Lingua最新文献

This paper proposes a novel approach to collocation-based comparative linguistic analysis. The approach defines Firthian collocation as a range of collocates parameterized with positional information and association strength, and facilitates Firthian-collocation-based comparative analyses with a suite of quantitative tools including visualization, semantic abstraction, and similarity computation. The application of this approach is showcased in the synonym differentiation of four adverbs—actually, genuinely, really, and truly—and the collocation accuracy measurement of L2 learners that uses Chinese Learners English Corpus as the learners’ corpus and British National Corpus as the reference corpus. These case studies demonstrate that the approach not only enables intuitive and holistic inference of syntactic and semantic functions of node words, but also supports large-scale quantitative investigation of lexical knowledge.

The collocation of a monosyllable and a disyllable stands as a distinctive prosodic feature of Chinese. Whether rhythm is the decisive factor for acceptability of the collocation is still controversial in Chinese linguistics. This study has investigated this issue by exploring the influence of rhythmic patterns (2 + 1 disyllable + monosyllable vs. 1 + 2 monosyllable + disyllable) on the reading of Chinese noun-noun compounds (NN compounds) through an event-related potential (ERP) experiment. We found that, in terms of behavioral data, rhythmic patterns exerted a distinct meaning-modulating effect, namely, the abnormal rhythmic pattern (1 + 2) tends to reduce the semantic acceptability of NN compounds. ERP data showed that, the normal rhythmic pattern (2 + 1) elicited a larger N100 component than the abnormal one in semantically incongruent conditions; a rhythm-modulated N400 component was followed by a later positive component (LPC) associated with the re-analysis of compounds. Both behavioral and ERP data revealed a greater cognitive effort required to process NN compounds when semantics and rhythm were incongruent. These findings indicate that rhythmic patterns and semantics interactively affect the reading processing of Chinese NN compounds, and that rhythmic expectations may prevail in the semantic processing of Chinese compounds.

Based on data extracted from two French sociolinguistic corpora, ESLO 1 (1968–1971) and ESLO 2 (2008–), this article discusses the case of a new linguistic variation and change in French native speech in France: the fortition of the word-initial fricative /ʒ/. In total, 12,276 occurrences of words beginning with /ʒ/ were identified. Mixed-effect logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine both phonological environments (the preceding phonemes and the coronal status of the preceding phonemes) and social factors (the age, gender, and socioeconomic status of the speakers). The results demonstrate that the fortition of the initial /ʒ/ is influenced by both linguistic and social factors. Notably, the initial fortition in this study was an ongoing change led by men in ESLO 1. However, its use has already spread to both gender groups in ESLO 2. From a diachronic perspective, this study suggests that the observed initial fortition is not a reverse deaffrication process but rather a gradual increase in its natural occurrence.

In modern Chinese, an object can precede or follow a quantifier (numeral + verbal classifier) when they co-occur after a verb, which is supposedly affected by multiple factors. Within a usage-based probabilistic variationist framework, this study defines the above ordering as the alternation of the Event-quantifying Construction and examines ten potential variables that probabilistically constrain the construction alternation, using three multivariate methods. Results indicated that six variables significantly affect the selection of the two variants, i.e., “Quantifier-first construction” and “Object-first construction”, including the animacy, definiteness, givenness, and pronominality of objects, as well as the length difference between objects and quantifiers and the type of verbal classifiers. The two variants differ in the values of these variables, which may result from the postverbal constraint, the end-focus principle, and the end-weight principle in Chinese. However, these distinctions in the formal or semantic aspects will be neutralized in natural communication, thereby allowing the alternation of this construction.

This article investigates the second language (L2) acquisition of classifier reduplication in Chinese by Korean speakers and English speakers. Unlike the individuation function of simple classifiers, reduplicated classifiers express plurality. Yi-Cl-Cl encodes abundant plural and is associated with [plural, abundant] features, while Cl-Cl encodes distributive plural and is associated with [plural, distributive] features. Thirty-two English-speaking and thirty-five Korean-speaking learners of Chinese at advanced and intermediate Chinese proficiency levels were tested using a grammaticality judgment task and a truth value judgment task. The group and individual results show that, though great acquisition difficulties were encountered, both English and Korean speakers can eventually acquire the features associated with classifier reduplication. This empirical study contributes to the L2 theory of feature reassembly, by looking into the process of feature reassembly when the linguistic property is morphologically and semantically complex, and form-meaning transparency is low. This study also provides new data on the L2 acquisition of classifiers and plurality.

