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- Volume 65, Issue 2, 2013
Taal en Tongval - Volume 65, Issue 2, 2013
Volume 65, Issue 2, 2013
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Taalcultuur: Talen in beweging
More LessThis paper aims to encourage the interdisciplinary study of ‘languaculture,’ an approach to language and culture in which ideology, linguistic and cultural forms, as well as praxis are studied in relation to another (cf. Cornips et al 2012). It focuses on the construction of local and regional identities in Limburg and the linguistic political context of this Southern-Netherlands region where people are strongly aware of their linguistic distinctiveness. This contribution addresses the impact of globalization processes and mobility of speakers resulting in new and complex patterns of cultural and linguistic encounters. Since globalization does not only affect dominant areas, we need a new understanding of language and identities in peripheral areas in Europe (cf. Cornips et al. 2012). Although dialects are traditionally seen and analyzed as something that anchor people in a local context, speakers have become translocal i.e. people and the ways in which they speak are on the move (cf. Quist 2010). In this paper, in contrast to dialectology and dialect atlases based on modern linguistic theoretical insights like the Atlas of the Dutch Dialects (SAND), place is not conceived in objective, physical terms but instead as an emic, culturally defined category (Johnstone 2004). The process of place-making provides insight in how people categorize themselves and others through languagecultural practices.
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“Siehs’ du, du wars (…) besser wie du hast gedacht: Du has’ Französisch gesprochen!”
By Nantke PechtThe present paper explores the relationship between language use and group identity by analyzing how a multiethnic group of former coal miners in the region of Limburg makes use of linguistic features belonging to Cité Duits. Initial findings point towards the fact that we are dealing with a variety of German with its syntactic structures deriving from Dutch and a few lexical loans from Italian and French. As pointed out in earlier studies, languages are neither automatically bounded entities nor pre-established systems linked to one specific culture, but rather processes that emerge in time and space as a continuously changing product of social interaction. Speakers draw on their linguistic resources in specific situations and develop new ways of speaking (cf. Heller 2007; Otsuji, Pennycook 2010). By scrutinizing syntactical patterns that are characteristic for the in-group speech of the informants, I will show that the flexible use of certain structures and prepositions does not occur randomly, but forms part of a linguistic practice that highlights the positive attitude of the speakers towards the group members (cf. Le Page, Tabouret-Keller 1985: 182ff.). Particular attention will be paid to extraposition and non-inversion of subject-verb order in main clauses (cf. Freywald et al. forthc.). Furthermore, the results found within the data suggest that there is evidence for a general easing of grammatical restrictions.
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Factoren bij het herkennen van cognaten in onbekende talen: algemeen of taalspecifiek?
Authors: Jan Vanhove & Raphael BertheleThe correct recognition of cognate relationships is a precondition for receptive multilingualism within language families. Several item- and participant-related factors have been identified that affect the probability with which readers and listeners correctly recognise and translate cognates in an unknown but genealogically related foreign language. Most of the relevant findings, however, are based on tasks featuring cognates in only one unknown language, leaving open the possibility that these factors play a (somewhat) different role depending on the specific stimulus language. To address this issue, 98 German-speaking participants were asked to translate 181 written cognates from four Germanic languages (Danish, Dutch, Frisian and Swedish). The effects of stimulus similarity to known (L1, L2, …, Ln) cognates, cognate frequency and the participants’ foreign language skills on translation accuracy were assessed and found not to vary substantially between stimulus languages. This indicates that the validity of studies on cognate recognition extends beyond the language from which the stimuli were sampled. Secondary findings are discussed as well.
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