Quennie R.

My background in research, technical writing and translation positions me to significantly help clients as I have been a paper presenter at the recently concluded 14th Nakem International Conference by the University of Hawaii at Manoa with the study entitled “Ilokano Lexical Items on Courtship, Marriage, and Property and the Cultural Identity of the Ilokanos.” This study sought to analyze the different cultural-lexical items related to the beliefs, customs, traditions, and practices of the Ilokanos on the stages of their life cycle specifically, courtship, marriage, and inheritance of property. The research compiled 123 lexical items with added cultural information gathered from key-informant interviews. The cultural wordlist is presented in tabular form along with the definitions extracted from Aurelio Agcaoili’s Kontemporaneo a Diksionario nga Ilokano-Ingles (2012) and Rev. George Gelade’s Ilokano-English Dictionary (1993) in order to show how these cultural lexemes underwent semantic change and how they are portrayed in bilingual dictionaries. In addition, the study also discussed the relationship between language, culture, and ethnicity and their impact on Ilokano identity. The research employed Social Identity Theory along with socio-linguistic, lexicographic, anthropological linguistic, and semantic factors to explain how a language, specifically its lexicon, shapes identity, and to show the confluence of the Ilokano culture to modernization and to other ethnolinguistic groups like the Ibanag, including Spanish and American influences. The lexical list includes entries pertaining to belief in spiritual and supernatural entities, the interpretation of and approach to omens, counteraction to natural phenomenon, and protection of inheritance and properties which expound the interplay of the Ilokano identity to agriculture and religion. In addition, I have become equipped with the necessary knowledge that come with the position pertaining to public affairs, advocacy and media relations, formulation and development, and implementation of publicity plans as well as workforce organization and other related tasks that may be assigned from time to time.