Languages, Volume 9, Issue 7 (July 2024) – 31 articles

Recent work found a correspondence between consonant clustering probability in monosyllabic lexemes and the three vowel types, short and long monophthong and diphthong, in German dialects. Furthermore, that correspondence was found to be bound to a North–South divide. This paper explores the preferences in consonant clustering of particular vowels by analyzing the PhonD2-Corpus, a large database of phonotactic and morphological information. The clustering probability of the diphthongs is positively correlated with frequency while the other vowels showed particular preferences that are not positively correlated with frequency. However, all of them are determined by a threefold pattern: short monophthongs prefer coda clusters, diphthongs onset clusters and long monophthong are balanced. Furthermore, it was found that this threefold pattern seems to have evolved from an originally twofold pattern (short monophthong prefers coda clusters and long monophthong and diphthong prefer onset clusters) in Middle High and Low German. This result is then further considered under the aspect of the compensation of the syllable weight and moraicity. Furthermore, some interesting parallels with the syllable vs. word-language typology framework are noted. Full article

This study explores dual language acquisition according to three interrelated factors which have been found to account for individual differences in bilingual development. These are child-internal, proximal and distal factors. This five-year longitudinal case study investigates the complex interplay between language exposure, language skills and language and cultural identity construction in three French-English bilingual adolescents (from age 10 to 14), from three different home language backgrounds (French dominant; English dominant; both French and English), attending the same bilingual programme in France. Data were collected annually. Parent questionnaires provided information on the children’s exposure to French and English from birth, within the family and in school and other social environments. Semi-structured interviews with the children explored their current language exposure and their language practices with close family and friends, and in language-based activities, such as reading. Language skills were assessed in both languages through (1) a narrative task evaluating lexical diversity and grammatical accuracy, and (2) a standard receptive vocabulary task. Identity construction was explored through semi-structured interviews and a language portrait activity. Our findings showed, first, that higher exposure to a language at home and school did not necessarily align with higher level skills in that language. High-level skills were also observed in the language where exposure was quantitatively lower, but qualitatively rich. Secondly, despite higher exposure to one language, children sometimes identified more with the language and culture they were exposed to less. We highlight the importance of exploring children’s exposure and language biographies in depth to distinguish the sources and types of exposure received from birth. We also show the impact of children’s agency on their language investment and language development. Full article

Made in languaging aims to help ecolinguists with recrafting ideation and human practices. Inspired by Alexander and Stibbe, I turn to how ecolinguistic expertise can favour life-sustaining relations. In approaching normative goals, I start with how knowledge is made, self-sustains and is disseminated. Ecolinguistic analysis of languages, discourse and narratives can thus be enriched by tracing how practices inform languaging. In turning to epistemic agency, I emphasise the following: (1) building corpora popularia, organised bodies, in order to enhance life-sustaining relations; (2) illuminating life from the inside; and (3) developing bioecological awareness. I contend that, while all living beings use coordinative activities to bring forth what appears to us, humans also use wording types and practices. As we use the already known, languaging enables subjecthood, a person’s little worlds, and a group’s common realities. Hence, what appears as (and to) experience is made in languaging. When linked to normative concerns, the resulting middle worlds also offer means of putting knowledge to work. As in social epistemology, one might regard ‘wealth and well-being’ as a marker of public good. Yet, critical work shows, appeal to these values is anthropomorphic. In order to encompass nonhumans and the biogenic, one can reject market orientatation by tracing languaging, and knowing, back to living. In showing benefits of so doing, I contrast two evolving wording types. The case of growthism, I suggest, attests to praxis and contrasts starkly with the ideational value of life-sustaining relations. Yet, in both cases, languaging meshes practices, happenings and the effects of action. The move shows how one can challenge the hypostatisation of ideology by pursuing how epistemic agency can contribute to the future of evolution. Full article

