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The Human Passion for Music
Music is a universal feature of human societies, which suggests that an evolutionary perspective should help people understand the appreciation. The reward (pleasure) system of the brain offers a suitable framework. The primary evolutionary advantage is probably related to the importance of language; features of sound, such as purity, harmony, complexity, and rhythmicity, are useful for facilitating oral communication. One would expect evolution to associate rewards with these qualities in order to stimulate the development of brain regions involved in interpreting and producing relevant sounds. There are additional adaptive aspects of music, such as relaxation, social coherence, and sexual selection. Music can be regarded as a superstimulus that accentuates and exploits rewards associated with hearing. As such, music is not necessarily adaptive in a biological sense, but serves the purpose of improving quality of life. 
  • 772
  • 09 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Teachers’ Perceptions and Appropriation of EFL Educational Reforms
Educational reforms and educational policy changes have favored the learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) in public education. Empirical research has examined how EFL specialist teachers in urban public schools perceive these changes or the extent to which they adopt a new curriculum. Nonetheless, the new EFL policies have also had an impact on rural schools where generalist teachers are forced to teach English along with other areas of the curriculum.
  • 342
  • 07 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Taboo Language in Audiovisual Translation
Translating taboo language is a daunting task and solving it with spatial-temporal constraints makes it even more challenging. Taboo language, or emotionally charged language, is often toned down in audiovisual translation (AVT) by deleting the words and expressions, if space is limited, or by using euphemisms. Studies have focused on increasingly diverse subtitling strategies and techniques in rendering taboo language in professional and non-professional subtitling (NPS). Some scholars noted the fluidity, heterogeneity, and fuzziness of NPS. One of the main issues is that this NPS term implies the lack of professional training and thus poor translation quality, neglecting the creative and flexible nature of this kind of subtitling practice.
  • 1.5K
  • 23 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Sustainable Development of Chinese High School English Learners
Since the establishment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), countries all around the globe have been working together toward an inclusive, sustainable, and resilient future. However, there is still a long way to go before meeting the aim of sustainable development on time. Providing quality education and promoting gender equality are important tasks encompassed by the UN development goals. Quality education is a key component of the SDGs, yet little is known about how to accomplish the SDGs’ quality education targets. Second language learning plays an essential role in cultivating international innovators, and it is also an important way of achieving sustainable development. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many countries to close schools, posing a huge challenge to the sustainability of quality education. Managing the relationship between quality education and sustainable development in this new era is our top priority. In this special period, it becomes particularly important to study students’ motivation to learn a second language.
  • 358
  • 25 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Subject–Verb–Object
In linguistic typology, subject–verb–object (SVO) is a sentence structure where the subject comes first, the verb second, and the object third. Languages may be classified according to the dominant sequence of these elements in unmarked sentences (i.e., sentences in which an unusual word order is not used for emphasis). English is included in this group. An example is "Sam ate oranges." The label often includes ergative languages that do not have subjects, but have an agent–verb–object (AVO) order. SVO is the second-most common order by number of known languages, after SOV. Together, SVO and SOV account for more than 75% of the world's languages. It is also the most common order developed in Creole languages, suggesting that it may be somehow more initially "obvious" to human psychology. Languages regarded as SVO include: All Bantu languages, Albanian, Arabic dialects, Assyrian, Bosnian, Bulgarian,[a 1] Chinese, English, Estonian, Finnish (but see below), French, Greek, Hausa, Icelandic (with the V2 restriction), Igbo, Italian, Javanese, Khmer, Latvian, Macedonian, Malay (Indonesian, Malaysian), Modern Hebrew, Norwegian (with the V2 restriction), Polish, Portuguese, Quiché, Reo Rapa, Romanian, Russian (but see below), Slovene, Spanish, Swedish (with the V2 restriction), Thai and Lao, Ukrainian (but see below), Vietnamese and Yoruba. Ancient Greek has free syntactic order, though Classical Greeks tended to favor SOV. Many famous phrases are SVO, however.
  • 10.1K
  • 29 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Subject–object–verb
In linguistic typology, a subject–object–verb (SOV) language is one in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence always or usually appear in that order. If English were SOV, "Sam oranges ate" would be an ordinary sentence, as opposed to the actual Standard English "Sam ate oranges" which is subject–verb–object (SVO). The term is often loosely used for ergative languages like Adyghe and Basque that really have agents instead of subjects.
  • 8.2K
  • 27 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Stylometry and Numerals Usage: Benford's Law and Beyond
Benford’s Law is a strange manifestation of the law of large numbers (understood as the combined action of a large number of random factors leading to a result that is almost independent of the case).
  • 759
  • 11 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Style (Sociolinguistics)
In sociolinguistics, a style is a set of linguistic variants with specific social meanings. In this context, social meanings can include group membership, personal attributes, or beliefs. Linguistic variation is at the heart of the concept of linguistic style—without variation there is no basis for distinguishing social meanings. Variation can occur syntactically, lexically, and phonologically. Many approaches to interpreting and defining style incorporate the concepts of indexicality, indexical order, stance-taking, and linguistic ideology. Note that a style is not a fixed attribute of a speaker. Rather, a speaker may use different styles depending on context. Additionally, speakers often incorporate elements of multiple styles into their speech, either consciously or subconsciously, thereby creating a new style.
  • 3.5K
  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Students’ Perceived EFL Teacher Support on Academic Achievement
Recent studies have shown the crucial role of students’ perceived English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher support in their academic learning within their immediate social environments. Nevertheless, little is known about the intricate links among dimensions of perceived EFL teacher support and academic achievement as well as the mediating function of personalities (e.g., academic buoyancy). To close these gaps, a quantitative approach was used to examine the effects of particular dimensions of students’ perceived EFL teacher support (i.e., academic, emotional, and instrumental support) on educational outcomes.
  • 228
  • 17 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Soyot
The Soyot people live mainly in the Oka region in the Okinsky District in the Republic of Buryatia, Russia . According to the 2010 census, there were 3,608 Soyots in Russia. Their extinct language was of a Turkic type and basically similar to the Tuvans. Their language has been reconstructed and a textbook has been published. The language is currently taught in some schools in Oka. The Oka River, the largest river flowing down from the Western Sayans into the Angara is called the Ok-hem meaning "an arrow-river" by the Soyots of the Oka River basin. They live dispersed among the Buryats and now speak the Buryat language.
  • 510
  • 04 Oct 2022
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