In his speech at Oxford University, Hinton introduced the basic principles of artificial neural networks while also criticizing Chomsky’s stimulus poverty theory. This article points out that the way in which “digital intelligence” learns language is not exactly the same as the way in which humans learn language. While human language acquisition involves both innate and acquired factors, digital intelligence needs to learn from large-scale language data and does not encounter the issue of stimulus poverty, as it lacks innate factors. However, we cannot deny the existence of stimulus poverty in human language because digital intelligence does not have this issue. We cannot equate digital intelligence with human intelligence; nor can we neglect the differences between them.

In recent years, Eco-Translatology, an interdisciplinary paradigm that integrates ecological wisdom and translation studies, has experienced remarkable advances in both theory and practice. As the prologue to the sequel Eco-Translatology: Translation Dao and Translation Art — a follow-up to the seminal monograph Eco-Translatology: Construction and Interpretation that was published a decade ago — emerging developments in the field are described in this article. Key discussions include a holistic reinterpretation of Eco-Translatology, its life-oriented translation Dao (guiding principles) and source-oriented translation art (practical methodologies), value orientation, eco-translatological cultural construction, and philosophical essence, as well as novel reflections on the discipline’s evolution within AI-driven contexts. These insights are anticipated to enhance the understanding of Eco-Translatology’s theoretical framework while fostering deeper, more systematic research trajectories.

China’s economic growth and improved international status have created an urgent need for high-level international communication capabilities to support national development in the era of AI. The objective of enhancing China’s capabilities in this regard is to cultivate high-level talents who possess a “5+5” set of skills: the five mindsets of “global vision, national standpoint, political acumen, economic thinking, and cultural inclusiveness”, and the five communication abilities of live broadcasting, resource integration, current affairs collection and editing, and translation and interpreting from a foreign language into Chinese and vice versa. To help cultivate international communication talents in the era of AI and put China’s interpreting talents at the center of the international stage, we have constructed the discipline of multimodal interpreting (MI). This research is grounded in the theory of Marxist materialism, General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important thought on international communication, and the theories of interpreting communication studies (ICS) and communication interpreting studies (CIS). Beginning with the practice of interpreting, it reviews the evolution of interpreting studies and proposes a new perspective on the construction of the MI discipline, which integrates “practice-teaching-research” (PTR) with the aim of achieving improved interpreting practice, teaching, and research. This paper not only emphasizes the importance of interpreting practice and teaching but also enriches the theoretical connotations of interpreting studies, ICS, CIS, and embodied-cognitive interpreting studies, expands interpreting research ideas, and enhances international communication capabilities in the era of AI.

In terms of discipline attribution and the theoretical integration of studies of eco-translatology, the research pedigree and thinking forms of Eco-Translatology require systematic summarization and theoretical refinement in order to reveal the entire profile of the eco-translatological theory system. The research pedigree of eco-translatology consists of theoretical research, descriptive research, and applied research. Of these, the “quadrilife-oriented view” draws on the field of general theory for theoretical research, the “trilife-oriented configuration” is the object of its descriptive research, and “green translation” is the new issue of its applied research. Thinking forms of Eco-Translatology consist of life-oriented thinking, existence-oriented thinking, and eco-thinking. Life-oriented thinking is referred to as “translation as textual transplant,” existence-oriented thinking involves “translation as adaptation/selection,” and eco-thinking is related to “translation as eco-balance.” The systematic formation of the eco-translatology research pedigree is of tremendous importance in the construction of the eco-translatological discourse and knowledge systems.

The intrinsic connection between sensual narratives and artistic resonance lies in sensory perception. Grounded in sensory experiences such as vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, narrative construction relies heavily on vivid descriptions of these modalities. To translate the emotionally compelling force of a text effectively, it is crucial to reconstruct sensory experiences in the target language to enable readers or audiences to empathize with the characters’ emotions and experiences. The English translation of Chen Ran’s feminist novel, A Private Life, is examined in this study by analyzing how sensory narratives are rendered cross-linguistically and cross-culturally. Concrete examples are used to investigate the strategies that were employed to convey the sensory dimensions of the original text, and the methods for introducing contemporary Chinese literature to global audiences through “literary” translations are explored. The findings revealed that shifts in sensory representation within translations altered the degree of bodily presence and weakened or enhanced the emotional impact of the work, thus providing insights for translators of Chinese fiction.

