Benchmark varieties and the individual speaker: Indispensable touchstones in studies on language contact

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-232
Author(s):  
MARTIN ELSIG
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Causal Relationship ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Canadian French ◽  
Variationist Sociolinguistics ◽  
Preposition Stranding ◽  
Quebec French ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Speaker

The authors of ‘Phrase-final prepositions in Quebec French: An empirical study of contact, code-switching and resistance to convergence’, Poplack, Zentz & Dion (2011, this issue), henceforth cited as PZD, make a strong case for showing that, in spite of surface similarities, preposition stranding in Canadian French relative clauses cannot be qualified as a case of grammatical convergence due to language contact with English, but that it rather turns out to be a result of analogical extension of a native French strategy, preposition orphaning, to a new context. The application of a particularly sound and accountable methodology, the comparative method of variationist sociolinguistics (Poplack & Meechan, 1998; Tagliamonte, 2002), allows them to invalidate the hypothesis of a causal relationship between contact and the phenomenon under study.

Another icon of language contact shattered

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
PIETER MUYSKEN
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
Research Paradigm ◽  
Canadian French ◽  
Variationist Sociolinguistics ◽  
Preposition Stranding

Ouh que c'est laid! “Oh this is ugly!” is one of the comments among the 11,800 hits on Google for the sequence “la fille que je sors avec” [the girl I go out with]. Often the comments include the idea that the whole expression has been taken from English as a direct calque. The authors of the present keynote article, Poplack, Zentz and Dion (Poplack, Zentz & Dion, 2011, this issue), argue convincingly that this type of preposition stranding in Canadian French cannot be ascribed to language contact with English. Using sound and accountable methodology, derived from the research paradigm of variationist sociolinguistics, they manage to disprove the hypothesis of a direct causal link between the expression in Canadian French and its supposed earlier use in English. Thus, an icon of language contact, both in popular perception and in many not-so-well-informed academic sources, has been shattered.

scholarly journals Preposition stranding and orphaning: The case of bare prepositions in French

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 240-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
GEORG A. KAISER
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Canadian English ◽  
Complex Investigation ◽  
Canadian French ◽  
Section Heading ◽  
Preposition Stranding ◽  
Scientific Test

In their keynote contribution, Poplack, Zentz & Dion (henceforth PZD; Poplack, Zentz & Dion, 2011, this issue) propose an interesting “scientific test of convergence” (under section heading: “Introduction”) which contains criteria to check whether a particular feature in a given language in contact with another one is due to language contact or not. This is a valiant endeavor with a laudable goal. It is valiant because the answer to this question requires a complex investigation of the languages at issue. It is laudable since it is commonly believed that a given feature of a language in contact with another one is the result of convergence. This belief however is, in general, only a mere conjecture due to superficial similarities of the features at issue, for which no empirical evidence is provided. Yet, there is no doubt that PZD accomplish their endeavor in an outstanding manner. Based on a thorough study of substantial data from Canadian French and Canadian English, they demonstrate in a convincing way how it is possible to reveal whether a given feature is contact-induced or not.

scholarly journals Language contact phenomena in the language use of speakers of German descent and the significance of their language attitudes

2014 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronika Ries
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Data Types ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Speaker

Within the scope of my investigation on language use and language attitudes of People of German Descent from the USSR, I find almost regular different language contact phenomena, such as viel bliny habn=wir gbackt (engl.: 'we cooked lots of pancakes') (cf. Ries 2011). The aim of analysis is to examine both language use with regard to different forms of language contact and the language attitudes of the observed speakers. To be able to analyse both of these aspects and synthesize them, different types of data are required. The research is based on the following two data types: everyday conversations and interviews. In addition, the individual speakers' biography is a key part of the analysis, because it allows one to draw conclusions about language attitudes and use. This qualitative research is based on morpho-syntactic and interactional linguistic analysis of authentic spoken data. The data arise from a corpus compiled and edited by myself. My being a member of the examined group allowed me to build up an authentic corpus. The natural language use is analysed from the perspective of different language contact phenomena and potential functions of language alternations. One central issue is: How do speakers use the languages available to them, German and Russian? Structural characteristics such as code switching and discursive motives for these phenomena are discussed as results, together with the socio-cultural background of the individual speaker. Within the scope of this article I present exemplarily the data and results of one speaker.

Directive Guidance as a Cultural Practice for Learning by Chinese-Heritage Babies

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Yu Zhang ◽  
Su-hua Wang ◽  
Shinchieh Duh
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Early Development ◽  
Filial Piety ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
European American ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Individual

We provide a framework of analysis for Chinese ways of learning that extends beyond the individual level. The theoretical framework focuses on Confucian principles of <i>xiào</i> (孝, filial piety), <i>guăn</i> (管, to govern), and <i>dào dé guān</i> (道德觀, virtues), which leads us to argue that directive guidance as a cultural practice nourishes Chinese-heritage children’s learning as early as in infancy. To illustrate how directive guidance occurs in action for infants, we present an empirical study that examined the interaction of mother-infant dyads in Taipei, Taiwan, when they played with a challenging toy. The dyads co-enacted directive guidance more frequently than their European-American counterparts in the USA – through hand holding, intervening, and collaboration – while infants actively participate in the practice. We discuss the early development of strengths for learning that is fostered through culturally meaningful practices recurrent in parent-infant interaction.

