Journal of Language and Culture

Kankanaey over time: A dyadic comparison of 1996 and 2023 translations

2024-09-16T11:16:07+07:00

Despite existing studies on Kankanaey phonology, there is limited research on how its lexicon has evolved, particularly in relation to phonological changes over time, dialectal influences, and orthographic conventions. This study, therefore, compares Kankanaey lexical items from 1966 and 2023 to identify patterns of phonological consistency and variation. A lexical dataset from both years was analyzed, focusing on phonological shifts such as vowel raising, assimilation, and gemination, with particular attention to changes in spelling and their correlation with dialectal variation and orthographic conventions. The findings showed that 172 lexical items maintained consistent spellings, while others displayed phonological variations, including consonant substitutions, vowel shifts, and assimilation, reflecting natural phonological processes and regional dialect differences. The results indicate that phonological variation in Kankanaey is mainly influenced by natural sound changes and dialectal differences, rather than by standardized orthographic reforms. Future studies should include a broader demographic sample and explore how these phonological shifts impact language use across generations.

Playful communicative strategies of Korean Instagram influencers: Enhancing Gen-Z followers’ socialisation

2025-05-06T11:02:57+07:00

This study explores the playful communicative strategies employed by Korean Instagram influencers to engage Gen-Z followers, with a focus on how such strategies foster digital socialisation. Using a mixed-methods approach, combining questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, the research investigates the linguistic and visual techniques that resonate with young Korean audiences. The findings reveal that influencers who incorporate humour, playful language, trending memes, and interactive storytelling are more effective in capturing attention and encouraging follower participation. These elements not only make the content more relatable and memorable but also strengthen emotional connections between influencers and their young audiences. Moreover, influencers who adopt personalised communication styles enhance relatability, fostering a sense of community and shared identity among Gen-Z users. The study highlights how creativity, authenticity, and interactivity amplify influencers’ social influence and their capacity to shape online trends. These insights have significant implications for content creators and digital marketers aiming to build sustainable engagement with Gen-Z audiences in Korea’s fast-evolving social media landscape.

Political economy of media discourse: A comparative corpus-driven analysis of the Israel-Hamas war coverage

2025-05-27T14:45:43+07:00

Amid a fast-changing media environment, the Israel-Hamas war underscores the intricate connection between language, discourse, and ideological stance. Through political economy of communication, this study interrogates the mediated architecture of geopolitical storytelling by conducting a comparative corpus-driven analysis of Israel-Hamas war coverage in Al Jazeera and CNN between October 7, 2023 and January 19, 2025. The findings reveal that Al Jazeera has approximately equal focus on Gaza and Israel, placing the war in a longer historical and geopolitical context. The outlet’s reporting focuses on civilian casualties, identity politics, and territorial dispute, emphasizing casualty counts. In addition, the occurrence of commercially oriented content indicates responsiveness to commercial pressures influencing journalistic priorities. CNN, however, places Hamas’ actions at the forefront of its narrative, aligning with a security and terrorism-oriented framework prevalent in Western media. By adopting military rhetoric and the spotlight on U.S. diplomatic reactions, CNN contextualizes the conflict within international political discourse. Hence, fostering media literacy remains essential in navigating the complexities of war reporting in an era of information saturation.

Code-switching in political news writings: A case study of three Indian English newspapers

2025-06-09T15:30:57+07:00

The research questions of this study are as follows: Why do political news writings in Indian English newspapers make use of code-mixed texts? And, what kind of linguistic material from Indian languages are likely to be interspersed in Indian English political news writings? To address these research questions, news articles from the Hyderabad edition of three Indian English newspapers, namely, The Hindu, The Times of India, and The New Indian Express were examined from February 2024 to 2025. These news articles were selected because of the political purposes that they served. A qualitative interview was designed and administered to 10 people who were working as editors or reporters in Indian English newspapers. The questions of the qualitative interview mainly elicited the motivations for using mixed codes in Indian English newspapers. The thematic findings from interviews showed that terms from Indian languages were used in Indian English political news writings for textual comprehensibility, etc., and terms that carried political connotations were more likely to appear as vernacular variants than their English equivalents (e.g., Viksit Bharat connotes nationalistic pride but not Developed India). Future research should aim at investigating the benefits of mixed codes on the readers of Indian English newspapers.