The systematic and theoretical expressions of discourse on the rule of law with Chinese characteristics embody China’s legal wisdom, rule-of-law thoughts, and values. The translation and dissemination of these expressions play a significant role in shaping the Chinese image of the rule of law, constructing a holistic discourse system, and extending the impact of the rule-of-law discourse. In light of this, the connotations and features of the rule-of-law discourse with Chinese characteristics, based on the chapters related to the rule of law in the four volumes of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, are explored in this paper with a particular focus on examining the application of the strategies of standardization and communication in the translation of rule-of-law discourse. The aim is to provide inspiration and effective approaches for promoting Chinese rule-of-law thoughts accurately and increasing the impact of the international dissemination of Chinese rule-of-law discourse.

The theoretical research on separable words in Modern Chinese since the publication of Word Formation in Chinese (Lu Zhiwei et al., 1957) is systematically reviewed in this paper. Among the studies, research based on traditional grammar has mainly focused on defi ning the nature of separable words, while research based on modern linguistic theories has analyzed the formation methods of separable words and has attempted to explain the underlying reasons for their existence in Modern Chinese. However, there are many inadequacies in these studies despite their explanatory strengths. In this paper, we argue that the study of separable words in Modern Chinese requires a more comprehensive and in-depth exploration of areas such as describing the phenomena entailed in separation, defining the forms of separation, identifying the typical characteristics of separable words, and conducting cross-language and cross-dialect comparisons. The seeming oddity in Modern Chinese, which appears to contradict Western theories about words, raises the question of whether it reveals certain unique properties or the essence of Chinese, or whether it should be understood within the context of universal phenomena in world languages. This necessitates further investigation and research.

The focus in the present article is on the exploration of how social semiotics can be applied to the construction of multimodal discourse through disciplinary semiotics and transdisciplinary semiotics in applied semiotics. The relationship between social semiotics and applied semiotics is discussed first, followed by an exploration of disciplinary semiotics and transdisciplinary semiotics in the field of applied semiotics, as well as their relationship with multimodal discourse studies. Finally, how social semiotics can solve the related problems through the integration of modes on the transdisciplinary platform and the creation of an implementation framework for the construction of multimodal discourse is proposed. The findings revealed that, as a branch of general semiotics, social semiotics can be employed to solve problems within and between disciplines through transdisciplinary platforms on the basis of its feature of appliability, which can be implemented through the integration of modes, resulting in the construction of multimodal discourse.

Responding to national strategic needs and highlighting social public interests constitute the core orientations and guiding principles of China’s translation research in the new era. Professor Zhang Wei has comprehensively elaborated on the importance of translation studies for national strategic development in the new era; he delved into essential topics such as the principles and developmental directions of translation research, key focus areas of translation research from a national strategic perspective, debates about and the evolution of translation theories with Chinese characteristics, core issues in Chinese-to-foreign translation studies, international communications of discourse with Chinese characteristics, the social value of translation research, the development of translation textbooks, and the impacts and challenges that artificial intelligence poses for the translation profession. This interview facilitates a holistic understanding of the developmental strategies and key issues in China’s translation studies in the new era, thereby promoting the sustainable advancement of translation research in China.

Foreign-language teaching materials are crucial resources for cultivating high-quality talents in higher education, making research on the development of teaching materials essential. The concept of new quality productive forces and the rationale for empowering the development of foreign-language teaching materials were explored in this study. Based on relevant data, it identified the main problems with current foreign-language teaching materials in higher education, such as outdated content, an overemphasis on knowledge over skills, and the insufficient support of new forms of materials for both teaching and learning. Furthermore, this study discusses several pathways for the development of foreign-language teaching materials, including ideas, content, the presentation format, the team structure, and mechanisms with the aim of providing insights that will facilitate the construction of high-quality foreign-language teaching materials.

