Monolingual Speech Research Articles

Exploration on the Influence of Bilingualism on Language Production

The ability to speak two languages has a significant impact on language production, cognitive function, linguistic aptitude and neurological processes. This study explores the acquisition of bilingualism, its influence on cognition and language development as well as neurobiological implications in comparison with monolingual speech. Bilingual individuals demonstrate improved executive functioning abilities such as flexibility while exhibiting deferred decline through regularly switching between both languages spoken. Linguistic proficiency is affected by ecological factors like age at which learning began or attitudes towards multilingual states that affect usage frequency across differing environments. Although word retrieval can become an impediment for those who are bilingual; however advantages lie in increased vocabulary range alongside metalinguistic awareness gained from diverse communication scenarios. The structure of brain regions linked to processing multilinguality also correlate intrinsically during decision making. The future research direction benefits studying cross-cultural creative expression impacting effective simultaneous use .Enhancing appreciation amongst speakers via comprehension urges us further into grasping influences behind producing multicultural forms essential within our modern day society.

Mastering the ways of indicating transport when mastering Russian as a native and as a foreign language

The subject of the article's research is the peculiarities of prepositional-case constructions with the meaning of vehicle in children's monolingual speech, in the speech of Chinese students studying Russian as a foreign language and in the speech of heritage Russian speakers with different dominant languages. The study examines case constructions with the meaning of movement. The specificity of mastering grammatical construction in the course of mastering Russian as a native language, as one of the native languages, and as a foreign language is analyzed. The research material was experimental data collected in a children's classroom and in an adult foreign audience, as well as information from the “Russian Academic Corps /RLC” (Corpus of the Linguistic Laboratory for Corpus Technologies of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, containing information about the development of Russian as a foreign language and native speakers of Russian with different dominant languages). The research methodology included: longitudinal observation of the speech of monolingual children, psycholinguistic experiment in a foreign audience, corpus research method; comparative research, semantic and functional analysis. The scientific novelty of the proposed work lies in the fact that for the first time a comparative analysis of data is presented that describes the ways of mastering the case construction with the meaning of indicating transport by Russian-speaking children, Chinese students and heritage native speakers of the Russian language. Typical differences and errors in the choice of construction are considered, the strategy of simplification in the speech of foreign students is described, and the ways of grammatical interference are analyzed. Analysis of errors made by Russian-speaking children and adult foreigners allows us to draw conclusions about the specifics of mastering Russian case meanings. Errors in choosing a case ending with a correctly chosen preposition are often observed in the speech of foreign students and heritage speakers, but do not appear in children's speech. Thus, in the Russian language there is a wide variety of ways to indicate a vehicle. Choosing the correct construction when indicating transport represents a specific difficulty in the course of mastering Russian as a foreign language and requires special attention.

The role of INFL in code-switching: a study of a Papiamento heritage community in the Netherlands

IntroductionIn heritage bilingualism studies, code-switching has often been overlooked, with a focus on either the heritage language or the dominant societal language of the bilingual individual. However, exploring code-switching can provide valuable insights into heritage speakers' grammar, revealing patterns that may not be apparent when only examining monolingual speech. Recent research suggests that in code-switched clauses, functional elements must align with the language of verbal inflection (INFL), which encompasses tense, aspect, voice, and agreement. This generalization is usually referred to as the Matrix Language Frame (MLF). The present study explores the empirical validity of this generalization using an experimental protocol that controls for variables that earlier work did not take into consideration. These variables are (a) adjacency between INFL and the functional element, (b) the interaction of the MLF with embedded islands, and (c) the possibly degrading effects of inserting a functional category. Thus, the aim of this study is to provide evidence in support (or not) of the INFL constraint beyond the experimental limitations in earlier work. The study focuses on the bilingual combination Papiamento–Dutch. Our results, by and large, support the MLF generalization.MethodsWe carried out an online audio survey (3-point Likert scale) with 43 Papiamento–Dutch bilinguals. We manipulated the position of the switch and controlled for potential directionality effects by presenting code-switches in both switching directions.ResultsWe find a scale of acceptability, where the conditions that respect the INFL constraint are preferred. Additionally, and consistent with recent corpus and experimental literature, our results point to a clear asymmetry regarding directionality effects or choice of ML, reflecting how code-switching is deployed in the community.DiscussionControlling for directionality allows us to discern the mechanisms of the INFL constraint. Thus, these findings underscore the intertwining influence of linguistic factors and community norms in guiding code-switching dynamics. Such insights extend beyond the specific context to shed light on broader dynamics within (heritage-language) bilingualism.

