Was Cicourel’s critique in Methods and Measurement in Sociology too radical?

This article is a contribution to a mini symposium on the 50th anniversary of the publication of A V Cicourel’s Method and Measurement in Sociology (1964). The central theme of the book is reviewed – the problem of the relationship between everyday language and cultural meanings, and the language of measurement in social research – and the lack of an adequate ontology of social actors is identified as being the cause of the problem. The solution offered by Alfred Schütz – that social scientific language should be derived from everyday language – is discussed and it is argued that this was probably too radical at the time the book was published, and is still generally neglected in the social sciences.     

美国《双语教育法》颁布的社会背景研究——基于霍姆斯的四模式分析框架

在美国的中小学校除英语之外讲各种语言的学生,或者说那些不会讲英语的学生,他们的教育需求长期得不到妥善的解决。1968年颁布的《双语教育法》表明,美国联邦政府承认了美国学校体制中长期存在的只能使用英语教学的单语教学问题,如何使教学语言多样性是一个亟待解决的核心问题。以霍姆斯的四模式为分析框架,把颁布《双语教育法》时纷繁复杂的社会背景置于规范模式、组织制度模式、精神状态模式和自然环境模式中进行分析,结果显示:(1)移民人口剧增并逐步扩展到新的区域,给美国公立学校造成了巨大压力;(2)司法判例对所实施的隔离但平等原则的彻底否定催生了新的希望;(3)少数族裔群体谴责主流社会的不公平,他们要求身份认同和获得更多权利的呼声愈来愈大;(4)联邦政府对保障国防安全、消除贫困现象等多重利益的考量,促成了《双语教育法》的颁布。     

基于语言磨蚀理论视角下的维吾尔族大学生英语教学

20世纪80年代在语言磨蚀领域已有相关理论形成,基于此领域中的回归假说、语言干扰、关键阈值、语言提取失败和语言的动态系统理论,依据维吾尔族大学生特殊的英语学习现状,据此得出母语为维吾尔语非英语专业的民考汉大学生的英语教学的一些启示,也为他们的英语保持给予一些探索性思考。     

Estimation for a first-order bifurcating autoregressive process with heavy-tail innovations

Asymptotics of an alternative extreme-value estimator for the autocorrelation parameter in a first-order bifurcating autoregressive (BAR) process with non-gaussian innovations are derived. This contrasts with traditional estimators whose asymptotic behavior depends on the central part of the innovation distribution. Within any BAR model, the main concern is addressing the complex dependency between generations. The inability of traditional methods to handle this dependency motivated an alternative procedure. With the combination of an extreme-value approach and a clever blocking argument, the dependency issue within the BAR process was resolved, which in turn allowed us to derive the limiting distribution for the proposed estimator through the use of regular variation and non-stationary point processes. Finally, the implications of our extreme-value approach are discussed with an extensive simulation study that not only assesses the reliability of our proposed estimate but also presents the findings for a new estimator of an unknown location parameter θ and its implications.     

从“用频”的角度看现代汉语中的“无标志词/有标志词”与“尊/卑”文化的关系

现代汉语中,词的“无标志/有标志”性与词背后“尊/卑”文化有着很强的对应关系.然而,这种对应关系也存在着不少问题,例如“父/祖父/曾祖父”等反例,必须注意特定的“语言使用者”这一限制性条件.从“用频”的角度出发可以进一步解释“无标志/有标志”性与词背后“尊/卑”文化的具体对应关系.对“司令/总司令”和“保姆/男保姆”这两组例子的分析,可以揭示运用这种对应关系在实际应用过程中的一些重要问题.     

基于学分绩点与综合素质测评的换算模型建立

学生综合素质测评体系的完善对有效实施大学生综合素质测评工作以及指导大学生健康发展有重要意义,其中,学生综合素质测评体系的关键在于学分绩点与综合素质测评的换算模型的转化。通过分析高校现行学分绩点测评公式,发现其存在的主要缺陷是转化公式不满足统计学原理,并指出学分绩点测评的换算公式应建立在对特定学生群体特征参数群数值分析的基础上。以西南石油大学某专业学生某学年的成绩分布数据进行验证,采取统计原理、常数变异法和不动点原理进行建模,利用求导方法对学分绩点测评中的特征参数群进行层次划分,然后对每段划分积分,通过归一化来确定变异项,得出新的换算模型。结果表明新模型能更好地反映学生的学习成绩在综合素质测评中的地位。     

词块与语言教学

不少语言学家在语言研究过程中对词汇和句法之间存在的同时兼有词汇和句法特征的板块结构给予了关注，并由此提出了词汇法教学。词块自身的特点和优势决定了加强词块教学可以提高学习者语言产出的能力，即英语口语能力及写作能力。     

Assessment of study abroad outcomes in Chinese as a second language: gains in cross-cultural adaptability,language contact and proficiency

Participants were 109 American college students studying Chinese in a study-abroad programme in Beijing. Following Kelley and Meyer, intercultural competence was defined as cross-cultural adaptability involving four dimensions (emotional resilience, flexibility/openness, perceptual acuity and personal autonomy) and was measured with a survey. A language contact questionnaire was used to document the amount of time spent on social activities. Language proficiency was measured with a standardised Chinese test. Results revealed that intercultural competence and language contact combined explained 37.7% of the proficiency gains. Language contact had direct effects on proficiency, but intercultural competence had indirect effects, mediated by language contact.     

东南亚华裔学生中文姓名用字研究

姓名是语言学中一个值得关注的课题,它是一种社会现象,也是一种语言现象,有丰富的内涵。文章通过语料样本对东南亚华裔学生的中文姓名用字进行统计研究,分析用字特点,对华裔学生中文取名方法和对待相关问题应有态度进行探讨。