scholarly journals Meanderings Around the Notion of ‘Contact’ in Reference to Languages, their Dynamics, and to ‘we’

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-548
Author(s):  
Robert Nicolaï
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Ordinary Language ◽  
Language Usage ◽  
Classical Sense ◽  
Communication Practices ◽  
As If

This paper is a linguistic, anthropological and philosophical exploration of language, with particular focus on language contact. The goal is not to address linguistic phenomena from a descriptive perspective, in the classical sense of the term, nor as if they were a “given”, and nothing further. Nor is the goal to craft a model. Instead it is an attempt to account for all relevant elements which (empirically) come into play in ordinary language use, considering them both in terms of language dynamics and in terms of language usage; this necessarily entails taking into consideration our own practices, as actors of communication and as builders of knowledge. We are ever stakeholders in this play (and its plays) because we are the ones who identify and/or attribute relevance. In other words, this text is a reflection on the (our) frameworks established through communication practices (frameworks which naturally have an impact on the form of our tools, including languages!) It highlights that the objectivization of phenomena which underlies our practices (whether academic or not) is closely dependent on the means by which we grasp the phenomena—this is nothing new but is worth noting afresh. Methodologically speaking, observing this point is an essential element in the elaboration of a theory to account for how phenomena are empirically grasped, and more particularly what it entails in the field of ‘language contact’.

scholarly journals Finding What Is Inaccessible: Antimicrobial Resistance Language Use among the One Health Domains

Antibiotics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 385
Author(s):  
Lauren L. Wind ◽  
Jonathan S. Briganti ◽  
Anne M. Brown ◽  
Timothy P. Neher ◽  
Meghan F. Davis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Antibiotic Resistance ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Antimicrobial Resistance ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
One Health ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Usage ◽  
Health Domains ◽  
Accessibility Issues ◽  
The One

The success of a One Health approach to combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) requires effective data sharing across the three One Health domains (human, animal, and environment). To investigate if there are differences in language use across the One Health domains, we examined the peer-reviewed literature using a combination of text data mining and natural language processing techniques on 20,000 open-access articles related to AMR and One Health. Evaluating AMR key term frequency from the European PubMed Collection published between 1990 and 2019 showed distinct AMR language usage within each domain and incongruent language usage across domains, with significant differences in key term usage frequencies when articles were grouped by the One Health sub-specialties (2-way ANOVA; p < 0.001). Over the 29-year period, “antibiotic resistance” and “AR” were used 18 times more than “antimicrobial resistance” and “AMR”. The discord of language use across One Health potentially weakens the effectiveness of interdisciplinary research by creating accessibility issues for researchers using search engines. This research was the first to quantify this disparate language use within One Health, which inhibits collaboration and crosstalk between domains. We suggest the following for authors publishing AMR-related research within the One Health context: (1) increase title/abstract searchability by including both antimicrobial and antibiotic resistance related search terms; (2) include “One Health” in the title/abstract; and (3) prioritize open-access publication.

The Contact Diffusion of Linguistic Practices

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Bohnemeyer ◽  
Katharine T. Donelson ◽  
Randi E. Moore ◽  
Elena Benedicto ◽  
Alyson Eggleston ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Reference Frames ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Spatial Reference ◽  
Diffusion Analysis ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Education Levels ◽  
Spatial Reference Frame ◽  
Using Data

We examine the extent to which practices of language use may be diffused through language contact and areally shared, using data on spatial reference frame use by speakers of eight indigenous languages from in and around the Mesoamerican linguistic area and three varieties of Spanish. Regression models show that the frequency of L2-Spanish use by speakers of the indigenous languages predicts the use of relative reference frames in the L1 even when literacy and education levels are accounted for. A significant difference in frame use between the Mesoamerican and non-Mesoamerican indigenous languages further supports the contact diffusion analysis.

scholarly journals A Bridge to Portugal: Language and Identity in Bridgeport, CT

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-140
Author(s):  
Fabio Scetti
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
American English ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Language And Identity ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Status