The communicative approach to language learning, a teaching method commonly used in second language (L2) classrooms, places little to no emphasis on pronunciation training. As a result, mobile-assisted pronunciation training (MAPT) platforms provide an alternative to classroom-based pronunciation training. To date, there have been several meta-analyses and systematic reviews of mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) studies, but only a few of these meta-analyses have concentrated on pronunciation. To better understand MAPT’s impact on L2 learners’ perceptions and production of targeted pronunciation features, this study conducted a systematic review of the MAPT literature following PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Potential mobile-assisted articles were identified through searches of the ERIC, Educational Full Text, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstract, MLI International, and Scopus databases and specific journal searches. Criteria for article inclusion in this study included the following: the article must be a peer-reviewed empirical or quasi-empirical research study using both experimental and control groups to assess the impact of pronunciation training. Pronunciation training must have been conducted via MALL or MAPT technologies, and the studies must have been published between 2014 and 2024. A total of 232 papers were identified; however, only ten articles with a total of 524 participants met the established criteria. Data pertaining to the participants used in the study (nationality and education level), the MPAT applications and platforms used, the pronunciation features targeted, the concentration on perception and/or production of these features, and the methods used for training and assessments were collected and discussed. Effect sizes using Cohen’s d were also calculated for each study. The findings of this review reveal that only two of the articles assessed the impact of MAPT on L2 learners’ perceptions of targeted features, with results indicating that the use of MPAT did not significantly improve L2 learners’ abilities to perceive segmental features. In terms of production, all ten articles assessed MPAT’s impact on L2 learners’ production of the targeted features. The results of these assessments varied greatly, with some studies indicating a significant and large effect of MAPT and others citing non-significant gains and negligible effect sizes. The variation in these results, in addition to differences in the types of participants, the targeted pronunciation features, and MAPT apps and platforms used, makes it difficult to conclude that MAPT has a significant impact on L2 learners’ production. Furthermore, the selected studies’ concentration on mostly segmental features (i.e., phoneme and word pronunciation) is likely to have had only a limited impact on participants’ intelligibility. This paper provides suggestions for further MAPT research, including increased emphasis on suprasegmental features and perception assessments, to further our understanding of the effectiveness of MAPT for pronunciation training. Full article

Multilingualism has become the norm in families all over the world. These families need to juggle their children’s linguistic identity and integration in their contexts. They may also need professional advice about which language(s) they should use at home, especially when children present with developmental disorders. There is a dearth of studies addressing the role parental views play in home-language maintenance with children with developmental disorders. This study is conducted in Spain, where Spanish is the national language, along with local languages in certain regions, as well as foreign languages. This qualitative study aimed to deepen our understanding of the views about language choice of multilingual families whose children have either typical language development or a developmental disorder in Spain. We recruited 26 parents of multilingual children aged between 5 and 10 years, from different linguistic backgrounds. Semi-structured online interviews were conducted. The data were analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis. The findings illustrate the complexity and nuance of parents’ views and decisions regarding language choice in their contexts. The themes included identity and belonging, as well as the influences of external advice on parental decisions. It is important that professionals such as speech–language therapists understand these views to enable them to deliver family-centered care. Full article

Although Italo-Greek is characterized by a general retreat of infinitival complementation, it partly preserves the infinitive in restructuring contexts: a handful of functional auxiliaries—in an overt or covert form—allow for infinitival complements, with which they enter in a monoclausal union. Such a preservation also triggers consequences for finite complementation. Indeed, those predicates that still select for infinitival complements may lack finite complementation, resulting in only the lexical embedded verb surfacing instead of the complex sentence AUX + na + finite verb: δen du ékame típote ‘he could not do anything to him’ (lit. ‘he did not do anything to him’). I claim that such an absence—which gives rise to a semantic or even a syntactic gap—depends on the effects of the restructuring rule, which creates a high level of dependency and interlacing between the matrix and embedded verbs. When finite complements gradually replaced infinitival ones, though only sporadically, some predicates stopped selecting for finite complements, ultimately depriving the sentence of modal and other functional specifications. Full article