Проект письменности для исчезающего бесписьменного алюторского языка

The purpose of the article is to organize the graphic and orthographic patterns found in Alutor language publications, establish fundamental rules for Alutor writing, and provide a theoretical rationale for them. The text examined in the analysis comprised a series of books written in Alutor. The Alutor script was created under the influence of the dominant Russian and Koryak writing systems. A fundamental aspect involves phonemic representation utilizing the Cyrillic alphabet alongside specific national characters and graphical combinations B’, Г’, Ӄ, and Ӈ. Following the syllabic principle, the letters E, Ё, Ю, and Я, as well as hard and soft signs, are utilized. The challenge is how to depict the super-short vowel sound [ǝ] in writing through the use of the letter Ы. The representation of glottal [ʔ] and epiglottal [ʕ] consonants in written form poses challenges as well. Until the start of the 21st century, these consonants were a defining element of monolingual speech. Nonetheless, the impact of Russian language phonetics caused a reduction in glottal and epiglottal consonants. The morphological principle, concerning the duplication of consonants at morpheme boundaries, is significant in the context of the Alutor script. The analysis revealed the unification of the author's variants of the Alutor script by the 1820s of the 19th century. The graphical and orthographic system of the Alutor language was developed without normative guidelines by editors of national texts and linguists.

ПУТИ И СПОСОБЫ СОХРАНЕНИЯ БУРЯТСКОГО ЯЗЫКА В ДЕТСКОЙ СРЕДЕ

The problem of preserving the native language still remains acute, especially among children. Childhood is a special period of human development, the child’s active acquisition of spoken language, the formation and development of all aspects of speech - phonetic, lexical, and grammatical. Our research shows that the number of preschool children who do not understand and do not speak their native Buryat language is increasing from year to year. A very specific situation has developed that requires analysis and special attention from authorities and educational structures and the general public. The author reflects on this and on the ways and means of preserving the native Buryat language in children's environment, shares his experience of conducting and the results of experimental activities on organizing a monolingual speech development environment in preschool educational organizations. The author describes the experience of organizing parent clubs to include parents in educational activities.

A Portrait of Lexical Knowledge among Adult Hebrew Heritage Speakers Dominant in American English: Evidence from Naming and Narrative Tasks

While the field of heritage language (HL) bilingualism has grown substantially in recent years, no studies have considered heritage Hebrew speakers dominant in American English. Expanding HL studies to new language pairs is crucial to understand the generalizability of prior findings across diverse linguistic contexts. In the current study, we assess 40 adult participants (16 M, 24 F) and present an overview of their lexical abilities, as derived from a quantitative and qualitative analysis of performance on the Multilingual Naming Test (MINT) and a narrative elicitation task. We consider target accuracy, types of non-target responses, and cross-linguistic influence in the form of code-switching and calquing. Participants’ non-target responses indicated a strong grasp of Hebrew root-pattern word formation and creativity in the face of lexical gaps. Code-switching and calquing patterns in the narratives suggest that the dominant English is the clear framing language, from which speakers draw resources directly or indirectly. Although this linguistic blending leads to innovative lexical formations that would not be found in standard monolingual speech, the speakers’ overall message is still understandable. We conclude that heritage Hebrew speakers are able to clearly communicate complex thoughts in their HL while relying on their dominant language to fill lexical gaps.

The Effect of Language Contact on /tʃ/ Deaffrication in Spanish from the US–Mexico Borderland

This study examines the sociophonetic variation in the L1 speech of Spanish–English bilingual speakers living in the Ciudad Juárez, Mexico–El Paso, TX border metropolis. The purpose of this research is to analyze the sociolinguistic production of /ʧ/ deaffrication in U.S. Spanish, particularly, in simultaneous and sequential bilinguals. Based on the Revised Speech Learning Model (SLM-r), it was hypothesized that L1 production of /ʧ/ deaffrication can be significantly affected by the establishment of a new L2 phonetic category /ʃ/ in bilinguals. Interviews with forty-four adult participants, including fourteen first generation simultaneous bilinguals, twelve sequential bilinguals, and eighteen monolingual Spanish speakers were acoustically and auditorily analyzed. Participants were recorded while they performed two types of tasks: a formal (reading) and two semi-informal speech production tasks. Results showed that simultaneous and sequential bilinguals had a significantly lower realization of [ʃ] than monolinguals, suggesting that L1 sociolinguistic variability is influenced by contact with English. Results also indicate the significance of the preceding segment on the realization of the variable under study in monolingual speech, with preceding /a, n, r, l/ favoring the variation and preceding /s, e, i, o, u/ disfavoring it. Comparisons of the variation in monolingual and bilingual speech show that the sociolinguistic factors (preceding segment, sex, and age) that influence the variation in monolingual controls do not influence the variation in bilingual speech.

