The 2nd FAH Macao Humanities Roundtable will be held on 4 May 2023. As one of the major events in FAH, the Roundtable aims to foster collegiality in the faculty and serves as an excellent platform for FAH colleagues and Ph.D. students to share and showcase their research with UM members. There will be parallel sessions in E21A-3118 and E21A-G049 (SI LAB). The 19 excellent presentations are grouped into 6 sessions, including 1A- Chinese Language and Literature, 1B- Education, Society and History, 2A- Linguistics, 2B- Translation, 3A-Philosophy, and 3B- English Literature. All members of the UM community are cordially invited to this splendid event.

Details of the event are as follows:

Event name: The 2nd FAH Macao Humanities Roundtable
Date: 4 May (Thur)
Venue: E21A-3118 & E21A-G049 (SI LAB)
Time: 9:30 – 17:40
Programme: Roundtable programme

 

Registration: Register for the Roundtable by 3 May 2023 (Wed) via https://forms.gle/pgcyppXipUdiScyb7

For further inquiries, please feel free to contact Ms. Lisa Lam via lisalam@um.edu.mo

 

Session 1 A (Chinese Language and Literature) at E21A-3118 @ 9:45-12:20

1.Cognitive Styles underlying Typological Difference in Chinese and EnglishOrdering Prioritization of Arguments 認知定勢與漢英論元前置優勢的類型學差異

2.山東萊州方言的方位詞和方位後綴lɛ

3.《澳門紀略》對音詞顯示的漢語方言歸屬

4.陶淵明的異域知音——以晚近歐美和日本的陶淵明研究為中心

5. The Multiple Meanings of the Chinese Particle ‘de/的’ and the Legitimacy of Chinese Philosophy漢語助詞“的”之多重含義與中國哲學的合法性

 

Session 1 B (Education, Society and History) at E21A-G049 @ 9:45-12:55

1. The effects and discourse of online Mindfulness Intervention among Research Postgraduate Students

2. Information-based Academic Writing Assessment

3. Framing slogans for responsible gaming campaigns by conceptual metaphors and the prospect of gains/losses: cases of the U.S., Singapore, and Macau

4. Lute, Sword, Snake, and Parasol: Forming of the Standard Iconographies of the Four Heavenly Kings in Chinese Buddhist Art

5. Inter-imperial Cooperation and Struggles around the Global Suppression of Maritime Raiding in the Nineteenth Century

 

Session 2 A (Linguistics) at E21A-3118 @ 14:30-16:15

1. Mandarin Chinese as a World Language and the Three Concentric Circle Theory

2. The organization of repetition in second language classes

3. Is Portuguese a Heavy Language?

 

Session 2 B (Translation) at E21A-G049 @ 14:30 -16:15

1.The pivotal role of translators’ research in literary translation: A case study of Jeffrey Kinkley

2.Introduced through poetry translation or not? Recontextualizing avant-garde nature of Chinese new poetry from the perspective of cosmopolitanism

3.Which is more costly in Chinese to English simultaneous interpreting, “pairing” or “transphrasing”? Evidence from an fNIRS neuroimaging study

 

Session 3 A (Philosophy) at E21A-3118 @ 16:30-17:40

1. From “Westernizing” Chinese Philosophy to “Sinicizing” Chinese Philosophy

 

Session 3 B (English Literature) at E21A-G049 @ 16:30-17:40

1. ‘The vampire hypothesis’: from fingernails to ministering angels – the first Swedish debunker

2. The Politics of Punctuation

 

 

Abstract:

Session分組1A: Chinese languageand literature中國語言文學

 

認知定勢與漢英論元前置優勢的類型學差異

陳忠 Zhong Chen

中國語言文學系Department of Chinese Language and Literature

漢語背襯優先的認知定勢提升了處所、涉事、材料前置做主語的競爭力，在典型論元缺席的非及物句中，漢語背襯論元藉助於背襯優先的認知定勢扶持，將主語的範圍拓展至處所、涉事等背襯論元，為首尾論元可逆創造了條件。 英語顯體優先的認知定勢壓制背襯論元的前置競爭力，導致英語的處所、涉事材料被壓制於動詞後乃至句尾，縮小了主賓可逆的範圍。

