Native Speakers Of Language Research Articles

Sociolinguistic Study of The Horse Image in Some English and Iraqi Arabic Proverbs

This research deals with the horse image in some English and Iraqi Arabic proverbs showing how English and Iraqi Arabs interpret, understand, and use these proverbs which include horse image. The selected proverbs are analyzed depending on Holme’s (2013) social factors which are: social distance variable, status variable and formality variable of setting. The English population of the research includes two universities in England. To make the project more applicable, the focus is on Leeds and London universities. The researcher chooses students randomly from “University of Leeds” in Leeds and a university named “London School of Economics and Political Sciences” in London. As for the Iraqi Arabic population, the people who represent the Arabic sample of the current study are from Tikrit and Anbar cities. They are enrolled at “Tikrit University” and “Anbar University” respectively. Among the findings, it is found out that English and Iraqi Arabs have somehow similar connotations concerning the horse image in relation to cultural, occupational, social distance, and formality variables. This denotes that though the two cultures are different, they share some social variables as they have similar connotations for some concepts as in the selected topic. The occupational variable shows that native speakers of both languages indicate that the proverbs which include the horse image are used more frequently by farmers other than other occupations.

NOMINATIVE STATUS OF THE NAMES OF HOMEMADE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES IN THE RUSSIAN LANGUAG

Background. A problem of linguistic and speech nomination is still rather topical being not completely solved in terms of the theory of modern linguistic. That is confirmed by numerous opinions of linguists concerning the one-word nominations that can replace a word combination. Those words form certain thematic and lexico-semantic groups which partially represent a cultural fund of native speakers of some specific language. One of such lexico-semantic groups includes the names of beverages. Analysis of each unit, belonging to the corresponding group and being the reflection of everyday life and culture of the nation, is the basis to understand peculiar national mentality represented by the speech. Those lexical elements were studied from the viewpoint of lexicology, word formation, pragmatics, and, rather rarely, from the viewpoint of modern theory of nomination and clear differentiation of lexical transformations and modifications; that defines the topicality of our research.Purpose of the research is to determine the nominative status of the lexemes denoting homemade alcoholic beverages in the Russian-language discourse.Methods. A continuous sampling method has been applied to accumulate the actual material. A methodology of distributive analysis has helped differentiate the concepts. Etymological analysis has become the key to identify real origin and genetic status of a particular univerb.Results. We consider that a univerb is a word which is identical semantically and grammatically to a certain word combination, differing stylistically from the equivalent word combination but being the modification, doublets of one nominathemes. That is why univerbation differs considerably from the word formation in its traditional sense. It is no doubt that the wordforming relations are always motivated. However, motivations can be different; consequently, not all the motivating relations can be considered as the word-forming ones. Motivation is considered as the semantic stipulation of the meaning of formative and derivative words by the meanings of their components. In terms of the word-forming act, some units are the source of motivation; others, being the results of that act, are motivated. Thus, if during the origin of a new word, its lexical meaning (taking into account its etymological cognation) differs from the formative meaning, then we observe the external motivation. If lexical meanings of the formative and derivative units are identical, then we can see the internal motivation. Though, formation of that sample involves the means being homonymic to the word-forming ones. Univerbation is opposed to quasiuniverbation, i.e. formation of univerbs by analogy. However, one should differentiate between quasiuniverbation and mechanism of analogy, accompanying the phenomenon of univerbation. Relying on the criteria of the determination of univerbation and quasiuniverbation, we propose two-component classification of the units under study.Discussion. The analyzed units are univerbs – synthetic implementation of the nominathemes like “word combination – elliptic univerb”; we attribute them to the ones belonging to the univerbs or quasiuniverbs depending on the ways and chronology of their origin in speech and language. They form the lexico-semantic field “Names of inanimate objects”, thematic group “Food”, lexico-semantic group “Beverages”, subgroup “Homemade alcoholic beverages”. That lexico-semantic group contains some more subgroups like “Alcoholic beverages”, “Refreshing beverages”, “Hot beverages” etc. Prospects for further studies of that group of words are in its analysis from the viewpoint of the derivative potential in both Russian and other Slavic languages.