Here I present the results of BridgePORT, an ethnographic study I carried out in 2018 within the Portuguese community of Bridgeport, CT (USA). I describe language use and representation among Portuguese speakers within the community, and I investigate the integration of these speakers into the dominant American English speech community. Through my fieldwork, I observe mixing practices in day-to-day interaction, while I also consider the evolution of the Portuguese language in light of language contact and speakers’ discourse as this relates to ideologies about the status of Portuguese within the community. My findings rely on questionnaires, participant observation of verbal interaction, and semi-structured interviews. My aim is to show how verbal practice shapes the process of identity construction and how ideas of linguistic “purity” mediate the maintenance of a link to Portugal and Portuguese identity.

scholarly journals Terminology: Aboutness, Representation, and Metasemantics

2021 ◽  
pp. 51-58
Author(s):  
Herman Cappelen ◽  
Josh Dever
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
As If ◽  
The Way

This short chapter does two things. First, it shows that in fact workers in AI frequently talk as if AI systems express contents. We present the argument that the complex nature of the actions and communications of AI systems, even if they are very different from the complex behaviours of human beings, and the way they have ‘aboutness’, strongly suggest a contentful interpretation of those actions and communications. It then introduces some philosophical terminology that captures various aspects of language use, such as the ones in the title, to better make clear what one is saying—philosophically speaking—when one claims AI systems communicate, and to provide a vocabulary for the next few chapters.

Arabic borrowings in Tima

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-196
Author(s):  
Mona Hashim ◽  
Suzan Alamin ◽  
Gertrud Schneider-Blum
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
North West ◽  
Arab Culture ◽  
The North

Abstract In this contribution, we look at Arabic borrowings in Tima, a Niger-Congo language spoken in the north-west of the Nuba Mountains (as well as in the Sudanese diaspora). Due to several factors, outlined in the paper, Arab culture has been exerting more and more influence on the Tima way of life, especially with regard to the Tima language, where we find – to varying degrees – Arabic lexemes, phrases and whole utterances. A detailed analysis of the phonotactic and morpho-phonological adaptation of Arabic borrowings is followed by a discussion on the socio-linguistic setting of language contact, i.e. essentially a contact between Arabic and Tima speakers. Eventually, as we argue, a repertoire approach seems the appropriate way to tackle the issue of language use in today’s Tima society.

scholarly journals The Vitality of Kabiye in Togo

2009 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Komlan Essowe Essizewa
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Speech Community

In Togo, speakers of Kabiye have been in contact with the speakers of Ewe for several decades due to migration. As a result of this language contact, many members of the Kabiye speech community have become bilingual in Kabiye and Ewe. There have been a number of claims that Kabiye “est une langue en péril” (Aritiba 1993: 11). These claims have been based mainly on the observation of Kabiye speakers in Lomé and other major cities, where younger speakers seem to be losing their mother tongue to the benefit of Ewe. However, the extent of the loss of Kabiye is not well known because no extensive sociolinguistic study has been carried out among Kabiye speakers in these areas, and more specifically, in major Kabiye-speaking areas. The current study which has been carried out in Kara, the major Kabiye-speaking city and Awidina, a Kabiye village of the prefecture of Kara, fills the gap. The paper examines Kabiye speakers' reports of patterns of language use in these areas of the Kabiye community.

Morphology and Language Attrition

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvina Montrul ◽  
James Yoon
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Language ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Morphological Type ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The Individual