漢英背襯優先認知定勢，造就了漢語的處所、涉事、材料可以做主語的“主題突出”類型學論元分佈特徵; 英語顯體優先認知定勢，造就了“主語突出”的類型學論元分佈特徵，並導致首尾論元可逆的漢英差異。

關鍵詞： 認知定勢; 背襯優先; 顯體優先

 

山東萊州方言的方位詞和方位後綴lɛ

楊文江Yang Wenjiang

日本研究中心Centre for Japanese Studies

普通話的方位短語有兩種結構：“名詞+方位詞+方位後綴”和“名詞+方位詞”，前者如“教室裏邊/樹下面”，後者如“教室裏/樹下”。萊州方言原則上僅使用前一種，但有一個例外是“名詞+方位詞lɛ”，它在語義上相當於普通話的“名詞+裏”，卻不能後接其他方位後綴。lɛ的另外一個用法是方位後綴，如“教室裏lɛ/樹下lɛ”。我們從lɛ的語音、語義和形態句法特徵推測，方位詞lɛ是“裏”的形態變體，而方位後綴lɛ是方位詞lɛ進一步語法化的結果。

 

陶淵明的異域知音——以晚近歐美和日本的陶淵明研究為中心

張月 & 姚燕 (PhD)

中國語言文學系Department of Chinese Language and Literature

本文綜述與分析2000年以來在海外出版的、用英語、日語發表的陶淵明研究代表性專著或論文，並在此基礎上抛磚引玉，分析未來陶淵明研究的新方向。近二十年以來，陶淵明研究蔚為壯觀，吸引了海外很多學者前赴後繼、孜孜鑽研。陶淵明研究的早期準備工作較為充足，加之陶淵明在中國文學和文化史上的獨特地位，以及海外（尤其是美國）近期湧現的幾位用力甚勤的學者，這些因素共同促成了陶淵明研究的“盛世”。目前一些學者追溯並探討了海外陶淵明研究的發展史。本文在時間上拓展了當前海外陶淵明研究的考察範疇，側重2000年以來最新的研究成果（包括專著和長篇論文）。這些成果代表了陶淵明研究的最新發展方向。最後，本文根據目前的研究成果，展望未來陶淵明研究新的增長點和領域。

 

The Multiple Meanings of the Chinese Particle ‘de/的’  and the Legitimacy of Chinese Philosophy

漢語助詞“的”之多重含義與中國哲學的合法性

Wang Qingjie

Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies

The essay argues for a new understanding of “Chinese Philosophy” as a “Philosophy from China.” I shall start first with an analysis of the different meanings of the popular Chinese particle “of 的” in the modern Chinese language both linguistically and philosophically. Secondly, a new understanding of “Chinese philosophy” as a “philosophy from China” will be introduced. I will distinguish it from the three previous philosophical understandings of the “Chinese philosophy,” i.e., 1) as “China’s philosophy 中國的哲學,” 2) as “philosophy in China 哲學在中國,” and 3) as “China-grounded philosophy 中國底哲學,” etc.  Many modern Chinese philosophers like Jin Yuelin 金岳霖（‪1895–1984）, Feng Youlan馮友蘭 (‪1895–1990）, and Mou Zongsan牟宗三 (‪1909–1995) discussed these ideas before. Third, I shall conclude by saying that “Chinese philosophy” is neither a metaphysically a priori nor a teleological conception. Rather, it belongs to a historical-genealogical “Bildung” of “philosophizing” that was and will continue to be future-oriented, open, and always renewing.