Causal relations allow a very detailed insight into the narrative skills of children from various backgrounds; however, their contribution has not been sufficiently studied in bilingual populations. The present study examines the expression of causal relations and the linguistic forms used to encode them in narratives of bilingual children speaking Russian as the Heritage Language (HL) and Hebrew as the Societal Language (SL). Narratives were collected from 21 typically developing Russian–Hebrew bilingual children using the Frog story picture book and were coded for frequency and type of episodic components, and for causal relations focusing on enabling and motivational relations. Results showed that the number of episodic components was higher in Hebrew than in Russian. An in-depth analysis showed that more components were mentioned in the first five episodes, particularly at the onset of the story. Causal relations were similar in both languages but were differently distributed across the languages—more enabling relations in Russian stories and more motivational relations in Hebrew stories. Production of episodic components and causal relations was affected by language proficiency but not by age of onset of bilingualism (AoB). In terms of language forms, lexical chains (e.g., search~find) were the most frequent means for inferring relations. Syntactic and referential cohesion were used in dedicated episodes to convey relations in both languages. Finally, a higher number of significant correlations between narrative productivity measures, episodic components, and causal relations were found in SL/Hebrew than in HL/Russian. The study results underscore the need to understand how language-specific abilities interact with knowledge of narrative discourse construction. Full article

This study examines attitudes and ideologies associated with the Finnish language and identity among successive generations of Finnish Americans in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Northern Minnesota, where Finnish is a postvernacular heritage language (HL). Employing ethnographic approaches including participant observation, narrative interviews, and the study of material analyzed using thematic analysis, I describe prevailing ideologies shaping perceptions of Finnishness. My findings highlight a pronounced pride and attachment to Finnish identity, which discursively and ideologically shape a sense of belonging and serve as a foundation for Finnish American identity formation. However, tensions emerge, particularly regarding the perceived pronunciation of Finnish words such as “sauna” and Finnish last names, indicating ideologies related to authenticity and purity. The evolution of terms like “Finlander” suggests generational change and reflects a history of friction with individuals not identifying as Finnish within the studied postvernacular speech communities. Full article

Intonational plateaus exist in Chilean Spanish in contexts in which they do not exist in any other variety of Spanish. Mapudungun, which has been in contact with Chilean Spanish for centuries, also has plateaus in similar contexts, although for years, the possibility of any influence of Mapudungun on Spanish has been largely dismissed. The present study examines the discourse contexts in which intonational plateaus occur in both Chilean Spanish and Mapudungun and finds that their pragmatic function is similar, with the vast majority of cases highlighting information based on the subjective communicative desire of the speaker rather than falling into established syntactic or pragmatic categories such as narrow focus. However, while the pragmatic function is similar between the languages, Mapudungun has a wider use of the plateaus, indicating a likely longer presence in this language. Based on the similarities in pragmatic function, the absence of such plateaus in any other variety of Spanish, and the wider use of plateaus in Mapudungun, this paper argues that the Chilean Spanish plateaus originate from Mapudungun due to their centuries-long history of intense language contact. Full article

This paper discusses the inflections of Latin proper names in the Old English translation of Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica. Whereas most common Latin loans are integrated into the Old English system as far as inflections are concerned, proper names, like scientific loans, can retain Latin inflections in some contexts. The analysis of the more than 700 tokens in this text reveals that the prototypical paradigm of Latin proper names results from a mixture of Latin and Old English patterns. The choice of inflections seems to be chiefly conditioned by grammatical case. While the nominative and accusative are modeled after Latin with very few exceptions, the dative and genitive are influenced by Old English paradigms as well. Both Latin and Old English inflections are evenly distributed in the dative. However, marking on names seems to be secondary and determined primarily by additional morphosyntactic means such as determiners or prepositions. As for the genitive, the predominant inflection, thematic vowel plus -s, results from the fusion of the inflections in both languages grounded in phonetic or spelling similarities. Full article

This study examines the correspondence between the borrowability indices from the Loanwoard Typology (LWT) project and Castilianization indices from the Atlas Lingüístico Galego (ALGa) across seven semantic fields. To this end, we identified all Castilianisms in the ALGa and conducted a quantitative analysis to compare these indices. Results obtained indicate a mismatch between the rankings of the LWT project and the ALGa. For example, the field ‘The body’ has the highest level of Castilianization according to the ALGa but the lowest borrowed score in the LWT project. Moreover, Castilianization levels in the ALGa show greater dispersion than borrowability levels from the LWT project. In fact, in each semantic field, many concepts (52.2%) have low levels of Castilianization, between 0% and 10%, and only a few concepts have high levels. A more detailed analysis of three semantic fields (‘The body’, ‘Agriculture and vegetation’, and ‘The physical world’) suggests that explanations based solely on semantic criteria (such as the existence of an unalterable central lexicon) are insufficient; other factors such as prestige, urbanization, cultural modernity, frequency of word usage, and perhaps other intralinguistic factors should be taken into account. Full article

