scholarly journals A variant of a quasi-standard: attitudes of the young generation representing the Aukštaitian area

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Daiva Kardelytė-Grinevičienė
Keyword(s):  
Young Generation ◽  
Standard Variety ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
Perceptual Dialectology ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Phonetic Features

he object of this paper is the variant of quasi-standard language, i.e. the variant of the perceived standard language formed by the young generation of the Aukštaitian area. The aims of the study are to examine whether the assessments made by respondents representing the Aukštaitian area suggest the presence of such a quasi-standard and, if they do, to provide the characterisation of this quasi-standard variant on the basis of the collected data. The data of the study consists of eight audio texts-stimuli which represent six Lithuanian regiolects (A and D represent Southern Aukštaitian; B and E represent Žemaitian, C represents Northwestern Aukštaitian, F represents the western part of Eastern Aukštaitian, G represents Southwestern Aukštaitian, while H represents the eastern part of East Aukštaitian) and the responses to two questions in the questionnaire designed according to the principles of perceptual dialectology which ask the respondents to rate the similarity of the audio text-stimulus to the standard language. The study demonstrated that the respondents perceived texts-stimuli B and E (representative of the Žemaitian dialect) as the least similar to the standard language. Texts-stimuli H (representative of the eastern part of East Aukštaitian regiolect), A and D (representative of East Aukštaitian regiolect), on the contrary, were seen as the closest to the standard language. Since the ratings of these texts-stimuli in the respondents’ assessment were substantially higher in comparison to the rest of the texts-stimuli, the results suggest the existence of a quasi-standard. The analysis of respondents’ motives of giving high scores to audio texts-stimuli A, D, and H demonstrates that the morphological and lexical characterisation of the quasi-standard of the young generation representing the Aukštaitian area is only fragmentary. The most prominent are phonetic features, namely: more open and more closed pronunciation of vowels i and u, shortening of unstressed long vowels o, u, and i, lengthening of the stressed short vowels u and i, correct accentuation and non-reduced endings. Based on the analysis carried out, it is possible to assume that the quasi-standard variety formed by the young generation representing the Aukštaitian area consists of some tertiary phonetic features of the eastern parts of East Aukštaitian and South Aukštaitian regiolectal zones, norms of standard language pronunciation, shortened verb forms typically characteristic of dialects and standard language and mixed lexis (containing that of standard language / dialects / borrowings).

Mapping Perceptions of Language Variation in Wisconsin

2020 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-102
Author(s):  
Sarah Braun
Keyword(s):  
Language Variation ◽  
The State ◽  
Standard Variety ◽  
Systematic Comparison ◽  
Perceptual Dialectology ◽  
The North ◽  
Language Differentiation ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Composite Maps

This article investigates whether residents of central Wisconsin perceive language variation within their state and, if they do, what it looks like according to them. To achieve these aims, this study examines the perspectives of one central Wisconsin community regarding internal language differentiation within the state. It follows the perceptual dialectology paradigm, based on work by Dennis Preston, in that it studies how nonlinguists view language variation within Wisconsin. Respondents completed Preston’s draw-a-map task, which additionally asked them to label each indicated area. The drawn boundaries were digitalized using ArcGIS to create composite maps to allow for systematic comparison. The labels provided by the respondents were analyzed to see how this group of Wisconsin residents views the speech of each identified region and thus to see whether there are distinctly enregistered dialects within Wisconsin for these respondents. Findings show three distinctly perceived areas within the state: the Milwaukee area, the north of the state, and the participants’ own area, central Wisconsin. The analysis of the labels indicates that an urban-rural divide is at play for perception of the first two mentioned areas, whereas perceptioin of the latter identified area reflects the belief in a regionally located standard variety.

