Foreword

Abstract

Dear Linguistic Enthusiasts and Scholars, It is with our great pleasure to announce that the new issue of Acta Linguistica Asiatica is now available. As you pursue this issue, you will notice a refreshed look inspired by the new outlines of the University of Ljubljana, reflecting our commitment to growth and innovation. We take pride in our dedicated team whose expertise drives our exploration of linguistic intricacies and cultural nuances. This issue features four scientific articles and one review article, offering diverse perspectives on Chinese and Japanese as the East Asian languages in focus. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all contributors and reviewers whose scholarly rigor enriches our journal. To begin with, Tereza SLAMĚNÍKOVÁ and David UHER wrote an article entitled “Rhythmical Features of Spontaneous Spoken Narrative in Mandarin Chinese”, in which they introduce and expand a notation system for teaching Chinese rhythm pioneered by Oldřich Švarný, a Czech phonetician. They analyze spontaneous speech to outline rhythmical features in personal narratives and compare these features with a contemporary understanding of Chinese speech rhythm, showcasing the applicability of Švarný’s framework in diverse spoken discourses. Following is the work by KUANG Lincai “A Colexficational Analysis of Chū in Modern Chinese” that deals with directional verbs in modern Chinese, in particular with chū. The author delves into colexification and mechanisms surrounding chū, using the CLICS3 database. It explores colexified pairs of chū and constructs a colexificational network, emphasizing conceptual metaphor and metonymy as core mechanisms. Yet another scientific paper was authored by YANG Yongzhong and is entitled “The Structure of Chinese Compounds: The Perspective of Predicative Implicitness”, which explored Chinese nominal compounds' structure, relations, generation, and constraints, emphasizing predicate implicitness. Findings reveal varying constituent functions aligning morphological and syntactic structures, and the author offers a detailed account of their hierarchy. Trang PHAN and Giang VU submitted the paper “Wh-questions in Japanese: Challenges for Vietnamese L2 learners” in which they explored how Vietnamese learners handle structural differences in Japanese wh-questions. Results showed a correlation between Japanese proficiency and performance. Though learners were evaluated as more accurate with mirrored word orders, advanced learners also struggled with native-like interpretations. The study suggests explicit instruction to enhance accuracy in teaching. Last but not least is the survey article by Duc Du HUYNH, “Sino-Vietnamese Bilingual Dictionaries from the Middle Ages to the Present”, in which the author thoroughly surveys Sino-Vietnamese bilingual dictionaries from the Middle Ages to the Modern Ages, often overlooked in scholarly discourse. It delineates their evolution, regional differences, and historical context, aiming to catalyze further research in this field. Editors and Editorial Board invite the regular and new readers to engage with the content, to question, challenge, and reflect. We hope you have a pleasant read full of inspiration and a rise of new research ideas inspired by these papers. Editors