Putting tatars on the map: The place branding versus soft power of Tatarstan

This article investigates one of the most relevant cases of Place Branding within the Russian Federation and provides a review of different efforts developed by the Republic of Tatarstan government to position itself in the global scene, to ‘put Tatars on the map’. Place Branding and Marketing initiatives such as ‘Invest in Tatarstan’, ‘Made in Tatarstan’, ‘Visit Tatarstan’ and the emergence of Kazan, Tatarstan’s capital, as ‘Sports Capital of Russia’ have been crucial tools for identifying and highlighting Tatarstan’s geographical location, promoting its economic potential and increasing the number of tourists to the Republic. It has helped to increase awareness among business and industry circles, sport fans and tourists worldwide. However, the Republic is facing deeper political challenges, including the alarming situation of the decreasing number of native speakers of the Tatar language, which might even bring into question the nation’s long-term future. Could the soft way be a constructive and effective alternative strategy? Could Soft Power be introduced to ‘win hearts and minds’ of the international community, and even Tatarstan’s own inhabitants by introducing alternative values based on political tolerance, by further applying Tatarstan’s culture as a Soft Power tool, using movies/films, museums, education and the media? This paper investigates a scarcely studied subject, namely Tatarstan’s tools of Place Branding, and indicates the potential influence of Tatarstan applying Soft Power.

Language Shift and Vitality of Paku Language in East Barito

Paku language gets shifted in connection to fading its language vitality away. The decreasing number of native speakers of Paku language has probably resulted from language contact with other surrounding languages. As a consequence, the natives gradually become bilingual, even multilingual. Some dominant languages around the speech area of Paku language include Dayak Maanyan, Banjar, and Indonesian languages. Regarding economic factors, the natives interact with others who use other languages. Hence, the Paku tribe shifts to use Dayak Maanyan language for daily interaction since Dayak Maanyan language is categorized as the lingua franca along the Barito River. Both Paku and Dayak Manyaan languages are lexically similar. Besides, Dayak Maanyan and Paku languages are included as a language family. As a result, the natives of Paku language have no difficulties to become bilinguals by speaking both Paku and Dayak Maanyan languages. Unfortunately, this tends to make the natives uninterested in using the Paku language. These are also considered as an initial step of the current loss of Paku language vitality in East Barito regency. This study focuses on language shift in terms of its usage and language vitality level of Paku language. It deployed a descriptive method. The data were obtained from informants in the speech event happening in some domains of language use in Bantai Napu subdistrict. The data were then analyzed by some steps, that are (1) classifying Paku language used concerning its domain, (2) identifying language shifts on Paku language usage, (3) measuring Paku language vitality level with using UNESCO and EGIDS scales, and (4) concluding.

The Effect of Listeners’ Experience on Comprehensibility and Accentedness of Non-native Korean Speech -Focus on Arabic-accented speech-

The main purpose of this paper is to examine how listeners’ experience (the extent of exposure to the non-native accented speech or the familiarity with the non-native accent) influences the judgments of Non-native Korean Speech (NNKS), specifically Arabic-accented speech of Korean. Thirty-four native Korean language speakers were selected as listeners and were asked to rate Arabic-accented Korean speech of eight native Arabic speakers in terms of comprehensibility and accentedness. Half of the group was experienced with the Arabic language, and the other half was not, and only ten of them had experienced the Arabic language for a period of one year or more. As a result, the experienced group showed higher ratings in terms of comprehensibility, suggesting that the experience with non-native accent plays an important role in judging how easy to understand NNKS. The listeners showed significant differences in judging accentedness based on the length of their experience, in which the listeners with long experience showed higher sensitivity toward the degree of non-native accent. However, no significant difference was noticed in terms of comprehensibility or accentedness based on the listener’s cognition of his familiarity with Arabic-accented speech.