Morphological and Syntactic Variation and Change in Romanian

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ion Giurgea
Keyword(s):  
Relative Pronoun ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
Syntactic Variation ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Feature Characteristic ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Widespread Phenomenon ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Peripheral Areas ◽  
The 19Th Century

The geographical varieties of Romanian spoken in Romania, the Republic of Moldova, and adjacent regions are largely mutually intelligible. More important are the differences between these varieties (known as “Dacoromanian”) and the South-Danubian varieties of Aromanian, Meglenoromanian, and Istroromanian, which have been separated from (Daco-)Romanian for a very long time, but qualify as dialects of Romanian from a historical and comparative Romance perspective. Standard Romanian is based on the southern dialect of Dacoromanian, in particular the variety of Muntenia, but also includes features taken from other dialects (e.g., the 3pl imperfect -au, the absence of “iotacism” in verb forms—văd instead of the etymological vă(d)z ‘see.1sg’ < Lat. *uidi̯o < uideō, with the regular sound change -di̯->-dz->-z-). A unified standard language was established around the middle of the 19th century. Some of the differences between the high and the colloquial register of standard Romanian are due to innovations characterizing southern varieties: the demonstrative system (high register acest(a), acel(a) versus colloquial ăsta, ăla), the future (high register voi [inflected] + infinitive versus colloquial o [uninflected] + subjunctive), the use of the infinitive (more restricted in the colloquial register than in the high register), and the presumptive mood (mostly colloquial, representing a modal epistemic specialization of a future form oi + infinitive, which is itself an innovation with respect to voi + infinitive). Some of the features by which substandard varieties differ from the standard language represent innovations: the replacement of the inflectional dative and genitive by prepositional constructions, the change of the relative pronoun care into a complementizer, and the loss of the number contrast in the 3rd person of verbs (the latter representing a recent development, mostly found in the southern varieties, but also in parts of Crişana and Transylvania). The loss of agreement with the possessee on the genitival article al is an innovation that first appeared in the northern dialect and subsequently gained ground across substandard varieties. Northern varieties, especially in peripheral areas (Crişana, Maramureş, northern Moldova), preserve a number of archaic features that disappeared from the standard language, for example, the productivity of verb-clitic word orders (with both auxiliary and pronominal clitics), the use of al-Genitive-N word orders, the conditional periphrases vream + infinitive and reaş + infinitive (the latter in Banat), and, as a widespread phenomenon, the 3sg=3pl homonymy in the perfect auxiliary (in the form o < au). Compared to the colloquial standard language, northern varieties preserve the infinitive better. An innovative feature characteristic of northern varieties is the use of periphrastic forms for the imperfect and pluperfect. As conservative features found in some nonstandard southern varieties, we may cite the use of the synthetic perfect (which in the standard language is restricted to the written register) and the stress on the oblique determiner/pronominal endings (ăstúia vs. ắstuia).

scholarly journals The narrative of an ordinary member of language community: WHERE and WHY is dialecticity of a locality created

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Daiva Aliūkaitė ◽  
Danguolė Mikulėnienė
Keyword(s):  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Language Community ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
Perceptual Dialectology ◽  
First Case ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Ordinary Member ◽  
Emic Perspective ◽  
Distinct Features ◽  
Emic And Etic