The aim of this study was to explore the influence of peer interaction on learning engagement in English classrooms through the mediating effect of academic self-efficacy. The study’s participants were 1,143 non-English majors; the quantitative data were analyzed via a descriptive analysis, a multiple regression analysis, and structural equation modeling. Some of the participants were then invited to participate in semi-structured interviews. The results revealed that the content and mode of peer interaction were both positive predicters of the three dimensions of learning engagement; while the perception of peer resources positively predicted cognitive and behavioral engagement, it did not significantly affect emotional engagement. Moreover, peer interaction was a direct positive predicter of learning engagement in English classrooms; it also indirectly affected learning engagement via academic self-efficacy, with academic self-efficacy playing a mediating role in the relationship between peer interaction and learning engagement in English classrooms. The transcription and analysis of the interviews confirmed these quantitative results. The study enhances the understanding of the path relationship between peer interaction and learning engagement in English classrooms, thereby providing insights for teachers to improve learning engagement through both peer interaction and academic self-efficacy.

Curriculum construction has been widely practiced in China, but few studies have examined it from the perspective of professional learning communities (PLC). Accordingly, the challenges and strategies within a PLC of English language teachers developing a Chinese culture course, framed by activity theory, were explored in this study. Using a case study methodology, the findings revealed four main contradictions that the PLC encountered: (1) divergent views about the course objectives, (2) insufficient cultural knowledge and demanding course content, (3) a mismatch between the desired teaching approach and the actual teaching practices, and (4) conflicts with other activity systems. To address these contradictions, the PLC implemented mediating tools such as expert guidance, creative literature reading sessions, and peer support. These actions enhanced the teachers’ cultural knowledge and pedagogical skills, as well as their professional and personal growth. The study has implications for designing and implementing foreign language courses pertaining to the Chinese culture and fostering teachers’ development.

The paradigm of generative grammar is adopted as the theoretical framework in this paper to examine the development of second language (L2) syntax-morphology by investigating the acquisition of the D category and its features by Chinese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Ninety-seven learners with an onset age of 12 or older were divided into three groups according to their L2 language proficiency. The participants were tested on their use of English determiners in four different tasks (i.e., Oral Test, Question-Answer Task, Discourse Error Correction Task, and Forced-choice Elicitation Task). The results showed that the learners’ performances regarding article determiner, the indefinite article or the indefinite specific plural, were lower than they were for non-article determiner, the definite article or the definite specific plural. It is argued that the complexity of feature reassembly, which involves such factors as language differences, the nature and the number of the features in the combination, hinders EFL learners’ acquisition of English determiners because these factors affect mapping between abstract syntactic knowledge and surface morphological forms, thus restricting the development of L2 syntax-morphology. The L2 D-Feature Combination Complexity Hypothesis that is presented in this paper is an advancement of the current (syntax-morphology) mapping theory, which does not address factors that affect mapping, with the aim of revealing the causes of variability in L2 acquisition.

Any new academic theory or new discipline must have a new research object and a new theoretical system. The paper argues that transknowletology performs the same function as translatology, both of which aim to study the translation of knowledge. The processing and translation of knowledge has always been carried out according to different disciplines, fields, and genres. The goal of transforming local knowledge into global knowledge through translation is to enable target-language readers to have the same understanding and perception of the translated text as source-language readers do of the original text. Therefore, it is necessary to process the original knowledge by selecting appropriate linguistic forms, rhetorical devices, and discourse modes based on the specific communication methods and audiences of the different disciplines to which the knowledge belongs, rather than interpreting or reflecting on the knowledge. This study suggests that for transknowletology to achieve breakthroughs, it must draw on perspectives from international communication studies, systemic functional linguistics, and language for specific purposes (LSP) theory to provide a theoretical basis for the processing or translation of disciplinary knowledge.

Professor Hu Gengshen’s academic journey, practice, and research spanned nine cities and over five decades. In this paper, Professor Hu’s academic life is investigated according to five aspects: the nine cities in his academic journey, his academic achievements, his scholarly methods, his reputation as the founder of Eco-Translatology, and his wisdom in life. His innovations in academic research and his outstanding contributions to translation schools are analyzed, and his scholarly methods and wisdom in life are summarized with the aim of showcasing the long-term efforts and accumulated expertise behind the success of this translation theorist in the hope of setting an example for future scholars.