The historical experience of the state political program for the creation of Soviet centers for school education and culture in the Yenisei North in 1923–1930

The paper aims to analyze the experiments of Soviet State to organize and develop educational centers for indigenous peoples at the villages of Yanov Stan and Tura of Turukhansk Territory. The paper discusses that, despite errors and problems in relations with indigenous peoples, a cultural center at Yanov Stan and Tura cultural base can be considered as a Soviet experiment aimed to find an acceptable form of organization of formal schooling and spread of ideological values and cultural policies of the Soviet government among indigenous peoples of the North. Soviet governments policy on educating local children also included upbringing them as native speakers of the Russian language and culture, able to assist the authorities to transform the traditional way of life of the indigenous peoples of the North and involve them in socialism building. Additionally, the tax base of the northern regions was insignificant. The Peoples Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR, responsible for organizing formal schooling, allocated funds for school construction on the leftover principle. The lack of financing hindered the development of educational centers and implementation of social programs. Altogether, the paper argues that the centers provided an opportunity to accumulate certain experience and to train teachers who were able to work with indigenous children.

Forest landscape nomination in the Komi-Permyatsky language

Introduction. The article discusses the nomination of the forest landscape in the Komi-Permyatsky language, a separate microsystem, as a part of the terrestrial landscape vocabulary. It has its own structural organization, certain composition of nomination objects and a specific set of lexical means for their nomination. The purpose of the article is to establish systemic features typical for this category of nomination only, distinguish it from other components of land vocabulary, determine the composition of the vocabulary, systematize this microsystem and identify the sources and main stages of its formation and development. Materials and methods. The main source of the material was the vocabulary of the Komi-Permyatsky language contained in lexicographic publications. Additional data was obtained as a result of a survey of native speakers of the Komi-Permyatsky language using a specially developed questionnaire. It also used comparative, historical, synchronous-comparative, descriptive and statistical research methods. Results and discussion. As a result of the linguistic analysis, a system for the forest landscape nomination in the Komi-Permyatsky language is presented. It is established that unambiguous and ambiguous names are distinguished at the semantic level among nominative units, which, as a rule, have a direct meaning. Based on the subject-conceptual content, the entire set of nominations, in accordance with denotative signs, is classified into six main subgroups. The primordial fund of the microsystem is characterized by the presence of all four components of ancient vocabulary: Pre-Perm, Common Perm, Pracomi and the proper Komi-Permyatsky. A part of the native vocabulary that arose during the period of the independent existence of the Komi-Permyatsky language and which does not have genetic correlations with other related languages is analyzed taking into account the specific features of structural and word-building system. As a classification criterion for monomial tokens, it employs the derivative or non-derivative criteria of the words. For compound names it employs the belongings of the components to the corresponding parts of speech. A foreign vocabulary of Komi-Permyatsky words used for the forest landscape consists of one type of borrowing. Conclusion. The vocabulary of the forest landscape of the Komi-Permyatsky language has ancient origins; its formation and development proceeded over many millennia on the basis of internal resources. The number of borrowings increased in the late periods of the Komi-Permyatsky language as a result of the penetration of the corresponding number of words from the Russian literary language and its northern dialects.

LEXICAL BORROWING AND LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT: A CASE OF THE TIV LANGUAGE

Language gives identity to a people and makes them a speech community, thereby defining their culture. It is their means of initiating and propagating development; it therefore means that without language that is peculiar to a people, it becomes difficult for them to forge ahead with the development of their society. However, because language communities co-exist and their strengths and numbers are not equal, some languages that are stronger than others begin to dominate them when they come into contact or co-exist. This dominance could gradually lead to language endangerment and possibly extinction of the weaker language. This is the case betweenthe Hausa language and the Tiv language in the middle belt region of Nigeria, where Tiv language speakers tend to borrow lexical items from the Hausa language. The current study involved oral interviews with adult native speakers of the Tiv language, as well as reviewed reports, journal articles and books written on the subject matter under study. The study explored the extent of lexical borrowing by the Tiv language from the Hausa language and discovered that the Tiv language has borrowed lexical items significantly from the Hausa language. The borrowing is based on the fact that the Tiv language has no lexical equivalents of the borrowed words in its lexicon, or that the speakers of Tiv language have over time adopted such Hausa words because of their knowledge of Hausa language. The danger here is that borrowed lexical items from Hausa have come to replace some Tiv words, making them to gradually go extinct, thereby endangering the Tiv language. The study concludes that the trend of Hausa words gradually replacing Tiv words is worrisome, and calls for intensified studies to ensure that the Tiv language is protected from domination by the Hausa language, to prevent extinction of the language in the future.

