scholarly journals An inquiry into unidirectionality as a foundational element of grammaticalization

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 515-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Output Level ◽  
Important Principle ◽  
Processing Level ◽  
History Of ◽  
Language Output ◽  
Processing Point

This paper assumes that in order to explain rather than describe language change, historical linguists should not only consider what happens diachronically at the language output level but also, crucially, what speaker-listeners do at the processing level. The reason for this is that the structure of the language is shaped by the properties of the neurolinguistic mechanism underlying both language use and language learning. It will be argued that analogy as an important principle in grammar formation is the main mechanism in grammaticalization and in change in general when looked at from a processing point of view. The paper discusses the workings of analogy in a number of cases in the history of English which have traditionally been interpreted as unidirectional cases of grammaticalization . It will be shown instead that multiple source constructions were involved, which influenced one another and thus gave direction to the change.

scholarly journals Migrant women, work, and investment in language learning: Two success stories

2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Päivi Iikkanen
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
Success Stories ◽  
The Media ◽  
Key Participants

AbstractIn the media, migrant mothers are often portrayed as uneducated, having trouble learning a new language, and preferring to stay at home rather than entering paid employment. This article offers a contrasting point of view as a result of examining how two migrant women narrativize their experiences of language learning and working-life-related integration during a three-year period. Specific attention is paid to how the women make sense of their language use over time, and how this may have contributed to their integration into working life and the wellbeing of their families. Interview data was analyzed using the short story analytical approach, focusing on both the content and the various scales of context portrayed in the stories. The analysis is informed theoretically by the concept of investment. The findings indicate that, first, English was used when interacting with members and institutions of the Finnish society, but gradually the use of English was replaced by an emerging Finnish proficiency. At first with the help of English and later, by deciding to invest in learning Finnish, both key participants managed to build new careers and meaningful lives for themselves and their families in a new environment.

Communication as source and motivator of language evolution

2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vilmos Benczik
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
Human Thought ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

Language emerges and changes primarily through communication; therefore communication technologies play a key role in the history of language change. The most powerful communication technology from this point of view is phonetic writing, which has a double effect on language: on the one hand it impoverishes suprasegmental linguistic resources; on the other hand it evokes in language a profound and sophisticated semantic precision, and also syntactic complexity. The huge progress in abstract human thought that has taken place over the past three or four centuries has come about on the basis of these linguistic changes. Today, when writing seems to be losing its earlier hegemony over communication, the question arises as to whether this will lead to the erosion of human language, and also of human thought.

scholarly journals “Carrefour Louisiane”

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid Neumann-Holzschuh
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
New Variety ◽  
Dialect Contact ◽  
Cajun French ◽  
Louisiana French ◽  
History Of ◽  
Linguistic Behavior

The history of Louisiana French (LF) is closely related to Louisiana’s particular societal and linguistic ecosystem, characterized by a mixed society where new forms of societal organization emerged and were reflected in new forms of linguistic patterns and linguistic behavior. From the beginning, language contact has been of crucial importance for the emergence, evolution and gradual decline of Louisiana French (“Cajun French”). In colonial times, contact between related French lects resulted in the formation of a new variety of regional French in North America with its own features and its own evolutionary dynamics. The continuing contact with English, however, which takes place in an entirely different ecological frame, results in the ongoing attrition of the minority language. The first part of the article deals with early stages of dialect contact in Louisiana; it will be shown that from a diachronic point of view Louisiana French has to be seen as a product of language mixing and dialect leveling. In the second part two specific aspects of current English-French language contact will be discussed. Both aspects serve to illustrate particularities of the linguistic situation in Louisiana now and then as well as the importance of certain universal mechanisms of contact-induced language change.

scholarly journals On the Nature of Immersion During Study Abroad: Some Participant Perspectives

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Participant Perspectives ◽  
Academic Year

The Valcourt program founded in 1990 with the aim of supplementing existing semester and academic-year programs available through Collegiate University and providing an opportunity for students with as little as two semesters of language instruction to study in France. In this article, perspectives from Molise and Ashley, who along with five other participants from Collegiate, agreed to serve as informants in a qualitative research project which sought to understand–from their point of view–the transition they were making from language learning in an American classroom to language use in Valcourt and back again. The resulting data show, among other things, how truly unique each participant’s perspective can be, even when backgrounds seem similar.

scholarly journals Mining foreign language teaching manuals for the history of pragmatics

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola McLelland
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
History Of ◽  
Knowledge Of Language ◽  
Dutch Language ◽  
Linguistic Behaviour

Abstract Foreign language learning manuals can be valuable sources for the history of pragmatics and historical pragmatics. They may contain explicit guidance on pragmatics not found in native-speaker grammars. For example, accounts of German forms of address in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English–German manuals provide evidence of changing views on the appropriateness of ihr and Sie earlier than does the “native” grammatical tradition. The bilingual model dialogues that are typical of such manuals may also implicitly model appropriate linguistic behaviour, demonstrated here by examining the communicative genre of bargaining in a series of three related English–Dutch language manuals of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Furthermore, the dialogues may provide metalinguistic comment on linguistic behaviour – for example, by criticizing the culture of excessive negative politeness. Such sources can enrich our knowledge of language use and attitudes to language use in the area of politeness, complementing the evidence to be gleaned from mainstream native grammars, civility manuals, merchants’ guides, and the like.

