GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
type: channel
description: GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies is an ESCI (ISI, WoS) and Scopus indexed peer reviewed international journal published by UKM Press. The aim of the journal is to provide a venue for language researchers and practitioners to share theories, views, research results and classroom practices in areas of English language, linguistics, foreign languages and literature. Articles are published in English and Malay.
publisher: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
language: en-US
publication name: GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
issn: 1675-8021
copyright: If the article is accepted for publication, copyright of this article will be vested to UKM Press, National University of Malaysia (UKM). All articles published in this journal are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, unless otherwise stated.
items: Family Language Policy and English Linguistic Imperialism: The Role of Paternal Agency
items: Quadrilingualism and Identity in the Bugis-Indonesian Diaspora in Tawau, Malaysia
items: From Myth to Cultural Diplomacy: Repositioning Arab Identity through the Transcultural Journey of Hikayat Alfu Lailah wa Lailah in European Literary Discourse
items: (De)Legitimation of Restrictive Abortion in The Star Online and Malaysiakini: A Comparative Critical Discourse Analysis
items: Gender-Based Linguistic Patterns in Indonesian Suicide Notes (2020–2024): A Forensic Stylistic Analysis
items: Discursively Positioning Women as Protected Objects in the Turkish Parliament: A Corpus-Assisted Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis
items: “Leftover Women” on Social Media in China: A Text Mining Approach
items: Women on the Margins: Abjection and Sublimation in Aysha Baqir’s Beyond the Fields
items: The "Transition Generation”: Gen Z’s Social Representations of Climate Change in Malaysia
items: Minority Themes in Academic Discourse: A Corpus-Based Approach to History and Law Book Reviews
items: Contextualized Metaphors of Diaspora in Shahla Ujayli’s Summer with the Enemy
items: The Narrative Construction of Ecological Identity in Selected Papuan Folktales: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Bird Agency
items: Negotiating Samāʿ and Qiyās: Epistemological Foundations of Grammar in Al-Suyūṭī’s Hamʿ Al-Hawāmiʿ
items: Sluicing, Pseudosluicing, and Question Formation in Moroccan Arabic Dialect
items: Verb Production in Malay-English Bilingual Preschoolers: A Processability Theory Framework
items: The Perception of Japanese Consonant Length by Native Malay Speakers
items: Visual Distinctiveness and Chinese Character Recognition: A Systematic Literature Review of Character Simplification Studies

Family Language Policy and English Linguistic Imperialism: The Role of Paternal Agency
type: item
description: This study explores the role of paternal agency on English language maintenance in post-colonial settings by adopting the interdisciplinary framework of family language policy. A qualitative approach was employed, using semi-structured interviews with Bengali fathers from diverse economic, political, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds. The findings were examined through reflexive thematic analysis. It aimed to reveal fathers’ roles in children’s language socialisation and their dilemmas in shaping children’s linguistic habitus. The results show that the proactive role fathers in English linguistic imperialism is not from outside, rather as self-colonisation, densely fuelled by digital neo-imperialism of affordance of online engagement as a third-space. Fathers could support children’s English learning effectively only when they had adequate resources; without such resources, their aspirations often remained difficult to translate into management and practice. The findings also showed a shift from maintaining a strict separation between English and other languages towards creating more fluid opportunities for language practice. The result confirms previous studies that home-based English use increasingly functions as a marker of class status, modernity, and social distinction, while local language(s) may be perceived by some elite families as less prestigious. This study foregrounds fathers as active FLP actors and advocates equitable multilingualism that balances English aspirations in families. Keywords: English linguistic imperialism; family language policy; language socialisation; paternal agency; postcolonial language hierarchies Kajian ini meneroka peranan bapa dalam mengekalkan bahasa Inggeris dalam persekitaran pasca kolonial dengan mengguna pakai rangka kerja antara disiplin dasar bahasa keluarga. Menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif, temu bual separa berstruktur dengan bapa-bapa berketurunan Bengali daripada pelbagai latar belakang ekonomi, politik, budaya, …
creator: ABDUL AWAL
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
date: 2026-08-28
publication date: 2026-08-28
volume: 26
number: 3
starting page: 482
ending page: 501
doi: 10.17576/gema-2026-2603-01

