Previous research has demonstrated that duration of implied motion (IM) was dilated, whereas hMT+ activity related to perceptual processes on IM stimuli could be modulated by their motion coherence. Based on these findings, the present study aimed to examine whether subjective time perception of IM stimuli would be influenced by varying coherence levels. A temporal bisection task was used to measure the subjective experience of time, in which photographic stimuli showing a human moving in four directions (left, right, toward, or (...) away from the viewer) were presented as probe stimuli. The varying coherence of these IM stimuli was manipulated by changing the percentage of pictures implying movement in one direction. Participants were required to judge whether the duration of probe stimulus was more similar to the long or short pre-presented standard duration. As predicted, the point of subjective equality was significantly modulated by the varying coherence of the IM stimuli, but not for no-IM stimuli. This finding suggests that coherence level might be a key mediating factor for perceived duration of IM images, and top-down perceptual stream from inferred motion could influence subjective experience of time perception. (shrink)

Studies show that identity cannot only be self-constructed but also be other-constructed, taking on cultural-specific features and being dynamically constructed in interaction. In cyberbullying incidents, netizens construct identities for victims and wield these images as a fist to launch their attacks. Adopting Bucholtz and Hall’s principles on identity, this paper conducts a corpus-based study of other-constructed victim identities in a Chinese cyberbullying case on Sina Weibo. Three questions are addressed: What identities are constructed for the victim by netizens? How are (...) these identities discursively and intersubjectively constructed in cyberbullying? And what cultural norms and social practices influence the construction of these identities? Data analysis shows that three other-constructed victim identities, employing Chinese cultural and social elements under the principles of indexicality and relationality, are identified: (i) a party member who undermines the social trust; (ii) a ‘fairy’ who exhibits double standards; and (iii) a ‘good student’ who manipulates social media. This study concludes that in cyberbullying cases, netizens utilize linguistic tools including labelling, implicature, and stance staking to construct negative identities for the victim through intersubjective relations, and resort to cultural and social contexts rooted in Chinese traditions, beliefs, and values to launch attacks. This case study may hopefully shed light on the detection of cyberbullying through corpus-based analysis. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2016 Heft: 209 Seiten: 397-418.

In view of the complexity of cyberbullying, this paper aims to address the linguistic and legal aspects of cyberbullying from an interdisciplinary perspective. Based on authentic data collected from real cases, we will expound on features, defining properties and legal remedies of cyberbullying in the countries that contribute to this special issue, such as Nigeria, France, Poland and China. Firstly, we will present an overview of cyberbullying and its definition, along with cyberbullying’s attributes. Next, we will cover the various forms (...) of cyberbullying, such as hate speech, harassment and trolling. Each of these forms of cyberbullying result in numerous outcomes, many of which are serious and, in the worst case, can result in a victim’s death. A discussion of such consequences and the legal remedies for cyberbullying will be provided. On a final note, the contributors seek to enrich the forthcoming studies on cyberbullying by offering suggestions towards descriptive adequacy of cyberbullying. (shrink)

Court conciliation conducted by judges in Chinese people’s courts has been playing a vital role in resolving civil disputes. When it heaps praises and compliments, it also faces severe criticisms such as pressing parties to settle due to judges’ over-engagement. To date, except for mere criticisms from the legal literature, few efforts have been made to reveal how judges get engaged linguistically in conciliation and whether their engagement exceeds the limit in each phase of court conciliation. This paper, taking the (...) engagement system of the appraisal framework and the exchange structure model as the theoretical basis, aims to analyze the features of judges’ engagement and the underlying forces that influence their engagement. Data-analysis shows that for court conciliation conducted in court, judges often employ dialogically contractive resources in uni-directional information exchange structures to warrant their engagement. Under the co-influence of the driving and curbing forces, judges are often “dancing with shackles” in court conciliation. (shrink)

With the rapid development of the social media, cyberbullying has become an invisible aggressive fist worldwide, leading to many tragedies. Compared with abundant findings on the description, detection and prevention of cyberbullying targeted at teenagers from the perspectives of sociology, psychology and computer science, little has been done to analyze how adults are linguistically bullied on the social media. This paper, based on the data collected from a high-profile case in China, aims to analyze the features of cyberbullying language that (...) is targeted at adults on the social media. Data analysis shows that online users tend to choose particular forms of address to identify the victim and employ lexical and grammatical evaluative resources to negate the victim and conduct trial by social media. Through interactions among participants online and offline, the negative effects of cyberbullying may be achieved, realizing, ironically, the function of language, “to do things with words”. This study may hopefully enrich the linguistic findings on cyberbullying and provide tentative linguistic parameters for future empirical studies on automatic detection of cyberbullying. (shrink)

Despite the increasing popularity of the call for specialized and professionalized mediators worldwide, the importance of mediation helpers who are non-mediators but invited to assist the mediation in China can never be underestimated. Different from the western style of co-mediation that involves two or more mediators, China has the tradition to invite mediation helpers such as family members, neighbors, friends and working unit leaders, to help the mediator settle disputes for parties. Nowadays, in one innovative form of people’s mediation, TV (...) mediation, warm-hearted people who are unfamiliar with the parties are also invited to be mediation helpers. This paper, based on the socio-cultural linguistic framework of identity proposed by Bucholtz and Hall (Discourse Stud 7(4–5):585–614, 2005), intends to analyze how “stranger” mediation helpers discursively construct their identities as scolding “brothers” and caring “friends” in China’s TV mediation. The data used in this paper consists of transcripts of 10 episodes of TV mediation programs on divorce disputes in China. Data analysis shows that unlike the mediator who is supposed to be neutral, mediation helpers often align/disalign themselves with parties, discursively construct such an identity as scolding “elder brothers” and caring “friends”, and achieve additional favorable effects that would otherwise be normally impossible by the neutral mediator. This paper concludes that due to the socio-cultural traditions in China, this seemingly peculiar phenomenon to the west is actually an innovation of mediation and is the very secret that makes mediation in China vigorous and effective. (shrink)