This study attempts to investigate the disagreement strategies that are used by American speakers of Arabic with a view to identifying which disagreement strategies they use in equal and non-equal status situations. In addition, it aims to see whether variables like gender and social status affect the linguistic choices and disagreement strategies that they use. The subjects of the study are 28 (14 male and 14 female) American speakers of Arabic who were learning Arabic and were residing in Jordan at the time of data collection. The researchers analyze their interactional recorded responses to a set of stimuli included in an oral (recorded) discourse completion task (ODCT) prepared for this purpose. The ODCT comprises six scenarios in which the respondent is requested to disagree with two peers, two higher-status interlocutors, and two lower-status interlocutors. The findings of the study show that the American speakers of Arabic use two main disagreement strategies, non-confrontational and confrontational disagreements, which are in turn divided into sub-strategies. Further, they employ the non-confrontational strategies slightly more than the confrontational ones, as the percentage for the former is 51% while for the latter is 49%. Interestingly, the study suggests that the topic of discussion significantly influences the choice of strategy, sometimes resulting in women being more confrontational than men, which contrasts with common perceptions reported in the literature about gender-based communication styles. Full article

The climate crisis, migration and urbanization may appear as three separate crises, but under Sheller’s paradigm of Mobility Justice, they become part of a coherent whole that should be tackled as a single, complex and interconnected predicament. This paper observes rhetorical strategies employed in texts about the climate crisis, about cycling advocacy and about the “climate lockdown” conspiracy theory, which developed in Oxford, UK, in 2023. The metaphors, deictic pronouns and identity categories used are the main discourse features analysed through a qualitative approach, showing how mobility-related issues are often discussed through spatial metaphors, while deictic pronouns play a central role in the creation of identities. The findings are employed to contribute to the beneficial reframing of mobility-related discourses, whether global or local, and to react to climate inaction. The overall aim of this approach is to reveal the links between discourses about the climate crisis on a global scale and those on a local, urban scale concerning urban mobility policies. The prism through which both global and local discourses are observed is that of space and access to mobility. The aim of this investigation is to identify new patterns of language that can help us finding “new stories to live by”. Full article

The paper explores the pivotal role of mothers in maintaining the Lithuanian language within the Lithuanian diaspora, drawing upon Spolsky’s family language policy theory and Curdt-Christiansen’s dynamic family language policy model. Analyzing data collected in 2011–2013 and 2015–2017, the study investigates various factors shaping family language policy, with a particular focus on the mother’s influence. It examines the interplay between the mother’s role, emigrants’ language ideology, Lithuanian identity, language acquisition, proficiency, and language usage across different domains and emotional dimension of language attitudes. Quantitative analysis, considering respondents’ parents’ ethnicities, reveals that respondents with Lithuanian mothers exhibit stronger connections to Lithuanian identity, more frequent acquisition of Lithuanian as their first language, higher proficiency, and increased usage of Lithuanian within the family and as an inner language. Moreover, positive language attitudes towards the heritage Lithuanian language are more pronounced among those with Lithuanian mothers. However, emotional attitudes towards language did not significantly differ based on parental ethnicity. The paper concludes by discussing the heightened responsibility of mothers in language maintenance within the diaspora and the challenges they face in fulfilling this role. Full article