Overcoming Aggressive Monolingualism: Prejudices and Linguistic Diversity in Russian Megalopolises

AbstractThe study deals with linguistic prejudices of citizens of the two main Russian cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, toward speakers of foreign languages. It aims to reveal possible recent changes in the language ideology dominating Russian society. Monolingual and linguistically normative orientations rooted in the Soviet ideological approach are being challenged nowadays by global processes of migration and cultural diversification, which influence the everyday reality of Russian megalopolises. The research is based on the analysis of two sets of data: (1) meta-discourse on language attitudes derived from interviews with labor migrants and native Russian speakers in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and posts and comments on issues of language, migration, and linguistic landscapes, collected from websites and social media and (2) linguistic landscape data collected in 2016–2019, mainly in St. Petersburg, which reflect recent changes in attitude toward linguistic diversity in public space. These data show, on the one hand, that most city dwellers still relate to monolingual speech norms and try to implement control over public space; on the other hand, that the tolerance toward multilingual communication has been increasing over the years. The study suggests that these “first cracks” in monolinguals facades of Russian cities could eventually lead to the establishing of a less rigid language regime.

A comprehensive study on bilingual and multilingual speech emotion recognition using a two-pass classification scheme.

Emotion recognition plays an important role in human-computer interaction. Previously and currently, many studies focused on speech emotion recognition using several classifiers and feature extraction methods. The majority of such studies, however, address the problem of speech emotion recognition considering emotions solely from the perspective of a single language. In contrast, the current study extends monolingual speech emotion recognition to also cover the case of emotions expressed in several languages that are simultaneously recognized by a complete system. To address this issue, a method, which provides an effective and powerful solution to bilingual speech emotion recognition, is proposed and evaluated. The proposed method is based on a two-pass classification scheme consisting of spoken language identification and speech emotion recognition. In the first pass, the language spoken is identified; in the second pass, emotion recognition is conducted using the emotion models of the language identified. Based on deep learning and the i-vector paradigm, bilingual emotion recognition experiments have been conducted using the state-of-the-art English IEMOCAP (four emotions) and German FAU Aibo (five emotions) corpora. Two classifiers along with i-vector features were used and compared, namely, fully connected deep neural networks (DNN) and convolutional neural networks (CNN). In the case of DNN, 64.0% and 61.14% unweighted average recalls (UARs) were obtained using the IEMOCAP and FAU Aibo corpora, respectively. When using CNN, 62.0% and 59.8% UARs were achieved in the case of the IEMOCAP and FAU Aibo corpora, respectively. These results are very promising, and superior to those obtained in similar studies on multilingual or even monolingual speech emotion recognition. Furthermore, an additional baseline approach for bilingual speech emotion recognition was implemented and evaluated. In the baseline approach, six common emotions were considered, and bilingual emotion models were created, trained on data from the two languages. In this case, 51.2% and 51.5% UARs for six emotions were obtained using DNN and CNN, respectively. The results using the baseline method were reasonable and promising, showing the effectiveness of using i-vectors and deep learning in bilingual speech emotion recognition. On the other hand, the proposed two-pass method based on language identification showed significantly superior performance. Furthermore, the current study was extended to also deal with multilingual speech emotion recognition using corpora collected under similar conditions. Specifically, the English IEMOCAP, the German Emo-DB, and a Japanese corpus were used to recognize four emotions based on the proposed two-pass method. The results obtained were very promising, and the differences in UAR were not statistically significant compared to the monolingual classifiers.

Synthesised bigrams using word embeddings for code-switched ASR of four South African language pairs

