in science communication can mitigate semantic misalignments, transforming technical discourse from a barrier of authority into a platform for informed public engagement.

Abstract: This paper introduces the Generalized Coordinate System (GCS) as a framework for analyzing and generating rhetorical modes---the conventional patterns of discourse. The GCS is composed of low-dimensional, mediating and high-dimensional axes. The low-dimensional axes are Thing, Feature, Quantitative Attribute, Qualitative Attribute, Formal Attribute axes and form the objects or foundational elements for rhetorical modes. The mediating axes are Basic Expressive-Representational Elements and Rhetorical Mode axes and transform the raw material into communicable languages. The high-dimensional axes include Cognitive Function axis, Epistemic Purpose axis and the Five-Level Expression Staircase axis (Depth axis). The high-dimensional axes determine the cognitive depth and ultimate purpose, and capture the developmental progression of language competence- from raw perception to paradigm-shattering insight. Three types of semantic or modal mapping are defined: low-dimensional mapping (from low-dimensional axes to the mediating axes), high-dimensional mapping (from the mediating axes to high-dimensional axes), and full-dimensional mapping. These mappings form a pyramidal hierarchy, progressing from foundational elements (things, features, and attributes) to higher-order cognitive functions and epistemic purposes. By employing three core logical structures---combinatory, parallel, and embedded---the GCS consolidates infinite expressive possibilities within the finite intersections of its axes. The system's generative capacity, quantifiable by the number of axis intersections (generalized mode number), enables the navigation of nearly infinite expressive variations while steering practical applications toward finite, purpose-driven goals. The GCS transitions rhetorical modes from a static taxonomy to a dynamic analytical system for discourse construction and analysis, offering possibly insights for the development of large language models through the integration of a programmable rhetorical mode system.

Abstract: This study examines how the semantic features of political discourse have changed since the pre-digital period and how contemporary political news media environments have become structurally organized according to fragmented meaning ecologies. Rather than examining lexical content alone, this study uses a comparative diachronic semantic network analysis using corpus-based computational discourse methods. Background: While polarization is often studied in terms of ideological distance or word frequency shifts, less is known about how the relationships between semantic domains themselves may reorganize over time, potentially affecting social cohesion and institutional trust. Methods: A comparative diachronic design was applied to political news transcripts from the 1980s and the 2020’s (both sourced via YouTube). Semantic annotation (WMatrix7), n-gram analysis, and Pearson correlation-based semantic network modeling were used to compare semantic coupling across governance, emotional, psychological, and social domains, alongside distributional statistics and functional discourse coding. Results: independent t-tests found no significant differences were found in overall semantic frequency distributions between corpora, indicating distributional stability. However, network analyses revealed a strong contrast in structure: the 1980 corpus exhibited uniformly strong positive correlations across semantic domains, reflecting a highly integrated system, whereas the 2026 corpus showed weaker, more variable, and in some cases negative correlations, strongly suggesting semantic decoupling and fragmentation. These findings were supported by n-gram and functional analyses showing increased conversationalization, negation, and disfluency in the 2026 discourse. Conclusions: Political discourse appears to have undergone a structural reorganization from a coherent, highly coupled semantic system toward a more modular and fragmented configuration, suggesting that contemporary polarization is better understood as a shift in semantic organization than as changes in lexical frequency alone.

Abstract: Language is social, as it is used by individuals to communicate and exchange ideas in society. Language is also cognitive, as the primary function of language, even before communicating and exchanging ideas, is to think. This article connects the social representations of what bilingualism is in the United States and how transnational youth are talked about in U.S. society with how both of these social representations create cognitive representations (e.g., thoughts, ideas, and beliefs) about transnational youth that result in negative educational policies and practices, and shameful psychological and behavioral experiences for these youth. We begin with an ethnosemantic analysis of the word “bilingual” in the U.S. and then use the cognitive linguistic phenomena of conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy to explain how bilingualism is cognitively viewed as a “shameful problem” in society for transnational youth. We link linguistic shame, brought on by the social cognitive representations of bilingualism as transnational youth metonymically being incomplete, broken, in disrepair, fractured, unsettled, displaced, lacking fully built linguistic structures, not fully in possession of any language, to the phenomenon of and conceptual metaphor of TRANSNATIONAL YOUTH’S BILINGUALISM IS LINGUISTIC HOMELESSNESS (Bakhtin, 1981; Baratta, 2014; Britton, 1996). We conclude by putting forth a new metaphor, TRANSNATIONAL YOUTH FUNDS OF KNOWLEDGE ARE MYCELIAL NETWORKS, that rejects the concept of linguistic homelessness by pointing to these youth’s expanding networks of fluid languaging practices, transnational academic skills, and ever adapting identities. Through this new discourse we advocate for new ways of socially talking about transnational youth and their languaging practices that may lead to different cognitive representations of these students; reorienting bilingualism from a problem to a resource and a right.

Abstract: Asking questions is fundamental, but without a systematic framework, it remains a matter of intuition rather than design. The Generalized Coordinate System (GCS) was initially proposed for analyzing and generating rhetorical modes. In this paper, we apply the GCS to form an inquiry design framework—the GCS-based 10-dimensional inquiry generation framework: treating a question as a coordinate point across ten axes, so that we have potentially a billion ways to ask questions. The five low-dimensional axes (Thing, Feature, Quantitative Attribute, Qualitative Attribute, Formal Attribute) determine what and how the question expresses; the two mediating axes (Basic Element, Rhetorical Mode) transform a raw inquiry into a communicable question package; the three high-dimensional axes (Cognitive Function, Epistemic Purpose, Expression Staircase) determine what mental operation, why, and at what developmental level. This GCS-based 10-dimensional inquiry generation transforms questioning from an intuitive art into a designable, transferable, and evaluable cognitive methodology, and is potentially useful in applications such as education, research, communication, and language modeling.

