International Journal of Language and Literary Studies

Sociolinguistic Etymologies of Ewe Names Denoting the Relationship with Man and Animals

2025-08-16T22:07:24+00:00

This work looks at the human-animal relation displayed in Ewe personal names in Ghana, Togo, and Benin by studying sociolinguistics and etymology. Using cultural and socio semiotic theories, the study adopted the qualitative method. This research reviews twenty animal-related Ewe names to find the cultural, symbolic, and spiritual reasons for their use. The study reveals that these names relate closely to shared memory and views, acting as markers of identity, values, and knowledge passed down through generations. Ewe animal-based names show totemic links, ecological awareness, moral lessons, and expectations. As such, they act as a linguistic link connecting language, environment, beliefs, and social structure. This study adds to African onomastics by showing how naming practices hold native ways of knowing and keep cultural heritage alive.

The Impact of Kahoot on English Vocabulary Acquisition: A Study of Moroccan High School Students

2025-08-17T22:30:20+00:00

In an era where digital engagement shapes modern education, integrating gamification into language learning has emerged as a powerful tool to enhance student engagement and learning outcomes. This study investigates the impact of Kahoot, a platform for learning through games, on the English language vocabulary acquisition of Moroccan high school students. A quasi-experimental design with 80 students (40 per group) was used. Students sat for vocabulary pre- and post-tests (15 points per test), and the data were processed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed that Kahoot significantly improved vocabulary acquisition among students in the experimental group compared to traditional teaching methods. This study highlights the instructional value of gamification tools like Kahoot in vocabulary instruction and provides pedagogical implications and suggestions for integrating digitally gamified tools in the language classroom.

Persuasion Through Semiotics: A Multimodal Analysis of Beverage Advertisements in Ghana

2025-08-01T02:56:05+00:00

This study explores the semiotic resources and embedded ideologies in billboard advertisements for beverages in Ghana, using a multimodal approach to understand how meaning is constructed and communicated. Although previous research in Ghana has primarily focused on linguistic elements, this study fills a gap by analysing a range of semiotic resources such as images, gestures, colours, symbols, typography, and text. Using Kress and Van Leeuwen's Visual Grammar Theory, the analysis of 20 advertisements from six Ghanaian beverage brands revealed key findings. The study found that semiotic resources like celebrity images, logos, and product visuals were strategically employed to establish brand identity and appeal. Gestures conveyed product advantages or participant emotions, while symbols (e.g., logos and world maps) reinforced brand image. Colour emerged as a powerful communicative mode, serving not only to capture attention but also to reinforce brand recognition and evoke culturally resonant meanings. Distinct brand colours—such as Coca-Cola's red and Guinness's black—were strategically used to strengthen identity and aid recall. Moreover, colours like yellow and green conveyed symbolic associations: yellow suggested energy and happiness, while green implied freshness and calm, aligning effectively with consumer aspirations and lifestyle preferences. These findings underscore how Ghanaian advertisers blend visual and textual elements to effectively persuade consumers, highlighting the role of cultural context in shaping advertising strategies.

Conveying Conciseness in the Translation of Quranic Qa?a? (Stories): S?rah Y?suf as a Case Study

2025-08-02T13:05:53+00:00

Abstract

This paper explores the challenges of translating the rhetorical device of conciseness in Quranic narratives (Qa?a?). The inimitability of the Qur’an is particularly evident through its linguistic and rhetorical features, especially its capacity to convey extensive meanings with remarkable brevity. This study aims to highlight the difficulties faced by translators and underscores the strategies employed to preserve conciseness while maintaining essential semantic and rhetorical nuances. A qualitative, descriptive, and analytical approach is used to examine select verses from S?rah Y?suf (Q:12), focusing on the impact of conciseness, both with and without ellipsis, on their English translations. By comparing various translated Quranic verses to the source text and drawing upon exegesis to ensure the preservation of intended meaning, the research reveals that deviations from the original concise structures can result in a loss of semantic and rhetorical depth, ultimately diminishing the eloquence of the Quranic text. The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge in Quran translation studies, offering insights into the best approaches and strategies for translating the rhetorical device of conciseness in the Qur’an.