The paper aims to explore where and why an ordinary member of language community creates the dialecticity of a locality and evaluate whether (and how) the dialect artefact of an ordinary member of language community is related with the dialecticity recognised and estimated by researchers, or, in other words, discuss the interaction of the emic and etic perspectives.The empirical basis for the discussion about the interaction of the emic and etic perspectives is formed on the verbalised and visualised language attitudes of the ordinary members of language community and the data of the text-stimuli perceptions gathered during the project “The Position of Standard Language in the Mental Map of the Lithuanian Language” carried out in 2014–2016 and supplied with the data of the ongoing project “Distribution of Regional Variants and Quasistandard Language at the Beginning of the 21st Century: Perceptual Approach (Perceptual Categorisation of Variants”, 2017–2019.The respondents of both projects are the first-fourth year grammar school pupils whom the scholars associate with the emic perspective. The first attempt concerned the data related with the verbalised and visualised (in the drawn maps) language attitudes of 1.415 teenagers; the second one analysed the data related with the verbalised and visualised (in the drawn maps) language attitudes of 1.064 youngsters and the data of the perception of the text-stimuli recorded in an adequate dialect. Both projects are interrelated with regard to the subject matter and the pursued goals: in the first case, an attempt was made to analyse the geolinguistic competence of an ordinary member of language community; in the second one, an additional aspect of the perceptual abilities of an ordinary member of language community was considered.During the performance of the two projects the essential criterion for the selection of the locations in the regions of Lithuania to be explored was whether they were (non)marked by dialect. Hence the respondent groups were formed in the regiolect and/or geolect zones, and in the second project the task of the text-stimuli perception had motivated the inclusion of the Lithuanian cities.The problem of how an ordinary member of language community creates the dialecticity of a location has been approached on the basis of the data given in the drawn maps presented in the two projects.The participants of the first project have drawn the so called perceptual isoglosses in two maps, i.e. in one map they have marked the areas where people speak in dialect and, in the other, where standard language was used. Meanwhile, the participants of the second project in their drawn maps related the linguistic homeland with other locations due to the similarity (or simultaneity) of expression. They also had to draw the maps of standard language and, in addition, localise 8 text-stimuli given to them for assessment which contained the 14–19 seconds fragments of spontaneous speech representing various regiolectic zones.To summarise the obtained results, it should be claimed that etic and emic discourses should be essentially related to the cause and effect factor. The narrative of an ordinary member of language community not only reveals the specific interior relationships but is also affected from outside. Such an insight is determined by the interaction between the created dialecticity of a locality and the dialecticity of localities legitimated in scientific discourse.The results obtained in both projects on perceptual dialectology show that the dialecticity of a locality has been constructed on the basis of adequate etic information: it is obvious from the drawn maps that dialecticity is attracted by the localities that are highly dialect-oriented, i.e. the geolectic and regiolectic areas. This assumption is based on the localisation of the text-stimulus having the most distinct features of dialect which confirms that dialect recognition by the ordinary members of language community does not enter into conflict with the researcher's evaluation from outside. Thus it shows that localities do consistently attract the text-stimuli having the most distinct features of dialect.Meanwhile, as a place of dialect levelling, the capital (or any city) accurately correlates with the NORM reflection of traditional dialectology.The paper summarises that it is not clear yet in what ways the constructors of the narrative from inside are affected by the narratives from outside. There is no tradition formed in the works on perceptual dialectology and no adequate methodological instruments have been devised which might help to find out the sources of knowledge, images and attitudes of the ordinary members of language community. Hence, in order to more clearly describe the relationship between the narrative of a researcher and that of an ordinary member of language community it would be reasonable to move an additional step forward – to expand the instrumentarium and methods of research by including the reflections of the ordinary members of language community regarding the knowledge, images and attitudes that they possess in the field of dialecticity. Thus a new perspective in dialectology should be initiated.

scholarly journals Morphological features of the translation of the «God’s Law» (1912) into the Udmurt language

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 246-254
Author(s):  
Maria P. Bezenova
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Morphological Features ◽  
Literary Language ◽  
Linguistic Data ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Phonetic Features ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Linguistic Material

Introduction. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that the Udmurt written monuments are studied only partially at the moment. Today more than 400 names of pre-revolutionary Udmurt monuments are known, but most of them are still not described. An analysis of written monuments is necessary, because they provide important information for language reconstruction, and besides that, they help to determine the chronology of linguistic phenomena. Materials and Methods. The description of morphological characteristics in the article is based on the previously identified graphic and phonetic features of the translation of «God’s law» in the Udmurt language. It involved the method of comparing the linguistic material of the work with the data of the literary language and modern Udmurt dialects. Results and Discussion. As a result of the analysis of «God’s law» in the Udmurt language, we revealed some features in the design of morphological indicators of plural, possessiveness, some case and verb forms, as well as pronouns. Conclusion. A comparison of the linguistic data of the “God’s Law” with the literary language and modern Udmurt dialects confirmed the hypothesis regarding the dialectic affiliation of the written source.