According to the core principle of Embodied-Cognitive Linguistics, “Reality-Cognition-Language”, we have developed “symmetrical embodied cognitive strategy” in our minds due to the ubiquitous phenomenon of symmetry in the external world; this has led to the emergence of numerous symmetrical expressions in language, particularly in Chinese, in which a large number of symmetrical phenomena appear at various levels, such as phonetics, characters, vocabulary, syntax, and discourse. We intend to regard this as the most important grammatical mechanism in Chinese, which belongs to the category of “isolating languages”. By contrast, languages such as English, which are “inflecting languages”, require word forms to be adjusted according to grammatical rules when included in a sentence to maintain a strict correspondence between word classes and syntactic components. This is called the “word-based” grammatical theory. In recent years, many scholars have found this theory to be unsuitable for constructing Chinese grammar; although various X-based theories have emerged in China, they have all overlooked “the symmetrical strategy” that is widely used in Chinese. When conducting comparative studies of English and Chinese, it is essential to emphasize the difference between “correspondence and symmetry”, as this difference is important for language research and teaching.

The bibliometric software CiteSpace was used to conduct a visual analysis of research articles on metadiscourse that were published in international journals from 2006 to 2024 based on the Web of Science database. In this article, we present the most frequently cited references and prestigious authors, and investigate the knowledge base, research frontiers, and important topics in international metadiscourse studies. The results revealed that metadiscourse research is increasing and developing rapidly, particularly since 2014, with a significant increase in both publication volume and citation count. Moreover, high-impact and high-centrality references mainly focus on metadiscourse conceptions, research models, and research paradigms, and the research topics and important academic issues are academic discourses, metadiscourse markers, corpus data, linguistic features, and disciplinary differences. These findings could help domestic researchers to understand the trends in international metadiscourse research in more detail and provide valuable insights for metadiscourse research in China.

The impact of peer interaction patterns on learner engagement is examined in this study by following Philp & Duchesne’s (2016) framework of learner engagement. Two classes of first-year non-English-major students participated in the research and engaged in topic discussions as required. Based on the analysis of the recorded data obtained from 25 paired interactions, the findings revealed that there were three patterns of paired interactions, with collaborative and passive parallel patterns being the main types. The interaction pattern affected learners’ behavioral, cognitive and social engagement, as evidenced by the significantly more usage of words, turns, idea units, and responsiveness in the collaborative pattern compared to those in the passive parallel pattern. The results of the interviews with six pairs of students showed that cooperative learners exhibited more positive emotions in interactions, while passive parallel learners were relatively negative. The findings indicate that it is necessary for teachers to guide learners to cooperate in order to promote their language learning.

Citation data currently serve as the most reliable indicator of scholarly impact. By performing a citation analysis on highly cited literature from 21 core journals, this study delineates the landscape and developmental features of contemporary translation studies in China. The findings reveal that traditional domains, such as culture, strategy, literature, interpretation, and teaching, form the core research areas of the field. However, significant new hotspots have also emerged, including the construction of indigenous theories, the integration of translation technology, and the service of national strategies. Theoretical research demonstrates a shift away from a primary reliance on Western theories towards a dynamic dialogue between Chinese and Western perspectives, as well as the rise of local theories, with frameworks such as Ecological Translatology gaining substantial influence. The study identifies several challenges, including a lack of original topics within popular fields, a dearth of focused perspectives, and a discernible gap in international scholarship, particularly with respect to audiovisual translation. These findings offer a systematic framework for understanding the discipline’s trajectory and charting future research directions.

Western missionaries played a significant role in translating and introducing Shakespeare’s plays to China during the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, yet related studies in the literature remain scarce. The perspective of identity construction is adopted in this paper to analyze the Chinese translations of Shakespeare’s plays entitled Wanrou Ji, Haiguo Quyu, and Shashibiya de Gushi by three missionaries, namely Laura M. White (1914-1915), Isaac Mason (1918), and Madge D. Mateer (1929). The findings revealed that the missionary translators constructed two types of identities, which were their default identities as religious disseminators and their deviational identities as adapters, evaluators, and cultural mediators in the main texts and paratexts of their Chinese translations. The construction of these identities displays the complex ideological frameworks of Western missionaries in modern China, who not only carried out their missionary work but also contributed to the dissemination and reception of Shakespeare’s plays in China.

