Languages最新文献

{"title":"The Role of the Mother in Lithuanian Heritage Language Maintenance","authors":"M. Ramonienė, Jogilė Teresa Ramonaitė","doi":"10.3390/languages9070241","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9070241","url":null,"abstract":"The paper explores the pivotal role of mothers in maintaining the Lithuanian language within the Lithuanian diaspora, drawing upon Spolsky’s family language policy theory and Curdt-Christiansen’s dynamic family language policy model. Analyzing data collected in 2011–2013 and 2015–2017, the study investigates various factors shaping family language policy, with a particular focus on the mother’s influence. It examines the interplay between the mother’s role, emigrants’ language ideology, Lithuanian identity, language acquisition, proficiency, and language usage across different domains and emotional dimension of language attitudes. Quantitative analysis, considering respondents’ parents’ ethnicities, reveals that respondents with Lithuanian mothers exhibit stronger connections to Lithuanian identity, more frequent acquisition of Lithuanian as their first language, higher proficiency, and increased usage of Lithuanian within the family and as an inner language. Moreover, positive language attitudes towards the heritage Lithuanian language are more pronounced among those with Lithuanian mothers. However, emotional attitudes towards language did not significantly differ based on parental ethnicity. The paper concludes by discussing the heightened responsibility of mothers in language maintenance within the diaspora and the challenges they face in fulfilling this role.","PeriodicalId":52329,"journal":{"name":"Languages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141675397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Metalinguistic Discourse in an Emerging Sign Language","authors":"Austin German","doi":"10.3390/languages9070240","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9070240","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, I explore metalinguistic discourse in Zinacantec Family Homesign (‘Z sign’), an emergent sign language developed by three deaf siblings and their hearing family members. In particular, I examine how metalinguistic discourse unfolds between a hearing Z signer and various members of her family—including her deaf siblings, her elderly hearing father, and her young hearing son. I do so via a close examination of several snippets of conversation in which the Z signers talk about the “right” way to sign, paying close attention to how they mobilize various semiotic devices, including manual signs, eye gaze, facial expressions, and speech. I aim to understand not only the formal components of metalinguistic discourse in Z sign but also how it functions as a form of social action in this small linguistic community. How do members of this family position themselves and others as (in)competent, (non-)authoritative signers in light of existing social divisions among them? How do they reinforce or challenge those social divisions through metalinguistic discourse? How might metalinguistic discourse contribute to the propagation of emergent linguistic norms throughout the family? I find that a recurrent device for enacting metalinguistic critique among the Z signers is the partial re-production and transformation of others’ utterances and other visible actions, manifested in a way that exploits the availability of multiple, semi-independent manual and non-manual articulators in the visual modality.","PeriodicalId":52329,"journal":{"name":"Languages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141684082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mastery of Listening and Reading Vocabulary Levels in Relation to CEFR: Insights into Student Admissions and English as a Medium of Instruction","authors":"Zhiqing Li, Janis Zhiyou Li, Xiaofang Zhang, B. Reynolds","doi":"10.3390/languages9070239","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9070239","url":null,"abstract":"Prior to enrolling in an English as a medium of instruction (EMI) institution, students must show an English proficiency level through meeting a benchmark on a standard English proficiency test, which is typically aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Along with overall English proficiency, aural/written vocabulary level mastery could also predict students’ success at EMI institutions, as students need adequate English vocabulary knowledge to comprehend lectures and course readings. However, aural/written vocabulary level mastery has yet to be clearly benchmarked to CEFR levels. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the correlations between students’ aural/written vocabulary level mastery and their CEFR levels. Forty undergraduate students in a Macau EMI university were recruited to take one English proficiency test and two vocabulary level tests (i.e., Listening Vocabulary Levels Test (LVLT) and the Updated Vocabulary Levels Test (UVLT)). Correlation analyses were conducted to explore the relationship between students’ CEFR levels and their mastery of listening and reading vocabulary levels. A positive correlation was found between students’ CEFR levels and their mastery of receptive aural vocabulary levels (ρ = 0.409, p = 0.009). Furthermore, a statistically significant positive correlation was found between students’ CEFR levels and their mastery of receptive written vocabulary levels (ρ = 0.559, p < 0.001). Although positive correlations were observed, no clear pattern was identified regarding the relationship between students’ CEFR levels and their mastery of aural/written vocabulary levels. Regression analyses were further conducted to determine the extent to which the combination of receptive aural and written vocabulary knowledge predicts the CEFR levels. The results indicated that the regression model that included only UVLT scores better predicted the CEFR levels. Given the positive correlations observed between students’ CEFR levels and their mastery of vocabulary levels, this study’s findings suggest the inclusion of aural/written vocabulary levels as additional indicators for ensuring student academic success in EMI institutions. Implications for EMI universities on student admissions, classroom teaching, and provision of additional English courses were provided.","PeriodicalId":52329,"journal":{"name":"Languages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141687621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Buenas no[tʃ]es y mu[ts]isimas gracias: A Sociophonetic Study of the Alveolar Affricate in Peninsular Spanish Political Speech","authors":"Matt