Code-switching is the phenomenon whereby multilingual speakers spontaneously alternate between more than one language during discourse and is widespread in multilingual societies. Current state-of-the-art automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems are optimised for monolingual speech, but performance degrades severely when presented with multiple languages. We address ASR of speech containing switches between English and four South African Bantu languages. No comparable study on code-switched speech for these languages has been conducted before and consequently no directly applicable benchmarks exist. A new and unique corpus containing 14.3 hours of spontaneous speech extracted from South African soap operas was used to perform our study. The varied nature of the code-switching in this data presents many challenges to ASR. We focus specifically on how the language model can be improved to better model bilingual language switches for English-isiZulu, English-isiXhosa, English-Setswana and English-Sesotho. Code-switching examples in the corpus transcriptions were extremely sparse, with the majority of code-switched bigrams occurring only once. Furthermore, differences in language typology between English and the Bantu languages and among the Bantu languages themselves contribute further challenges. We propose a new method using word embeddings trained on text data that is both out-of-domain and monolingual for the synthesis of artificial bilingual code-switched bigrams to augment the sparse language modelling training data. This technique has the particular advantage of not requiring any additional training data that includes code-switching. We show that the proposed approach is able to synthesise valid code-switched bigrams not seen in the training set. We also show that, by augmenting the training set with these bigrams, we are able to achieve notable reductions for all language pairs in the overall perplexity and particularly substantial reductions in the perplexity calculated across a language switch boundary (between 5 and 31%). We demonstrate that the proposed approach is able to reduce the unseen code-switched bigram types in the test sets by up to 20.5%. Finally, we show that the augmented language models achieve reductions in the word error rate for three of the four language pairs considered. The gains were larger for language pairs with disjunctive orthography than for those with conjunctive orthography. We conclude that the augmentation of language model training data with code-switched bigrams synthesised using word embeddings trained on out-of-domain monolingual text is a viable means of improving the performance of ASR for code-switched speech.

Information-theoretic variables in Spanish-English bilingual speech

Languages lenite similar segments to different extents—a finding that can be accounted for with information-theoretic variables like frequency, predictability, and informativity [Cohen Priva, 2017, Language 93: 569–597]. Prior research addresses the role of segment information content across languages, but assumes that information-theoretic variables operate on an in-language basis. While appropriate for monolingual speech, this assumption is problematic for bilingual speech, as an individual’s languages are known to influence one another (e.g. [Fricke et al., 2016, J. Mem. Lang. 89: 110–137]). In this paper, I report on a study using the Bangor Miami corpus [Deuchar et al., 2014, Advances in the Study of Bilingualism: 93–110], addressing how well information-theoretic variables predict lenition in Spanish-English bilingual speech. Specifically, do they operate on an in-language or cross-language basis? To address this, I focus on the duration of word-medial intervocalic fricatives shared by both languages—/f/ and /s/. Accounting for variables known to affect segment duration (e.g. speech rate), I use linear mixed-effect models to assess the contribution of information-theoretic variables in accounting for duration variation in bilingual speech. Four models are evaluated, compared, and discussed: (i) English in-language, (ii) English cross-language, (iii) Spanish in-language, and (iv) Spanish cross-language.

The cognitive load of interpreters in the European Parliament

AbstractCognitive load is a major source of processing difficulties in both interpreting and monolingual speech. This article focuses on measurement of cognitive load by examining the occurrence rate of the disfluencyuh(m)in two corpora of naturalistic language: the EPICG, with specific reference to Dutch interpretations of French source texts in the European Parliament; and the sub-corpus of non-interpreted parliamentary speeches from the Spoken Dutch Corpus. In both corpora, the frequency per utterance ofuh(m)was studied, in relation to delivery rate, lexical density, presence of numbers and formulaicity (i.e. the number of N-grams), as a Generalised Additive Mixed-effects Model: the frequency ofuh(m)in interpretations increases with the lexical density of the source text, while it is inversely related to the formulaicity of both the source text and the target text. These findings indicate the maintenance of a cognitive equilibrium between input load and output load.

The influence of language background and exposure on phonetic accommodation

This study examines whether language background, short-term exposure to monolingual and bilingual speech, and long-term exposure to monolingual and bilingual speech influences speech accommodation. To address this question, I examine whether English monolinguals and Spanish-English bilinguals, either from a predominately monolingual community or a predominately bilingual community, vary their speech when interacting with a monolingual English speaker versus a Spanish-English bilingual speaker. Additionally, I examine whether speakers are more likely to converge after being primed with monolingual English or Spanish-English bilingual speech. To test this, participants complete an interactive communication task, where they are presented with a 6x6 board on a computer screen and asked questions about the words on the board, which contain variables that differ in English and Spanish. Results show that both language background and long-term exposure to monolingual or bilingual speech in a speaker’s speech community influence accommodation.