Learning engagement is an important topic in the research on second language education. Exploring the impact of motivational factors on learning engagement enables researchers to understand college students’ self-regulated learning mechanisms. Based on goal-orientation learning theory, the impact of goal orientations and motivational regulation strategies on engagement in English learning was explored in this study, as well as the mediating role of motivational regulation strategies through a survey of 299 non-English majors and structural equation modeling. The results revealed that both mastery and performance-approach goal orientations had direct and positive effects on learning engagement, while performance-avoidance goal orientation had direct and negative effects. Motivational regulation strategies had direct and positive effects on learning engagement; while such strategies could partially mediate the positive relationships among mastery, performance-approach goal orientations and learning engagement, they could not mediate the negative relationship between performance-avoidance goal orientation and learning engagement. The findings can provide empirical evidence for teachers to improve students’ engagement in English learning by cultivating motivational beliefs and motivational regulation.

In this article, the topic under discussion is once again “extra-translation” from the perspectives of the scope in translator behavior studies in the light of translator behavior criticism, the extra-translation agents and the classification thereof, the extra-translation agents in the translation process, and extra-translation as part of translator behavior studies as the overall field of research. Not only is the scope in translator behavior studies developed in this article, but ideas concerning human orientation and interactions are also presented. This article will be helpful for describing the translation process as part of process research and enhancing the operability of translation criticism.

From the perspective of language communication, language influence is defined in this article and its generation mechanism and measurement methods are explored systematically. First, the concept of language influence is clarified and made concrete based on the argument that it emerges from the process of language communication and is a key indicator of communication effectiveness. Second, the generation mechanism is analyzed in detail across the three dimensions of language power, the transmission and reception phases, and language influence. It has been found that language influence is generated throughout the entire dynamic process of language communication. The realization of language influence follows the path of “language power → transmission and reception phases → language influence”, and its resulting effects ultimately feed back to strengthen language power, initiating a new cycle of language communication. Finally, a Language International Influence Evaluation Index System (LIIEIS) has been constructed using six observational indicators to provide a quantitative assessment of the influence of 25 languages. The aim of this article is to offer valuable insights for understanding the current global language landscape and to enhance the international status and influence of the Chinese language.

Based on the principles of embodied-cognitive linguistics, embodied-cognitive poetics (E-C Poetics) is a literary research method that aims to explain the interactive relationships among authors, texts, and readers. In E-C Poetics, “embodiment” can be understood from the perspectives of the author and the reader. From the author’s perspective, embodiment refers to the writer’s lived experience of reality, which explains the origin of literary creations. From the reader’s perspective, embodiment denotes the aesthetic experience of engaging with a literary work, which is also based on an understanding of the essence of literature. Similarly, the “cognition” in E-C Poetics involves both authors and readers. For the author, cognition refers to the creative processing of lived experiences into literary works. For the reader, the act of reading is in itself a cognitive process, which means that interpretations of a text will vary based on individual aesthetic experiences. By establishing connections among authors, texts, and readers, E-C Poetics explores the correlation between literary ontology and epistemology, thereby offering fresh insights and perspectives for understanding literary creations, reading, and criticism.

Language is a means of communication, and is related to the state of an individual’s health. The relationship between language and health has recently attracted interest in academia, with language health services being one of a prominent area of research and discussion. Planning is essential for the development of the field. In this article, we introduce the relationship between language and health, and discuss the implications and characteristics of the development of language health services. The authors advocate for strategic planning for language health policy, language health information, language health care, language rehabilitation, language health technology, and language health talent education and training, among other topics. To achieve the planned goals, joint efforts need to be made by stakeholders such as the government, society, individuals (family), and other actors. The authors recommend coordinated collaborations on the part of all the participating parties in terms of institutional mechanisms, technology integration, and human and material resources. These efforts will help to popularize language health knowledge and will advance research on language health products, which will ultimately improve the overall quality of language health services. Lastly, the authors propose the integration of resources to meet the diverse individual needs of the society and to help to achieve the vision and goals of the “Healthy China Initiative”.