Using hidden Markov models to find discrete targets in continuous sociophonetic data

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Duncan
Keyword(s):  
Hidden Markov Models ◽  
Markov Models ◽  
Hidden Markov ◽  
Abstract Representation ◽  
Language Variation And Change ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Single Target ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Speaker

Abstract Advances in sociophonetic research resulted in features once sorted into discrete bins now being measured continuously. This has implied a shift in what sociolinguists view as the abstract representation of the sociolinguistic variable. When measured discretely, variation is variation in selection: one variant is selected for production, and factors influencing language variation and change are influencing the frequency at which variants are selected. Measured continuously, variation is variation in execution: speakers have a single target for production, which they approximate with varying success. This paper suggests that both approaches can and should be considered in sociophonetic analysis. To that end, I offer the use of hidden Markov models (HMMs) as a novel approach to find speakers’ multiple targets within continuous data. Using the lot vowel among whites in Greater St. Louis as a case study, I compare 2-state and 1-state HMMs constructed at the individual speaker level. Ten of fifty-two speakers’ production is shown to involve the regular use of distinct fronted and backed variants of the vowel. This finding illustrates HMMs’ capacity to allow us to consider variation as both variant selection and execution, making them a useful tool in the analysis of sociophonetic data.

World Englishes, Code-Switching, and Convergence

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara E. Bullock ◽  
Lars Hinrichs ◽  
Almeida Jacqueline Toribio
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mixing Patterns ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Analysis Of Variation ◽  
Mixed Nature

In this chapter, it is argued that the study of World Englishes (WE) should assume a more central place in the analysis of variation and change in the context of language contact. Because they emerge from situations of bilingualism and contact, WE varieties are highly informative with regard to the structural issues of code-switching and convergence (also termed structural borrowing, transfer, interference, imposition). The inherently mixed nature of WE is shown here to mirror the diverse structural patterns that are commonly encountered in bilingual speech. It is argued that different mixing patterns arise in response to the social and medial embedding of WE vernaculars at the community, the individual, and the interactional levels. Social evaluations of relative prestige, individual projections of style, stance, and identity, and the complex nature of multilingual interaction conspire to bring about complex, new language structures.

Translation and sociolinguistics

Babel ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
María T. Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
First Language ◽  
Specific Situation ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Original Language ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Speaker

Language varies depending not only on the individual speaker but also on the specific situation in which speakers find themselves. This means that the language used in a given social envi­ronment may be perfectly translatable into a different language, but the society to which this other language belongs may not recognise the situation described by the first language. This ­article presents some examples of cultural values which cannot be translated literally (or which, if translated literally, will convey a message not intended in the original language/culture) and reaches the conclusion that, as a result of all this, there cannot be a simple answer to whether language can translate society. In some cases, it will be perfectly possible; in others, the translator will have to adopt a technique which reflects the society he or she is translating for, rather than the society described in the original text.

scholarly journals Usage-Based Contact Linguistics: Effects of Frequency and Similarity in Language Contact

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-481
Author(s):  
Nikolay Hakimov ◽  
Ad Backus
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Usage Frequency ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
Individual Contributions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Linguistic Behavior

Abstract The influence of usage frequency, and particularly of linguistic similarity on human linguistic behavior and linguistic change in situations of language contact are well documented in contact linguistics literature. However, a theoretical framework capable of unifying the various explanations, which are usually couched in either structuralist, sociolinguistic, or psycholinguistic parlance, is still lacking. In this introductory article we argue that a usage-based approach to language organization and linguistic behavior suits this purpose well and that the study of language contact phenomena will benefit from the adoption of this theoretical perspective. The article sketches an outline of usage-based linguistics, proposes ways to analyze language contact phenomena in this framework, and summarizes the major findings of the individual contributions to the special issue, which not only demonstrate that contact phenomena are usefully studied from the usage-based perspective, but document that taking a usage-based approach reveals new aspects of old phenomena.

scholarly journals CEOs And Managerialism, Success Trap, Blind Trust, And Global Mindset: Introducing The Individual Vigilance/Social Experimentation Framework

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Fendt
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Chief Executive ◽  
Global Mindset ◽  
Ceo Leadership ◽  
External Stakeholders ◽  
Conflicting Interests ◽  
Social Experimentation ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Coping

This ten-year empirical study explores the nature of Chief Executive (CEO) leadership and coping in post-merger situations. Executives’ need to manage multiple organizational realities and various groups of internal and external stakeholders, often representing conflicting interests, whereby four separate albeit interrelated concepts come into play, namely managerialism (vs. leadership), the liabilities of success (success trap), excess of trust (blind trust) and global mindset. The paper purports that these concepts can be understood as functions of the degree of individual vigilance and social experimentation that a leader applies to the task at hand and introduces the individual vigilance/social experimentation framework.

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