Abstract: Orthographic depth varies across alphabetic writing systems and plays a central role in spelling acquisition. In immersion education, a second language (L2) is used as a language of instruction for part of the curriculum, such that learners are primarily confronted with its writing system during the initial stages of literacy development. This early exposure may shape the spelling strategies subsequently deployed in the first language (L1), which also corresponds to the dominant language of the surrounding community. This article provides a structured review of key mechanisms involved in spelling acquisition, orthographic depth, and cross-linguistic influence in bilingual and immersion contexts. On this basis, it proposes a conceptual and predictive framework specifying how the orthographic depth of the instructional language modulates spelling strategies and spelling error profiles in L1. Focusing on French-speaking pupils enrolled in immersion programmes with L2s characterised by either predominantly phonemic or opaque orthographies, the framework integrates strategy-based models of orthographic development. The model distinguishes phonological, lexical, and morphographic components of orthographic knowledge and predicts that immersion in phonemic-dominant orthographies favours phonographic dominance and regularisation patterns, whereas immersion in opaque orthographies promotes greater reliance on lexical-orthographic strategies, resulting in distinct and systematic spelling error profiles in French.

Abstract: The intensification of ESG disclosure requirements under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has increased the demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics to support large-scale sustainability reporting and verification. However, the existing academic literature remains fragmented across disciplinary domains, including natural language processing, machine learning, auditing, and regulatory compliance. This study addresses this gap through a PRISMA 2020-compliant systematic literature review of 45 peer-reviewed articles published between 2020 and 2025 and indexed in the Scopus database. The analysis combines bibliometric techniques using VOSviewer with qualitative thematic content analysis. The results reveal a rapidly expanding research field with a compound annual growth rate of 91.9%. Four major thematic dimensions emerge: (i) NLP and text mining for ESG disclosure analysis; (ii) machine learning applications for ESG scoring and corporate performance; (iii) AI-enabled ESG assurance, auditing, and governance; and (iv) regulatory frameworks and the digital transformation of sustainability reporting. The findings indicate that AI technologies are progressively transforming ESG disclosure from a predominantly narrative and self-reported practice into a data-driven and verifiable transparency system. These developments have important implications for regulators, corporate practitioners, assurance providers, and investors seeking to enhance the reliability and comparability of sustainability disclosures.

Abstract: This paper presents WuYi (五仪 "Five Rites"), a methodology for learning Chinese characters based on a three-level cascade architecture that integrates sequential multimodal encoding, inter-item narrative chaining, and a culturally grounded macro-narrative organized according to Wu Xing (五行) philosophy and classical Chinese mythology. At the micro level, five cognitive modalities—mental visualization (Fire), phonological construction (Metal), kinesthetic anchoring (Wood), theatrical episodic simulation (Earth), and graphomotor reconstruction (Water)—are activated in a prescribed sequence with explicit transition criteria, overcoming working memory limitations through temporal unfolding rather than parallel presentation. At the meso level, 2–5 radicals are linked through continuous causal narratives that simultaneously serve discriminative, compositional, and retrieval functions. At the macro level, the entire corpus of 214 Kangxi radicals is distributed across a two-cycle mythological structure—Cosmogonic Cycle (74 radicals) and Legendary Cycle (131 radicals)—each traversing five Wu Xing phases aligned with the canonical mythology of Nüwa, Shennong, Huangdi, and Fuxi.The methodology introduces several novel mechanisms: synthetic narrative calligrams that encode tonal contours through typographic modulation; chimeric tone spirits that bind homophonic morphemes across all four tones into single mnemonic characters; deferred mnemonic anchors that create proactive facilitation through spreading activation; and narrative-aligned primary encoding with autonomous fallback mnemonics activated through self-diagnosis. The theoretical framework integrates dual coding theory, levels of processing, embodied and situated cognition, cognitive load theory, the SPT effect, hierarchical retrieval cues, and narrative transportation theory. A between-subjects experimental protocol (N=90, three groups) for controlled validation is provided. No prior work was found that combines sequential multimodal cascade encoding, inter-item narrative chaining, or mythological macro-organization of character curricula.

Abstract: This study advances the Law of the Trio as a universal law of linguistics, positing that reality, thought, and language are ontologically equivalent yet formally distinct modalities of existence. Unlike prior frameworks that isolate language as computation, code, or communicative tool, the Trio establishes a foundational architecture: the recursive coupling of entity and state/behavior, enriched by layered modifiers. Sentences are reframed as semantic DNA, encoding identity, transformation, and relational depth across modalities. To formalize this claim, the paper introduces EMi/VMi,j notation, where i indexes modifier type and j denotes recursion depth. Worked examples and cross‑linguistic analysis (English, Korean, Basque) confirm semantic invariance across typologically distinct languages. Direct mapping to event semantics and thematic roles highlights both alignment and innovation, with recursion depth providing a computable dimension absent from existing models. Comparative analysis shows how the Trio consolidates and extends generative grammar, cognitive science, pedagogy, and semiotics by resolving their limitations through recursive semantic geometry. Applications in pedagogy and natural language processing demonstrate practical relevance. By restructuring linguistics into semantic geometry, the Trio offers a testable, falsifiable, and universal law of language that unifies theory and practice.