Translation for international organizations has received scanty academic attention to date. Drawing on the theory of the State Translation Program, this paper discusses the concept, characteristics, and functions of supranational translation practices. Using relevant literature such as memoirs of and interviews with liaison officers, this study examines translation activities within the United Nations, specifically focusing on China’s peacekeeping operations. The study reveals the significant and indispensable role of translation in UN peacekeeping operations, whose mission is to maintain peace and security worldwide. Characterized by supranational objectives, professionalism, and diverse agents and roles, supranational translation has made outstanding contributions to China’s peacekeeping units in terms of internal coordination, external communication, and cultural diplomacy. The study will provide insights to inform our efforts in cultivating talented translation professionals for international organizations and in building a community of shared future for mankind.

The English translation of The Three-Body Problem (2014) by Ken Liu has set the highest record for sales of English translations of contemporary Chinese literature and for global library collections, marking a significant milestone in the translation and international dissemination of contemporary Chinese science fiction. In this article, the perspectives of transmission and reception were employed to analyze how the English translation of The Three-Body Problem achieves communication and interaction with English-speaking readers through various elements of peritexts and epitexts based on paratext theory with the hope of providing original perspectives and new approaches for the dissemination and acceptance of Chinese contemporary literature. It is suggested that the main text of the English translation serves as an intrinsic force, while the paratexts function as extrinsic forces. By interpreting, deepening, and extending the main text, the peritexts and epitexts both provide support for the main text, forming an organic and dynamic system that expands the communicative space and channels of The Three-Body Problem, collectively facilitating its dissemination and reception in the English-speaking world.

Corporate websites are not only the crucial online communication medium for companies, they are also typical platforms for multimodal resources. In this cross-cultural study, which was inspired by the GeM model and cross-cultural theories, the multimodality of Chinese and US corporate websites were compared by adopting a corpus-based approach. The results show that both Chinese and US corporate websites are dominated by text-typographic and photo-pictorial elements, followed by diagram-representational and video-animated elements. However, the Chinese sites tend to employ more multimodal elements in total and more text-typographic and video-animated elements compared to the US sites. The Chinese sites featured more news and photos that are arranged in an atomized and compartmental format, while the US websites often use larger-sized pictures as backgrounds on which other elements are embedded in a more complex manner. In addition, the Chinese sites display more indicative elements with interactional functions to assist readers to navigate the sites and to build rapport with the audience. Finally, the Chinese sites use more QR codes and include more videos and flash videos, while the US sites display more social media icons. Conclusions about corporate multimodal discourse are drawn and implications for corporate web communications in a cross-cultural context are provided.

By addressing the problem of cultural identity imbalance caused by deviations in language outlook, this paper aims to inform the implementation of the core task of “fostering virtue through education” in China’s new era of foreign language education. It systematically explores how foreign language education shifts from the perception of “language as a tool” to a “linguistic worldview” by way of transformation logic and various implementation paths. This paper proposes five practical dimensions for the transformation of foreign language education: cultivating the competence of foreign language teachers, reforming talent cultivation models, reforming curriculum systems, selecting teaching materials, and integrating foreign language education development across primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Foreign language education does not deny the “instrumental nature of language”; instead, it injects the “soul of worldview” into the “tool theory”, unifying “language skill cultivation” with the shaping of values. The ultimate goal is to cultivate students who are “double-excellent”: possessing foreign language talent alongside both a sense of national identity and an international perspective.

Supranational communities have assumed an increasingly pivotal role on the global stage, intertwining its activities with the shared future for humanity. Translation at this level functions as operational mechanism for such communities and warrant greater scholarly attention. This form of governance-oriented translation initiated by supranational communities to safeguard their interests, achieve their goals, and promote their values, is conceptualized as the “supranational translation program”. Endowed with the attributes of supranationality, supranational interests, and translanguages, the supranational translation program is an indispensable avenue for internal self-governance as well as engagement in regional and global governance. In the context of building a global community with shared future, a systematic exploration of the supranational translation program’s conceptual framework, technical implementation and supervision mechanisms can provide theoretical support for supranational communities’ translation initiatives and facilitate China’s deeper participation in global governance.