scholarly journals Language shift: The case of the Žeimiai area in the Kaunas-Jonava region

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 41-58
Author(s):  
Danguolė Mikulėnienė ◽  
Aušra Pacevičiūtė
Keyword(s):  
Geographical Area ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Local Variation ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Young Generation ◽  
Local Language ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
Phonetic Features ◽  
Linguistic Behaviour ◽  
Local Populace

Language shift: The case of the Žeimiai area in the Kaunas-Jonava regionAs a result of application of the principles of multidimensional dialectology in Lithuania in the early twenty-first century, the research discourse of Lithuanian dialectologists now covers not only the traditional dialects, but also several local language variations that continuously interact and compete with one another in the same geographical area. The processes of convergence and divergence of language variations are addressed in a more comprehensive manner, not only analysing the linguistic characteristics of a local variation, but also looking into the language environment (or language landscape) and the attitude of the local populace (especially the young generation) towards their linguistic homeland.The linguistic study presented in this article was conducted in the Žeimiai area in the Kaunas-Jonava region in 2015–2017. It involved interviews with 21 members of three generations of one family (15 females and 6 males aged 19 to 95), over 20 hours of audio material in total; the informants also answered a sociolinguistic survey. The description and analysis of collected material involved: (1) analysis of the degree of viability of language variations used in the area on the basis of a model of sociocultural networks of Žeimiai town; (2) description of the linguistic landscape of the region; (3) description of the linguistic behaviour and attitudes towards local variations on the basis of informants’ replies in the sociolinguistic survey; (4) analysis of salient phonetic features of the informants’ speech that best describe the local language variation in use. The collected and processed material allowed the researchers to investigate the competitiveness of local language variations in this area, identifying ones that have greater demand with representatives of different generations compared to others (cf. Inoue, 1997, p. 41).In the opinion of the authors of this article, a local Lithuanian variation has developed in the Kaunas-Jonava region on the basis of the local Polish variation actively used for decades; this variation cannot be seen as a natural continuation of the Western Higher Lithuanian subdialects of the Kaunas or Šiauliai regions. What makes it different from the traditional Lithuanian subdialects is the mixing of ė and ie, o and uo in stressed position, and the processes of neutralisation of intonation in stressed compound and mixed diphthongs.These phonetic features, which, as the analysis shows, have been preserved in the language of all three generations to a greater or lesser extent, were