Gerontolinguistics of color: research overview

The goal of this article is an overview of the existing research in the area of gerontolinguistics of color – a new branch of linguistic science, conterminous with gerontolinguistics and linguistics of color, which studies the state of the lexis for color designations in vocabulary of the senior and elderly people. The author meticulously examines the works that discuss sizes and boundaries of separate color categories, complexity of color designation lexis in the speech of different generations of native speakers of a certain language, intergenerational dynamics of color designations, inappropriate usage of color terms by senior people, and possibilities of modeling of age-related physiological changes in the color vision. The search of sources was conducted through the following systems: Russian Science Citation Index, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science. In the course of research, the author applied methods of theoretical and comparative analysis, systematization and generalization of materials. The scientific novelty consists in the comprehensive overview of scientific publications in the area of gerontolinguistics of color from the perspective of comparison of the topics, empirical scope, methods and methodology of studying color vocabulary of the senior population. The author’s special contribution lies in determination and description of the established trends in explaining senior changes in the color vocabulary, as well as discussion of further development prospects of the toolset of experimental research.

Influence of Khasi Language on Nasal and Oral Passages in English: A Nasometric Study

Introduction
 Speech is a overlaid function of respiratory, phonatory, resonatory, articulatory systems . Nasalance can be defined as the relative amounts of oral and nasal acoustic energy in speech done by modification of oral and nasal cativities that is complex activity of the resonator system. Nasometer was developed by Samuel Fletcher, Larry Adams, and Martin McCutcheon at the University is a computer based instrument facilitating accurate analysis of signal yielding nasalance scores. There is no report regarding nasalence score variance in khasi language speakers speaking English.
 Materials and Methods
 The study aims at analysing and measuring nasalence score in Khasi speakers reading English passages. A total of 5 female subjects were chosen who were native speakers of khasi language and who had exposure of English language since childhoods were selected. Nasometer II Model 6400 (Software version 2.6) of Key Elemetrics Corporation was used. Three standardized passages (Zoo passage, Rainbow passage and nasal sentences) were used for the study.
 Results
 The mean nasalance scores obtained for zoo, rainbow and nasal sentences in female were 19.39± 12.21 SD, 38.13 ± 14.83 SD, 68.33 ± 15.29 SD and 18.26 ± 3.53 SD, 33.13 ± 1.68 SD, 63.20 ± 88 SD respectively. Standard norms show significant differences in nasalance scores obtained for Zoo, Rainbow and Nasal Sentences. Paired t-test was used for comparison among the sentences and computation of data show more significant differences for nasal sentences as compared to zoo and rainbow sentences, that is significant (p>0.05). Rainbow sentences revealed more nasalance scores than zoo sentences (p>0.05) i.e. level of significance.
 Conclusion
 The reported normative Nasalance data can be used by several voice clinicians for assessing resonance quantitively for khasi speakers using austrioasiatic language.

Reliability and Validity of the English Version of the AOSpine PROST (Patient Reported Outcome Spine Trauma).