The State Translation Program plays a vital role in strengthening China’s international communications capabilities. Translation practices at the local level, deeply rooted in distinctive regional cultures, constitute a fundamental component of a country’s state translation practice. It is these diverse regional cultures that fashion the unified identity of the national culture. Regional cultural cognition not only directly affects the implementation and effectiveness of the Regional Translation Program, but also indirectly influences national cognitive behavior, which affects the State Translation Program. This paper clarifies the connections between the concepts of regional cultural cognition and those underlying the State Translation Program, analyzes the differences between the translator and their audience in terms of cultural recognition, and proposes countermeasures to regional cultural cognition in the State Translation Program. The goal of this research is to enhance the role of regional culture in the State Translation Program from a cognitive perspective, guiding the Regional Translation Program to assume more responsibilities within the State Translation Program and thereby improving China’s international communication capacities in all directions.

The initial acquisition of expressions of passive meaning by three Mandarin-speaking children is investigated in this paper. It has been found that children initially express passive meanings using the simplest patient-subject structure, “S_p+VP,” which has the same syntactic and semantic features as adults' production. Typical marked passive “bei” (被) sentences, which contain two arguments, are produced three to five months later. Furthermore, all the verbs in the “S_p+VP” structure has been used in the one-word sentence stage. The findings have revealed that the expression of passive meaning has experienced the construction process from single verb to single-argument patient-subject sentences to marked “bei” (被) sentences. The passive expression “S_p+VP” is an absolutive-like structure, which forms part of the ergative-absolutive or nominative-accusative language pattern, while the marked passive “bei” (被) sentences form part of the nominative-accusative language pattern. The initial acquisition of the expression of passive meaning by Mandarin-speaking children has shown a transitional character from an absolutive-like structure to a nominative-accusative pattern. Children initially acquire single-argument patient-subject sentences to express passive meanings. Input is a necessary but insufficient condition for this acquisition, and the decisive factor should be that the “S_p+VP” structure meets an utterance's demands in terms of syntax, semantics, and function expression to the greatest extent.

The current internal and external environment of foreign language education in China provides a prior reason for constructing a curriculum chain based on the “Spirit of Scientific Culture”. The core of this initiative lies in reconstructing the humanistic perspective and integrating the humanistic and scientific spirits, thereby establishing a transformative paradigm for foreign language education reform in China. This paradigm focuses on exploring and critically examining the spirit of scientific culture, alongside the writing, translation, and dissemination of related stories. Its primary goal is to cultivate students’ humanistic qualities and innovative thinking, empowering them to actively write about and articulate China through foreign languages. On one hand, it aims to achieve the objective of “cultivating students through moral education” by guiding them to develop rational thinking and sound values. On the other hand, it seeks to enhance students’ language proficiency and rhetorical skills by encouraging them to creatively transform vivid materials into compelling literary works. Through this process, students will acquire a deep understanding of the cultural codes and mechanisms underlying the use of both Chinese and foreign languages, ultimately enabling them to significantly improve their cross-cultural communication abilities.

Drawing on harmonious discourse analysis and the theory of the transitivity system, this study compares the ecological attributes of English and Chinese public signs relating to environmental protection, aiming to elucidate their similarities and differences and provide suggestions for environmental sign-making. The results reveal that English environmental protection-related public signs primarily rely on cognitive mental processes to represent the principle of conscience and relational processes to symbolize the principle of proximity. In contrast, Chinese public signs related to environmental protection primarily employ action processes to express the principle of regulation. This research suggests that Chinese environmental protection-related public signs should incorporate cognitive and relational processes, utilizing anthropomorphic techniques to foster a harmonious relationship between humans and nature. This would help raise the public’s awareness of environmental protection and increase their willingness to take action to protect the ecological environment.

Discourses of metatranslation refer to translators' discussions about translation in translated works, and they are frequently seen in paratexts such as the introduction, afterwords, and the translated text itself. There are usually many discourses of metatranslation in works written in non-native languages or about non-native cultures, works which, on the whole, can be considered to be translations (without original texts). Some displaced (non-native language or non-native culture) written works are taken as examples in this paper in an attempt to describe the manifestations of explicit and implicit discourses of metatranslation, particularly those relating to the translation of terms and culturally loaded words. Their potential roles are summarized, such as embodying an author's or a translator's views on translation, revealing the complexity of translation and enhancing the foreignness of translated works. As a new concept in translation studies, discourse of metatranslation deserves further research, which might also shed light on translation practice.