absorbed by the Lithuanian dialectal language from the local Polish subdialect. Consequently, the local Lithuanian variation currently spoken in the Kaunas-Jonava region cannot be considered a direct continuation of the old traditional dialect. Przesunięcie językowe: Okolice Żejm w regionie kowieńsko-janowskim (studium przypadku)Kiedy na początku XXI wieku na Litwie zaczęto stosować metodologię opartą na zasadach dialektologii wielofunkcyjnej (ang. multidimensional dialectology), badania naukowe litewskich dialektologów ukierunkowano nie tylko na opis tradycyjnych gwar, ale też na inne języki współwystępujące na tym samym terenie, oddziałujące na siebie nawzajem i konkurujące ze sobą. Zachodzące procesy konwergencji i dywergencji różnych odmian języka są badane kompleksowo: przy opisie właściwości językowych miejscowej odmiany języka bada się otoczenie językowe (krajobraz lingwistyczny) oraz nastawienie mieszkańców (zwłaszcza najmłodszego pokolenia) do ukształtowanej sytuacji językowej.Badania językoznawcze przedstawione w niniejszym artykule przeprowadzono w okolicach Żejm w regionie kowieńsko-janowskim w latach 2015–2017. Przeprowadzono wywiady z 21 mieszkańcami w wieku od 19 do 95 lat, reprezentującymi trzy pokolenia jednej rodziny; nagrano 20 godzin rozmów i pozyskano dane za pomocą kwestionariusza socjolingwistycznego. Zgromadzony materiał został opracowany w następujący sposób: 1) wykorzystując sporządzony model sieci społeczno-kulturowych miasteczka Żejmy, ustalono stopień witalności używanych na tym terenie odmian języka; 2) zanalizowano krajobraz lingwistyczny regionu; 3) na podstawie odpowiedzi informatorów na pytania kwestionariusza socjolingwistycznego przedstawiono zachowania językowe osób badanych i ich nastawienie do lokalnych odmian języka; 4) dokonano analizy podstawowych cech fonetycznych języka respondentów, które najlepiej oddają właściwości miejscowych odmian języka. Zgromadzony i usystematyzowany materiał pozwolił na bardziej dogłębne zbadanie konkurencyjności odmian języka używanych w tym rejonie, to znaczy na ustalenie, która z odmian cieszy się wyższym prestiżem wśród reprezentantów różnych pokoleń mieszkańców tych okolic.Zdaniem autorek artykułu, w regionie kowieńsko-janowskim, pod wpływem miejscowej odmiany języka polskiego, intensywnie używanej przez wiele dziesięcioleci, ukształtował się lokalny wariant języka litewskiego, którego nie można uznać za typową gwarę dialektu zachodnioauksztockiego, kowieńskiego lub szawelskiego. Różni się on od tradycyjnych dialektów litewskich sposobem realizacji ė oraz ie, o oraz uo w pozycji akcentowanej, jak również zjawiskiem neutralizacji zestrojów akcentowych w dyftongach złożonych i mieszanych, występujących w pozycji akcentowanej.Te cechy fonetyczne, które, jak wynika z przeprowadzonej analizy, w różnym stopniu występują w języku wszystkich trzech pokoleń mieszkańców, zostały przejęte do języka litewskiego z miejscowej gwary polskiej. Dlatego nie można uznać lokalnej odmiany języka litewskiego używanej obecnie w regionie kowieńsko-janowskim za bezpośrednią kontynuację dawnego tradycyjnego dialektu litewskiego.

