Lingua最新文献

Copredication is the phenomenon that two or more predicates can jointly apply to the same argument. In “The book is heavy and informative” the word book seems to refer to both a concrete physical object that can be heavy and an abstract content that can be informative. It has been observed that if the concrete sense of the nominal is triggered first, the copredication statement often sounds better compared to when the abstract sense is triggered first. However, the cognitive underpinnings of this effect are not well understood. In this theoretically oriented paper, we propose a predictive processing model of order effects aimed at advancing our understanding of that phenomenon. We also connect the debate regarding ordering preferences with an existing strand of research on ordering preferences in multi-adjective strings and the information structure of sentences.

The present study describes the nature of the dynamic spectral changes of Spanish vowels /a e o/ produced by 10 native Spanish (L1) speakers and 13 native English speakers learning Spanish as a second language (L2). The investigation seeks to identify variations in formant change through the application of both two- and three-point measures, evaluating their efficacy in capturing the formant dynamics of Spanish vowels. F1 and F2 formant dynamic variations were assessed in a set of acoustic measures, including Vector Length (VL), Trajectory Length (TL) and Formant Velocity (FV). Results show that L1 Spanish vowels are more dynamic than L2 Spanish vowels produced by native English speakers, challenging the traditional view that Spanish vowels are rather static. Moreover, the findings indicate that two- and three-point measures yield similar results for most vowels regarding the amount of formant change, rendering them ineffective in accurately describing Spanish vowels. The main difference between L1 and L2 Spanish vowels lies not in the magnitude of formant change, but in the direction of such change. Consequently, a measure that incorporates the direction of formant movement, such as FV, emerges as a more suitable acoustic characterization for both L1 and L2 Spanish vowels.

Narration requires the appropriate use of reference, which can be particularly challenging in stories with many characters of the same gender, especially for people with language disorders. This study investigates referential choice in the narrative discourse of people with aphasia (PwA) and typical speakers (TS) by observing reference in general and depending on the potential ambiguity of the situation (characters of the same or different gender) and referential functions (introduction, maintenance, and reintroduction of characters). We found no group differences in the number of nouns and pronouns produced. However, PwA showed an overall tendency toward a higher pronoun-to-noun ratio in both situations with characters of the same or different gender. Both groups had a lower pronoun-to-noun ratio when introducing characters and a higher pronoun-to-noun ratio when maintaining characters, with TS having an even higher pronoun-to-noun ratio when referring to characters of different genders. Nevertheless, when reintroducing characters of the same gender, PwA had a higher pronoun-to-noun ratio, which led to ambiguous reference. These findings contribute to the limited research on referential choice in PwA, suggesting that PwA are sensitive to the characteristics of discourse but have a limited ability to consider listeners’ knowledge.

Originally, scholarly discussions of metalinguistic awareness (MeLA), as a distinct concept, primarily focused on monolinguals. However, increasing scientific attention has more recently been paid to multiple language learning, which poses new challenges in this area of linguistic-cognitive research. This article first discusses a holistic and dynamic view of multilingual development and portrays MeLA as an emergent property of multilingual systems that varies in quality for multilinguals. Thereafter, a longitudinal study investigates the development of MeLA in three languages among adolescent learners in South Tyrol. For this purpose, a metalinguistic awareness test battery was specifically tailored to the trilingual situation. Subsequently, the effects of MeLA on decoding a new language system unknown to the learners were explored. The results from Part I of the study show that most learners developed MeLA skills that improved to varying degrees within the testing period. In addition, significant positive correlations were found between the MeLA test results for most participants. Analysing Part II of the study showed that, on average, participants with higher MeLA test scores could more frequently activate their prior linguistic knowledge, and they exhibited higher levels of awareness when decoding the new language system than did participants with lower MeLA scores. These findings show the interconnectedness of metacognitive skills and confirm the catalytic role of MeLA in multilingual systems, which calls for more cross-curricular multilingual teaching approaches that promote MeLA, particularly in multilingual regions such as South Tyrol.