Quadrilingualism and Identity in the Bugis-Indonesian Diaspora in Tawau, Malaysia
type: item
description: Multilingualism in diaspora is not merely a skill; it is a way of negotiating identity and social inclusion for the Bugis-Indonesian diaspora in Tawau, Malaysia, language becomes a means of maintaining identity while adapting to new cultural landscapes. This study explores quadrilingual language practices within the Bugis-Indonesian diaspora in Tawau, Malaysia, a context shaped by cultural migration and multilingual interaction. In an increasingly globalized and multicultural society, language plays a crucial role in identity formation, particularly among diasporic communities. This study investigates how the use and maintenance of four languages: Bugis, Malay, Indonesian, and English, reflect the linguistic choices and identity construction of the community. Using a qualitative design, data were collected through interviews, observations, and questionnaires involving members of the Bugis-Indonesian diaspora: parents, students, and educators. A total of 18 participants were purposively sampled from four groups: children (aged 10-17, n = 5), adults (18-40, n = 6), elders (40+, n = 4), and teachers (n = 3), all proficient in Indonesian, Malay, English, and Bugis. The findings reveal that Bugis and Malay dominate in familial and community interactions, while Indonesian is used in formal or cultural contexts, and English is mostly reserved for educational settings, often with code-switching. These patterns indicate a strategic and context-sensitive approach to language use. The findings provide theoretical insights into multilingual identity negotiation and highlight the practical implications for language policy and diaspora education. These findings underscore the need for supportive policies that recognize the cultural significance of heritage languages while promoting national and international language competencies. Keywords: Quadrilingualism; Identity; Bugis-Indonesian Diaspora; Language Choice; Language Maintenance Multilingualisme dalam komuniti diaspora bukan s…
creator: RUSDIANSYAH RUSDIANSYAH
creator: MASRUDDIN MASRUDDIN
creator: ABBAS LANGAJI
creator: ERMAWATI ERMAWATI
creator: ZAINUL MUTTAQIN
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
date: 2026-08-28
publication date: 2026-08-28
volume: 26
number: 3
starting page: 502
ending page: 521
doi: 10.17576/gema-2026-2603-02

From Myth to Cultural Diplomacy: Repositioning Arab Identity through the Transcultural Journey of Hikayat Alfu Lailah wa Lailah in European Literary Discourse
type: item
description: This study examines the transformation of Hikayat Alfu Lailah wa Lailah from an Arabic narrative tradition into a transcultural literary text that profoundly shaped European literary imagination. Using a qualitative narrative-cultural approach, the research combines cultural reception theory and Carl Thompson’s symbolic myth framework to analyze the narratives of Shahrazad and The Merchant and the Ifrit. Cultural reception theory is employed to explore how European readers, translators, and literary institutions reconstructed Arabic narratives through exoticization, adaptation, and ideological negotiation, thereby reshaping their meanings within European literary discourse. Meanwhile, Thompson’s framework identifies symbolic journeys, heroic archetypes, supernatural encounters, and moral-symbolic structures embedded in the narratives. The findings reveal that the text functions not only as entertainment literature but also as a symbolic instrument of cultural diplomacy that repositions Arab identity within European literary discourse. Three major findings emerge: first, mythological symbols construct heroic and civilizational journeys that mediate intercultural understanding; second, Shahrazad’s storytelling strategy represents intellectual resistance and social transformation within patriarchal and colonial structures; and third, European reception reflects transcultural reinterpretation that simultaneously exoticized and legitimized Arabic literary heritage within world literature, strengthening literary decolonization discourse and the concept of cultural diplomacy narrative. Keywords: cultural diplomacy; imaginative journey; mythological journey; symbolic mythology; transculturalization Kajian ini mengkaji transformasi hikayat One Thousand and One Nights daripada tradisi naratif Arab kepada teks sastera transkultural yang membentuk imaginasi sastera Eropah dengan mendalam. Dengan menggunakan pendekatan naratif-budaya kualitatif, penyelidikan ini menggabungkan te…
creator: SANGIDU SANGIDU
creator: EVA FARHAH
creator: IMAM WICAKSONO
creator: HAMOUD YAHYA AHMED MOHSEN
creator: SHERIF SA’AD ALGAYYAR
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
date: 2026-08-28
publication date: 2026-08-28
volume: 26
number: 3
starting page: 522
ending page: 538
doi: 10.17576/gema-2026-2603-03