The accuracy and consistency of Chinese tourism information in online media vs. actual data: Songkhla province

2025-06-09T15:32:56+07:00

Songkhla Province attracts many Malaysian Chinese Tourists who typically gather information via online platforms before visiting. This research poses the question: Is the Chinese language information recommending tourist attractions in Songkhla accurate and authentic? It aims to analyze the accuracy and consistency of Chinese tourism information of Songkhla province in online media vs. actual media. This study employed a qualitative methodology and investigated data from two online media sources, which included 15 tourist attractions. The analysis was conducted from a comparative perspective and drew upon correspondence theory of truth. The findings found that the consistency between Chinese tourism information in online media and the actual data of Songkhla province divided into three aspects, including: (1) Consistency information (i.e., the geographical locations and core characteristics); (2) Inconsistency information (e.g., location and size detail, folklore legend, style and elements of architecture); (3) Incorrect information (i.e., the English word in parentheses, and recommend other attractions that are unrelated). The finding highlights the need to improve the accuracy and relevance of online tourism information about Songkhla to enhance digital communication and foster a more informed, and contextually grounded tourism discourse. This study also proposed the possible development opportunities and the optimization recommendations.

A correlational study on tolerance of ambiguity and English reading strategies use of non-English major undergraduate students

2025-07-13T08:57:09+07:00

This study explored the relationship between the tolerance of ambiguity (TOA) of Chinese non-English major undergraduate students and their use of English reading strategies. TOA refers to an individual’s ability to accept, manage, and remain comfortable with uncertain, unclear, or ambiguous situation in the context of language learning and comprehension, where meaning may not always be immediately apparent, particularly in English reading comprehension in this study. A mixed-methods research design was employed, including quantitative data and qualitative data. For collecting quantitative data, questionnaires were used for measuring TOA levels and reading strategies use from 371 undergraduate freshmen at a private university located in Guilin, China. While semi-structured interviews were used to collect qualitative data with 18 participants, 3 from each level of two questionnaires. The results showed that most participants performed a high TOA level, and a positive correlation was identified between TOA and reading strategies use. Specifically, students with higher TOA level tended to adopt flexible reading strategies. There are three dimensions of reading strategies, global strategies (e.g., setting reading goals), problem-solving strategies (e.g., making inferences), and support strategies (e.g., using dictionaries). And semi-structured interviews worked as an addition to confirming the finding. A limitation of this study is its focus on freshmen from a private university, which may restrict the generalizability of the findings to other educational contexts.

Subtitling British Slang in Peaky Blinders into Thai

2025-11-01T08:33:15+07:00

Slang evolves over time, with meanings that constantly shift. This poses a challenge for translators and subtitlers, who must possess cultural knowledge and apply appropriate translation techniques to retain the intended meanings. Studies on English–Thai translation of British slang are rarely found. This study aims to identify the translation techniques used, and to examine whether the type of slang influences the translation choices in the series Peaky Blinders, Seasons 1–3, on Netflix. The translation typology proposed by Gottlieb (1997) and the types of slang proposed by Mattiello (2008) were adopted in this study. Twenty-two British slang words were identified. The results revealed that five translation techniques were used, including transfer (41%), condensation (23%), expansion (8%), dislocation (5%), and deletion (5%). In addition, hybrid techniques were also resorted to, including imitation and condensation (8%), expansion, paraphrase, and imitation (5%), and expansion, condensation, and imitation (5%). Two slang types were identified, namely group- and subject-restriction (64%) and informality and debasement (36%). Due to the strong gangster context in Peaky Blinders, most slang terms belonged to the group- and subject-restriction category. This type of slang influenced the translation choices, with the translator most frequently employing the transfer technique. As a result, some slang terms were only partially translated, and their connotative meanings were not fully conveyed.