Pollock","doi":"10.3390/languages9060218","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9060218","url":null,"abstract":"While variation in the southern Peninsular Spanish affricate /tʃ/ has been considered in the context of deaffrication to [ʃ], this study examines an emergent variant [ts] in the context of sociolinguistic identity and style in political speech. Based on a corpus of public speech from Madrid and Andalusia, Spain, this study examines the phonetic and sociolinguistic characteristics of the affricate, finding variation in the quality of the frication portion of the segment through an analysis of segment duration (ms), the center of gravity (Hz), and a categorical identification of realization type. The results suggest that both linguistic variables, like phonetic environment, stress, lexical frequency, and following vowel formant height, as well as extralinguistic variables, like speaker city, gender, political affiliation, and speech context, condition use. Based on these findings, it appears that production of the alveolar affricate [ts] is an incipient sociolinguistic marker in the process of acquiring social meaning. It is particularly associated with female speech and prestige norms that transcend regional identification. This alveolar variant serves as an additional sociolinguistic resource accessible for identity development among politicians and offers insight into ongoing change in the affricate inventory of southern and northern-central Peninsular Spanish.","PeriodicalId":52329,"journal":{"name":"Languages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141344058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Heritage Hebrew in Finland: Insights from Multilingual Families","authors":"Gali Bloch","doi":"10.3390/languages9060216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9060216","url":null,"abstract":"This study addresses the research gap in heritage Hebrew in Nordic countries, focusing on the perspectives of Hebrew-speaking immigrant parents in Finland. The objective is to understand family language policies and the use of Hebrew within multilingual families, exploring factors influencing parental decisions on heritage Hebrew transmission to the children. Employing a mixed qualitative–quantitative approach and the FLP analysis method, the research explores language management and the dynamic use of Hebrew within families, examining factors that influence heritage Hebrew maintenance in Finland. A survey of 36 families revealed a shift away from Hebrew towards the majority languages in Finland, with approximately a third of the children having poor or non-existent oral Hebrew skills. Despite the emphasis on Hebrew literacy by many parents, the reported proficiency levels were low, with slightly over 10% of children demonstrating good or excellent reading and writing skills, while 43% were entirely illiterate in the language. A third of respondents cited challenges in accessing Hebrew education, attributing it as the primary reason for the children’s illiteracy, as only 26.3% of children received external Hebrew teaching. While the connection between the birth order of the children and their heritage Hebrew skills presented diverse patterns, the survey revealed a notable shift towards Finnish as the primary communication language among siblings. A unique connection was found between parents’ birthplace and language choices, indicating reduced Hebrew transmission among repatriated parents. These insights contribute to understanding heritage Hebrew dynamics in Finland, with potential implications for informing policies supporting language transmission in similar contexts and practical application in multilingual families worldwide. Furthermore, by analyzing the dynamics of maintaining heritage Hebrew in Finland and investigating the language policies of immigrant Israeli families in the Nordic context, this study expands the theoretical understanding and contributes to the advancement of the fields of heritage languages and family language policies.","PeriodicalId":52329,"journal":{"name":"Languages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141345193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Complexity in Bilingual Code-Switching Research: A Systematic Review","authors":"William Rayo, Aldo M. Barrita, Lianelys Cabrera Martinez, Iván Carbajal","doi":"10.3390/languages9060217","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9060217","url":null,"abstract":"This systematic review explored how researchers operationalized bilingualism when investigating the relationship between bilingual code-switching experience and cognition. Through a PRISMA-guided systematic review of thirty-two studies with original data, published in English, focusing on adult non-clinical samples, with bilingualism as a key variable, we aimed to understand the prevalence of these issues. Criteria for inclusion required an assessment of bilingualism beyond language proficiency or age of acquisition, and consideration of naturalistic code-switching behaviors. We report our results through an analysis of themes that included aspects of language that are considered when measuring bilingualism and code-switching experience. We present our findings and offer insights for future research, advocating for the inclusion of sociocultural factors and more complex analytical modeling in bilingualism research to foster an evolution in the field.","PeriodicalId":52329,"journal":{"name":"Languages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141346626","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Phonation Patterns in Spanish Vowels: Spectral and Spectrographic Analysis","authors":"Carolina González, Susan L. Cox, Gabrielle R. Isgar","doi":"10.3390/languages9060214","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9060214","url":null,"abstract":"This article provides a detailed examination of voice quality in word-final vowels in Spanish. The experimental task involved the pronunciation of words in two prosodic contexts by native Spanish speakers from diverse dialects. A total of 400 vowels (10 participants × 10 words × 2 contexts × 2 repetitions) were analyzed acoustically in Praat. Waveforms and spectrograms were inspected visually for voice, creak, breathy voice, and devoicing cues. In addition, the relative amplitude difference between the first two harmonics (H1–H2) was obtained via FFT spectra. The findings reveal that while creaky voice is pervasive, breathy voice is also common, and devoicing occurs in 11% of tokens. We identify multiple phonation types (up to three) within the same vowel, of which modal voice followed by breathy voice was the most common combination. While creaky voice was more frequent overall