(De)Legitimation of Restrictive Abortion in The Star Online and Malaysiakini: A Comparative Critical Discourse Analysis
type: item
description: The news media operates not only as a channel of information but also as a persuasive force that shapes and (de)legitimises values, ideologies and social norms. Although Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) has traditionally focused on hard news to uncover media ideologies, the role of soft news in reflecting the perspectives of targeted social groups remains underexamined especially in taboo areas such as restrictive abortion. This study employs Van Leeuwen and Reyes’ legitimation strategies to comparatively analyse soft news articles from The Star Online and Malaysiakini on restrictive abortion in Malaysia. Sixteen articles were analysed to identify (de)legitimation strategies that discursively construct ideological positions. The findings reveal that both The Star Online and Malaysiakini employed overlapping discursive strategies in (de)legitimising restrictive abortion. Despite their differing editorial orientations, both outlets tactically legitimise progressive actors and actions such as reformist groups, reproductive education and compassionate healthcare through appeals to expert authority, rationalisation and altruism. Conversely, they de-legitimise restrictive conservatism and punitive measures often using emotional framing, hypothetical future and moral evaluation. The analysis also identifies two dominant social groups: 1. Social group in support of de-legitimation 2. Social group in support of legitimation exerting discursive power to maintain or challenge the status quo. Challenging the assumption that mainstream media is politically driven while independent media is civic-centric, this study reveals converging rhetorical strategies and ideological overlaps across both outlets, underscoring the media’s mediating role in contested reproductive discourse. It demonstrates that while abortion is increasingly articulated in international discourse as a human right, the global framework remains polarised with significant variation across local contexts at both …
creator: JACQUELINE ANTHONYSAMY
creator: MARLINA JAMAL
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
date: 2026-08-28
publication date: 2026-08-28
volume: 26
number: 3
starting page: 539
ending page: 558
doi: 10.17576/gema-2026-2603-04

Gender-Based Linguistic Patterns in Indonesian Suicide Notes (2020–2024): A Forensic Stylistic Analysis
type: item
description: Existing suicide research has predominantly focused on psychological and behavioral factors, while limited attention has been given to how gendered experiences of distress are encoded in linguistic form. This study addresses this gap by investigating how linguistic features in Indonesian suicide notes construct and reflect gendered expressions of suicidal intent through forensic stylistic analysis. The study analyzes fifty authenticated suicide notes published on online news platforms and official media websites between 2020 and 2024 using Prokofyeva’s forensic stylistic framework. Adopting a descriptive qualitative design, the analysis focuses on five stylistic domains: clear reasoning, emotional expression, text structure, grammar, and punctuation. The findings reveal systematic gender-based distinctions in the linguistic construction of suicide. Male-authored notes are characterized by explicit causal reasoning, rational and final formulations, controlled emotional expression, and structurally organized discourse that encodes suicide as a deliberate and irreversible decision. In contrast, female-authored notes display relational and affective formulations, emphasizing emotional exhaustion, self-blame, and withdrawal, with linguistic features that construct suicide as a moral response to perceived burden on others. These patterns are consistently reinforced across multiple linguistic levels and form stable discourse configurations within the dataset. The study demonstrates that linguistic structure functions as an observable marker of gendered suicidal cognition, reflecting differences in how intent is framed, justified, and communicated. By addressing the limited understanding of how gendered experiences of distress and suicidal intent are represented through linguistic features, the findings contribute theoretically to forensic linguistics and offer practical implications for early detection and suicide prevention in Indonesia. Keywords:forensic stylistics; gend…
creator: IMA FRAFIKA SARI
creator: ASHINIDA ALADDIN
creator: KESUMAWATI ABU BAKAR
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
date: 2026-08-28
publication date: 2026-08-28
volume: 26
number: 3
starting page: 559
ending page: 574
doi: 10.17576/gema-2026-2603-05

Discursively Positioning Women as Protected Objects in the Turkish Parliament: A Corpus-Assisted Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis
type: item
description: Benevolent sexism is well established as an attitudinal construct, yet its discursive operation in conservative non-Western legislatures remains underexamined. Addressing this gap, the study examines paternalistic and motherhood-based discourse in the Turkish Grand National Assembly, where women’s numerical presence has not necessarily translated into recognition as autonomous political actors. Using corpus-assisted feminist critical discourse analysis, it analyses 97 plenary speeches from the 28th legislative term (2023-2024), totalling approximately 156,000 words. The study identified 55 discourse segments containing 847 coded instances of paternalistic and motherhood-based representation. Protective paternalism, motherhood glorification, and sacred domesticity emerged as interlocking strategies. Together, they assign agency to men and the state while casting women as vulnerable dependents and defining them through care, sacrifice, and morally valued domestic roles. Crucially, the pattern recurs both within debates on women’s rights and violence against women and across policy domains without a formal gender focus. Apparently respectful language thus positions women as protected objects and constrains their political agency. The study extends Ambivalent Sexism Theory beyond attitudinal measurement by demonstrating how benevolent sexism is linguistically enacted and institutionally reproduced. Its corpus-assisted procedure offers a replicable means of tracing this process. The findings indicate that substantive gender equality requires attention to parliamentary language as well as women’s numerical representation. Keywords: Parliamentary discourse; paternalism; motherhood-based discourse; benevolent sexism; Turkish politics Seksisme benevolen telah lama diiktiraf sebagai suatu konstruk sikap, namun pengoperasiannya secara wacana dalam badan perundangan konservatif bukan Barat masih kurang dikaji. Bagi menangani jurang ini, kajian ini meneliti wacana berasaskan pat…
creator: CEM ERDEM
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
date: 2026-08-28
publication date: 2026-08-28
volume: 26
number: 3
starting page: 575
ending page: 596
doi: 10.17576/gema-2026-2603-06