In this paper, I explore metalinguistic discourse in Zinacantec Family Homesign (‘Z sign’), an emergent sign language developed by three deaf siblings and their hearing family members. In particular, I examine how metalinguistic discourse unfolds between a hearing Z signer and various members of her family—including her deaf siblings, her elderly hearing father, and her young hearing son. I do so via a close examination of several snippets of conversation in which the Z signers talk about the “right” way to sign, paying close attention to how they mobilize various semiotic devices, including manual signs, eye gaze, facial expressions, and speech. I aim to understand not only the formal components of metalinguistic discourse in Z sign but also how it functions as a form of social action in this small linguistic community. How do members of this family position themselves and others as (in)competent, (non-)authoritative signers in light of existing social divisions among them? How do they reinforce or challenge those social divisions through metalinguistic discourse? How might metalinguistic discourse contribute to the propagation of emergent linguistic norms throughout the family? I find that a recurrent device for enacting metalinguistic critique among the Z signers is the partial re-production and transformation of others’ utterances and other visible actions, manifested in a way that exploits the availability of multiple, semi-independent manual and non-manual articulators in the visual modality. Full article

Prior to enrolling in an English as a medium of instruction (EMI) institution, students must show an English proficiency level through meeting a benchmark on a standard English proficiency test, which is typically aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Along with overall English proficiency, aural/written vocabulary level mastery could also predict students’ success at EMI institutions, as students need adequate English vocabulary knowledge to comprehend lectures and course readings. However, aural/written vocabulary level mastery has yet to be clearly benchmarked to CEFR levels. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the correlations between students’ aural/written vocabulary level mastery and their CEFR levels. Forty undergraduate students in a Macau EMI university were recruited to take one English proficiency test and two vocabulary level tests (i.e., Listening Vocabulary Levels Test (LVLT) and the Updated Vocabulary Levels Test (UVLT)). Correlation analyses were conducted to explore the relationship between students’ CEFR levels and their mastery of listening and reading vocabulary levels. A positive correlation was found between students’ CEFR levels and their mastery of receptive aural vocabulary levels (ρ = 0.409, p = 0.009). Furthermore, a statistically significant positive correlation was found between students’ CEFR levels and their mastery of receptive written vocabulary levels (ρ = 0.559, p < 0.001). Although positive correlations were observed, no clear pattern was identified regarding the relationship between students’ CEFR levels and their mastery of aural/written vocabulary levels. Regression analyses were further conducted to determine the extent to which the combination of receptive aural and written vocabulary knowledge predicts the CEFR levels. The results indicated that the regression model that included only UVLT scores better predicted the CEFR levels. Given the positive correlations observed between students’ CEFR levels and their mastery of vocabulary levels, this study’s findings suggest the inclusion of aural/written vocabulary levels as additional indicators for ensuring student academic success in EMI institutions. Implications for EMI universities on student admissions, classroom teaching, and provision of additional English courses were provided. Full article

Phonetic category compactness pertains to the degree of variation or dispersion within a specific category. Previous research has shown that more compact native (L1) categories in production have been related to the discrimination of non-native sounds in perception and production. The understanding of the factors influencing L1 category compactness remains limited. Some proposals suggest that compactness may be influenced by individual differences in cognitive processes. Alternatively, category compactness could be linked to linguistic factors, such as the number of languages spoken or the density of the phonological system. This study investigates the latter hypothesis. This study examined category compactness in perception for three L1 Spanish vowels /i/, /e/, and /a/ across four participant groups: 12 monolinguals, 31 functional monolinguals, 24 bilinguals, and 19 multilinguals. To measure compactness in perception, the study employed a perceptual categorization task consisting of synthesized variants of /i/, /e/, and /a/. Participants were asked to label these variants as either acceptable or unacceptable members of their L1 /i/, /e/, and /a/ categories. The findings revealed significant differences in category compactness between monolingual and bi/multilingual speakers. More specifically, bilingual and multilingual speakers had larger/less compact L1 vowel categories than monolinguals. The substantial variability in compactness across all groups suggests that compactness may be influenced by a range of other individual differences, besides the number of languages spoken. Full article