Based on three morphological types of languages, this paper selected 45 language samples to explore the argument alignment patterns of world languages, particularly their splits and factors. The results were as follows: (1) languages that lack inflectional morphemes usually use particles and syntactic means to exhibit their argument alignment patterns, which are not neutral; (2) the proportions of ergative languages are different in languages with different morphological types, and agglutinative languages account for the largest proportion; (3) nominative-accusative languages and ergative-absolutive languages both have nominative-accusative pattern and ergative-absolutive patterns; (4) the implicational universal of case markers satisfies the hierarchy: nominal case markers > pronoun case markers; that is, noun phrase case markers entail pronoun case markers; and (5) the ergative-absolutive alignment patterns tend to use the markers in the hierarchy from left to right: nominal case markers > pronoun case markers > cross-referencing.

The effects of learning conception and engagement on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' willingness to participate in virtual reality- based (VR-based) instruction and their oral performances were investigated in this study. The data were obtained via two surveys (learning conception and learning engagement) and students' audio-recorded oral performances. The results indicated that students' learning conception in the virtual environment included four factors, namely improving presence, increasing motivation, enhancing interaction, and extending learning. Students' learning engagement in the virtual environment consisted of four factors, which were cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social engagement factors. The regression analyses revealed that the factors of learning conception and learning engagement were correlated, and that emotional engagement was associated with being more likely to participate in VR-based instruction. The study provided empirical evidence for using VR in language instruction.

Lexical inferencing strategies play a significant role in second language (L2) lexical development and discourse meaning construction. The present study explored an effective and appropriate mode for delivering lexical inferencing strategy instruction to Chinese EFL learners. Sixty-one undergraduates majoring in English were recruited, with 30 assigned to an experimental group that received a year-long strategy instruction and 31 to a control group that received no specific strategy instruction. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed to compare the lexical inferencing performances of both groups prior to and after the instruction period. The results showed that: (1) there was no significant within- or between-group difference in terms of the types and percentages of knowledge sources used, indicating that the instruction had no significant effect on these variables; and (2) there was a significant increase in the post-test lexical inferencing success rate in the experimental group alone, suggesting that the instruction significantly promotes the learners’ lexical inferencing competence. These results, to some extent, confirm the effectiveness of long-term L2 lexical inferencing strategies instruction in the classroom.

The Strong Minimalist Thesis of Generative Grammar posits that the Merge operation, in alignment with the economy principle, is conducive to deleting unnecessary elements in the course of language externalization. Consistent with such biological themes, it is inappropriate to use theta terms like AGENT/PATIENT to describe the semantic roles of the NPs (noun phrases) in Yi guo fan chi wu ge ren /Wu ge ren chi yi guo fan. This is because the relevant NPs are not the S-selected arguments of the relevant verbs; in such structures, the NPs are actually C-selected by the quantifier head of distribution Mei, which is responsible for the structures’ core semantics. Quantifier phrases that denote measurement are obligatory in this type of structure, whereas any definite NPs may undermine the core theta content of such sentences, which can be described as having a “for/use” meaning with corresponding variants. The absence of a quantifier head may create difficulty in terms of the perception and comprehension of such structures during communication; the verbs are optional due to their function as adjuncts. An analysis based on the local asymmetric C-command indicates that various sequences in linearity may be derived from the same structural configuration, thereby manifesting the Strong Minimalist Thesis’ three criteria of learnability, universality, and evolvability. The novel contribution of this article resides in its conjecture that such clauses can be categorized as a subtype of imperative sentences, whose noun phrases are inherently assigned partitive cases due to their number-denoting nature.

This study explores Chinese college students' behavioral engagement with Sino-US peer feedback and its influencing factors in second language writing. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of initial and revised essays, peer feedback and reflective journals reveal that: (1) For the genre of movie review, there is no significant difference in Sino-US peer feedback uptake among Chinese college students, whereas the frequency of revisions triggered by American peer feedback is significantly higher than that triggered by Chinese peer feedback. (2) Feedback uptake shows a marginal correlation with explicitness but no correlation with feedback focus. Revision modes are influenced by feedback explicitness, while revision behaviors are influenced by feedback focus. (3) Behavioral engagement is influenced by multiple factors such as individual characteristics, context and society. The study may provide some implications for the design of peer interaction activities.