The Impact of Cultural Schemata on EFL Reading Comprehension: The Case of First-Year Moroccan University Students

2025-08-10T00:51:42+00:00

The prime objective of the study was to investigate the effects of background knowledge on reading comprehension among Moroccan EFL learners at the tertiary level. The hypothesis tested was that the experimental group would perform better than the control group on the grounds of providing cultural background knowledge prior to reading. To meet this objective, the study made use of two types of instruments: a test comprising structured test items and a post-reading feedback questionnaire. A cohort of sixty-eight university students took part in the study. The participants were divided into two groups: the control group and the experimental group. The study adopts a mixed-method experimental design to triangulate data on both the effect of background knowledge and students’ perceptions of the intervention on EFL learners' reading comprehension. The results show that the experimental group performed better than the control group on the basis of providing cultural background knowledge. The major pedagogical implication of the study is that pre-reading activities, in general, and providing background knowledge, in particular, are useful instructional tools for teachers in the EFL context to facilitate students' reading comprehension at the tertiary level.

Beyond National Narratives: A Relational Method for Diasporic Literatures Grounded in Francophone Canada

2025-08-14T23:28:58+00:00

This article asks how to read African diasporic writing in French in Canada without forcing it into national boxes. It reframes the old idea that “one people, one territory, one language” should define literature as a habit that can hide what texts actually do on the page. I propose a simple toolkit of six questions to guide analysis: How does the text create contact across difference? How does the city shape scenes and pace? How do past, present, and hoped-for futures overlap? To whom does the voice speak, and how does it hold more than one audience? How do spoken forms like a proverb or a chant become a written rhythm? How do civic and religious worlds share a scene? Three readings model the approach: Didier Leclair writes the migratory city through thresholds, transit, and offices; Monia Mazigh builds ethical address across civic and faith publics; Guy Armel Bayegnak turns cadence, meaningful objects, and mixed codes into structure. A synthesis shows translation on the page working as a method, and “public-making” as a measure of literary form in minor settings. The article offers a clear, portable way to name how texts build relations beyond national narratives. Although grounded in francophone Canada, the method is designed to travel and can inform the analysis of diasporic and minor literatures worldwide.

Gender and the Pragmatics of Refusal: A Study of Moroccan University Learners of English

2025-07-09T20:59:44+00:00

This study investigates the use of refusal strategies within the framework of pragmatics and politeness theory, with a specific focus on gender-based patterns among Moroccan university learners of English. The research explores whether male and female participants employ refusal strategies similarly across various situations. Using a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) questionnaire, data were collected and analysed quantitatively to identify the frequency and types of refusal strategies used. The findings reveal that male and female participants generally follow comparable patterns in their use of refusal strategies, with only minor differences observed in a single situation. These results contribute to the understanding of gender and pragmatic competence, offering insights into how politeness and social norms shape refusal behaviour in a second language context.

Investigating Google Translation App Reliance on Enhancing EFL Learners’ Language Proficiency

2025-08-27T00:08:40+00:00

This study focuses on the impact of Google Translate (GTA) on EFL learners' language proficiency, specifically its advantages and disadvantages. The survey data and literature review revealed that while many learners are frequent users of GTA, particularly for vocabulary (median=4.0) and pronunciation (median=4.0), the correlations to improvement were substantial for vocabulary (?=0.72) and pronunciation (?=0.68). However, the correlations for writing (?=0.28) and comprehension (?=0.45) were weaker, suggesting limited contributions to the more complex skills of writing and comprehension. These findings also suggest that GTA may contribute to immediate improvement in vocabulary and pronunciation, but in terms of complex skills, the direct relationship between GTAs and improvement will be influenced by other contextual factors in EFL learning situations. This study emphasizes the immediate contributions to vocabulary and pronunciation while also highlighting the complexities and subtleties of incorporating GTA into language teaching and learning.

Deciphering Patterns of Scammed Messages Using SFL’s Interpersonal and Experiential Metafunctions

2025-08-03T04:18:55+00:00

This study explores the linguistic patterns employed in online scam communications by investigating the conversation between a scammer and their target through the lens of Systemic Functional Linguistics. The objectives of the study were: 1) to determine the function of the transitivity processes and participant involvement in conveying intended messages 2) analyze mood choices to understand interaction dynamics and role construction. This exploration adopted the qualitative approach focusing on transitivity processes and mood choices. The findings reveal that scammers manipulate conversations through strategic use of transitivity processes, employing material and relational processes to assert dominance and position the target as submissive and compliant; they strengthen power dynamics through mood choices, mainly using declarative moods to establish authority while the target’s interrogative moods emphasize their subordinate role. The study recommends that interdisciplinary approaches that investigates the psychological impact of linguistic manipulation on targets be conducted to prevent scam effectively.

