scholarly journals Two languages, two sets of interpretations: Language-specific influences of morphological form on Dutch and English speakers' interpretation of compounds

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arina Banga ◽  
Esther Hanssen ◽  
Robert Schreuder ◽  
Anneke Neijt
Keyword(s):  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Relativity ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Morphological Form ◽  
Linking Elements ◽  
Noun Compounds ◽  
Linking Element

AbstractThe present study investigates linguistic relativity. Do form differences between Dutch and English influence the interpretations which speakers have? The Dutch element en in noun-noun compounds, for example in aardbeienjam ‘strawberry jam’ is homophonous and homographic with the regular plural suffix -en. English, in contrast, has no such typical linking elements in compounds. We therefore investigated the interpretation of Dutch modifiers in compounds and their English equivalents. We compared the plurality ratings of Dutch modifiers with and without the linking element en by native Dutch speakers, and the plurality ratings of English modifiers by native Dutch speakers and native English speakers. If the Dutch linking en induces plural meaning, we expected a difference between the plurality ratings by English speakers for English modifiers and by Dutch speakers for Dutch modifiers, such that the estimation of the number of strawberries in strawberry jam is lower for the English speakers than the number of aardbeien in aardbeienjam for the Dutch speakers. This is exactly what we found. Moreover, when native Dutch speakers rate the English equivalents, their interpretation of strawberry jam is the same as for native English speakers, which shows the language being used to influence semantic interpretations.

Plurals as modifiers in Dutch and English noun-noun compounds express plurality in production

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arina Banga ◽  
Esther Hanssen ◽  
Anneke Neijt ◽  
Robert Schreuder
Keyword(s):  
Picture Naming ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Semantic Constraints ◽  
Noun Compounds ◽  
English Noun

The present study investigates the relation between conceptual plurality and the occurrence of a plural morpheme in novel Dutch and English noun-noun compounds. Using a picture-naming task, we compared the naming responses of native Dutch speakers and native English speakers to pictures depicting either one or multiple instances of the same object serving as a possible modifier in a novel noun-noun compound. While the speakers of both languages most frequently produced novel compounds containing a singular modifier, they also used compounds containing a plural modifier and did this more often to describe a picture with several instances of an object than to describe a picture with one instance of the object. Speakers of English incorporated some regular plurals into the noun-noun compounds they produced. These results contradict the words-and-rules theory of Pinker (1999) and also the semantic constraints for compounding put forth by Alegre and Gordon (1996). Interestingly, it appears, however, that the acceptability constraints put forth by Haskell, MacDonald, and Seidenberg (2003) apply to the production of compounds.

How subtle differences in orthography influence conceptual interpretation

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arina Banga ◽  
Esther Hanssen ◽  
Robert Schreuder ◽  
Anneke Neijt
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Linguistic Relativity ◽  
Noun Compounds ◽  
Linking Element

The present study investigates linguistic relativity. The units of writing investigated are e and en, which are used to represent units of language in Dutch, Frisian, and Afrikaans. Dutch has homographic forms in the plural suffix -en and the linking element of noun-noun compounds en. Frisian does not have homography of this kind, while Afrikaans has a different homography. This raises the question whether second language learners of Dutch consistently interpret the linking en in Dutch noun-noun compounds as plural in the way that native speakers do. Plurality ratings for Dutch modifiers obtained from native Dutch speakers are compared with ratings from Frisian-Dutch bilinguals and Afrikaaners learning Dutch as L2. Significant differences relating to orthography are observed. We therefore argue that differing orthographic conventions in one’s native language (L1) can lead to different interpretations for the same everyday words written in Dutch (L2). Orthography thus provides an example of linguistic relativity. Keywords: linguistic relativity; second language learning; morphology; compounding; linking element; plurality; homography; Dutch; Frisian; Afrikaans

The Green Eyed Monster: Linguistic Influences on Concepts of Envy and Jealousy in Russian and English

2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 235-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Stepanova ◽  
John Coley
Keyword(s):  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Relativity ◽  
Sorting Task ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Russian Speakers ◽  
Control Situations ◽  
The Difference ◽  
And Control ◽  
Linguistic Influences ◽  
American English Speakers

AbstractThe present study examined linguistic relativity in the domain of emotion terms. Exp. 1 showed that American English speakers use the word "jealous" to describe both situations involving envy and those involving jealousy, whereas Russian speakers describe emotions involved in the situations using the Russian terms revnuet and zaviduet in a mutually exclusive manner. Bilinguals performed according to the language they were tested in. In Experiment 2 we sought evidence for conceptual consequences of the difference in how emotion terms mapped onto situations for English and Russian speakers. In a non-linguistic triad sorting task, all subjects clearly distinguished jealousy situations from envy situations, but monolingual English speakers and bilinguals were more likely to see envy situations and jealousy situations as similar than Russian speakers. In a free sorting task, high agreement across all groups was shown in sorting jealousy, envy and control situations. However, native Russian speakers, in contrast to native English speakers, labeled the groups in a mutually-exclusive way. While providing some evidence for the weak view of linguistic relativity, overall the study shows that despite the difference in labeling the emotions of jealousy and envy, Russian speakers, English speakers and bilinguals are very similar in how they conceptualize emotionally-laden situations.

The cognitive saliency of word associations of verbs of speech in English as a Lingua Franca interactions

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-443
Author(s):  
Yang Pang
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Word Associations ◽  
Similar Word ◽  
Speech Communities

AbstractBuilding on the theoretical insights into the socio-cognitive approach to the study of interactions in which English is used as a lingua franca (ELF)), this paper reports on the idiosyncratic phenomenon that ELF speakers do not adhere to the norms of native speakers, but instead create their own particular word associations during the course of the interaction. Taking the verbs of speech talk, say, speak, and tell as examples, this study compares word associations from three corpora of native and non-native speakers. The findings of this study reveal that similar word associative patterns are produced and shared by ELF speech communities from different sociocultural backgrounds, and these differ substantially from those used by native English speakers. Idiom-like constructions such as say like, how to say, and speakin are developed and utilized by Asian and European ELF speakers. Based on these findings, this paper concludes that ELF speakers use the prefabricated expressions in the target language system only as references, and try to develop their own word associative patterns in ELF interactions. Moreover, the analysis of the non-literalness/metaphorical word associations of the verbs of speech in the Asian ELF corpus suggests that ELF speakers dynamically co-construct their shared common ground to derive non-literal/metaphorical meaning in actual situational context.

Speech Rate Is No Simple matter

1990 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracey M. Derwing
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Pause Time ◽  
Short Film ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Articulation Rate ◽  
Simple Matter ◽  
Communicative Success

Speech rate (articulation rate and pauses) was examined for its relation to communicative success. Native English speakers (NSs) were paired with other NSs and with non-native speakers (NNSs). The subjects viewed a short film, the content of which they were to relay to their two partners independently. Communicative success was measured through comprehension questions addressed to the listeners at the completion of the task. Analyses indicated that although a slight majority of NSs slowed their speech rate for NNSs, they did not adjust articulation rate, but did significantly increase pause time. Neither speech rate nor articulation rate varied over the course of the narrations. Contrary to intuition, the subjects who successfully communicated the story to NNSs did not adjust their speech rate, while those who had difficulty communicating with NNSs increased pause time significantly. The implications of the findings are discussed, and suggestions for further research are made.

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