This study is intended to examine the syntactic functions of words grammatically related to verbs in interlanguage. Based on probabilistic valency patterns, a wider variety and a larger number of syntactic functions were investigated. The distributional data of these syntactic functions show significant differences between interlanguage and the target language and between interlanguage at different proficiency levels. Specifically, verbs in interlanguage have stronger associations with subjects, adverbials and complements, whereas verbs in the target language are more strongly associated with prepositions and objects; verbs in lower-level interlanguage have stronger associations with subjects and complements, while verbs in higher-level interlanguage are more strongly associated with auxiliaries, connections and subordinations; the distributions of the syntactic functions in interlanguage gradually approach those in the target language as the proficiency level of interlanguage improves. Our analysis shows that the syntactic functions in interlanguage have unique, progressive, and probabilistic characteristics.

This study explores the hierarchical structures of Mandarin Chinese aspectual projections with a cartographic approach. We firstly revisit Mandarin aspectual expressions across three domains within a sentence, including preverbal aspectual adverbs, postverbal suffixes and sentence-final aspectual particles. Then we demonstrate that Mandarin aspectual projections are distributed in three zones (i.e., vP, TP and CP layers) by using appropriate position tests: transitivity tests for adverbs, the affixation order for verb suffixes, and location tests in the bǎ construction for both adverbs and suffixes. Finally, a three-layered topography of Mandarin aspectual projections is provided, which largely conforms to the universal hierarchy. The list of syntactic heads is expanded with the consideration of Mandarin data, especially for aspectual heads in the domain below VoiceP.

This paper describes the functions and variation in the use of palm-up in bidirectional French - LSFB (French Belgian Sign Language) interpreting. Data from final-year students of the Master’s degree in Sign Language Interpreting at UCLouvain (Belgium) were analysed. Results show that palm-up is polyfunctional in both datasets of interpreted productions. palm-up was used as co-speech gesture and in signing by all participants, but some variation is observed across individuals. One of the most frequent functions in the dataset is planning (i.e., palm-up is used as a filler while preparing upcoming discourse or while making a cognitive effort in editing a term). palm-up was articulated while preparing upcoming discourse in LSFB target productions, whereas it was also used for this purpose and in combination with repairs, repetitions, word lengthening and pause fillers (i.e., while a cognitive effort was being made) in French target productions. When interpreting from French into LSFB, palm-up was sometimes articulated in the interpreter’s non-dominant hand while the dominant hand was articulating one-handed signs. This phenomenon allows interpreters to keep the non-dominant hand active and to have shorter transitions between one- and two-handed signs in order to save time in their renditions.

This study explores the viability of applying the local grammar approach to speech act studies beyond English by developing a local grammar of apology in Italian. Drawing on data taken from the spoken Italian corpus of KIPTO, we identified nine functional terms that are commonly associated with the semantics of apologies in Italian. We subsequently used these terms to analyse instances of apologies from a local grammar perspective, leading to the identification of 18 local grammar patterns of apology, with the pattern “Forgiveness-seeking” being the most prominent one. We further discussed the opportunities (e.g., facilitating cross-linguistic speech act studies) and challenges (e.g., corpus availability, identification of speech act instances in corpora) of using the local grammar approach to account for speech acts in languages other than English. Overall, our argument is, and our study shows, that local grammars can be a viable approach to speech act studies in and across various languages.

This paper explores language contact phenomena (substrate und superstrate influence, universal learning strategies) in the speech of English-dominant, Hindi-dominant and bilingual speakers of Indian English. In so doing, it describes the nature and extent of linguistic variation that spans a broad sociolinguistic spectrum. The empirical basis of the study targets two domains of language: morpho-syntax (the English present perfect) and discourse pragmatics (quotative marking). The stratification of the informants into English-dominant, Hindi-dominant and bilingual is diagnostic of the sociolinguistic settings in which varieties in contact have been acquired (predominantly English, predominantly Hindi or mixed). The results indicate that superstratal influence is most noticeable in the speech of English-dominant individuals. In contrast, Hindi-dominant and bilingual speakers demonstrate substrate-induced features in their speech. The universal learning strategies of simplification are limited to the linguistic repertoires of the individuals with predominantly Hindi background. Crucially, bilingual speakers appear to engage in the construction of creative coinages and lead an incipient language change in the domain of quotative marking. Against this backdrop, the study shows that bilingualism is a primary sociocognitive condition underpinning speakers’ linguistic creativity and its major prerequisite. The study also pinpoints the importance of sociolinguistic differentiation through meticulous ethnographic fieldwork in the study of linguistic variation.