Multicenter validation study. The aim of this study was to translate and adapt the AOSpine PROST (Patient Reported Outcome Spine Trauma) into English, and test its psychometric properties among North-American spine trauma patients. In the absence of an outcome instrument specifically designed and validated for traumatic spinal column injury patients, it is difficult to measure the effect size of various treatment options. The AOSpine Knowledge Forum Trauma initiated a project and developed the AOSpine PROST consisting of 19 items. Patients were recruited from two level-1 North-American trauma centers. For concurrent validity, next to AOSpine PROST also 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) was filled out by patients. Patient characteristics were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Floor and ceiling effects as well as the number of inapplicable and missing questions were analyzed for content validity. Cronbach α and item-total correlation coefficients (ITCCs) were calculated for internal consistency. Spearman correlation tests were performed within AOSpine PROST items and in correlation to SF-36. Test-retest reliability was assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). Factor analysis was performed to explore any dimensions within AOSpine PROST. The AOSpine PROST was translated adapted into English using established guidelines. Of 196 enrolled patients, 162 (82.7%) met the inclusion criteria and provided sufficient data. Content validity showed good results, and no floor and ceiling effects were seen. The internal consistency was excellent (Cronbach α = 0.97; ITCC 0.50-0.90) as well as test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.97). Spearman correlations were good (0.29-0.85). The strongest correlations of AOSpine PROST with SF-36 were seen with the physical components (0.69-0.82; P < 0.001). Factor analysis revealed two possible dimensions (Eigen values >1), explaining 75.7% of variance. The English version of AOSpine PROST showed very good validity and reliability. It is considered as a valuable tool, and has the potential to contribute to the reduction of ongoing controversies in spine trauma care. 2.

Acquisition of Noun Inflection in Lithuanian as a Foreign Language: a Qualitative Study

The aim of the research was to investigate how native speakers of Russian, which is a highly complex inflectional language, cope with the acquisition of the similar by structure and complexity Lithuanian language. The subjects were adults of different age and education who learned Lithuanian in Belarus. I analyse errors related to the acquisition of noun case. The errors are divided into formal (acquisition of endings) and conceptual ones (choice of the appropriate case). I shortly compare my results with the results of similar research conducted in Lithuania where the subjects were native speakers of different languages.The results of the study show that similar errors are typical for native speakers of different languages irrespective of their morphological complexity. A complex inflectional system of a native language is not necessarily beneficial, but it seems to give some advantages for the acquisition of semantic (not syntactic) cases.

In Other … Romanian Words. Practical Considerations on Translating

The present article evolved from a series of short Romanian translations based on the German version of Adam Fletcher’s book entitled “How to be German in 50 new steps/ Wie man Deutscher wird. In 50 neuen Schritten” (2016). Spanning more than three months, the outcomes of the translating process were rendered concrete with the collective contribution of five Erasmus students[1] at Leipzig University, Germany, all of whom (their teacher included) are native speakers of the Romanian language. Frequently employing a combination of free and formal translation-styles, the team of translators-to-be strove to retain all the meanings, be they propositional or expressive, presupposed or evoked, or those generated by idioms, fixed expressions and non-equivalence in the original text. They provided alternative translations, mostly differing on the levels of lexis, grammar and register, but eventually negotiated the best one, which naturally became the final translated text, as much as possible freed from any traces of “translationese” and suitable for any authentic contemporary sample of Romanian language.&#x0D; &#x0D; [1] I am grateful to Patricia Gheorghe and Ramona Băcănaru (Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest), Andreea Tufeanu (University of Bucharest), Denisa Urs and Paula Heredea (University of Oradea), for their major role throughout the whole process of translation and for all their pertinent observations on the source and target texts.

BENTUK DAN FUNGSI KATEGORI FATIS DALAM KOMUNIKASI LISAN BAHASA MELAYU DIALEK SUNGAI ROKAN

In daily communication of among Native speakers of Malay language of Rokan dialect, which is very special because fatis can create and keep mantain the social relationship in communication. The importance of fatis in the communication of Malay dialect clearly seem that the position of fatis in many aspects namely, religion, customs, culture and manners. The theory uses is about Fatis category by Kridalaksana (1994), Malinowski in Sutami (2004. The method used in this study is a qualitative approach with descriptive research types. The research method is aimed at obtaining a description of the use of disclosure in the communi- cation of the Rokan River Malay Language. Forms of categorization of languages: Malay, Sungai Rokan dialect, District of regency, Regency of Rokan Hulu, consisting of 25 particles, 20 in the form of words, 15 in the form of form and 6 in the form of a square and a sentence The number of syrups will be added to follow the development and the need for discussion of the Spread community itself. The function of the anti-religious in the language The Malay Sungai Rokan dialect is not only to start, greet, confirm and maintain, in this thesis, researchers find 10 functions that are commonly used by the community of Sungai Rokan , including; pharynx functions to start, maintain, confirm, terminate, affirm, convince, admonish, praise, and fear / bully. From a group of forms, fatism in the language of living in the Sungai Rokan is very dominant using the particle, and functions, the dominant use of which is the function and ridicule. Based on the data analysis, it can be concluded that the Malay language of the Rokan River Dialect has 60 forms of phisic categories and the phisic form of the particle is phatic which is often used. In terms of function, the Malay language of the Rokan River Dialect has 10 phatic functions and the dominant one is the affirmative and mocking function.

