Extralinguistic Variables Research Articles

German Noun Plurals in Simultaneous Bilingual vs. Successive Bilingual vs. Monolingual Kindergarten Children: The Role of Linguistic and Extralinguistic Variables

(1) Background: The complex phenomenon of German noun plural inflection is investigated in three groups of German-speaking kindergarten children: (a) monolinguals (1L1), (b) simultaneous bilinguals (2L1) also acquiring Croatian, and (c) successive bilinguals (L2) acquiring Turkish as L1. Predictions of the usage-based schema model and of Natural Morphology concerning different linguistic variables are used to explore their impact on plural acquisition in the three groups of children. (2) Methods: A longitudinal study (from mean age 3;1 to 4;8) is conducted using two procedures (a formal plural test and spontaneous recordings in kindergarten), and the data are analyzed using generalized linear (mixed-effects) regression models in R. (3) Results: All children produce more errors in the metalinguistically challenging test compared to spontaneous speech, with L2 children being particularly disadvantaged. Socioeconomic status (henceforth SES) and teachers’ plural type frequency are most relevant for 1L1 children, and kindergarten exposure is more relevant for L2 children, while the linguistic variables are more important for 2L1 children. (4) Conclusions: The main predictions of the schema model and of Natural Morphology are largely confirmed. All of the linguistic variables investigated show significant effects in some analyses, but morphotactic transparency turns out to be the most relevant variable for all three groups of children.

The effect of extralinguistic variables on verb selection in Italian requests

Abstract Politeness relies on interlocutors’ frames, which are cognitive concepts that include a linguistic expression and extralinguistic variables. Politeness research has highlighted the importance of extralinguistic variables on speakers’ linguistic choices. Despite many studies that touch on these topics, questions about the comparative importance of contextual variables and the joint effect of them on speakers’ utterances remain unanswered. To examine these questions, a quantitative approach using a conditional inference tree was employed to investigate the influence of power, distance, and imposition on the use of verb forms in requests in Italian. Verb forms were selected as the dependent variable because they are essential for performing speech acts and they can be placed on a politeness continuum. Considering the importance and hierarchical relationship of the predictor variables of power, distance, and imposition, the results indicated that the three variables were predictors of verb form. While power was the main predictor, the effect of distance and imposition depended on whether the other variables were considered, showing a varying and complex effect of contextual variables. The findings enhance the understanding of Italian politeness, and represent the complex calculations that speakers make when selecting linguistic forms by considering interacting contextual variables.

Introducing the Swedish Learner English Corpus: a corpus that enables investigations of the impact of extramural activities on L2 writing

This paper introduces the Swedish Learner English Corpus (slec), which consists of argumentative texts in English that are written by Swedish junior and senior high school students. slec includes rich metadata, enabling empirical studies of various extra-linguistic variables. Most noteworthy is the inclusion of detailed information on students’ extramural English activities (ee), such as reading, watching, conversing, gaming and engaging in social media in English. In addition, a sub-set of texts from slec have been assessed for proficiency using the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (cefr). This paper provides an overview of the corpus compilation process, the metadata, and the available versions of slec. Researchers, teachers and students can access this resource to investigate various aspects of second language use and development, such as the impact of extramural language activities on linguistic complexity.

Not Just Contrastive: Constructions with Negated Restrictives in English

When restrictive adverbs are negated, an additive reading is produced (e.g., not only). This is particularly common in correlative constructions with a corrective part optionally introduced by but (e.g., not just in England but also in Scotland), but can also appear in other syntactic contexts. This study investigates formal and functional variation in the use of the four most common variants of negated restrictives ( not only, not just, not simply, and not merely) from the perspective of constructional and usage-based approaches to language. The study is based on a dataset of 1599 tokens, annotated for formal, functional, and extralinguistic variables, and is analyzed using hierarchical configural frequency analysis. The contrastive correlative construction not only X but ( also) Y appears as the central grammatical context for negated restrictives in English. In addition to its high frequency, not only displays the least variability in both form and function, which suggests a high degree of conventionalization. The less frequent variants of negated restrictives have more diffuse usage profiles, suggesting they are less conventionalized and may be emergent constructions which have not yet conventionalized into stable parts of the language. Methodologically, the study suggests an alternative to modeling alternations, which enables the detection of different degrees of conventionalization and which avoids conceptualizing alternations as choices conditioned by independent variables.

Adjective position in the code-switched speech of Spanish and Papiamento heritage speakers in the Netherlands: Individual differences and methodological considerations.