Fonētisko īpatnību dinamika dziļajās tāmnieku izloksnēs

2020 ◽  
pp. 199-209
Author(s):  
Daira Vēvere
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Quality Change ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
Language Analysis ◽  
Phonetic Features ◽  
The University ◽  
At Home

The article aims to ascertain the dynamics of the phonetic features in the deep Tamian (tāmnieku) subdialects of the Livonianized dialect. The analysis is based on the materials of spoken language in subdialects of Pope, Ziras, Piltene, Zlēkas, Ance, Dundaga, and Ugāle, acquired by the author during the period of 2008–2019. These materials are compared with the data of the dialect archive of the Latvian Language Institute of the University of Latvia (the 50s and 60s of the 20th century). The dynamics of the phonetic features in the deep Tamian subdialects have been determined using several degrees of stability: stable, less stable, features that are disappearing, features fixed only in some subdialects, and features that have been lost. The language analysis shows that nowadays, the most stable features of the deep Tamian subdialects are the loss of short vowels in final syllables, e. g., ʒiêsm (< dziesma) ‘song’, zȇm (< zeme) ‘ground’, up (< upe) ‘river’, dar (< dara) ‘do, does’, and the reduction of long vowels in word endings, e. g., skuõla (< skuolā) ‘in the school’, mãjas (< mājās) ‘at home’, meža (< mežā) ‘in the forest’, stûri (< stūrī) ‘in the corner’, which are still widespread and most often used features in the speech of all generations. Less stable features are the reduction of monophthongs and diphthongs with a quality change, e. g., skuõlę (< skuolā) ‘in the school’, mãjęs (< mājās) ‘at home’, mežę // meže (< mežā) ‘in the forest’, stûra (< stūrī) ‘in the corner’, grãvas (< grāvjuos) ‘in the ditches’, and the insertion of the vowels a and ę for the elimination of syllabic liquids and nasals, e. g., ʒiêsam (< ʒiêsm < ʒiesma) ‘song’, vętar (< vętr < vętra) ‘storm’, sak̄ęn (< sak̄n̥ < sak̄ne) ‘root’. One of the endangered features is the loss of long vowels and diphthongs in the roots and suffixes, e. g., âbliš (< ābuoliņš) ‘clover’, kâpst (< kāpuosti) ‘cabbages’, vak̄riņ (< vakariņi ‘vakariņas’) ‘supper’, gȗlt (< gulēt) ‘to sleep’, rȗnt (< runāt) ‘to speak’, ʒîut (< dzīvuot) ‘to live’, which is observed only in older generation’s speech. The subdialects of Ance and Dundaga have preserved an archaic feature: a loss of a consonant is in future tense forms without the insertion of vowel ī, e. g., eîs (< ēdīs) ‘will eat’, laîs (< laidīs) ‘will let’, kris (< kritīs) ‘will fall’, sis (< sitīs) ‘will hit’. Few older generation’s speakers of the subdialects of Ance and Dundaga have maintained voiced consonants instead of unvoiced consonants at the end of the word or prefix, e. g., nãg (< nāk) ‘comes’, liêg (< liek) ‘lies’, krîd (< krīt) ‘falls’, tĩrid (< tīrīt) ‘to clean’, vęlag (< vęlāk) ‘later’, abrakˉ (< apraka) ‘buried’. The monophthongization and the labialization are lost in most of the deep Tamian subdialects.

scholarly journals Framework of diacritic segmentation for Arabic handwritten document

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 1001
Author(s):  
Ahmed Abdalla Shiekh ◽  
Mohd Sanusi Azmi ◽  
Maslita Abd Aziz ◽  
Mohammed Nasser Al-Mhiqani ◽  
Salem Saleh Bafjaish
Keyword(s):  
Feature Extraction ◽  
Feature Selection ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Segmentation Technique ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
Experimental Process ◽  
Handwritten Document

<span lang="EN-US">In <span>recent Arabic standard language and Arabic dialectal texts, diacritics and short vowels are absent. There are some exceptions have been made for the Arabic beginner learner scripts, religious texts and as well as a significant political text. In addition, the text without diacritics is considered ambiguous due to numerous words with different diacritic marks seem identical. However, this paper we present a framework for segmenting diacritics from Arabic handwritten document by using region-based segmentation technique. Since Arabic handwritten and Mushaf Al-Quran contain many diacritical marks. Hence, the diacritics must be properly extracted from Arabic handwritten document to avoid losing some good features. Furthermore, the proposed framework is devised specifically to segment diacritics from Arabic handwritten image, thus there will be no feature extraction, feature selection, and classification processes included. Besides, we will present the methodology that is used to fulfil the objectives of this paper. The pre-processing phases will be explained and more specifically segmentation phase for segmenting diacritics which is the phase we concentrate more in this article. Lastly, we will identify the proposed technique region-based segmentation to facilitate our development throughout the experimental process.</span></span>

scholarly journals Siksa, drob, źlamdok, pędrok, węzowica – znajomość i rozumienie gwarowych ekspresywizmów nazywających dzieci przez najmłodszych mieszkańców wybranych małopolskich wsi

2021 ◽  
pp. 282-291
Author(s):  
Anna Piechnik ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Test Group ◽  
Young Generation ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
Language Version ◽  
Standard Version ◽  
Polish Version ◽  
Polish Language