Introduction to the special issue: Monolingual and bilingual speech acquisition across languages

Introduction to the special issue: Monolingual and bilingual speech acquisition across languages

Translating with an Injured Brain: Neurolinguistic Aspects of Translation as Revealed by Bilinguals with Cerebral Lesions

Despite significant progress in the psycholinguistic study of translation, research on its neurological underpinnings has been limited and sparse. Translation scholars have recently taken an interest in relevant neuroscientific evidence, focusing on imaging studies. This paper addresses the issue by considering an equally important body of data: clinical evidence. Specifically, a hypothesis-driven analysis is offered of 21 cases of brain-lesioned bilinguals exhibiting translation disorders. Three neurofunctional and three neuroanatomical hypotheses are derived from the Revised Hierarchical Model and the Declarative/Procedural Model, respectively. Consistent with relevant predictions, the evidence suggests that there are neurofunctionally independent routes for translation, as opposed to monolingual speech production; backward, as opposed to forward, translation; and form-based, as opposed to conceptually mediated, translation. Available data further indicates that word and sentence translation are critically subserved by posterior brain areas implicated in declarative memory, and by frontobasal areas implicated in procedural memory, respectively. In addition, translation routes appear to be entirely left-lateralized.

O ROMANCE PLURILINGUE OU COMO A LÍNGUA INCORPORA A CULTURA DO OUTRO

As línguas, enquanto "códigos", são instrumentos de desafios sóciopolíticos, sócio-económicos e sócio-culturais. A heterogeneidade discursiva acompanha a miscigenação identitária e cultural presente nos romances plurilingues. Esta escrita plurilingue, com fontes culturais e linguísticas diversas, permite a construção de uma "meta-narrativa identitária" e chama a atenção para a noção de identidade linguística. O plurilinguismo nos romances não funciona apenas como uma mera encenação da palavra do Outro em oposição a uma língua específica que garanta a identidade do locutor, mas sim como um movimento de relativização dos critérios de pertença identitária. O plurilinguismo, presente nos romances, representa uma força centrífuga que permite descentrar e quebrar o discurso monolingue e centralizado do Estado Português. Os romances são um exemplo da desconstrução de modelos identitários dominantes e retratam personagens, representando grupos étnicos periféricos.

A bisserl (‘little’) English, a bisserl Austrian, a bisserl Jewish, a bisserl female: Minority identity construction on a bilingual collaborative floor

This article assesses how four women who are Austrian Jewish refugees living in London use linguistic features that have been said to index gender and ethnicity to construct their identities while exploiting one of the assets of their multiple identities – a bilingual collaborative floor. Based on 15 hours of recordings of informal natural conversations the study extends the scope of research on indexing of minority groups in two directions. First, it extends it to a unique social and cultural context; second, it expands it into code-switching. The analysis reveals that means of indexing both female and Jewish identity are strongly represented in the data; where female and (eastern European) Jewish conversational strategies diverge, the discourse patterns that index gendered meaning prevail. The article furthermore argues that code-switching facilitates the construction of a collaborative floor. Bilingual speech requires speakers to pay even closer attention to each other at all linguistic levels than monolingual speech, and the use of the ‘other’ code for simultaneous speech is less likely to be constructed as seizing the floor, because the overlapping utterances are not in direct competition. This in turn has the interactional effect of reinforcing shared aspects of the speakers’ identities.

Utjecaj kognitivne složenosti zadatka na samoispravljanja

This paper investigates the influence of the cognitive complexity of a certain task type on the distribution of different categories of error self-repairs and appropriacy repairs. A recorded speech sample, in the Croatian language, lasting for approximately eight hours has been transcribed on a speech sample of 101 students at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture in Split. The classification of self-repairs is based on Levelt’s model of speech production, as the empirically best supported theory of monolingual speech processing. The students have been individually tested by performing five speech tasks and their speech has been recorded. The tasks included: a) narration of the chronological order of events on the example of a cartoon, b) room description, c) repeated room description with different furniture arrangement, d) semantically unrelated utterance formulation based on pictures, and e) story telling based on a sequence of pictures. The retelling of the chronological order of events resulted in a higher frequency of syntactic and morphological error repairs compared to other tasks, whereas the frequency of lexical and phonological error repairs was not influenced by the task type. Furthermore, different information repairs occurred more frequently in the cartoon retelling task, compared to the description of rooms and the formulation of semantically unrelated utterances.

FRAMING FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES: THE CASE OF GERMAN

The challenge posed to foreign language (FL) education by globalization and by the multilingual multicultural speech communities it has spawned is showcased by the current crisis in the teaching of German at American colleges and universities. It is not clear why American learners of German should be learning German: for business purposes, for general education, for humanistic enrichment, or for cross-cultural communication? The debate currently going on in Germany around the concept of education or Bildung is a lens through which to understand the debates going on in American German departments and the general crisis of FL education in this country. Rather than prepare students to communicate with members of idealized homogeneous monolingual speech communities, we should frame FL education as an education in reflexivity on the indexical, subjective and historical dimensions of discourse at all levels of the curriculum.

From the Editor

From the Editor