This study examines adjective-noun order in code-switched constructions by heritage speakers of Spanish and Papiamento in the Netherlands. Given that Dutch differs from Spanish and Papiamento regarding the default position of the adjective, word order in the nominal domain creates a so-called "conflict site" in code-switching. Most accounts of word order patterns in code-switching focus on structural constraints, such as the matrix language or the strength of the EPP feature in Agr. Thus far, studies comparing the two models have not found compelling evidence for either of them. The present study takes a more comprehensive approach and considers several linguistic (matrix language, adjective language, and type of insertion) as well as extra-linguistic variables (e.g., age, age of onset, and patterns of exposure and use). Moreover, we compare heritage speakers of two different heritage languages that are linguistically similar (both Spanish and Papiamento exhibit postnominal adjectives), and share the same dominant societal language, but are likely to differ from each other in terms of certain sociolinguistic properties. 21 Spanish and 15 Papiamento heritage speakers (aged 7-54) in the Netherlands carried out a Director-Matcher task, aimed at eliciting nominal constructions containing switches. The results show that either the ML or the language of the adjective, or both, are important predictors for word order, although the data cannot disentangle these two factors. Moreover, the type of insertion was found to play a role: word order patterns for noun insertions differed from other types of insertions. In addition, the two groups did not behave similarly: Papiamento speakers were more categorical in their preference for noun-adjective order when inserting Dutch nouns into their heritage language than the Spanish speakers were. Finally, there was a great deal of individual variation, which seemed to be related mostly to the age of the participants: children and teen participants behaved differently from adults. These findings demonstrate that both linguistic and extra-linguistic play a role in determining how heritage speakers deal with conflict sites in the nominal domain. Particularly, the findings suggest that, at least for some communities and in some code-switching modes, children may need more time, or more input, too converge on adult-like code-switching norms.

Experimental Evidence of Syllabification of /sC/-Clusters at Onset Position by Kashmiri Speakers in Pakistani English

The current study investigates the syllabification of sC-clusters at onset position in Pakistani English by Kashmiri speakers. The main objective of the study was to explore the syllable boundary syllabification of sC-clusters by Kashmiri speakers in Pakistani English context. The study uses real disyllabic and tri-syllabic words with sC-clusters at onset position as stimuli for the data. The participants were asked to produce the stimuli. The Praat analysis was used to study the spectrographic features of sC-clusters at onset position in Pakistani English. The results of the study show that proceeding vowel length, cluster sonority, and edge constraints have significant effects on the syllabification of sC-clusters at onset position in Pakistani English produced by Kashmiri speakers. In addition, data shows that phonological and morphological structure of Kashmiri language (L1) influence s-clustering in Pakistani English. The study also shows that Kashmiri English speakers break the sC-clusters at onset position and generate the process of epenthesis, which is an evidential sign that CC clustering in Pakistani English by Kashmiri speakers is influenced by L1. The study recommends an interlanguage syllabification based on extra-linguistic variables for further in-depth exploration.

Morphological attrition among Russians in Hungary

Morphological attrition has received considerable attention in bilingualism and attrition studies. It has been confirmed by a number of studies that attrition weakens the grammatical coherence in the mind of the speaker and that monolingual controls usually outperform attriters in grammatical judgment tasks. However, to what extent extralinguistic variables can justify this difference remains a question. The present study focuses on the first language attrition of Russians living in Hungary, focusing on grammatical judgment. All participants (N = 50) have spent more than seven years in Hungary, and their age ranges from 22 to 72 years old. The study’s main aim was to investigate the degree of extralinguistic variables, such as age, language choice, contact and attitude, frequency of use, length of residence, interacting with L1 of individuals on their grammatical judgment. The future tense formation task was developed to elicit data on morphological attrition. Together, these results provide vital understanding of how attriters’ language production differs from monolinguals’ and the main factors contributing to language attrition. The present study’s findings correspond to the previous studies that the immigrant group did significantly worse in comparison with the control group. However, the current study failed to find the link between extralinguistic variables and morphological attrition in L1.

“I no longer count in German.” On dominance shift in returnee heritage speakers

AbstractThis study analyzes the degree of language balance in three groups of bilingual speakers of Portuguese and German: a group of Portuguese heritage speakers (HSs) living in Germany, another who returned to Portugal, and Portuguese late learners of German L2. Based on the DIALANG vocabulary size placement test, applied in German and in Portuguese, and on extralinguistic variables extracted from a background questionnaire, the results confirm high degrees of unbalanced language dominance favoring the societal language (SL) in HSs without the experience of return, and a leveling of language dominance in returnees. Language balance in returnees is the consequence of some loss of proficiency in the former SL (German) and reactivation of the heritage language (Portuguese). Current relative amount of contact with the two languages is correlated with language dominance only in the HSs and the late L2 speaker groups, whereas age of return and length of residence in Portugal explain language dominance in returnees. Self-reported proficiency is also predictive of language dominance and may be taken as complementary indicator.