Attitudes Toward Translanguaging of English Teachers in a Private College in Lucena

2025-07-10T04:07:34+00:00

In today's multilingual classrooms, English teachers face increasing challenges in meeting the diverse linguistic needs of their students. This study examined the attitudes of English teachers toward translanguaging as a pedagogical approach in a private college in Lucena, Philippines. Drawing on Fang and Liu's (2020) framework, the study focused on teachers’ attitudes toward content-oriented, student-oriented, and classroom-oriented purposes. A qualitative case study design was employed to collect data from three English teachers through a focused group discussion, which was then categorized thematically. Findings revealed that English teachers generally held positive attitudes toward translanguaging as a pedagogical approach. Additionally, English teachers acknowledged its importance in promoting inclusive and comprehensible instruction, as well as student-centered learning, which supports classroom dynamics. Moreover, English teachers emphasized its value in accommodating linguistic diversity and increasing learner engagement. However, teachers also identified specific challenges, such as assessment constraints and cognitive demands. Overall, these findings highlight the potential of translanguaging in English language classrooms, particularly in bilingual and multilingual contexts in the Philippines.

Computational Literary Analysis of Hamlet: Emotional Mechanisms Behind Hamlet’s And Ophelia’s Tragic Ends

2025-08-19T15:48:13+00:00

This study investigates the emotional mechanisms driving the tragic demises of Hamlet and Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet through a mixed-methods approach that integrates computational sentiment analysis with qualitative thematic coding. By applying sentiment trajectory mapping, emotion co-occurrence networks, and parallel coordinates visualization, the research identifies distinct emotional patterns that characterize each character’s psychological journey. The findings demonstrate that Hamlet’s downfall stems primarily from the interplay between doubt and suspicion with anger and vengefulness, producing a cycle of hesitation and impulsive action. In contrast, Ophelia’s demise is dominated by grief and despair, intensified by her social powerlessness and lack of agency, which ultimately overwhelms her emotional resilience. These divergent emotional drivers highlight how gender and social position shape Shakespeare’s portrayal of psychological deterioration. The study not only contributes to Shakespearean scholarship by offering empirical support for long-standing interpretive claims but also advances computational literary analysis by demonstrating how digital humanities tools can illuminate nuanced psychological dynamics in canonical texts.

Exploring Syntactic Derivation: Analysis of Clause Projections in Undergraduate Students' Requests

2025-08-25T12:10:00+00:00

Students’ request clauses are widely studied pragmatically. However, limited syntactic analysis has been observed. The present study utilized a descriptive qualitative research design to syntactically analyze the maximal projections and recursions of thirty-two (32) request clauses sent by undergraduate students to their professors. The clauses included in this study are all written in English. The analyzed clauses of students often use the Tense Phrase (TP) and the Complementizer Phrase (CP) to project their requests. Furthermore, the paper’s request clauses usually merge an Infinitival Tense Phrase with a Finite Tense Phrase. This made TP the most recurring projection. Conversely, CP did not recur frequently, as it is commonly used as a projection through Tense-to-Complement (T-to-C) Movement. It is concluded that students utilize this principle when framing an indirect request. Meanwhile, they use TP as the head projection of their requests when constructing a direct request. Moreover, both syntactic strategies are initiated using modal verbs. Therefore, it is inferred that the request clauses of the students use modal verbs as the head act of their requests. Finally, a comparative study between various contexts of request is recommended to have a holistic understanding of the syntactic features present in request clauses.

Gender Differences in ESL Learners’ Mastery Of Prepositions: Implications for Designing Instructional Materials

2025-08-20T07:59:01+00:00

Learning prepositions is a challenging task for ESL learners, and previous studies have focused on assessing mastery levels and identifying difficulties. This mixed methods research examines the correlation between gender and mastery levels in using the prepositions at, for, in, on, to, and with, as well as frequently missed questions and problems in their usage among 26 Grade 12 senior high school students. The quantitative analysis involved a t-test to compare the performance of male and female participants. The results indicate that both males and females achieved a weak mastery level in using prepositions. However, among the 11 frequently missed questions, male participants exhibited a higher error percentage than female participants. Additionally, both genders encountered similar problems related to preposition use, which were categorized into five themes: (1) unfamiliarity with the rules, (2) confusion due to sentence meaning, (3) context-based sentence construction, (4) interference, and (5) sound dependence. These findings suggest that instructional materials for preposition use need not be gender-specific but rather require a corpus-based approach and the inclusion of contextualized examples. However, the generalizability of these results is limited due to the small sample size, highlighting the need for further research with a larger and more diverse participant pool.