 

 

Session分組1B: Education, Society and History 教育、社會與歷史

The effects and discourse of online Mindfulness Intervention among Research Postgraduate Students

Katherine Chen

English Language Centre

Research postgraduate (RPg) students face significant stress while pursuing their degrees. We conducted a study to investigate the effectiveness of an online eight-week mindfulness-based intervention in enhancing wellbeing among RPg students, using a randomized waitlist-controlled design. We also aimed to explore the discourse of mindfulness in this intervention setting.

We recruited 88 participants who are RPgs from the University of Macau and the University of Hong Kong, and assessed trait mindfulness, emotional states, resilience, and mental wellbeing at baseline, post-intervention, and 8-week follow-up. Qualitative data, such as homework reflections, audio transcripts, and chat box inputs, were collected to examine possible discoursal patterns of change. The intervention program was adapted from “Mindfulness: a Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World” (Williams & Penman, 2011).

We found a significant correlation between trait mindfulness, wellbeing, and emotional states among RPg students. The discourse data provides qualitative depth on participants’ mindful processing of thoughts and emotions at times of stress.

Our study provides preliminary evidence supporting the effectiveness of an online mindfulness program in enhancing the wellbeing of RPg students. The discourse analysis sheds light on potential mechanisms underlying the program’s effectiveness.

 

Information-based Academic Writing Assessment

Cecilia Zhao

Department of English

As a response to the observed lack of theoretical support and generalizability of results in our current writing assessment practices, this paper proposes an alternative writing assessment design that reflects more faithfully theoretical conceptions of writing and authentic writing practices in the current information age. It starts with a brief review of existing writing theories and presents a three-dimensional model of “Information-based Academic Writing” (IBAW), which foregrounds information literacy as an integral part of the writing process and extends our current understanding and conception of the construct of writing (Yu & Zhao, 2021). The model illustrates how writing tasks situated in specific rhetorical, disciplinary, and information contexts activate one’s knowledge base and generate information needs, which then guides the iterative information behaviors and writing processes, as regulated by one’s affective and metacognitive strategies, to generate new knowledge and new information. Based on such a model, a conceptual framework for designing and developing a process-oriented information-based academic writing assessment is presented to show how updated writing theories may help inform and guide more authentic and meaningful assessment design. The paper ends with a discussion of the value and practical implications of such an assessment design, together with potential challenges for the developers and users of this alternative assessment approach.

 

Framing slogans for responsible gaming campaigns by conceptual metaphors and the prospect of gains/losses: cases of the U.S., Singapore, and Macau

Vincent Wang

Department of English

This study examines the mechanism of persuasion by slogans for anti-problematic gambling campaigns. We look at slogans in the official posters used by authorities in three places – the U.S., Singapore, and Macau – and, in particular, analyse the use of conceptual metaphors and the frame of gaining or losing. The results are discussed in an attempt to better understand the framing devices at work in the social contexts in which the slogans are used.

 

 

Lute, Sword, Snake, and Parasol: Forming of the Standard Iconographies of the Four Heavenly Kings in Chinese Buddhist Art

Zhu Tianshu

Department of History

The Four Heavenly Kings, Sida Tianwang 四大天王, are the guardians of the four quarters of the world in Buddhism. They are among the most frequently represented protective deities in Buddhist art across different traditions. In their standard iconographies developed in China popular during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911), they wear full armor, and each holds exclusive attributes—lute (pipa琵琶), sword, snake, and parasol — from the east, south, west, to the north respectively. There is no direct textual base in the Chinese cannon for such iconographies. Neither can we find prototypes in India or central Asia. Indeed, how did this iconographic group develop in China? In the past, since the standard iconographies of the Four Heavenly Kings are clear, and identification is no problem, comprehensive in-depth study on this is lacking. Actually, those attributes came from a Tantric tradition related to Tibetan Buddhism filtered through the Xi Xia (1036-1227) and Yuan (1206-1368). What revealed in the development of this iconography is the complex relationship among the Tibetan, Tanguts, Mongols, and Chinese Buddhism.