The implication of the lexicon contrastive analysis of colors in Persian &amp; English in perception and translation of colors

Color is all around but it is not everywhere treated in the same way. The terms people use to describe colors give another means of exploring the relationship between different languages and cultures. One field we can see the manifestation of this relationship is translation because we sometimes cannot directly translate color words from one language to another without introducing subtle changes in meaning, or the perception of the same colors in different languages may be different due to different cultures (Wardhaugh, 2006). This study aims at investigating the contrastive comparison of color lexicons- in terms of number and variety as well as their perception- in Persian and English and its effect on translation; moreover, by utilizing this cross-cultural study of color perception, want to investigate whether or not this research is in harmony with previous research –specifically the Weak Version of Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis advocating that language influences perception. The findings of this study are the result of a long process of investigating many English and Persian dictionaries, art and graphic books, personal interviews with artists, and some tasks for translators and even native speakers of both languages. After finding the specific types and lexicons of colors, we found some colors with no equivalent in the other language. Therefore, those color terms were the stimulus for our tasks. We provided some tasks and asked 50 English-Persian translators who were Persian native speakers and 50 English native speakers (Because of the limitation of access to English-Persian translators who are also English native speakers) for their perception of those colors in order to find out how perception of the colors with no equivalent in the native language would affect the translation. Results revealed that 98% of translators had difficulty perceiving and translating the two different color lexicons for which Persian had no equivalent, and 99% of translators had difficulty translating 15 different color lexicons, which were chosen among 32 color lexicons of Persian with no English equivalent. Similarly, 97% of English native speakers had difficulty perceiving the translated Persian color lexicons to English, for which they had no certain equivalent. Having compared the results of data collection in Persian and English, the researchers found that there are statistically significant similarities and differences between Persian and English color terms. Comparing the results revealed that the two languages are similar in the number of basic colors; however, color types are more various in Persian while there are more terms for one single color in English; therefore, the marked similarity of color grouping in Persian and English suggests some evidence that color grouping is universal and is inconsistent with the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis. However, part of the results, which shows differences in the perception of colors in two languages, is consistent with the Weak Version of Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis. Consequently, as an implication of the study in EFL/ESL and translation, the study provides some evidence which could be a source in translation of color terms in Persian and English.

Топонимическое пространство мокша-мордовского села Благодаровка Борского района Самарской области

The article is devoted to a comprehensive study of the toponymic area of the Moksha-Mordovian Blagodarovka village of the Borsky district of the Samara region. The aim of the article is an introduction into scientific discourse and the etymological analysis of toponymic vocabulary of the Blagodarovka village and its outskirts. The methods of the article are based on the principles of toponymic researches formulated in the works of leading Russian onomasticians. The article is based on the author's experience. As a result of the researches, the main characteristics and dialect belonging of the Blagodarovsky dialect of the Moksha-Mordovian language were determined, the geographical terminology existing in it was fixed, and the toponymic vocabulary was collected and analyzed. It is concluded that Blagodarovsky dialect of the Moksha-Mordovian language, despite a relatively short period of existence in the Russian environment with separation from other Mordovian language areas, is one of the most Russified Mordovian dialects of the Samara Volga region. A number of geographical names of the toponymic area of Blagodarovka find identical or close parallels in most other Moksha-Mordovian and Erzya-Mordovian toponymic areas of the region. The natural and geographical settlement conditions of native Blagodarovsky dialect speakers of the Moksha-Mordovian language as in the case of other Mordovian dialects of the Samara Volga region had a significant impact on the composition and semantics of the geographical terminology that exists in it.