From Lexical to Functional: The Grammaticalization of Temporal Particles in the Tarifit Dialect of Temsamane

2025-08-31T19:35:31+00:00

This article examines the grammaticalization of three periphrastic tense particles in the Tarifit dialect of Temsamane (henceforth TT) . It is shown that in Stage 1, the semantic value of progressivity primarily triggered the grammaticalization of these temporal elements. One of them has fully developed into a temporal particle, evidenced by its capacity to host clitics, while the other two remain in the process of grammaticalization. This development gave rise to a tripartite temporal system: past derived from a copulative auxiliary, present from a locative predicate, and future from a lexical verb that has coalesced to a temporal particle. In Stage 2, other perfect forms emerged from these grammaticalized particles, and consequently allowed for the expression of progressive and stative meanings within both past and future contexts. The framework adopted in this study is the Minimalist Program (Chomsky, 1995).

Socio-Psycholinguistic Implications of Rumour and Economic Hardship Among Bali Resident in Nigeria

2025-07-30T22:17:40+00:00

Rumour has long been recognized as an influential factor shaping societal perceptions and behaviours. It often extends to economic activities. This paper examines the effect of rumours and economic hardship on residents of Bali, Taraba State, Nigeria. The focus is on the online media landscape. The objectives are to investigate the socio-psycholinguistic effects of rumour on foodstuff scarcity on Facebook; assess the responses of individuals on the new language that emerged from rumour about food scarcity; and explore the use of rumour to create artificial scarcity, which raises food prices. The study uses primary data from observation and online media documentation. The documents are analysed to understand how language is used in different social contexts. The Social Construction of Reality Theory and the Spreading Activation Theory are adopted to guide the study. The analysis of online media sources shows that rumour spreads quickly and influences the behaviour of local residents. As major findings, residents suffer from sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic effects of rumour due to the hardships caused by foodstuff scarcity. New language for food items is also found. Marketers use rumours to create artificial scarcity, leading to higher prices. These have accomplished the objectives of this study. Recommendations are made in line with the findings.

Dark and Dark and Terrible Ladies”: The Female Undead in Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories

2025-08-24T09:39:39+00:00

This article examines Edgar Allan Poe’s depiction of the female undead. It demonstrates that the representations of female characters who die only to return from death via reincarnation or premature burial can be substantiated via two-fold discourses in the nineteenth century: the discourses on death, grief, and mourning, on the one hand, and the changing ideations about the roles of women, particularly the construct of the femme fatale during that time, on the other. By engaging with the feminist discourses on Poe’s women, this article argues that Poe’s female undead challenge the stereotype of the femme fatale that came to prominence during the nineteenth century through competing dynamics of death, agency, and madness that are in play in Poe’s short fiction. Additionally, this article argues that Poe’s female undead defy the frameworks of traditional female representations in stories such as “Berenice” (1835) and “Ligeia” (1838), highlighting how these women are endowed with power and agency as they lead men to madness and destruction. By so doing, Poe’s short stories subvert traditional gender roles and the sociocultural norms and conventions against which women were judged during the nineteenth century.

ChatGPT in the Moroccan EFL Classroom: Secondary School Teachers' Use, Perceived Benefits, Impacts, and Challenges

2025-08-02T20:38:05+00:00

As generative artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT rapidly enter educational spaces, understanding how language teachers engage with them is critical for informing pedagogy and policy. This study investigates the extent to which Moroccan secondary school EFL teachers use ChatGPT in their instructional practices, as well as their perceived benefits, reported impacts, and challenges. Using a mixed-methods design, data were collected from 24 teachers through Likert-scale questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Quantitative findings revealed that most participants use ChatGPT regularly, especially for lesson planning, material simplification, and grammar support, with younger and more digitally confident teachers reporting higher usage. Teachers perceived ChatGPT as a helpful tool for saving time and adapting materials to student levels. However, concerns were raised about content inaccuracy, plagiarism risks, lack of training, and misalignment with local curricula. Thematic analysis of qualitative data confirmed these patterns and highlighted nuanced issues related to teacher identity, classroom roles, and digital pedagogy. These findings contribute to the growing body of research on AI in education by offering context-sensitive insights from a Global South perspective and underscore the need for targeted professional development and policy guidance on AI integration in language teaching.