Scholarly opinions vary on what language is, how it evolved, and from where or what it evolved. Long considered uniquely human, today scholars argue for evolutionary continuity between human language and animal communication systems. But while it is generally recognized that language is an evolving communication system, scholars continue to debate from which species language evolved, and what behavioral and cognitive features are the precursors to human language. To understand the nature of protolanguage, some look for homologs in gene functionality, brain areas, or anatomical structures such as the supralaryngeal vocal tract; others point toward primates, their gestural, vocal, multimodal, and in later evolving hominins also their pantomimic communication systems; and still others draw parallels between the musicality that characterizes language and the pitch found in the numerous sounds produced by animals. Accordingly, protolanguage theories today are multiple and diverse, and protolanguages might have also been diverse. This special issue on Evolving (Proto)Language/s for Lingua bundles several of the protolanguage theories that were put forward at the sixth edition of the Ways to Protolanguage conference series, held at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, in 2019. Not aimed at surveying all the different ways there are to conceptualize, study, and model protolanguage/s, this issue provides interested readers with good overviews on the role played in current theorizing on protolanguage/s by (paleo)anthropology, genetics, physiology, developmental, evolutionary, ecological, and pragmatic research lines.

We investigated the extent to which responses (N = 6617) by four L2 English listener groups (The Netherlands: n = 1701; Germany: n = 1606; Spain: n = 1647; Singapore: n = 1663) were affected by giving L1 English speaker status to standard L1 British and American English accents, compared with a typical Dutch English accent. We assessed the extent to which presumed nativeness impacted speaker evaluations (status, affect, dynamism), and the extent to which a speaker’s voice influenced speaker evaluations by analyzing listener responses to verbal and matched guises. The results showed that presumptions of a speaker’s nativeness significantly impacted speaker evaluations on all dimensions, and we therefore conclude that speaker evaluations are also based on listeners’ views on a speaker's nativeness. In addition, speaker evaluations were influenced by a speaker’s voice to such an extent that this can lead to significantly more positive/negative speaker evaluations of both L1 and L2 English speakers. Finally, this study confirms the relevance and main benefit of the matched-guise technique in accentedness research, compared with the verbal-guise technique, since the former successfully minimizes the actual impact of voice.

Normative generics, which are statements that can be seen as reflecting the social world, can be powerful tools by which parents convey norms to children. In this article, we explored how two interrelated issues, the perceived salience of gender stereotypes and the socially constructed system of patriarchy, could affect what parents communicate in the context of parent–child interactions that concern the breaching of a salient gender norm. By analyzing data from two perception studies, we found that some norms pertaining to hair length or table manners triggered a more frequent use of normative generics than other norms and that the individuals who espoused traditional gender values tended to prefer one mode of norm responsiveness (i.e., norm-following) and used more normative generics than those espousing nontraditional gender norms. In this way, the study contributed to our understanding of how rules of behavior shared by members of a given group, as well as beliefs in a system of hierarchical power, might favor the use of normative generics.

Although bilingualism is encouraged and promoted among typically developing (TD) individuals, some countries continue to recommend monolingualism for non-TD individuals. This common practice seems unfounded because existing research investigating the effects of bilingualism on non-TD individuals has not revealed a detrimental effect of bilingualism. In this study, we analyzed the linguistic and metalinguistic abilities of individuals with Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS). To manipulate grammaticality and semantics, a grammaticality judgment task was created and administered in Spanish to eight Spanish monolingual speakers and seven Spanish–Catalan bilingual speakers, all with PWS. Similar results were obtained for linguistic and metalinguistic abilities in both groups, even if the bilingual speakers were Catalan dominant. Thus, these results not only support previous research within the field in not identifying a negative effect of bilingualism but also emphasize the fact that bilingual speakers can mirror monolingual speakers even in their “weaker” language.

This paper examines si-future exclamatives in Spanish, both synchronically and diachronically, with the aim not only of identifying their possible contexts of use but also of distinguishing their various semantic interpretations. In addition to permitting the redefinition of the space of insubordination and assessing the role of analogy in the continuing independence of the marker si, this proposal provides an explanation of Spanish mirative future as emerging from the emancipation of a previous structure, albeit that it retains the deictic value of morphological future –which becomes a functional feature in its new discursive meaning. From this perspective, the grammaticalization of morphological future in Spanish is not contemplated as a closed cycle, but rather as a still ongoing process. More broadly speaking, this paper helps outline the semantic array of mirative meanings through providing evidence about the type of mirativity that can be conveyed in Spanish.