This paper explores a constructionist and corpus-based approach to Old English formulaic language through an analysis of the “maþelode system” of speech introductions. The analysis is performed on a section of the York-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English Poetry, comprising the poems Beowulf, Battle of Brunanburh, and Exodus. The results show that most instances of the maþelode system belong to a well-attested construction continuum, structured by the widespread Old English (and ultimately Germanic) poetic devices of variation and kenning. This continuum ranges from more fixed repetitions that exclusively involve the verb maþelian to more schematic patterns that are also attested by other speech verbs, by verbs of giving, as well as by a number of further verbs of various semantic types. The particularly high frequency of this pattern with speech verbs and verbs of giving matches the prominent role, highlighted by previous studies, of both word-exchange and gift-exchange within Old English heroic ideology, and suggests that these formulaic patterns served the purpose to characterize the protagonists of speech or giving events as heroic and/or lordly figures. Full article

Fraud exists on both legitimate e-commerce platforms and illicit dark web marketplaces, impacting both environments. Detecting fraudulent vendors proves challenging, despite clients’ reporting scams to platform administrators and specialised forums. This study introduces a method to differentiate sellers reported as scammers from others by analysing linguistic patterns in their textual traces collected from three distinct cryptomarkets (White House Market, DarkMarket, and Empire Market). It distinguished between potential scammers and reputable sellers based on claims made by Dread forum users. Vendor profiles and product descriptions were then subjected to textometric analysis for raw text and N-gram analysis for pre-processed text. Textual statistics showed no significant differences between profile descriptions and ads, which suggests the need to combine language traces with transactional traces. Textometric indicators, however, were useful in identifying unique ads in which potential scammers used longer, detailed descriptions, including purchase rules and refund policies, to build trust. These indicators aided in choosing relevant documents for qualitative analysis. A pronounced, albeit modest, emphasis on language related to ‘Quality and Price’, ‘Problem Resolution, Communicationand Trust’, and ‘Shipping’ was observed. This supports the hypothesis that scammers may more frequently provide details about transactions and delivery issues. Selective scamming and exit scams may explain the results. Consequently, an analysis of the temporal trajectory of vendors that sheds light on the developmental patterns of their profiles up until their recognition as scammers can be envisaged. Full article

In this paper, we investigate whether Mandarin short passives contain an implicit external argument (EA; such as an agent or experiencer). Syntactic tests yield inconclusive results in Mandarin. We employ intervention effects as a diagnostic tool and demonstrate that, unlike English, Mandarin short passives do not syntactically project an implicit EA. Our findings are based on spontaneous language data from the CHILDES corpora, encompassing 1182 children aged 2–6 years, and experimental data from 78 Mandarin-speaking children aged 3–6 years. This cross-linguistic structural difference explains the earlier acquisition of short passives in Mandarin compared to English and also raises a learnability question, which we briefly address: how do children know to project an implicit EA or not in their language? Full article

Transcription is an important component of the writing process that affects the quality of children’s compositions. However, little is known about how transcription mode influences productivity or spelling accuracy, two word-level markers of compositional quality, among children learning to write in an additional language. To address this issue, we compared the effects of handwriting and keyboarding on text length and spelling in the compositions of L2 French learners. Grade 2 to 4 students (n = 48) in French Immersion were given two writing prompts and asked to produce one text on paper and one using a keyboard. The prompts were counterbalanced across the two writing conditions. The total number of words, total number of words spelled correctly, and proportion of correctly spelled words were calculated. A series of repeated measures ANOVAs revealed an advantage in both the average number of correctly spelled words and the proportion of correctly spelled words in the students’ compositions favouring the keyboarding condition. Conversely, the total number of words across conditions was not significantly different. Our findings suggest that keyboarding may offer an advantage over handwriting with respect to spelling accuracy in the context of L2 composition in the elementary years. Full article

The present study reports tongue configuration data recorded with ultrasound for two sets of consonant sequences uttered by five native Catalan speakers. Articulatory data for the onset cluster pairs [kl]-[ɣl] and [kɾ]-[ɣɾ], and also for [l#k]-[l#ɣ] and [r#k]-[r#ɣ], analyzed in the first part of the investigation revealed that, as a general rule, the (shorter) velar approximant is less constricted than the (longer) voiceless velar stop at the velar and palatal zones while exhibiting a more retracted tongue body at the pharynx. These manner of articulation-dependent differences may extend into the preceding liquid. Data for [k#l]-[kl] and [k#r]-[kɾ] dealt with in the second part of the study show that the velar is articulated with more tongue body retraction for [k#l] vs. [kl] and for [k#r] vs. [kɾ], and with a higher tongue dorsum for [k#l] vs. [kl] and the reverse for [k#r] vs. [kɾ]. Therefore, clusters are produced with a more extreme lingual configuration across a word boundary than in syllable-onset position, which at least in part may be predicted by segmental factors for the [k#r]-[kɾ] pair. These articulatory data are compared with duration data for all sequence pairs. Full article

