This study explored the use of phraseological frames (p-frames), a type of lexical bundle, by simultaneous interpreters as a strategy for managing cognitive loads. Specifically, using a comparable corpus of United Nations Security Council conferences, the study employed kfNgram to automatically identify the p-frames, and investigated their variations, regarding frequency, fixedness, structures, and functions among L1, L1–L2, and L2–L1 texts, which differ in cognitive loads due to task complexity and directionality of interpreting. The findings indicated that interpreters used more p-frames as cognitive loads increased; No significant difference was identified in fixedness as all texts tended to employ heavily formulaic and relatively fixed p-frames. Directionality correlated with grammatical preferences, with retour interpreting relying more on content-word-based p-frames. Additionally, task complexity correlated with functional preferences, with self-expression characterized by more stance expressions in the simple task. This study innovatively addressed the interaction of two factors that generate cognitive loads in interpreting and filled a research gap by providing empirical evidence on how directionality affects the use of formulaic language.
Proverbs are usually regarded as structurally fixed expressions. However, in daily communication, language users often change them to suit their communicative purposes in many ways, resulting in proverb variations. Using the data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA corpus), this study attempts to present varieties of the English proverb “There are two sides to every coin” and explain the variations from the perspective of linguistic creativity. This study also explores the variations of this proverb in EFL learners' use via the data from Chinese EFL learners' corpus TECCL. The study shows that, first proverb use can roughly be divided into two types: canonical and non-canonical uses, each having three ways of alteration, i.e., addition of modifiers, substitution of content words, and reduction. Second, Chinese EFL learners tend to use the proverb in a mechanical way with little variation, which shows their inflexible use of proverbs. Finally, proverb variation by nature is the creative manipulation of language use to fit the context, which is a form of linguistic creativity that reflects the cognitive creativity of human beings.
This study aimed to investigate the influence of task demand on the uni−/bi-hemispheric processing of lexical decision-making. Two types of nonwords were used in parafoveal and foveal lexical decision tasks (LDTs) to manipulate task demand. In Experiment 1, a visual half-field paradigm was utilized to evaluate the unihemispheric strategy in lexical decision, which revealed a significant response bias toward “word” at the RVF/LH in the pseudoword LDT in contrast with the nonword LDT, indicating the strategic use of orthographical legality in LH for word-pseudoword lexical decision. In Experiment 2, the study evaluated whether foveal lexical decision follows the orthographical legality strategy of LH in pseudoword LDT relative to the nonword LDT. The results showed a response bias toward “word” in the foveal pseudoword LDT in contrast with the foveal nonword LDT, suggesting the recruitment of LH in foveal pseudoword LDT. These findings support the left-dominant bihemispheric processing in foveal lexical decision and contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying lexical decision-making.
Through the lens of translanguaging theory and the complex, dynamic system theory (CDST) approach, the interpreting process is considered a highly complex and dynamic activity that engages the interpreter’s cognition, emotion, and action during successive “translanguaging moments” of meaning-making. Meanwhile, the two dominant types of interpreting, namely, simultaneous interpreting, and consecutive interpreting are assumed to entail distinct time sensitivity and consume different amounts of cognitive resources at different stages. Based on these assumptions, the present study analyzes interpreters’ momentary engagement during the distinct workflow tasks associated with these two modes of interpreting, with a view to probing their underlying non-linearity, self-organization and emergence dynamics from a micro-level perspective. Furthermore, we triangulated the textual description with multimodal transcription to portray these “translanguaging moments,” which are augmented with a follow-up emotional survey that corroborated our findings.
Introduction: Based on such physiological data as pupillometry collected in an eye-tracking experiment, the study has further confirmed the effect of directionality on cognitive loads during L1 and L2 textual translations by novice translators, a phenomenon called “translation asymmetry” suggested by the Inhibitory Control Model, while revealing that machine learning-based approaches can be usefully applied to the field of Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies.
Methods: Directionality was the only factor guiding the eye-tracking experiment where 14 novice translators with the language combination of Chinese and English were recruited to conduct L1 and L2 translations while their pupillometry were recorded. They also filled out a Language and Translation Questionnaire with which categorical data on their demographics were obtained.
Results: A nonparametric related-samples Wilcoxon signed rank test on pupillometry verified the effect of directionality, suggested by the model, during bilateral translations, verifying “translation asymmetry” at a textual level. Further, using the pupillometric data, together with the categorical information, the XGBoost machine-learning algorithm yielded a model that could reliably and effectively predict translation directions.
Conclusion: The study has shown that translation asymmetry suggested by the model was valid at a textual level, and that machine learning-based approaches can be gainfully applied to Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies.