Dr. Oliver Bunk

Publications & Presentations

Publications

• Bunk, Oliver  (2024) What does linguistic structure tell us about language ideologies?  In: European Journal of Applied Linguistics [DOI] [ViVo]

  Abstract This paper examines how bilingual and monolingual German speakers’ language use reflects underlying linguistic ideologies. I present a corpus study on bilingual and monolingual German speakers, focusing on phonological, lexical, and discourse pragmatic features. The data suggest that bilingual speakers use more markers of formal language and fewer markers of informal language in formal communicative situations than monolingual speakers. I argue that this is due to monolingual ideologies and standard language ideologies, particularly influencing these formal settings in bilingual speakers. These ideological patterns may lead to linguistic pressure in bilingual speakers to align with the monolingual majority, a phenomenon related to majority language anxiety. Complementing the corpus analysis, semi-structured interviews with bilingual speakers provide personal insights, further illuminating how linguistic ideologies shape their linguistic choices and social experiences.

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• Bunk, Oliver  (2024) Sociolinguistic variation in German. The case of the modal particles halt and eben  In: Expanding Variationist Sociolinguistic Research in Varieties of German [ViVo]
• Bunk, Oliver  (2023) Contact dialects in urban youth culture and beyond  In: The Routledge Handbook of Language and Youth Culture [DOI] [ViVo]
• Bunk, Oliver  (2023) Noncanonical V3 and Resumption in Kiezdeutsch  In: Adverbial Resumption in Verb Second Languages [DOI] [ViVo]

  Abstract This chapter presents an investigation of V2 violations in the German contact variety Kiezdeutsch, making comparison with spoken and written Standard German (SG). We undertake a corpus study analyzing the distribution of V3-inducing resumption strategies otherwise unproblematic in SG: adverbial resumption, Left Dislocation, and Hanging Topic Left Dislocation. Unlike for SG, little is known about resumption strategies in Kiezdeutsch, yet we find similar behavior for spoken SG and Kiezdeutsch. We attempt to reconcile such V3 with a well-known noncanonical V3 pattern in Kiezdeutsch following the order Frame Setter > SubjectTOPIC> finite verb. We employ the framework proposed by Sam Wolfe in which strict-V2 systems have high locus of V2 in Force allowing V2 violations involving resumption and, for some languages, initial Frame Setters but not other violations. We suggest that microvariation in and between Kiezdeutsch and SG results from lexicalization of Frame Setters above ForceP in Kiezdeutsch and below it in SG.

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• Wiese, Heike; Alexiadou, Artemis; Shanley, Allen; Bunk, Oliver; Gagarina, Natalia; Iefremenko, Kateryna; Martynova, Maria; Pashkova, Tatiana; Rizou, Vicky; Schroeder, Christoph; Shadrova, Anna; Szucsich, Luka; Tracy, Rosemarie; Wintai, Tsehaye; Zerbian, Sabine; Zuban, Yulia  (2022) Heritage Speakers as Part of the Native Language Continuum  In: Frontiers in Psychology [DOI] [PDF] [ViVo]

  We argue for a perspective on bilingual heritage speakers as native speakers of both their languages and present results from a large-scale, cross-linguistic study that took such a perspective and approached bilinguals and monolinguals on equal grounds. We targeted comparable language use in bilingual and monolingual speakers, crucially covering broader repertoires than just formal language. A main database was the open-access RUEG corpus, which covers comparable informal vs. formal and spoken vs. written productions by adolescent and adult bilinguals with heritage-Greek, -Russian, and -Turkish in Germany and the United States and with heritage-German in the United States, and matching data from monolinguals in Germany, the United States, Greece, Russia, and Turkey. Our main results lie in three areas. (1) We found non-canonical patterns not only in bilingual, but also in monolingual speakers, including patterns that have so far been considered absent from native grammars, in domains of morphology, syntax, intonation, and pragmatics. (2) We found a degree of lexical and morphosyntactic inter-speaker variability in monolinguals that was sometimes higher than that of bilinguals, further challenging the model of the streamlined native speaker. (3) In majority language use, non-canonical patterns were dominant in spoken and/or informal registers, and this was true for monolinguals and bilinguals. In some cases, bilingual speakers were leading quantitatively. In heritage settings where the language was not part of formal schooling, we found tendencies of register leveling, presumably due to the fact that speakers had limited access to formal registers of the heritage language. Our findings thus indicate possible quantitative differences and different register distributions rather than distinct grammatical patterns in bilingual and monolingual speakers. This supports the integration of heritage speakers into the native-speaker continuum. Approaching heritage speakers from this perspective helps us to better understand the empirical data and can shed light on language variation and change in native grammars. Furthermore, our findings for monolinguals lead us to reconsider the state-of-the art on majority languages, given recurring evidence for non-canonical patterns that deviate from what has been assumed in the literature so far, and might have been attributed to bilingualism had we not included informal and spoken registers in monolinguals and bilinguals alike.

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• Bunk, Oliver  (2019) “Unter Freunden redet man anders”: The register awareness of Kiezdeutsch speakers  In: The Sociolinguistic Economy of Berlin [DOI] [ViVo]