 

Inter-imperial Cooperation and Struggles around the Global Suppression of Maritime Raiding in the Nineteenth Century

Manuel Barcia

University of Leeds

Department of History

During the middle decades of the nineteenth century, pirate imperialist states were able to come together at times, in order to device strategies to combat amphibious peoples they considered to be pirates. At other times, commercial or colonial interests weighted heavily on their decision-making processes, and led them instead to confront each other. The case of the assassination of Governor Amaral in Macau, in 1849, serves as a propitious platform to explore these instances of collaboration and struggle. That the British would disembark troops in Macau twice in less than three months before and after Amaral’s death, the first time to attack the Portuguese garrison and the second one to support it while they fought the Chinese, reveals how fast and adaptable policies and actions could be taken whenever necessary. In spite of the wide array of differences and disputes existing between pirate imperial powers around the world in the middle decades of the nineteenth century, the suppression of maritime raiding, and maritime communities’ autonomy, was the common theme that brought them, more often than not, together. These suppression activities, however, concealed further agendas, which included the acquisition of commercial advantages, the consolidation of colonies, and the displacement or extermination of aquatic communities standing in the way of western “civilization” and the abolition of slavery and slave trading activities.

 

Session分組2A: Linguistics 語言學

Mandarin Chinese as a World Language and the Three Concentric Circle Theory

Jie Xu

Department of Chinese Language and Literature

Mandarin Chinese has been developing to be a new world language. Adopting the Three Concentric Circle Theory that Kachru (1985) proposed for the international spread of English, we argue that the international spread of Mandarin Chinese exhibits almost the very same three concentric circle pattern, from Northern China to Southern China, and from inland to overseas. We argue that the three concentric circle pattern of Mandarin’s spread and various functions of the language in different areas across the world call for an even better designed language planning policy and a better executed language management implementation in terms of standardization criteria, education models and promotion strategies.

 

The organization of repetition in second language classes

Ricardo Moutinho

Department of Portuguese

This talk explores repetition during L2 instruction as a ‘seen-but-unnoticed’ (i.e., common and taken-for-granted) element produced by students and teachers, who exhibit, recognize and ‘trust’ in this phenomenon (i.e., repetition) as a fundamental part of the organizational architecture of L2 classroom environments. We will explore some video-recorded data gathered in Portuguese language classes for beginner-level university students and discuss how the phenomenon of repetition is produced in that context as an instructionally relevant (and observable) practice. The analysis is divided into two parts. The first one refers to repetition in the third turn of the IRF sequence (Initiation-Response-Feedback). The second part refers to repetition as a resource to display moments of understanding of apprehensible objects, an action that reflexively produces pairs of categories such as [native speaker-non-native speaker] and [teacher-student]. The results point to two directions: 1) the need for empirical data to carry out an investigation on language classroom practices, since the phenomenon observed here is displayed by the participants as their in situ accomplished tasks; 2) the combination of sequential and categorial elements of talk in the production of the organization of repetition, which helps analysts avoid to take as ‘unproblematic’ the categorization work produced by classroom participants.

 

Is Portuguese a Heavy Language?

João Veloso

Department of Portuguese

Syllable weight (SW) is commonly accepted, at least in certain languages, as one of the phonological determinants of word stress. In languages like Classical Latin, for instance, stress falls on the penultimate if this is heavy, on the antepenultimate if the penultimate is light (all long vowels making syllables heavy, all short vowels making open syllables light):

The most conservative approaches to word-stress in Portuguese tend not to consider SW as relevant for word-stress (indeed, refusing to accept SW as a phonologically relevant parameter in this language). Mateus & Andrade (2000) and Mateus et al. (2033), for instance, describe Portuguese as a weight-insensitive language, relating word stress to morphological properties only.

Alternative views, such as Wetzels’ (2007, 2020) and Carvalho’s (2011), have insisted that SW is absolutely relevant for word-stress assignment in Portuguese. Statistically, most words with a final heavy syllable are oxytones. When the penultimate is heavy, it normally functions as a stress attractor. Finally, proparoxytonic stress is disallowed if the penultimate is heavy. According to these proposals, Portuguese SW is mainly related to rhyme-branching.