“Leftover Women” on Social Media in China: A Text Mining Approach
type: item
description: Previous studies have primarily examined media and public representations of women labelled as “leftover women”, while comparatively less attention has been given to how women negotiate this label and construct their identities through social media self-narratives. To address this gap, this study extends the feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA) framework by incorporating positive discourse analysis (PDA) to analyse self-narratives posted by women who use or negotiate the label “leftover women”. After posts retrieved using the search term “剩女” were manually filtered to include those that referred to the authors’ own personal experiences in relation to the label, the dataset finally consisted of 111 first-person posts (23,097 Chinese characters). Text mining, specifically co-occurrence network analysis conducted in KH Coder (version 3.07), was used to identify recurrent lexical patterns. These computational patterns were then interpreted through close reading of concordance contexts, with attention to gendered evaluation. The analysis identifies three interrelated themes: “the KPI-ization of life”, “life with weak ties”, and “from being evaluated to self-recovery”. These findings diverge from traditional media portrayals that depict “leftover women” as highly accomplished women who actively choose singlehood because of their exceptional qualities. Theoretically, the study extends the FCDA framework by incorporating PDA to examine gendered discourses while highlighting women’s agency in negotiating, resisting, and redefining the label “leftover women”. Methodologically, it also demonstrates the value of text mining for analysing short and fragmented social media texts and contributes to broader discussions of the links between gendered expectations, intimate relationships, women’s lived experiences, and contemporary marriage and fertility trends in China. Keywords: Feminist critical discourse analysis; Gender discourse; Leftover women; RedNote; Self-narratives; …
creator: GAOQIANG LU
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
date: 2026-08-28
publication date: 2026-08-28
volume: 26
number: 3
starting page: 597
ending page: 612
doi: 10.17576/gema-2026-2603-07

Women on the Margins: Abjection and Sublimation in Aysha Baqir’s Beyond the Fields
type: item
description: Aysha Baqir’s Beyond the Fields (2019) explores women’s struggles under Zia-ul-Haq’s dictatorship in 1980s Pakistan. Pakistani women’s subjugation stems from the intersection of colonial legacies, patriarchal and feudal authority, military rule, and socio-spatial hierarchies, which limit their educational opportunities, freedom of choice, and individual agency especially in non-urban, conservative contexts. Women’s choices, especially under Zia’s regime, were seen as threats to patriarchal structures and were systematically stifled. Central to this repression is the cultural rationale of honour and shame, where women’s bodies and conduct are regarded as custodians of family dignity, while men use legal, cultural, and religious frameworks to enforce sanctions against transgression of male authority. Although Beyond the Fields has been analysed from feminist and intersectional perspectives, limited attention has been paid to its representation of abjection and the formation of female subjectivity at the psychic and symbolic levels. This paper addresses this gap through Kristeva’s concepts of abjection and sublimation, contributing a psychoanalytic dimension to existing scholarship on the novel’s representation of women’s experiences in Pakistan. Kristeva’s framework of abjection highlights how patriarchal power structures exclude women psychically and symbolically, through religion and law and norms about honour and shame. The paper suggests that Zara, the protagonist, sublimates her response to abjection through reading, redirecting repressed drives into symbolically legitimised acts of agency to reclaim her sense of selfhood. The study also shows how Zara resists the patriarchal symbolic restrictions imposed on her, develops creative agency and self-empowerment. Keywords: abjection; Beyond the Fields; honour; Julia Kristeva; sublimation Beyond the Fields (2019) karya Aysha Baqir menelusuri perjuangan wanita di bawah pemerintahan diktator Zia-ul-Haq di Pakistan pada …
creator: SOHAIB AHMAD
creator: MOHAMMAD EWAN AWANG
creator: MANIMANGAI MANI
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
date: 2026-08-28
publication date: 2026-08-28
volume: 26
number: 3
starting page: 613
ending page: 627
doi: 10.17576/gema-2026-2603-08