Busuu: A Social Network Application to Learn Languages

With a high-quality, user-friendly interface that is both easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing, Busuu delivers, but the reason to choose Busuu over others would be to purchase the premium version for the social networking aspects. Even as a native speaker of English, I was able to learn about dialectal differences. Interactions with native speakers of the target language is both interesting and motivating. This is one of the better apps on the market, but at $9.99 when paid per month, it might be a bit expensive for the casual language learner.

Ultimate attainment in heritage language speakers: Syntactic and morphological knowledge of Italian accusative clitics

AbstractThe acquisition of a heritage language, normally the weaker language of early bilinguals, has been oftentimes defined as incomplete, especially for morphosyntax. As a result, these early bilinguals resemble late bilinguals more than native language speakers, calling into question the role of age of exposure. The effects of syntactic complexity on knowledge of morphosyntactic structures, however, have not been sufficiently considered hitherto. This study investigates age of exposure and syntactic complexity by comparing heritage, second language, and native language speakers on knowledge of Italian accusative clitics in three structures. An oral structural priming task and a speeded grammaticality judgment task find a discrepancy in the level of ultimate attainment heritage speakers reach for syntax and morphology. While their abstract representation of clitic structures approximates that of native language speakers more closely, their morphological knowledge of clitics aligns with second language speakers, suggesting early exposure has tangible effects only on syntactic knowledge. In turn, syntactic complexity affects the representation of clitic structures in a predictable manner, but is inconsequential to explicit knowledge of morphological forms in monolingual and bilingual speakers. Lack of age of exposure effects in the morphological domain are attributed to interface vulnerability.

“Conflictogenic Zones” of Language Consciousness in Intercultural Communication

The term "conflictogenic zone" of language consciousness is associated with a complex of concepts denoting values of a particular culture expressed by means of the national language. When comparing the associative meanings of quasi-equivalent lexemes of the languages under study, there can be revealed a mismatch of the knowledge behind them, the latter leading to the conflicts of misunderstanding / incomplete understanding in the situation of intercultural communication. Thus, the spheres of national traditions, family and confessional relations and, in general, the sphere of ideas about oneself and about one's ethnic neighbours, are undoubtedly conflictogenic (i.e. dissimilar in content or completely lacunar). The results of an associative experiment conducted with native speakers of Russian and national languages in two regions of the Russian Federation (i.e. the Republic of Tatarstan and Sakha (Yakutia)) demonstrate the differences in the above-mentioned ideas depending on the region of living and national identification of the informants. The study was conducted in the native language of the informants, the latter being asked to write down a spontaneous word-reaction to ethnonymic stimuli. Then the semantic gestalt of each stimulus was simulated for each group of the informants, with the semantic zones "subject", "object", "characteristic", etc. being identified and statistically analysed. The analysis revealed certain differences; the results of the research can be used to optimize intercultural communication and prevent communicative and other conflicts.

When Linguistic Elements Contribute to Conceptual Dynamics: The Case of Chinese Students’ Pre-instructional Ideas About the Earth

In this study, we explore how cross-linguistic differences can contribute to children’s scientific thinking. We compared first and third grade Chinese students’ pre-instructional ideas of the earth expressed in clinical interviews with that of their English-speaking and Greek-speaking counterparts (as recorded in the literature). Inspired by a “Complex Dynamic Systems” (CDS) theoretical perspective on cognition and by the literature on “linguistic relativity” we hypothesized that in cases when two language systems offer greatly different linguistic elements, differences can be expected in how these elements interact with other types of conceptual elements. Consequently, such changes in dynamics may lead to variations in system-level conceptual structures emerging from native speakers of different languages. Our findings showed that (1) Chinese students held no flat or dual earth type of pre-instructional ideas about the earth; (2) Chinese students provided significantly more sphere-based responses than their American and Greek counterparts when responding to questions directly addressing the shape of the earth; (3) such cross-linguistic differences largely vanished for questions not directly getting at the shape of the earth, resulting in high frequency of inconsistency when responses to all the interview questions were interpreted as a whole. We discuss the significance and possible implications of these results for research on cross-cultural conceptual development and for teaching and learning science.