In this presentation, we shall develop previous proposals (e.g., Veloso 2019), arguinh in favour of SW as phonologically relevant in Portuguese. Such relevance is twofold:

1. A) Weight in Portuguese is not only a function of rhyme-branching: some features of the internal structure of segments assign these segments “intrinsic weight”. This seems to be the case of sonority, palatality and other kinds of segment complexity (an overload of phonological specification derived from the association of segmental specification plus an extra autosegment).
2. B) Weight does not manifest only on stress-assignment: Word Minimality can be explained by SWG, also.

On the basis of a broader discussion of this type of data, we shall highlight the following remarks:

Portuguese must be included in the set of weight-sensitive languages;

Syllable weight, in Portuguese, lies on rhyme-branching and on certain aspects of the structure and behaviour of segments;

Inherent Segment Weight should be accepted in Portuguese;

Syllable Weight, in Portuguese, is relevant for stress-assignment and minimality.

 

Session分組2B: Translation 翻譯

The pivotal role of translators’ research in literary translation: A case study of Jeffrey Kinkley

Minhui Xu

Department of English

Much recent work in the discipline of translation studies has focused on translators, yet the research conducted by translators remains understudied. This study explores translators’ research and its impact on their translations and on translational trust. Taking Jeffrey C. Kinkley–an American translator, historian and sinologist–as a case study, we attempt to investigate Kinkley’s research work, including interviews with the original author, fieldwork to verify objects described in the text, research on historical documentation and previous studies, which resembles the research work of evidential scholarship and ethnographic studies. Kinkley’s research impacts his translations, which are characterised by inclusive text selection, thick translation strategies, literary and cultural fidelity, and knowledge creation. A translator’s research provides a solid foundation not only for accurate and adequate translations and increased visibility but also for dynamic networking among various agents in the translation field, which plays a pivotal role in nurturing translational trust. This investigation into Kinkley’s research work contributes to an in-depth understanding of and objective comments on both translation and translator.

Keywords: translator’s research work; translator’s visibility; translational trust; Jeffrey Kinkley; literary translation

 

Introduced through poetry translation or not? Recontextualizing avant-garde nature of Chinese new poetry from the perspective of cosmopolitanism

Shuying Liang (PhD)

Department of English

Translation could function as an act of epistemological force of intrusion into the domestic poetic paradigm amid cross-cultural encounter. Chinese New Poetry at the early 20th century featuring Chinese national avant-garde spirit, worked a poetic paradigm shift against classical Chinese poetry, which was in alignment with Chinese Vernacular Movement and the May Fourth New Literature Movement. The inheritance of the traditional Chinese cultural treasure combined with the appropriated forms of foreign poems in creating Chinese New Poetry has contributed to promoting Chinese vernacular language from the periphery to the centre in China’s society then. The paper offers a re-examination of the critical role of the translations of foreign poems in promoting Chinese New Poetry in the early 20th century. It argues that Chinese New Poetry is a hybridized poetic genre with avant-garde spirit encapsulated in the globalization process, challenging the traditional conceptualization of Chinese poetry and reenergizing Chinese poetic prosperity. The intense interactions with the cultural foreignness via the translational activities have helped Chinese New Poetry towards a direction of modernity and openness. By drawing on the cosmopolitanism perspective, the paper relates the dialectic relationship between poetry translation with the genesis of Chinese New Poetry to the wider context of world literature.