The "Transition Generation”: Gen Z’s Social Representations of Climate Change in Malaysia
type: item
description: Climate change remains a heavily debated global challenge, yet public understanding is frequently obscured by abstract scientific narratives. This exploratory study utilizes Moscovici’s Social Representation Theory (SRT) to examine how a group of Generation Z in Malaysia, commonly referred to as the "Transition Generation", perceives climate change and defines their role in addressing it. This qualitative research used semi-structured group interviews with 15 university students aged 20 to 22 from a public university in Malaysia. The interview data was qualitatively analyzed, using open coding method, and then mapped onto anchoring and objectification categories from SRT. The findings reveal that majority of participants classify climate change as a critical threat requiring urgent intervention. Rather than treating the crisis in abstract scientific concept, the Gen Z in this study anchor abstract concepts within lived local experiences, such as intensifying heatwaves, irregular monsoons, flash floods, and landslides. Through objectification, they translate the lived experiences of dealing with climate change crisis into reported practices like reducing single-use plastics, conserving energy, and avoiding food waste. Furthermore, they leverage on digital platforms to share knowledge about climate change and spread awareness about climate change in Malaysia. In conclusion, this exploratory study demonstrates how this group of Gen Z translate their understanding of climate change into reported practices and civic awareness. The study proposes that green initiatives and localized environmental communication must be made available to this group to empower them to help transform environmental policies into localized green actions. Keywords: Gen Z; climate change; social representation theory; environmental discourse; eco-anxiety; green initiatives Perubahan iklim ialah cabaran global yang sering diperdebatkan, namun pemahaman awam sering kali kabur disebabkan oleh narati…
creator: NOR FARIZA MOHD NOR
creator: AZLINA ABDULLAH
creator: INTAN SAFINAZ ZAINUDIN
creator: JAMALUDDIN AZIZ
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
date: 2026-08-28
publication date: 2026-08-28
volume: 26
number: 3
starting page: 628
ending page: 651
doi: 10.17576/gema-2026-2603-09

Minority Themes in Academic Discourse: A Corpus-Based Approach to History and Law Book Reviews
type: item
description: This study examines how minority themes are presented in academic book reviews in the disciplines of History and Law through a corpus-based approach. Although previous studies have examined the evaluative and rhetorical features of academic book reviews, less attention has been given to how minority themes are foregrounded and framed across disciplines. Addressing this gap, the study compares the distribution of minority-related keywords in History and Law book reviews and examines their phraseological profiles through concordance analysis to determine how these themes are expressed and evaluated in context. The findings show noticeable disciplinary differences. In History book reviews, race, gender, and native identities are more prominent, often in discussions of historiographical critique and efforts to recover voices and experiences marginalized in dominant historical narratives. In Law book reviews, greater attention is given to indigenous rights, migration, refugees and asylum, reflecting stronger concerns with legal frameworks, institutional responsibility, and rights-based responses to contemporary social issues. At the same time, both disciplines share concerns with minority, marginality, and colonialism, suggesting common engagement with questions of equity, exclusion, and postcolonial legacies, although these are approached from different disciplinary perspectives. The phraseological profiles further show that similar minority themes can be framed differently according to disciplinary priorities. Overall, the study demonstrates that academic book reviews provide an important space for examining how disciplinary communities foreground, frame, and evaluate minority issues. Keywords: book reviews; History; Law; minority themes; corpus-based approach Kajian ini meneliti bagaimana tema minoriti dipaparkan dalam ulasan buku akademik dalam disiplin Sejarah dan Undang-undang melalui pendekatan berasaskan korpus. Walaupun kajian terdahulu telah meneliti ciri penil…
creator: LENG HONG ANG
creator: MENGYU HE
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
date: 2026-08-28
publication date: 2026-08-28
volume: 26
number: 3
starting page: 652
ending page: 674
doi: 10.17576/gema-2026-2603-10

