An expression’s meaning depends on both the objective situations being described and the specific ways that the situations or ‘scenes’ are construed (Langacker, 1987). Construal is our ability to conceptualize and describe the same situation in alternate ways (Langacker, 2015, p. 120). However, each construal factor, classified by Langacker (2015) as prominence, dynamicity, selection, perspective and imagination, has complex properties and these factors often interact in particular usage events. Based on instances extracted from historical corpora of Chinese language, this study applies the various construal operations to the diachronic development of a locative word shang ‘above’ in Chinese. We demonstrate that although there are overlaps, each construal element performs a unique role on the development of shang in its meanings and grammatical functions. It is evident that the particular set of developments for shang would not occur if there were just one construal factor. Our study sheds light on the history of Chinese language, the nature of semantic change and grammaticalization, and also on the relations between spatial language and cognition.

This research paper reviews relevant literature concerning motivations for second language acquisition and possible research methods to this regard. This paper aims at exploring whether experimental research method could help discover Chinese students’ motivation for foreign language learning. It finds out that with semi-structured interview as the research method, it would be easier for the respondent to express his or her opinions freely on his or her personal feelings of motivation for foreign language learning. Thus, experimental research methods such as a semi-structured interview could complement research in motivations for foreign language acquisition.

With the increasingly close communication and cooperation in today’s society, translation, as a bridge for information and cultural transmission between two countries and even many countries, has attracted widespread public attention. At the same time, people also put forward higher requirements for the quality and efficiency of translation. In order to satisfy people’s desire to share international information and opportunities, computer-aided translation is playing an increasingly important role. But people can not help questioning that, compared with the traditional human translation, how significant is the progress of computer-aided translation? What are its advantages and disadvantages? What is the future of computer-aided translation? And how much of a role does the terminology database play in translating our reality? That’s what this paper is about.

This research article attempts to explore the socialist and revolutionary elements as portrayed in the selected poetry of one of the most renowned poets of Turkey, Nazim Hikmet. Nazim’s poetry embodies the echoes of his fellowmen where the people of his country do not seem to conform the dictating ruling class and display their protest against the authoritarian rulers. Marxist theory of Social Realism has been employed so as to illustrate the essence of social reality from the selected poetry of Nazim Hikmet. Social Realism holds that every reality is directly associated with society and literature cannot be separated from the social threads. Nazim in his poems challenges the then system of his country and expresses his urge for revolution to transform the downtrodden society from the shattered position to an uplifted and a newer one. His poetry is a promise to human reality and showcases the human rights plea in broader sense.