 

Which is more costly in Chinese to English simultaneous interpreting, “pairing” or “transphrasing”? Evidence from an fNIRS neuroimaging study

CSTIC Team (Defeng Li, Victoria Lei, Yuan, Z and Alison Lin)

This study examined the neural mechanism underlying two translation strategies associated with Chinese to English simultaneous interpreting (SI) targeting the left prefrontal cortex (PFC), which is generally involved in the control of interference and conflict resolution and has been identified as the brain area that plays a pivotal role in SI. Brain activation associated with the two strategies including “pairing” and “transphrasing” were compared with that from “nontranslation,” which keeps the source language item unchanged in the target language production and is considered as a tactic that does not require complex cognitive operation associated with bilingual processing effort. Our findings revealed that “pairing” elicited the strongest and almost immediate brain activation in the Broca’s area, and “transphrasing” resulted in the most extensive and strongest activation overall in the left PFC. By contrast, “nontranslation” induced very little brain activation in these regions. This work, which represents one of the first efforts in investigating brain activation related to translation strategies involving different levels of cognitive control, will not only pave a new avenue for better understanding of the cognitive mechanism underlying SI but also provide further insight into the role that the Broca’s region plays in domaingeneral cognitive control.

 

Session分組3A:Philosophy 哲學

From “Westernizing” Chinese Philosophy to “Sinicizing” Chinese Philosophy

Ting-mien Lee

Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies

Since the abolishment of imperial examination and the establishment of modern universities, “Chinese philosophy” has embarked on the project of “modernization” to accommodate itself to its new academic home, namely, philosophy department. Initially, scholars “westernized” ancient Chinese thought by reading Western philosophical theses into early Chinese masters’ texts. This strategy led to the controversy of “the legitimacy of Chinese philosophy.” After decades of heated debate, however, the controversy became moot in the new intellectual and political settings. As the ideas of “Sinicization” and “Chinese characteristics” began to gain currency, the intellectual movement of “Sinicizing Chinese philosophy” has emerged. As an on-going movement, its implications concerning the future of the discipline of “Chinese philosophy” remain unclear. However, an examination of this movement may help us gain deeper insights into contemporary Chinese intellectual trends.

 

 

Session分組3B: English Literature 英文文學

‘The vampire hypothesis’: from fingernails to ministering angels – the first Swedish debunker

Damian Shaw & Matthew Gibson

Department of English

We present a translation and analysis of the earliest known Scandinavian response to the Vampire phenomenon of Medvedia in 1732 by Nicolaus Boye, a state-employed physician residing in Stockholm. The translation shows that Boye’s own article, which constitutes a complete refutation of Johann Flückinger’s claims, was meticulously organised, abstracting and arguing against the major themes which he observed in the Visum et Repertum, while the analysis shows that Boye was working under the topical medical theories of the Dutch botanist and physician Herman Boerhaave. The analysis also demonstrates the extent to which Boye’s rationalism in refuting the Visum at Repertum is informed by his Lutheranism and belief in the Day of Judgement, and concludes by showing examples of the impact his work exerted on other academics in the 1730s.

 

The Politics of Punctuation

Nick Groom

Department of English

This paper explains how the neglected area of punctuation can reveal important connections between politics and literature. I focus on ‘Gothic’ novels, which often combine found documents with the direct and indirect speech of unreliable narrators, as well as including stories-within-stories, fragmentary or illegible writings, rumours, riddles, folklore, and obscure dialect. These texts are also, of course, characterized by the supernatural, whether manifest or implied. In representing these knotty plot twists, Gothic writers often seem self-consciously experimental in their use of punctuation, using, for example, ellipses, asterisks, dashes of various lengths, parentheses, and exclamations.

These insistent punctuation effects are consequently interpreted as reflecting typical Gothic themes of incarceration and claustrophobia, confusion and uncertainty – the tangled sentences winding like labyrinthine passages beneath a crumbling castle or overgrown paths through a dark forest. However, such punctuation already had a substantial pedigree in political satire and the emergent ‘Whig’ (liberal) ideology, as well as in scholarly editing. Political thinking had established this idiosyncratic form of punctuation, and it had very specific associations with English constitutional history, European cultural heritage, and contemporary artistic creativity – and it was these pre-existent punctuation codes that became adopted by later ‘Gothic’ writers to position their work in political and intellectual contexts. In doing so, punctuation helped to define the Gothic.