Contextualized Metaphors of Diaspora in Shahla Ujayli’s Summer with the Enemy
type: item
description: This study investigates the use of conceptual metaphors featured in the Syrian novelist Shahla Ujayli’s Summer with the Enemy (2021) as characterizing the dislocated self of the narrator (conceptualizer). Written in the context of the Syrian civil war, the highly figurative novel provides new insights into the ways language articulates the cognitive and emotional ramifications of diasporic experience. After escaping the war-torn country, the narrator and protagonist Lamees relates her experience of displacement in Cologne, Germany through trips back to her memories of homeland. Significantly, the narrative unfurls with a heightened sense of space, conveyed by the narrator’s physical and spatial imagery that strongly mirrors her mental and emotional states. A close analysis of the figurative language employed in Summer with the Enemy reveals that language does not merely define the displaced speaking subject but also emerges from the contextual knowledge available to the speaker within the given circumstances of displacement and alienation. Employing insights from cognitive linguistics and psychoanalysis, I argue that the metaphors used in the novel are intrinsically conceptualized by the subjective experience of diaspora, thus contributing to the existing scholarship on diaspora in general and on Syrian diaspora literature in particular. Keywords: Conceptual Metaphors Theory; contextualized metaphors; Arab women fiction; diaspora; abjection Kajian ini meneliti penggunaan metafora konseptual dalam novel karya penulis Syria, Shahla Ujayli, yang berjudul *Summer with the Enemy* (2021), sebagai cerminan kepada jati diri narator (individu yang mengonseptualisasikan pengalaman) yang mengalami keterasingan tempat. Novel yang sarat dengan unsur kiasan ini, yang ditulis berlatarkan perang saudara di Syria, menawarkan perspektif baharu tentang bagaimana bahasa mengungkapkan implikasi kognitif dan emosi hasil daripada pengalaman diaspora. Setelah melarikan diri dari negara yan…
creator: MERVAT ALJOMAA
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
date: 2026-08-28
publication date: 2026-08-28
volume: 26
number: 3
starting page: 675
ending page: 688
doi: 10.17576/gema-2026-2603-11

The Narrative Construction of Ecological Identity in Selected Papuan Folktales: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Bird Agency
type: item
description: Bird narratives in Papuan indigenous folklore have received scholarly attention as repositories of ecological knowledge and as representations of relationships among humans, nonhuman beings, and the natural environment. However, previous studies have tended to examine Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and animal agency separately, leaving a limited understanding of how these perspectives intersect in the narrative articulation of ecological identity. This study examines how ecological identity is narratively articulated through the interaction between TEK and bird agency in five selected Papuan folktales. Employing an interpretive qualitative design and theory-driven textual analysis, the study analyses narrative episodes involving birds, humans, other nonhuman beings, and landscapes. The findings show that birds are more than just keepers of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), which includes ecological observations, customs, social structures, and Indigenous worldviews. They also act as nonhuman agents that protect people, shape relationships between species and within communities, support conservation values, and help maintain species continuity in these stories. These interconnected functions articulate a relational and normative form of ecological identity grounded in reciprocity among birds, humans, landscapes, and ancestral memory. The study contributes to the environmental humanities by integrating TEK and bird agency as complementary analytical perspectives to understand how ecological values, responsibilities, and human-nonhuman relationships are represented and transmitted through Papuan folklore Keywords: Traditional Ecological Knowledge; animal agency; Papuan folklore; ecological identity; Indigenous ecological knowledge Naratif burung dalam cerita rakyat pribumi Papua telah mendapat perhatian ilmiah sebagai tempat penyimpanan pengetahuan ekologi dan sebagai representasi hubungan antara manusia, bukan manusia, dan alam semula jadi. Walau bagaima…
creator: HASRUL RAHMAN
creator: AGUS NURYATIN
creator: TEGUH SUPRIYANTO
creator: MUKH DOYIN
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
date: 2026-08-28
publication date: 2026-08-28
volume: 26
number: 3
starting page: 689
ending page: 707
doi: 10.17576/gema-2026-2603-12