Vilka faktorer predicerar behärskningen av svenskans preteritumböjning? Om finska gymnasieelevers inlärning av femton vardagliga verb

In this study, we examine how Finnish upper secondary students learning Swedish as a second language inflect Swedish verbs in the past tense. We analyze the answers by 351 students to an online quiz regarding the inflection of 15 common verbs using mixed effects logistic regression modeling. Our results indicate that the correctness of the answers in the verb inflection task can be predicted based on a combination of linguistic and extralinguistic variables. Specifically, with respect to linguistic variables, verb frequency and vowel shift (ablaut) are significant predictors of the correctness of the answers, whereas the traditional distinction between strong and weak verbs is not. With respect to extralinguistic variables, the correctness of the answers is significantly predicted by the students’ gender, age/exposure and level of motivation. Furthermore, we demonstrate through error analysis that, initially, many students follow the same pattern for past tense formation; the verbs’ infinitive form is interpreted as their stem and the past tense suffix -de is overgeneralized to most verbs. On a methodological level, we argue that multivariate analyses allow for a more detailed description of the acquisition order of language structures than what has been achieved by less sophisticated quantitative analyses in prior research, and we encourage other scholars to build on our work by expanding it both in terms of the number of verbs as well as the number of predictor variables.

Acoustic Cues of /ħ/ and /ʕ/ in Hourani Jordanian Arabic: Investigating Sociolinguistic Variation

This paper examines the interaction between the coarticulatory effects of pharyngeals on adjacent vowels and the speakers’ age and gender in Hourani Jordanian Arabic. To this end, 28 participants were recorded reading a list of 24 words containing a pharyngeal sound (/ħ/ or /ʕ/) preceded (word-finally) or followed (word-initially) by a short or long vowel. A total of 1344 tokens were extracted and then analyzed in PRAAT. The first three formant frequencies (F1, F2, F3) of each vowel were manually measured at the midpoint. The measurements were then normalized using Nearey’s (1977) intrinsic formula to reduce the effect of physiological differences between male and female speakers. The findings of the study show no significant effects of age or gender on the production of the adjacent vowels word-initially or word-finally. This suggests that, unlike the case of pharyngealized sounds (e.g., Omari and Jaber (2019)), pharyngeal-to-vowel coarticulation is not affected by the sociolinguistic variables of age and gender. Keywords: Coarticulation; Extralinguistic variables; Hourani Jordanian Arabic; Pharyngeals.

Czech and English terminology of health and impaired health in historical, societal and conceptual framework

Abstract The present article discusses the terminology of health and impaired health on the platform of present-day medical Czech and medical English against the background of historical developments and current extralinguistic variables. The main objective of this theoretical review is to survey selected issues related to the conceptual-linguistic apparatus of health and ill health in a broader linguistic and social context with an emphasis on Czech and English medical terminologies, respectively. Overall, the content of the article is based on the author’s linguistic and teaching experience and draws on available literature. It principally consorts comparative, historical linguistic and conceptual analysis methodology. Health and impaired health terminology in both the Czech and English languages constitutes a complex nominal-adjectival system reflecting conceptual developments conditioned by institutional, historical and societal factors. The terminology exhibits codification tendencies, as well as partial manifestations of vagueness. Despite their shortcomings, health terminology, centred around a solitary term still lacking an unequivocal definition, and the rich classification-based terminology of impaired health constitute the basis of professional medical communication, undergoing continuous developments and endeavours for enhanced precision.

Identifying Text Message through Different Types of Translation

Main idea, concept, message are practically terms denoting the same phenomenon. To give a definition to a text message is no less hard than to formulate the message. Still, stylistic text analysis presupposes detection of text elements that contribute to message formation and are marked from this point of view; the understanding of the message depends on many factors, including extra-linguistic variables: historical and cultural background as well as readers' personality characteristics such as the habit and ability to read, their educational and social status, age and gender. The more pronounced then is the necessity of adequate message formulation. The procedure of literary text translation into other verbal as well as in non-verbal languages helps clearly reveal the message. Several stages of the procedure were worked out in the study to train future teachers in reading and analyzing the text.