for males, modal voice tended to be more common in females. In addition, creaky voice was significantly more common at the end of higher prosodic constituents. The analysis of spectral tilt shows that H1–H2 clearly distinguishes breathy voice from modal voice in both males and females, while H1–H2 values consistently discriminate creaky and modal voice in male participants only.","PeriodicalId":52329,"journal":{"name":"Languages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141350482","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Toward a Representation of Semantic Change in Linked Data","authors":"Anas Fahad Khan, Francesca Frontini","doi":"10.3390/languages9060215","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9060215","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we introduce a new framework, the Intensional–Ontological Model (IOM), for representing meaning, and especially for representing semantic change, in linguistic linked data resources. This framework, which makes use of previous work in the literature on lexical semantics and ontologies, is intended to help clarify what we mean when we model semantic change and to assist in elaborating different ontology patterns for doing so. In this work, we assume a simple architecture, one which is at the basis of the well-known OntoLex-Lemon vocabulary and which consists of one or more lexicons linked to an ontology. Our model, which is based on this architecture and informed by previous work on word senses and ontologies, is intended to provide a clear interpretation for the modelling of both onomasiological and semiasological changes, in both static and dynamic versions. This article describes how the IOM framework represents word meaning as the relationship between a word and an ontological concepts in the ’static’ case, demonstrating that the IOM is compatible with OntoLex-Lemon (while at the same time providing a greater level of detail as to the meaning of the ’sense’ and ’reference’ relationships). It then goes on to detail how the IOM can help us understand how to model semantic shifts in linked data lexical resources with a focus on conceptual change and the addition of temporal information to semantic shift data.","PeriodicalId":52329,"journal":{"name":"Languages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141351597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"L1–L2 Influence in Intonation: A Case of Russophone Immigrants in Brazil","authors":"Tatiana V. Kachkovskaia, Luciana Lucente, Anna Smirnova Henriques, Mario A. S. Fontes, Pavel Skrelin, Sandra Madureira","doi":"10.3390/languages9060212","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9060212","url":null,"abstract":"This paper is devoted to the features of sentence prosody (intonation) in Brazilian Portuguese spoken by immigrants whose first language is Russian, and explores the consequences that L1–L2 influence in intonation may have for communication. The study addressed four research questions: (1) Do Brazilian Portuguese L2 speakers with Russian L1 always succeed in producing the correct utterance type? (2) Can L1–L2 influence lead to misunderstanding of connotations? (3) Is it possible that sometimes L1–L2 influence leads to being perceived as too emotional or not emotional enough? (4) Can L1–L2 influence in intonation be a significant factor in the perception of accent? In a perceptual experiment, productions of four target utterances in Brazilian Portuguese by Russian L1 and Brazilian Portuguese L1 speakers were evaluated by 124 Brazilian listeners in terms of sentence type, possible connotations, accent and arousal. The target utterances included three questions of different types and an exclamation. The findings revealed that the speaker’s L1 influenced the perception of prosodic meanings by Brazilian listeners. In some cases, interference from Russian melodic contours caused the incorrect identification of the sentence type in Brazilian Portuguese. However, even when sentence type was perceived correctly, differences could be found regarding the perception of arousal or accent.","PeriodicalId":52329,"journal":{"name":"Languages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141357659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Differential Object Marking in Structurally Complex Contexts in Spanish: Evidence from Bilingual and Monolingual Processing","authors":"Aurora Bel, Rut Benito","doi":"10.3390/languages9060211","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9060211","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines whether Differential Object Marking (DOM) realization and word order in relative clauses (RCs) in Spanish affect processing and interpretation among monolinguals and highly proficient Catalan–Spanish bilinguals. RCs are parallel in Catalan and Spanish, but DOM is much more restricted in Catalan than in Spanish, and, interestingly, the distinction between subject and object RCs relies mainly on the presence/absence of DOM. To examine DOM optionality, we concentrate on the top portion of the animacy scale and test the human/non-human contrast. Exploring these two populations allows us to test whether they resort to different strategies for the following three reasons: (1) bilingualism places an increased burden on memory processes); (2) the partial overlap between both DOM systems might lead to the influence from Catalan into Spanish); and (3) optionality has been proposed to characterize bilingual grammars). Findings from a word-by-word non-cumulative self-paced reading task showed that DOM modulates RC processing. With [+human] obligatorily marked objects, both monolinguals and bilinguals read subject RCs faster than object RCs, suggesting a strategy favoring subject RCs. However, monolinguals solved the interpretation early while processing but bilinguals, despite the more restricted DOM character of Catalan, are sensitive to DOM albeit displaying delayed spill-over effects. With [−human] optionally marked objects, bilinguals performed faster than monolinguals. We suggest that the uneven experience with DOM in Catalan, particularly with the non-standard variety that frequently displays DOM and that our bilinguals also speak in everyday conversations, facilitates bilinguals’ adaptation to the optional marking of non-human objects in Spanish, much in the same manner that they accommodate the presence or absence of DOM with both human and non-human objects in other native language.","PeriodicalId":52329,"journal":{"name":"Languages","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2024-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141356216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}