With the popularity of the social media, gender-based violence (GBV) exhibits new features when violence is inflicted upon victims through language online. This study, based on posts and comments from six sensational cyberbullying incidents on the Chinese social media platforms, Weibo in particular, aims to analyze features of GVB in online discourse and explore its underlying causes. Through high frequency word co-occurrence graphs, this study analyzes features of GBV by taking social factors like social status, education background and occupation into (...) consideration. Data analysis shows that accompanied by social factors, seemingly similar GBV exhibits stark differences in terms of vocabulary usage, points of attack and polarity of comments in those incidents. It’s found that humiliation, threats and victim blaming are major means to inflict online GBV. Symbolic violence, personal motivation, hierarchical gender order and insufficient network inspection are the main underlying causes that give rise to GBV. (shrink)

Cyberbullying transmits negative information and inflicts verbal harm by means of evaluative language. Drawing on the Appraisal system, this study investigates the usage patterns and coupling patterns of attitude and engagement resources in cyberbullying discourse through a corpus-based approach that integrates quantitative annotation and qualitative interpretation. The corpus consists of 585 comments extracted from nine representative cyberbullying incidents on Sina Weibo. The findings reveal an uneven distribution of appraisal resources: within the attitude system, judgement resources (particularly those related to propriety) (...) predominate, reflecting a strong emphasis on moral evaluation. Within the engagement system, contractive heteroglossia (specifically deny and concur) is the most prevalent, serving to suppress dissenting voices. More importantly, cyberbullies tend to deploy these resources in combination rather than in isolation, strategically coupling attitude resources (notably negative judgement) with engagement resources (notably dialogic contraction). This coupling generates three discursive mechanisms: establishing the hegemony of moral judgment, amplifying emotional venting for group incitement, and shaping public perception to evade responsibility. Collectively, these patterns construct a hostile communicative environment targeted at the victim. These findings may provide linguistic insights for the identification and governance of cyberbullying contents on social media. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2017 Heft: 216 Seiten: 399-421.

本书收《祖坟——叛逆与创作》、《绍兴闲话》、《寰宇觅知音》、《油画的联想》、《漓江》等百余篇文章。.

该书收入其论著6种, 主要包括《仪礼奭固》, 《礼器图》, 《周政三图》, 《天文图考》, 《经脉分图》等.

In this rare firsthand account of an individual's pursuit of sagehood, the early Ming dynasty scholar and teacher Wu Yubi chronicles his progress and his setbacks, as he strives to integrate the Neo-Confucian practices of self-examination and self-cultivation into everyday life. In more than three hundred entries, spanning much of his adult life, Wu paints a vivid picture, not only of the life of the mind, but also of the life of a teacher of modest means, struggling to make ends (...) meet in a rural community. This volume features M. Theresa Kelleher's superb translation of Wu's journal, along with translations of more than a dozen letters from his personal correspondence. A general Introduction discusses Neo-Confucianism and the Ming dynasty, and includes biographical information that puts the main work in context. A substantial commentary on the journal discusses the obstacles and supports Wu encounters in pursuit of his goal, the conflict between discipline and restraint of the self and the nurturing and expanding of the self, Wu's successes and failures, and Wu’s role as a teacher. Also included are a map of the Ming dynasty, a pronunciation guide, a chronology of Chinese dynasties, a glossary of names, a glossary of book titles, and suggestions for further reading. (shrink)

In this rare firsthand account of an individual's pursuit of sagehood, the early Ming dynasty scholar and teacher Wu Yubi chronicles his progress and his setbacks, as he strives to integrate the Neo-Confucian practices of self-examination and self-cultivation into everyday life. In more than three hundred entries, spanning much of his adult life, Wu paints a vivid picture, not only of the life of the mind, but also of the life of a teacher of modest means, struggling to make ends (...) meet in a rural community. This volume features M. Theresa Kelleher's superb translation of Wu's journal, along with translations of more than a dozen letters from his personal correspondence. A general Introduction discusses Neo-Confucianism and the Ming dynasty, and includes biographical information that puts the main work in context. A substantial commentary on the journal discusses the obstacles and supports Wu encounters in pursuit of his goal, the conflict between discipline and restraint of the self and the nurturing and expanding of the self, Wu's successes and failures, and Wu’s role as a teacher. Also included are a map of the Ming dynasty, a pronunciation guide, a chronology of Chinese dynasties, a glossary of names, a glossary of book titles, and suggestions for further reading. (shrink)

The main purpose of this paper is to bring out some significant humanistic characteristics of Chinese religious thought. My account is limited to what is originally and typically Chinese. That is to say, it will exclude what has been influenced by Buddhism from India or Christianity from the Western world. Some of the theses of this paper are based on scholarly works, while others are drawn from the author's primary experience.

本书内容包括:宗教理论与历史一般;中国宗教的起源;中国宗教的成型;道教、佛教、儒教及民间宗教;中国宗教之基本类型与本质特征;中国宗教与巫术的关系;中国宗教与伦理的关系;作为参照的亚伯拉罕宗教系统.