Delving into the ‘Stressful’ Work of Scientific Translators in South América

Who are those who form part of the scarce breed called scientific translators? In former times bilingual scientists used to translate texts from within their field, and this was beneficial to their own research. However, as science has grown in size and in power on a colossal scale since the twentieth century, the need for scientific translators has become imperative. Scientific translation is a type of translation that seems to be in increasing demand compared to other types of translation in the world. Parallel to the growth in the demand of scientific translations, there has been a considerable increase in the need for scientific translators particularly in South América. The purpose of this work is to refresh a set of conclusions derived from an itinerant lecture, the first of which was held in 2004 and was purposedly reiterated to disseminate and make known the characteristics of the nature and context of the work of the scientific translator in Spanish-speaking communities, particularly in South América and mainly in Argentina. Although both linguistic and extralinguistic variables must be interwoven to be successfully operative in the work of the scientific translator in such a vast territory, for reasons of space economy, the focus of attention in this work centers on the linguistic assistance that must be provided to the scientific translator in South América. In particular, concepts on genre and register and issues proposed by Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) will be considered as essential tools for the work of the scientific translator.

A METÁTESE NA VARIEDADE DO INTERIOR PAULISTA

This work analyzes the phonetic-phonological phenomenon named metathesis in the variety spoken in the inland of São Paulo, more precisely in the Northwest of the state. Through this phenomenon, ancient in Portuguese, there is an inversion in the linear order of sounds such as sa.tis.fa.ção ~ sas.ti.fa.ção (‘satisfaction’). Based on the assumptions of the Linguistic Variation and Change Theory (LABOV, 2008), 48 interviews from the IBORUNA database (Projeto Amostra Linguística do Interior Paulista – ALIP – [Linguistic Sample from Inland of São Paulo] GONÇALVES, 2021 [2007]), were investigated in order to verify possible linguistic and extralinguistic conditioners that motivate the phenomenon. As a result, 18 metathesis occurrences were found. Of these cases, 11 were progressive metathesis, six regressive and one reciprocal. It was also observed that most of the occurrences involve /r/ and are classified as perceptual metathesis. In respect of extralinguistic variables, the phenomenon is more frequent in the speech of masculine sex/gender (72% of the cases); in the age group older than 55 years old; and level of education of the second cycle of Elementary Education, which seems to provide evidence of social stigma.

Variação lexical para os itens calcinha e rouge: um estudo sobre o léxico do português falado pelos Karipuna do Amapá

A região do Oiapoque, localizada no extremo norte do estado do Amapá, é conhecida historicamente por agregar diferentes povos indígenas, caracterizando-se como uma área plurilíngue e pluriétnica. Assim, este estudo tem o objetivo de descrever o português falado por indígenas da etnia Karipuna do Amapá, com foco para variação lexical dos itens calcinha e rouge. O referencial teórico inclui estudos sobre dialetologia, geolinguística e variação lexical (CARDOSO, 2010; COMPOY, 1999; CHAMBERS, TRUDGILL, 1984). No que se refere à metodologia adotada, emprega-se o modelo de Dialetologia Pluridimensional e Contatual (ALTENHOFEN; THUN, 2016), que busca controlar variáveis linguísticas e extralinguísticas. Para coleta dos dados, foram aplicados questionários a 36 colaboradores indígenas distribuídos em nove aldeias da etnia Karipuna do Amapá. Os resultados apontaram que para o item calcinha os entrevistados responderam calcinha, biquíni(biquinho) e anágua, já para o item rouge foram registradas as variantes pó compacto, maquiagem, blush e talco.

Phonological variation and change in the regional French of Alsace: Supralocalization, age, gender and the urban–rural dichotomy

ABSTRACTThis article examines patterns of variation and change in the phonology of the regional French of Alsace, within an overarching framework of regional dialect levelling (Kerswill, 2003) in the French of France. Data are drawn from an original corpus gathered in Strasbourg and a small village in a rural area of the Bas-Rhin. We analyse two well-known regional features in spontaneous speech: (h), the variable realisation of initial [h], and (ʒ), the non-assimilatory devoicing of /ʒ/. We focus on the effect on the variation observed of the major extra-linguistic variables of age, gender and social class as well as urban or rural community. While the results for class and location follow expected patterns, whereby working-class and rural speakers show higher rates of traditional non-standard variants, the principal observation is the decline and, in the case of (ʒ), apparent loss of such features. We thus provide new evidence in support of supralocalization, not only in the urban context but also in the rural location. The results for gender are however less clear-cut: there is an interaction with age, class and location, and disruption of the usual pattern of female-led adoption of supralocal norms.