Negotiating Samāʿ and Qiyās: Epistemological Foundations of Grammar in Al-Suyūṭī’s Hamʿ Al-Hawāmiʿ
type: item
description: This study examines how Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 911 AH) reconciles transmitted usage (samāʿ) with analogical reasoning (qiyās) in his auto-commentary Hamʿ al-Hawāmiʿ fī Sharḥ Jamʿ al-Jawāmiʿ (al-Suyūṭī, 1975). Previous scholarship on the work has catalogued its terminology and recorded where the two principles occur, but has not reconstructed the conditions under which al-Suyūṭī licenses or withholds analogical extension. The study addresses that gap through a single-case textual design with embedded units of analysis. The case is Volume 5 of the Hārūn and Makram edition of Hamʿ al-Hawāmiʿ fī Sharḥ Jamʿ al-Jawāmiʿ, which treats verbal government, particles and nominal morphology, and which therefore concentrates disputes in which the two principles are set against each other within a single passage. Five grammatical loci were selected from this volume and coded along three axes: reliance on samāʿ, permissibility of qiyās, and reconciliation mechanism. The analysis shows that al-Suyūṭī applies a consistent three-tier evidentiary order. Multiply attested usage carries the strongest authority; systematic analogy is licensed where the candidate form preserves both the semantic and the formal properties of an attested base; and analogy is withheld where the precedent is isolated, poetic, or confined to a marked register. His decisions are governed by regularity of attestation (iṭṭirād) rather than by school allegiance. The study argues that al-Suyūṭī is best characterised not as an anticipator of modern linguistic theory but as a systematiser who made explicit the evidentiary thresholds that earlier grammarians applied tacitly. Keywords: al-Suyūṭī; samāʿ; qiyās; uṣūl al-naḥw; Arabic grammatical tradition Kajian ini meneliti bagaimana Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (w. 911 H) mendamaikan penggunaan yang diriwayatkan (samāʿ) dengan penaakulan analogi (qiyās) dalam ulasan-kendirinya Hamʿ al-Hawāmiʿ fī Sharḥ Jamʿ al-Jawāmiʿ (al-Suyūṭī, 1975). Kajian terdahulu terhadap karya ini t…
creator: MOHAMMED SALEH ALI ALSHIZAWI
creator: MUSTAFA ADNAN MOHAMMED AL ITHAWI
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
date: 2026-08-28
publication date: 2026-08-28
volume: 26
number: 3
starting page: 708
ending page: 723
doi: 10.17576/gema-2026-2603-13

Sluicing, Pseudosluicing, and Question Formation in Moroccan Arabic Dialect
type: item
description: This paper investigates sluicing as a form of ellipsis in the formation of wh-elements. The analysis is based on native speaker judgments and introspective data from Moroccan Arabic Dialect (MAD). The study demonstrates that all wh-elements in MAD, including subjects, objects, adverbials, and complex forms, can undergo sluicing, sometimes accompanied by a copular pronoun. The analysis distinguishes between different types of sluicing present in MAD: merger (isomorphic), sprouting (non-isomorphic), and contrast sluices, each with unique syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic licensing requirements. The paper also explores key properties of sluicing in MAD, such as connectivity effects, island insensitivity, and the Preposition Stranding Generalization (PSG). It is found that whereas connectivity and gender sensitivity show form-identity between the sluice and its antecedent, only the restriction on wh-adverbials with copular pronouns provides strong evidence for gap wh-movement in sluicing. The paper critically evaluates two main analytical approaches: LF-copying and TP-deletion. The latter is more superior due to its compatibility with MAD data and theoretical principles in the numeration and the Inclusiveness Condition. The study also highlights the nuanced distinction between sluicing and pseudosluicing in terms of their syntactic behavior, licensing conditions, and pragmatic effects (i.e., epistemic bias and presupposition). Two of the most important findings in this paper are that MAD’s pseudosluicing is a result of movement (and not base generation) and the pragmatics-syntax interface in the understanding of question formation. These findings contribute to the distinctive characteristics of Arabic dialects, as they have mechanisms that differ from those of Standard Arabic. The findings also reveal the importance of including pragmatics in formal analyses to achieve a better understanding of sentences in natural languages. Keywords: Sluicing; Pseudosluicing; Wh-Move…
creator: INASS ANNOUNI
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
date: 2026-08-28
publication date: 2026-08-28
volume: 26
number: 3
starting page: 724
ending page: 740
doi: 10.17576/gema-2026-2603-14

Verb Production in Malay-English Bilingual Preschoolers: A Processability Theory Framework
type: item
description: Malaysia is a multilingual country where many children are exposed to more than one language from an early age; yet, empirical evidence on how young Malaysian children produce verb structures across typologically different languages remains limited. This study examines verb production among 58 Malay-dominant bilingual preschoolers aged 5 to 6 in Selangor, Malaysia, whose English input was largely confined to school instruction. Using a mixed-methods descriptive cross-sectional design, picture elicitation tasks elicited targeted verbs in both languages; the data were transcribed in ELAN and analysed through Processability Theory (PT). PT was adopted because its implicational hierarchy maps verb output in both languages onto developmental stages rather than describing it through frequency alone, and the study constitutes the first group-level, verb-focused application of PT to Malay. Base forms were the preferred verb type in both languages. In Malay, fifteen (25.9%) children reached the Phrasal Procedure through productive use of the progressive marker tengah, as in tengah tidur, while the rest demonstrated Lemma Access through base forms. In English, most children produced no stageable output; seventeen (29.3%) children reached Lemma Access through bare forms such as sleep and eat, and one child reached the Category Procedure through productive V+ing use. Qualitative analysis also revealed far greater lexical variety in Malay. Given the children’s unequal exposure, these patterns are interpreted as reflecting both processing development and differences in input and instruction, rather than processability alone. The findings offer preliminary support for a Malay-based PT framework and baseline evidence for early English vocabulary instruction. Keywords: Malay-English bilingualism; verb production; preschool children; Processability Theory; language exposure Malaysia adalah sebuah negara dengan kepelbagaian bahasa, yang mana ramai kanak-kanaknya terdedah kepada lebih …
creator: RABIAH TUL ADAWIYAH MOHAMED SALLEH
creator: SATOMI KAWAGUCHI
creator: SHARIFAH FATIN ATHIRA SYED UZIR
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
date: 2026-08-28
publication date: 2026-08-28
volume: 26
number: 3
starting page: 741
ending page: 758
doi: 10.17576/gema-2026-2603-15

