Long-term residents share their stories of acculturation or thriving in Japan, from enjoyable activities to serious research. Readers contemplating a stay in Japan can see typical entry points and occupations, decide whether or not to study the language, and prepare accordingly. Editor John Rucynski describes the collection as a “captivating…[Read more]

For a long time, metaphors have played an important role in depicting language history. In this study, we contrast early metaphors on language history, such as the family tree or the wave model, with recent metaphors that were popularized after the quantitative turn, such as forests of trees or phylogenetic networks. Speculating about metaphors…[Read more]

For a long time, metaphors have played an important role in depicting language history. In this study, we contrast early metaphors on language history, such as the family tree or the wave model, with recent metaphors that were popularized after the quantitative turn, such as forests of trees or phylogenetic networks. Speculating about metaphors…[Read more]

Spanish Abstract: En su teoría sobre la interacción estratégica, Erving Goffman muestra cómo las dinámicas de control de la información y de la infiltración de informantes en las líneas enemigas no son únicamente una cuestión de espionaje internacional o de servicios secretos. La vida cotidiana, tal como nos la desvela el análisis de Goffman, e…[Read more]

Compounding and derivation are frequent in many language families. As a consequence, words in different languages are often only partially cognate, sharing only a few but not all morphemes. While partial
cognates do not constitute a problem for the phonological reconstruction of individual morphemes, they
are problematic when it comes to…[Read more]

Since 2004 the author has lectured for the Japanese government foreign aid agency to visiting officials, mostly from developing countries. The 70th 2-hour presentation will be to long-term grantees entering graduate schools in the Kansai region (Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Nara, and surroundings) by Zoom. This illustrated slideshow gives an idea of the…[Read more]

The chapter discusses recently developed computational techniques providing concrete help in addressing various tasks in historical language comparison, focusing specifically on those tasks which are typically subsumed under the framework of the comparative method. These include the proof of relationship, cognate and correspondence detection,…[Read more]

Slideshow for a forthcoming invited presentation. ABSTRACT: Podcasting originated as a new form of audio broadcasting, but by 2006, issues of ease of use, proprietary technology, and finances slowed its momentum. Now podcasting is more popular than ever. This presentation therefore traces the author’s initial and current CALL podcasting p…[Read more]

English abstract: Psychological processes internal to the individual, as well as those of a symbolic, discursive or cognitive nature, are built on the basis of social interaction, and—given that social interaction exists prior to individuals, exceeds them in complexity, and forms them—the development of consciousness, and of communicative and sym…[Read more]

Whether citizens, sojourners, or immigrants, most employed residents of Japan will be unable or unwilling to retire. The natural desire to choose the terms of transitions, however, runs into customary age limits, around 65 for full-time and 70 to 75 for part-time employment in the case of higher education. Combined with stereotypical…[Read more]

The objective of this article is to make an attempt at describing and mapping out one of the major grammatical processes, the process of relativization, and to identify aspects of the referential structure where confusion of interpretation may occur.

In Discourse Evolution and Power, I set out my theory of Discourse Stream Analysis (DSA©). After presenting a critique of Critical Discourse Analysis, I establish the principles of DSA including the notion of the subject and the analysis of text over time using linguistic techniques. I then apply DSA principles to two sets of texts about…[Read more]

Según la epistemología de Xavier Zubiri, nuestra sensación de la realidad, la organización misma de nuestra percepción tanto del mundo externo como del mundo interno, no es “pura sensación”, sino que está mediatizada por esquemas de representación y por relaciones semióticas importadas de actos cognitivos anteriores (y así más que conocer, r…[Read more]

Fun quiz with a presentation and worksheet for students to answer the questions while the teacher projects the presentation. It upends preconceptions of most Japanese university students and provides a lesson on phenomena such as international marriage, language shift, and the levels of bilingualism formulated by the author.

Introduction to “Diversity in Writing Systems: Embracing Multiple Perspectives”, a special issue of Written Language and Literacy containing six papers from the Association of Written Language and Literacy’s 2019 conference of the same time.

This is the accepted version; the published version is available at…[Read more]

This repository comprises a dataset developed from a subset of ASJP, in which all lemmas are presented in a broad phonological transcription, automatically annotated for cognacy, and phonologically aligned. Per-family NEXUS files with binary annotation of presence/absence of cognate sets are also available. The dataset is intended to facilitate…[Read more]

This slide set includes a translation into English of Tam o’ Shanter by Robert Burns. The aim of the translation is to preserve the original poetic effect of the poem written in Scots. The slide set is intended for academic and educational purposes, as well as personal enjoyment.

This slide set includes a translation into English of Tam o’ Shanter by Robert Burns. The aim of the translation is to preserve the original poetic effect of the poem written in Scots. The slide set is intended for academic and educational purposes, as well as personal enjoyment.

Tam o’ Shanter, a great narrative poem written by Roberts Burns, is written in Scots and as such is difficult to access by standard English speakers and non-natives alike. This monograph offers an account of the language of Tam as characterised by a significant number of distinctive lexical and phonological items related to Old Norse. It is c…[Read more]

Tam o’ Shanter, a great narrative poem written by Roberts Burns, is written in Scots and as such is difficult to access by standard English speakers and non-natives alike. This monograph offers an account of the language of Tam as characterised by a significant number of distinctive lexical and phonological items related to Old Norse. It is c…[Read more]