Emphasis, Manner, and Voice in Urban Jordanian Arabic: Linguistic and Extralinguistic Interactions

The present paper examines the impact of extra-linguistic variables (gender and social class) on the linguistic interaction between emphasis and manner, on the one hand, and voice, on the other hand, in Urban Jordanian Arabic. To achieve this goal, 40 participants produced 12 monosyllabic CVC minimal pairs with the target consonant (plain or emphatic) occurring word-initially. Measurements taken were F1, F2, and F3 at vowel onset and midpoint positions. Acoustically, it was found that emphasis was stronger following a stop than following a fricative, and it is more pronounced following a voiced consonant than following a voiceless one. However, the extra-linguistic factors did not have a strong bearing on these linguistic interactions. In general, the interaction between emphasis and manner or voice was not influenced by gender or social class. An exception to this finding was the overlap between emphasis and manner at F1 onset, where the interplay of both gender and social class affected the linguistic interaction. In particular, upper-class males produced stronger emphasis following stops than following fricatives, whereas lower-middle class males produced stronger emphasis following a fricative than following a stop..

Influência de variáveis linguísticas e extralinguísticas na habilidade de consciência fonológica em crianças com transtorno fonológico

O presente estudo tem como objetivo verificar a influência de variáveis linguísticas e extralinguísticas na habilidade de Consciência Fonológica em crianças com Transtorno Fonológico. A partir dos resultados de avaliações fonoaudiológicas que integram um banco de dados (CEP 995.344), fez-se a composição da amostra deste estudo. A amostra contou com dados linguísticos das avaliações de fala de todas as crianças que realizaram o teste de Consciência do Próprio Desvio de Fala e o teste de Consciência Fonológica a partir do Instrumento de Avaliação Sequencial – CONFIAS, bem como dados extralinguísticos como sexo, idade, escolaridade e hipótese de escrita. Para a análise destes dados foi utilizado o Teste Exato de Fisher e o Teste de Mann-Whitney, ambos oriundos do programa estatístico SPSS versão 16.0. Os resultados indicam que as variáveis linguísticas, como o desempenho no Teste de Consciência do Próprio Desvio de Fala, e as variáveis extralinguísticas analisadas no estudo não influenciam diretamente nas habilidades de Consciência Fonológica das crianças, mas que há influência da escolaridade para tal habilidade metalinguística e um forte impacto desta em relação ao nível fonêmico. Com o presente estudo pode-se concluir que crianças com Transtorno Fonológico se beneficiariam com atividades de conhecimento explícito acerca dos sons de sua língua, aprimorando, portanto, um dos aspectos do processamento fonológico, que é a consciência fonológica.

A SÍNCOPE DAS POSTÔNICAS NÃO FINAIS NO INTERIOR PARANAENSE: UMA ANÁLISE AUTOSSEGMENTAL E VARIACIONISTA A PARTIR DE DADOS DO ALIB

RESUMO Este estudo busca descrever e analisar o fenômeno da síncope da vogal postônica não final no falar paranaense interiorano, com base em dados coletados em entrevistas realizadas pelo Projeto Atlas Linguístico do Brasil (ALiB), em dezesseis pontos de inquérito situados no interior do Paraná, totalizando 64 informantes. Desse modo, foram avaliadas a frequência e possíveis fatores linguísticos e extralinguísticos que podem condicionar a síncope/manutenção da vogal postônica não final das proparoxítonas em onze itens lexicais: lâmpada, elétrico, fósforo, pólvora, abóbora, árvore, sábado, número, fígado, vômito, hóspede , que constam do Questionário Fonético-Fonológico (QFF) do Questionário do ALiB (COMITÊ NACIONAL DO PROJETO ALiB, 2001). A investigação fundamenta-se na perspectiva da Dialetologia Pluridimensional (THUN, 1998) e à luz do modelo fonológico autossegmental para a sílaba, em análise do padrão silábico do português brasileiro (COLLISCHONN, 1996; BISOL, 1999). Constatamos que o contexto fonológico das vogais postônicas e segmentos adjacentes podem interferir no condicionamento da síncope, enquanto as variáveis extralinguísticas não se mostraram producentes para esse processo em nosso corpus .

Compreensão e produção oral de interrogativas-Q em crianças portuguesas surdas com implante coclear

The present study investigates the comprehension and production of Portuguese wh-questions by hearing impaired children with cochlear implants. We investigate whether the asymmetries found in typically developing children are also present in our target group or whether the difficulties are more widespread. In particular, we investigate whether there are asymmetries between subject and (DP/PP) object wh-questions produced by these children, and whether wh-questions with a lexical restriction are more difficult than bare wh-questions. We also consider the importance of extra-linguistic variables, such as age of implantation, hearing age, early attendance of speech and language therapy sessions, and exposure to sign language.