Lexical bundles (LBs) are crucial in L2 oral proficiency, yet their complexity in terms of length is under-researched. This study therefore examines the relationship between longer and shorter LBs and oral proficiency among 150 L2 learners of varying proficiency levels at a UK university. Through the analysis of oral presentation data (scores ranging from intermediate to advanced) and employing a combined text-internal and text-external approach (two- to five-word bundles), this study advances an innovative text-internal LB refinement procedure, thus isolating the unique contribution of LB length. Robust regression, dominance analysis, and random forest statistical techniques reveal the predictive power of bigram mutual information (MI) and longer three-to-five-word sequences on higher proficiency scores. Our results show that learners using higher MI score bigrams tend to perform better in their presentations, with a strong positive impact on scores (b = 14.38, 95% CI [8.01, 20.76], t = 4.42; dominance weight = 58.63%). Additionally, the use of longer three-to-five-word phrases also contributes to better performance, though to a lesser extent (dominance weight = 18.80%). These findings highlight the pedagogical potential of a nuanced approach to the strategic deployment of LBs, particularly bigram MI, to foster oral proficiency. Suggestions for future LB proficiency research are discussed in relation to L2 speech production models. Full article

The quantity of language input is a relevant predictor of children’s language development and is frequently used as a variable in child bilingualism research. Studies use various methods to measure bilingual language input quantity, but it is currently unknown what the optimal method is. We investigated the bilingual language input estimates of 31 Turkish–Dutch and 21 Polish–Dutch 3- to 5-year-old bilingual children, obtained via the questionnaire for Quantifying Bilingual Experience (Q-BEx) and day-long audio recordings made with Language Environment Analysis (LENA), and proposed a combined method that could overcome several shortcomings of the individual methods. The three methods are compared to each other in their correlation strength with receptive and expressive vocabulary scores. Each individual method correlated significantly with vocabulary scores, regardless of modality or language. Contrary to our hypothesis, the combined method did not correlate stronger with vocabulary outcomes than the Q-BEx and LENA individually did. The latter two did not differ significantly from each other in their correlational strength with vocabulary outcomes. These findings show that both the Q-BEx, LENA, and combined method can be deemed reliable to measure bilingual language input quantity. Future studies can make more informed decisions about their methodology in children’s bilingualism research. Full article

In Spain, the learning of foreign languages has become one of the most interesting educational challenges in recent decades. Regulatory changes have been proposed to align with the Council of Europe’s language policy, which aims to promote plurilingualism and pluriculturalism among European Union citizens. Although the development of plurilingual competence in students has become a key goal, there is little evidence regarding the beliefs of current teachers, especially in monolingual contexts, where multilingualism is mainly developed through instruction. This study involved 307 teachers who taught languages or subjects in a foreign language. The results reveal beliefs about the promotion of plurilingualism, the objectives of language learning, the importance of plurilingual competence, and its characterization that at times do not align with the European language policy and its approach to plurilingualism, though there is agreement on other issues. Among the variables analyzed, two variables—academic training and the number of languages known—were found to significantly influence the beliefs revealed. Full article