Language learning, polylanguaging and speaker perspectives

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Ritzau ◽  
Lian Malai Madsen
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
Hybrid Language

AbstractSociolinguists have recently suggested a range of new terms to re-conceptualise language and language use. Most of these are based on the empirical documentation of speakers using linguistically hybrid constructions which are understood as reflecting speakers’ orientation to norms of linguistic hybridity. In this article we bring data typical of SLA research and sociolinguistic theorisation together by discussing data collected among Swiss German university students learning Danish in the light of such sociolinguistic concepts. We show how in some cases, the students signal investment in and alignment with hybrid language use, but in others the students “polylanguage” from a form-analytic point of view, while the co- and context suggest they orient strongly to an idea of “pure” Danish. In these cases their hybrid linguistic productions are more likely to be explained by their status as language learners. We argue that these observations point to the need for a closer consideration of speaker stances towards language forms as well as a need for considering repertoire restrictions and learner ambitions in current sociolinguistic conceptualisations of linguistic hybridity.

scholarly journals THE IMAGE OF A WOMAN IN ZH.NAZHIMEDENOV'S STORY «АЗАМАТ АУЫЛЫ» AND «ӘЙЕЛДЕР»

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 230-236
Author(s):  
R. Zhetibay ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Virgin Land ◽  
Female Image ◽  
Literary Process ◽  
History Of

This article analyzes in detail the stories of Zhumeken Nazhimedenov "Azamat auyly" and"Ayelder". The author analyzes the stories from the point of view of the author's concept, from the point of view of the artistic structure. The article analyzes the image of a" woman " created by artistic means. The article also examines the manifestations of elements of modernism in the modern literary process. The article contains links to the 6th volume of Zhumken Nazhimedenov's works and to the works of K. Zhanuzakova " introduction to literary studies» The significance of the article lies in the analysis of the artistic structure of Zhumeken's stories, which were not analyzed in the prose of past eras. We identified ways to create a female image by comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the history of that period. Everyone knows that W. Nazhimedenov built a virgin land in poetry, and his prose works moved away from the literary arena. From this point of view, in our article we have made every effort to show the power of the author in a prose work and emphasize the skill in creating a female image. At the end of the article, we showed the unity of the image of the lyrical hero and the hero in prose, the specifics of the author's method of description, and the originality of language use.

English-Estonian code-copying: Comparing blogs and vlogs

2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Verschik ◽  
Helin Kask
Keyword(s):  
Structural Changes ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Community Type ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Structural Impact ◽  
Estonian Language

AbstractThe article focuses on a comparison of English-Estonian code-copying in blogs and in vlogs. This paper applies a usage-based approach, combining a cognitive angle with the code-copying framework. The aim is to provide a holistic view on contact-induced language change by applying bottom-up analysis of naturalistic multilingual language use. In contact linguistic literature it has been observed that there is a preference for insertions vs. alternations depending on sociolinguistic setting (community type, generation, proficiency) and structural properties of the languages involved. Research on English-Estonian language contacts has shown that in blogs there is no clear preference for either. From a different point of view, it has been observed that lexical impact (global copying in the terms of code-copying framework) precedes semantic and structural impact (selective copying) but provide no explanation. Comparisons between blogs (750 entries and 275,263 words from 45 bloggers) and vlogs (5,5 hours, approximately 36,854 words from 5 vloggers) shows that global copies and alternations heavily prevail over other types of copying, yet the number of selective copies is somewhat higher in vlogs and of mixed copies in blogs. Selective copies are loan translations rather than structural changes. We assume that (1) prevalence of global copies and alternations depends on genre norms (blogs and vlogs are constructed as non-monolingual, highly individualized genres); (2) as selective copies are mostly loan translations, it implies the role of meaning and cognitive aspects: idioms and fixed expressions are figurative and cognitively prominent; combinational properties and grammatical meanings are abstract; so, the more abstract the meaning is, the more cognitive effort and time is required for entrenchment and conventionalization; (3) copying and alternation is denser in vlogs because the genre is oral and spontaneous vs. written, edited genre of blog.

Creativity within and outside the linguistic system

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Bergs ◽  
Nikola Anna Kompa
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Cognitive Demands ◽  
Linguistic System ◽  
Linguistic Innovation ◽  
Creative Language

AbstractIn this paper, we distinguish two types of creativity (F-creativity and E-creativity; Sampson 2016) and briefly address the question of language change and linguistic innovation in language acquisition. Cognitively speaking, the two types of creativity may impose different cognitive demands on a speaker. But the most pressing question, from our point of view, is the question whether E-creativity itself is constrained or forces us to ‘transcend’ the (rules of the) system. We will, eventually, argue that what looks like creative language use (metaphor, coercion, etc.) is still governed by rules (or hypermaxims). True E-creativity would then mean to step outside the system.

Réflexions sur l’histoire de l’AILA

AILA Review ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 2-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Valdman
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Research Groups ◽  
The World ◽  
Umbrella Organization ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

Albert Valdman traces the history of AILA through his memories of its origins in the early 1960s in France to its place today as the umbrella organization of over 30 national associations from all over the world. He begins with a discussion of AILA’s early days — centered in Western Europe and focused on language learning — and follows its expansion in North America and the rest of the world and to other domains of applied linguistics. Along the way, he cites significant meetings, resulting publications, research groups, the question of language use within the organization and many linguists who have contributed to the evolution of AILA.

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