Which strategies do multilingual learners use when confronted with languages they don't yet know? Which factors are involved in activating prior linguistic knowledge in multilingual learning? This ...volume offers valuable insights into recent research in multilingualism, crosslinguistic influence and crosslinguistic interaction. Experts in the field examine the role of background languages in multilingual learning. All the chapters point to the heart of the question of what the "multilingual mind" is. Does learning one language actually help you learn another, and if so, why? This volume looks at languages and scenarios beyond English as a second language - Italian, Gealic, Dutch and German, amongst others, are covered, as well as instances of third and additional language learning. Research into crosslinguistic influence and crosslinguistic interaction essentially contributes to our understanding of how language learning works when there are three or more languages in contact.
In this paper, we discuss the conceptualization of space as a dimension relevant to personal identity and the central role that is attributed to language with respect to its constitution. It is ...argued that the identification with a certain geographical space and the use of (a) certain language(s) or linguistic variety can be regarded as crucial for the self-definition of individuals and also groups. We pursue a threefold goal: (1) to highlight the contribution of geographical research to our understanding of the self as a phenomenon situated in space; (2) to discern merits, but also problems related to the recent strong emphasis of the role of language with respect to identity constitution, especially in constructivist and poststructuralist approaches; and (3) on the basis of these findings, to draw conclusions concerning the given and constructed elements of identity, with a particular focus on space and language. In addition to a survey of relevant theoretical positions, empirical examples are presented with the aim to illustrate how geographically marked identity is constituted.
This paper presents the results of a study comparing native speaker intuitions on sentences with Closest Conjunct Agreement (CCA) obtained from linguists and non–linguists and it functions as a ...continuation of a larger study of agreement patterns in the South Slavic languages. In this particular research, we used a sentence–picture matching experiment with a 0–100 scale, which the participants used to indicate the acceptability of a particular sentence with a CCA pattern. Our participants were two groups of native speakers of Croatian (of the Shtokavian dialect) with different levels of linguistic education: the non–linguists (N=30) were comprised of BA–level students of various subjects (excluding Croatian, Linguistics and Psychology), while the group of linguists (N = 30) was comprised of Croatian teachers and holders of PhD in Linguistics employed at elementary schools, high schools and universities. The difference between the results obtained from linguists and non– linguists as research participants has been a matter of scholarly debate for the past several decades (cf. Dąbrowska 2008, 2010) and our aim is to contribute to this discussion by providing data related to CCA. The results of the study indicate that there is a statistically significant difference in linguistic intuitions between the two groups and there are valid reasons to attribute this difference to the level of linguistic training received. This difference is most clearly visible in the fact that linguists provided lower ratings on a general scale, regardless of the type of sentence and CCA pattern. A small–sized effect of age was also established.
A recurring hypothesis about the agreement phenomena generalized as closest‐conjunct agreement takes this pattern to result from reduced clausal conjunction, simply displaying the agreement of the ...verb with the nonconjoined subject of the clause whose content survives ellipsis (Aoun, Benmamoun & Sportiche 1994, 1999; see also Wilder 1997). Closest‐conjunct agreement is the dominant agreement pattern in the South Slavic languages Slovenian and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian. A natural question is whether closest‐conjunct agreement in these varieties may indeed be analyzed as entirely derived from conjunction reduction. In this article, we report on two experiments conducted to test this. The results reject the hypothesis as far as these languages are concerned, thereby upholding the relevance of models developed to account for closest‐conjunct agreement within theories of agreement.
The aim of this paper is to analyze the intensifying function of German modal particles and equivalent modal expressions in Croatian and English. Our hypothesis is that some modal particles in German ...and their functional equivalents in Croatian and English can express different degrees of intensity and types of intensification. The presented study comprises two parts. First, the use of intensifying modal particles by a group of speakers of L1 Croatian and L2 German/English is investigated. On the basis of the results obtained, and by means of a previously conducted corpus analysis (cf. Kresić and Batinić 2014), an intensification scale with respect to the inventory of German modal particles and corresponding particles in Croatian as well as equivalent English expressions is suggested. Some German and Croatian modal particles and equivalent modal elements in English can be classified on the upper and partially on the lower part of the proposed intensification scale when compared to the norm, i.e. an utterance unmarked by a modal particle.
When linearity prevails over hierarchy in syntax Gold, Jana Willer; Arsenijević, Boban; Batinić, Mia ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS,
01/2018, Letnik:
115, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Hierarchical structure has been cherished as a grammatical universal. We use experimental methods to show where linear order is also a relevant syntactic relation. An identical methodology and design ...were used across six research sites on South Slavic languages. Experimental results show that in certain configurations, grammatical production can in fact favor linear order over hierarchical structure. However, these findings are limited to coordinate structures and distinct from the kind of production errors found with comparable configurations such as “attraction” errors. The results demonstrate that agreement morphology may be computed in a series of steps, one of which is partly independent from syntactic hierarchy.
In this paper, a method for the semantic description of modal particles is presented. The method takes into account the context-sensitive meaning of this word class and offers an adequate basis for ...the purpose of language learning. Modal particles are analysed as grammatical markers of spoken dialogical language use. The model developed here can serve to describe the meaning of German modal particles as well as for contrastive semantic descriptions of particles. The contrastive application is demonstrated using the example of the language pair German-Croatian. First, an overview of the inventory and of the grammatical features of the word class of modal particles in German and of their Croatian equivalents is given. Then, existing methods of determining particle meanings are discussed. On the basis of the scheme for the description of particle meanings proposed by Diewald (1997, 2007), which relates to the Natural Semantic Metalanguage developed by Wierzbicka (e.g. 1996), a new universal model for the description of particle meanings is proposed. This new model is demonstrated with reference to the German modal particles doch, denn and ja and their Croatian equivalents pa, ma und a. Finally, some remarks on the use of the model for the purpose of learning German as a foreign language are made.
The study presented in this paper treats potential effective transfer as a strategy which can be a useful tool to point learners to cross-linguistic equivalencies with the purpose of facilitating ...learning. Using the example of modal particles and equivalent modalizing elements in Croatian, English, and German, the study investigates how many occurrences of potential transfer can be tracked in the cloze task answers of 136 Croatian students of German and English as a foreign language. In a qualitative analysis, the nature of potential effective transfer is determined and the relevant subtypes of transfer are defined. The learners’ first foreign language and all possible directions of possible transfer are also taken into account as relevant factors. Effective transfer is defined as the competence to correctly apply both the form and function of a particular linguistic element in performance in another language.
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