Galician and Spanish in Galicia

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 438-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Fernández Rei
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Prolonged Contact ◽  
Wh Questions

Abstract The current study analyses the intonation of three types of utterances (broad focus statements, information-seeking yes-no questions and information-seeking wh-questions) in Galician and Spanish, in order to research the effects on the intonation of the prolonged contact between these two languages in Galicia. The main aims are to detect possible hybridisation processes in the intonation of these varieties and determine whether the intonation behaviour is different depending on the language used or on the language profile of the speakers. To that end, this study presents an empirical study which analyses these three types of utterances in Spanish and Galician, produced by 22 informants with different linguistic profiles. The results indicate little variability in the intonation based on the initial and habitual languages of the speakers or the language in which they produce the corpus. However, the existence of some hybrid patterns in wh-questions has been detected. The theoretical implications of these results will be discussed within the framework of hybridisation.

Monitoring, browsing and being aware – Keeping abreast and staying updated with professional information in Swedish regional libraries

2021 ◽  
pp. 096100062110429
Author(s):  
Ola Pilerot
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
Specific Kind ◽  
Work Activities ◽  
Individual Preferences ◽  
Work Tasks ◽  
Normative Dimension ◽  
Professional Information ◽  
Study Participants

A substantial part of the work conducted by librarians at Swedish regional libraries concerns staying alert and informed in ways that allow for continuous development of the kind of knowledge and abilities that are required for doing a qualified job, but this part of the work is elusive and hard to identify. This paper presents an empirical study that elucidates this specific kind of work of keeping abreast and updated with professional information. Empirical data were produced through interviews and logbooks with 10 members of staff at 4 regional libraries in Sweden. The data were analysed by employing Marcia Bates’ model of different information-seeking modes. The results of the study show that the activity in focus is seamlessly intertwined with other work activities and enacted in a variety of ways that are adapted after other work tasks (than the information seeking in itself) and dependent on individual preferences and routines. Since there is a certain conception of this activity as something that should be carried out in a certain systematic way and since it is something that one as a librarian ought to be good at, it is furthermore often associated with a normative dimension that provokes a sense of guilt among the study participants.

Japanese speakers' second language Chinese wh-questions: a lexical morphological feature deficit account

2007 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boping Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Morphological Feature ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
L2 Chinese ◽  
Wh Questions

In this article, an empirical study of how Chinese wh-questions are mentally represented in Japanese speakers' grammars of Chinese as a second language (L2) is reported. Both Chinese and Japanese are generally considered wh-in-situ languages in which a wh-word is allowed to remain in its base-generated position, and both languages use question particles to mark questions. It is assumed that C0 in wh-questions is essentially ambiguous and unvalued and that unvalued C0 must be valued. In Chinese, the wh-particle ne values C0 with [+Q, +wh] features, which licenses the wh-word in situ. As a result, no wh-movement is necessary and Subjacency becomes irrelevant. Japanese also employs question particles, such as ka or no. However, they are `defective' in the sense that they can only value the ambiguous C0 as [+Q] and they are unable to specify the question as to whether it is [+yes/no] or [+wh]. To value C0 as a head with [+wh], a wh-operator in a wh -word inside the sentence has to raise overtly to C0. The results of an acceptability judgement task show that although the Japanese speakers respond in a broadly target-like way, the lexical morphological feature [+wh] of the particle ne in their L2 Chinese lexicons is permanently deficient, which leads to variability in their intuitions about Chinese wh-questions. A lexical morphological feature deficit account for the results is proposed, and it is suggested that the lexical morphology—syntax interface can be a source of variability in L2 acquisition.

scholarly journals Serendipity and information seeking: an empirical study

2003 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen Foster ◽  
Nigel Ford
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Information Seeking

scholarly journals Wer kann denn schon ja sagen?

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-298
Author(s):  
Yvonne Viesel ◽  
Constantin Freitag
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Exploratory Analysis ◽  
Follow Up Study ◽  
Discourse Particles ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Shared Information ◽  
Rhetorical Questions ◽  
Rhetorical Reading ◽  
Acceptability Judgment

Abstract The article explores German discourse particles (DiPs) in rhetorical wh-questions (wh-RQs). While schon (roughly ‘unexpectedly’) only marks rhetorical wh-questions, denn (roughly ‘I wonder’) marks contextually arising information-seeking or rhetorical Questions under Discussion (QuDs), with or without schon. Since ja (roughly ‘unquestionably’) marks shared information, it is incompatible with questions by itself, but occasionally occurs in wh-RQs left of DiPs like schon instead of denn. The results of two acceptability judgment experiments confirm that ja is strongly dispreferred in RQs, the presence of schon improves RQs with and without ja, and denn has no effect on acceptability. A follow-up study further indicated the rhetorical reading of our target questions to prevail independently from DiPs. We conclude that ja in RQs operates on the information contributed by elements like schon, denoting roughly that the issue in question arises ‘unquestionably against expectations’. Our contexts were neutral regarding the discourse functions of ja and denn (side remarks vs. QuDs), unlike the contexts of the findings, from which we deduce that the marked ja schon-RQs, while grammatical, require specific felicity conditions. A first attempt to confirm this experimentally was globally unsuccessful and could only reveal potential hints in an exploratory analysis.

Information-seeking intentions of residents regarding the risks of nuclear power plant: an empirical study in China

2017 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 739-755 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Zeng ◽  
Jiuchang Wei ◽  
Dingtao Zhao ◽  
Weiwei Zhu ◽  
Jibao Gu
Keyword(s):  
Power Plant ◽  
Nuclear Power Plant ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Nuclear Power

scholarly journals Covert movement in English probing wh-questions

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 180
Author(s):  
An Duy Nguyen ◽  
Géraldine Legendre
Keyword(s):  
Surface Structure ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Covert Movement ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Acceptability Judgment ◽  
Syntactic Difference ◽  
Probing Questions ◽  
Echo Questions

Besides fronted information-seeking questions, English also allows for two types of wh-in-situ ones: echo questions, which are used to request a repetition or a clarification of a previous utterance, and probing questions, which are often used in quiz shows, classroom settings, and child-directed speech to “prompt” the addressee for an answer. An acceptability judgment task shows that PQs with multiple wh-phrases get a significantly lower acceptability score than echo questions with multiple wh-phrases despite their similarity in surface structure, which suggests a syntactic difference below the surface. Independent syntactic evidence confirms the result and further suggests that while echo questions involve no syntactic movement (Dayal, 1996), probing questions involve covert wh-movement.

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