Language attrition is the loss of linguistic abilities or the regression of specific grammatical properties and overall fluency in linguistic skills. It impacts language use, lexical access, and grammatical integrity. Non-pathological attrition is natural in situations of language contact and bilingualism and can occur in the first, native, language as well as in a second language. As a gradual and dynamic process of accommodation that occurs when bilinguals use the second language extensively, attrition is a highly individualized phenomenon and hard to predict a priori. If attrition eventually happens, it affects individuals differently, with some exhibiting more widespread loss than others. Two factors that determine the extent of language attrition in bilinguals are the availability of input and the age of the individual at the onset of the reduction in input in their native language. An important question is whether attrition mainly occurs at the level of processing or whether it affects actual linguistic competence. Theoretical approaches to attrition have emphasized its relationship with L1 acquisition, the selectivity of attrition by linguistic modules, the effects of language use on memory, and the interplay between the L1 and the L2 along the life span. We still lack understanding of how attrition affects linguistic representations and processing and the external and individual cognitive factors that modulate, predict, or prevent attrition in bilinguals. Morphological attrition is far more common and extensive in children than in adults and it manifests itself in a variety of ways: morphophonemic leveling, morphological simplification, including omission of required morphology in obligatory contexts, paradigmatic reduction, simplification/reduction of suffixal allomorphy, regularization of irregular forms, and the replacement of synthetic forms for analytic/periphrastic forms. Morphological attrition has often been discussed in the context of language death and language loss at the community level for both child and adult bilinguals. The scant empirical evidence to date seems to indicate that the processes of omission, regularization, and suppletion that are common in attrition occur regardless of the dominant morphological type of a language. Both inflectional and derivational morphology are affected under language attrition and seem to undergo similar processes of reduction and simplification, regardless of the morphological type of the language. Within inflectional morphology, nominal morphology (gender, number, case) is more prone to attrition in the actual number of occurrences than verbal morphology (agreement, tense, aspect, mood), and attrition occurs more rapidly and extensively.

scholarly journals Helong Language in West Kupang District, Kupang Regency East Nusa Tenggara is Shifting Towards Death

2017 ◽  
pp. 120
Author(s):  
Gregorius Sudaryano ◽  
Made Budiarsa ◽  
I Made Suastra ◽  
Simon Sabon Ola
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Social Factor ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Family Education ◽  
Language Competition ◽  
Language Norms ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Methods

Research on language shift related to social factor is included in sociolinguistic research. This study is to examine the phenomenon of Helong language (HL) shift  in the District of West Kupang, Kupang Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province. HL shift is a product of language contact and language competition which is characterized by the use of HL by its speakers that is getting lower and switch to another more prestigious one. Therefore, the phenomenon of HL shift was analyzed based on the choice of HL language use in a domain that implies HL maintenance by its speakers among generations.   In order to get the expected data, this study involved 100 respondents consisting groups of 40 parents, 29 adults, and 31 children. The data obtained through data collection techniques were analyzed by using quantitative and qualitative methods. It was conducted based on the attitude of language in the dimensions of language loyalty, language pride, and awareness of language norms in the domains of family, education, customs, neighborhood, government, and religion referring to the level of HL maintenance.   The results showed that the phenomenon of HL shift in the District of West Kupang, Kupang Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province reflected reducing number of intergenerational Helong native speakers in using their own language. The presence of Indonesian language (IL) intervening the use of language in the domains of education, government, and religion influencing the use of languages in the domains of family and neighborhood. Thus, HL is shifting towards death in the next generations.

scholarly journals Language Use Across International Contexts: Shaping the Minds of L2 Speakers

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 60-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith F. Kroll ◽  
Paola E. Dussias ◽  
María Teresa Bajo
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
Research Network ◽  
Language Usage ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
L2 Learning ◽  
Context Of Learning

ABSTRACTBilingualism is a complex life experience. Second language (L2) learning and bilingualism take place in many different contexts. To develop a comprehensive account of dual-language experience requires research that examines individuals who are learning and using two languages in both the first language (L1) and second language (L2) environments. In this article, we review studies that exploit the presence of an international research network on bilingualism to investigate the role of the environment and some the unique characteristics of L2 learning and bilingual language usage in different locations. We ask how the context of learning affects the acquisition of the L2 and the ability to control the use of each language, how language processing is changed by the patterns of language usage in different places (e.g., whether bilinguals have been immersed in the L2 environment for an extended period of time or whether they code-switch), and how the bilingualism of the community itself influences learning and language use.

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