Many musicologists and researchers of popular music have recently stressed the omnipresence of covers in today’s music industry. In the sociolinguistics of music, however, studio-recorded covers and their potential differences from ‘original’ compositions have certainly been acknowledged in passing, but very few sociolinguists concerned with the study of song seem to have systematically explored how language use may differ in such re-imagined musical outputs. This article reports on a study which examines the language use of 45 blues artists from three distinct time periods (viz., 1960s, 1980s, and 2010s) and three specific social groups (viz., African American; non-African American, US-based; and non-African American, non-US based) distributed over 270 studio-recorded original and cover performances. Through gradient boosting decision tree classification, it aims to analyze the artists’ use of eight phonological and lexico-grammatical features that are traditionally associated with African American English (viz., /aɪ/ monophthongization, post-consonantal word-final /t/ deletion, post-consonantal word-final /d/ deletion, alveolar nasal /n/ in <ing> ultimas, post-vocalic word-final /r/ deletion, copula deletion, third-person singular <s> deletion, and not-contraction). Our analysis finds song type (i.e., the distinction between covers and originals) to have no meaningful impact on artists’ use of the examined features of African American English. Instead, our analysis reveals how performers seem to rely on these features to a great extent and do so markedly consistently, regardless of factors such as time period, socio-cultural background, or song type. This paper hence builds on our previous work on the language use of blues performers by further teasing out the complex indexical and iconic relationships between features of African American English, authenticity, and the blues genre in its various manifestations of time, place, and performance types. Full article

This paper presents an initial study of the acceptability of differential object marking (DOM) by Galician–Spanish bilinguals in Galicia. The research explores judgments provided by these bilinguals (n = 69) on DOM in both Galician and Spanish and it also explores data from a monolingual Spanish control group (n = 12). The surveys target contexts covering key syntactic and semantic–pragmatic contexts for DOM in Galician and Spanish, based on the existing literature. The Galician data reveal a tendency towards reduced acceptability of DOM compared to Spanish, but without a generalized rejection of DOM in any of the contexts. The Spanish data show variability in both groups. The study contributes insights from an under-studied language pair and aims to open avenues for further work. More generally, it enhances our understanding of DOM in bilingual grammars, particularly in microcontact situations. Full article

Working chiefly within the tenets of Cultural Linguistics (CL), this study examines the cultural and cognitive motivations that underlie selected death-oriented personal names among the Igbo of South-eastern Nigeria. Based on the cultural linguistic perspective, the analytical tool for the study is shaped by insights from cultural schemas, cultural categories and cultural metaphors as signifiers of ideation and social meaning. The cultural frames enable the language user to have a better understanding of the cultural and cognitive motivations that underlie the conceptualization of names and naming among the Igbo. Much has been done on the structure and sociological forms of Igbo personal names and their meanings, but only a few studies have been undertaken on the names that express the notions of death and dying in Igbo. More importantly, no previous study has used insights from Cultural Linguistics (CL) or the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) to explain the motivations for the preponderance of death-oriented names among the Igbo people. Thus, this study specifically aims to address the lacuna. The study reveals that the Igbo, like most African and other human societies, recognize and accept the inevitability of death. Consequently, they use language in diverse forms and contexts to express their perceptions of the horrors and pains associated with the inevitability of death. Songs, proverbs and ritual practices are some of the verbal and social semiotic forms through which the Igbo express their knowledge of and attitude toward death and dying. However, names and naming are the most vivid cultural cognitive patterns by which the Igbo show their understanding of the nature of death and dying and their psychological effects on the living. Constrained by space and scope, this study identified and classified six major death-oriented names among the Igbo, as follows: names that depict the overwhelming power of death; names that make an appeal to death; names that depict death as wicked/evil/terror; names that depict death as no respecter of wealth/social class; names that challenge/mock the assumed power of death; and names that depict death as an insensitive entity. Thus, the above frames constitute the major paradigms by which the Igbo express their knowledge of and attitudes toward death and dying. Full article

The prosodic marking of the wh-scope has been a good testing ground to shed light on syntax-prosody mapping. Many accounts have been proposed based on various theoretical models, including the E-feature agreement system, the Multiple Spell-Out Model, Contiguity Theory, and the Wrap-XP Model. However, most previous studies focused on the constructions with a single wh-phrase, and few studies paid attention to multiple wh-questions. This paper presents novel data from production experiments to show the prosodic patterns of multiple wh-questions in Korean, for which none of the previous accounts makes correct predictions. This study proposes a new alignment constraint considering the scope relations between wh-words. The necessity of such a constraint suggests that the prosodic structures for wh-scope interpretations are not the direct outcome of syntax and phonology but the aggregation of syntax, phonology, and semantics. Full article