Siksa, drob, źlamdok, pędrok, węzowica – knowledge and understanding of dialect expressions for children among the youngest inhabitants of villages in Lesser Poland region Summary The article presents the results of a questionnaire carried out among the young generation, concerning their knowledge of differential dialect expressions known to the oldest inhabitants of the same area. The study was carried out in 2014 and comprised four eastern and four western local dialects of Lesser Poland region. The analyzed test group was asked about the following five expressive lexemes: drob, pędrok, siksa, węzowica, źlamdok. The youth claim to be familiar with the lexemes that are present both in dialectal and standard Polish language (although particular meanings may vary). What is more, the meanings attributed to standard Polish version are more widely known than their dialect equivalents. Among the participants of the questionnaire, it is foreign words that are the least known, or completely unknown elements of Polish standard version. By means of adideation process, these words are identified as already familiar lexemes that are part of the standard language version.

scholarly journals ИНОВАЦИОННИ ПРОЦЕСИ И ГРАМАТИКАЛИЗАЦИЯ / THE PROCESSES OF INNOVATION AND GRAMMATICALIZATION

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (PR) ◽  
pp. 50-72
Author(s):  
KRASIMIRA ALEKSOVA ALEKSOVA
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Verb Forms

The article looks into some specific features of the syntagmatic and paradigmatic parameters of grammaticalization as proposed by Lehman (2002) and their application to two innovations observed in the Bulgarian standard language that are not found in Old Bulgarian. Firstly, my research outlines Lehman’s model of grammaticalization by focusing on its syntagmatic and paradigmatic parameters. Then, I highlight the latter’s peculiarities by examining noun phrases with edin, edna, edno, edni and go on to suggest that the process of their grammaticalization has not come to an end. I also pay attention to the specific features of several syntagmatic parameters of the process of grammaticalization that can be found in verb forms in the indicative, the conclusive, the renarrative, and the dubitative. In conclusion, I propose the addition of a new syntagmatic parameter to Lehman's theory – the parameter of formal alternative. Keywords: innovation, grammaticalization, syntagmatic parameters, paradigmatic parameters, indefinite article, indicative, conclusive, renarrative, dubitative, Bulgarian language

scholarly journals Research of the images of standard Lithuanian in an area of the standard language: the case of Kaunas district gymnasium

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Laura Geržotaitė
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
National Language ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Mental Maps ◽  
Urban Centre ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
Perceptual Dialectology ◽  
Linguistic Code ◽  
Language And Education ◽  
Methodological Principles

The present study explores the images of standard Lithuanian of young people at a gymnasium located in the area of the standard language. The data were obtained from a questionnaire based on the methodological principles of perceptual dialectology. The image of the standard language in the consciousness of the respondents emerges from the analysis of the questionnaire data: the frequency of linguistic codes, the mental maps of the standard language areas, and associations of the standard language. The analysis of the data shows that the gymnasium students tend to distance themselves from the regional linguistic code. The respondents’ disassociation from the local variety and their stronger preference for the code of the standard language is probably related to their sense of language security in the area of the linguistic homeland (including that of the standard language). The mental maps show that the young people associate the standard Lithuanian with the larger or smaller area of central Lithuania, which includes cities (Kaunas, Vilnius), adjacent non-dialect areas (Jonava, Kaišiadorys), and one or two dialect zones; it nearly overlaps the area of the standard language delineated in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Vilnius is the part of this image – probably of its status of the capital city and a significant social, cultural, and urban centre of attraction. The gymnasium students think that speakers of the standard language are city dwellers first and foremost, while the mental connection between the code of standard language and education occurs less often. Such views might have emerged due to the location of the city – hence that of the respondents’ linguistic homeland. Identifying the standard language user as an ordinary person or a Lithuanian could most likely be explained by the fact that the standard language is not only a national language to the young people: it is also an equivalent of their linguistic code. The gymnasium students do not associate the standard language with linguistic norms (the correct use of language). The consistency of the young generation’s attitudes (both those visualised on the maps and verbalised in the questionnaire answers) suggests the high value of the variety spoken in the area they associate with the standard language. The results of the study provide insights into the functioning, vitality, and continuity of the standard language in this area.  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document