The Perception of Japanese Consonant Length by Native Malay Speakers
type: item
description: The present study investigated how the consonant length contrast in Japanese (i.e., word-medial singletons vs. word-medial geminates) was perceived by native Malay speakers according to previous first language (L1) familiarity with such a contrast. The participants were Kedah Malay [KDM (-quantity)] and Kelantan Malay [KLM (+quantity)] speakers who differed in terms of their familiarity with quantity systems. That is, the KDM (-quantity) speakers were unfamiliar with the length contrast, while the KLM (+quantity) speakers were familiar with the length contrast. Neither group had experience with Japanese. Consonant length is contrastive in both Japanese and KLM (+quantity). However, the two languages are different with respect to word position. That is, consonant length in Japanese is only allowed to contrast word-medially, while the length contrast only occurs word-initially in KLM (+quantity). Therefore, we were theoretically interested in observing how the two groups of native Malay speakers, who had different L1 experience with respect to consonant length, perceived the word-medial contrast in Japanese. We tested the degree to which these two Malay groups as well as the control native Japanese (NJ) group perceived the Japanese length contrast by conducting an AXB discrimination task and instructing the participants to respond to 200 trials. The results revealed that the NJ speakers scored the highest accuracy (99%), followed by the KLM (+quantity) (84%) and then KDM (-quantity) (82%) speakers. It appears that the NJ speakers outperformed the two Malay groups. Surprisingly, both Malay groups performed about equally well. There was somehow an additional benefit for the KLM (+quantity) speakers who were exposed to consonant length in their L1, with the clearest effect for the discrimination of alveolar geminates. The results provide some evidence for L1 influence on cross-linguistic geminate perception, albeit without Japanese experience. It is anticipated that the …
creator: MOHD HILMI HAMZAH
creator: KIMIKO TSUKADA
creator: JOHN HAJEK
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
date: 2026-08-28
publication date: 2026-08-28
volume: 26
number: 3
starting page: 759
ending page: 781
doi: 10.17576/gema-2026-2603-16

Visual Distinctiveness and Chinese Character Recognition: A Systematic Literature Review of Character Simplification Studies
type: item
description: The 1950s Chinese character simplification reform reduced the visual complexity of thousands of characters; yet, its effects on character recognition remain poorly understood. This systematic literature review examined how visual features influence Chinese character recognition. A systematic search of four databases yielded 29 empirical studies. The findings show that visual distinctiveness is multidimensional in Chinese character recognition, involving stroke-level features, component and radical structure, spatial configuration, spatial transparency, and global form, with effects shaped by character frequency, reader expertise, and task demands. However, the evidence is insufficient to determine the direct effects of simplification. Stroke reduction may support early visual processing, whereas component merging may weaken distinctiveness, but neither effect has been directly tested. Only one study included both simplified and traditional characters, and none examined simplification as an object of investigation. The main methodological limitations were the use of a single script within individual studies, reliance on stroke count as the main measure of visual complexity, samples dominated by adult university students, and heavy reliance on behavioural measures. Overall, the claim that simplification does not necessarily improve recognition remains untested. Future research should adopt comparative designs, multidimensional measures of visual form, and broader participant samples to determine whether and how simplification has changed the visual demands of Chinese character recognition. Keywords: Chinese character recognition; visual distinctiveness; character simplification; visual complexity; systematic literature review Reformasi pemudahan aksara Cina pada tahun 1950-an telah mengurangkan kerumitan visual bagi beribu-ribu aksara; walau bagaimanapun, kesannya terhadap pengecaman aksara masih kurang difahami. Sorotan literatur bersistematik ini dijalankan untuk me…
creator: ZHE HENG
creator: KHAZRIYATI SALEHUDDIN
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies
date: 2026-08-28
publication date: 2026-08-28
volume: 26
number: 3
starting page: 782
ending page: 802
doi: 10.17576/gema-2026-2603-17