A03
"Expressive" dislocation and register in Czech vs. Russian

Publications & Presentations

Publications

2022

• 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] [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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• Marklová, Anna  (2022) Register investigation on Czech: Designing an MDA-based experimental study In:  Linguistic CRC Meetup 2022 [ViVo]
• Marklová, Anna; Buchmüller, Olga  (2022) Register investigation on Czech In:  Summer school of linguistics 2022 [ViVo]
• Haider, Hubert; Szucsich, Luka  (2022) Slavic languages are Type 3 languages: replies In:  Theoretical Linguistics [DOI] [ViVo]
• Haider, Hubert; Szucsich, Luka  (2022) Slavic languages – “SVO” languages without SVO qualities? In:  Theoretical Linguistics [DOI] [ViVo]

  Abstract Slavic languages are commonly classified as SVO languages, with an exceptional property, though, namely an atypically extensive variability of word order. A systematic comparison of Slavic languages with uncontroversial SVO languages reveals, however, that exceptional properties are the rule. Slavic languages are ‘exceptional’ in so many syntactic respects that SVO appears to be a typological misnomer. This fact invites a fresh look. Upon closer scrutiny, it turns out that these languages are not exceptional, but regular members of a different type. They are representative of a yet unrecognised type of clause structure organisation. The dichotomy of ‘head-final’ and ‘head-initial’ does not exhaustively cover the system space of the make-up of phrases. In addition, there arguably exists a third option (T3). This is the type of phrasal architecture in which the head of the verb phrase is directionally unconstrained. It may precede, as in VO, it may follow, as in OV, and it may be sandwiched by its arguments within the phrase. From this viewpoint, the Slavic languages cease to be exceptional. They are regular representatives of the latter type, and, crucially, their collateral syntactic properties predictably match the properties of this type.

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2020

• Buchmüller, Olga  (2020) Influence of a Speaker’s Visible Social Status on the Evaluation of Morphosyntax in Native Germans[ViVo]

  Previous rating studies have shown that deviations from the standard language can result in
  lower ratings of the speaker’s social status characteristics by listeners, compared to the
  social status ratings of speakers of standard language. It was also indicated that certain
  speech characteristics led to assumptions and expectations about speaker characteristics.
  Recent EEG studies have shown that the brain processes deviations from standard language
  differently, depending on the information given to the listener about the speaker. The state of
  research throws up the question whether characteristics indicating the social status of the
  speaker can influence the listener’s evaluation of his or her language characteristics.
  This master thesis investigates in a rating experiment whether there can be an effect
  on the rating of sentence grammaticality depending on the high or low social status
  indications of a speaker communicated by her or his clothing and posture. Participants see a
  picture of a person who represents either high or low social status through clothing and
  posture. During the image presentation, a sentence is presented auditorily. This sentence
  has either a standard or a deviant morphosyntactic structure. Finally, the respondent is asked
  to rate the sentence in terms of grammaticality on three different scales.
  The rating data analysis reveals a low influence of the social status factor on the
  evaluation of the grammaticality of sentences in terms of acceptability in the context given.
  Sentences with deviating morphosyntax are rated slightly higher in the low rather than in the
  high social context. Sentences with standard morphosyntax, on the other hand, are rated
  higher in the high than in the low social context. The social status factor seems not to
  influence the ratings of grammaticality in terms of morphosyntax and self-use likelihood.
  From this, we can deduce that the social status factor only influences certain aspects of
  grammaticality assessment.
  This framework can be used in a further development of the study to present the
  social status factor more concisely in order to achieve a more meaningful significance of the
  results. By measuring rating times, it is possible to examine the participation of both types of
  sentences in different contexts. Developing the present study into an EEG study can
  determine whether the brain's response to processing both types of sentences differs
  depending on the context of the picture.

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Presentations

2022

• Buchmüller, Olga; Maquate, Katja  (2022) Data protection and Ethics In:   Experimental Methods Meeting [ViVo]
• Delucchi Danhier, Renate; Marklová, Anna  (2022) Spatial asymmetry of mental representation in Czech,German and Spanish In:  14. Deutschen Slavistiktags 2022 [ViVo]
• Sauermann, Antje; Verhoeven, Elisabeth; Meyer, Roland; Lütke, Beate; Alexiadou, Artemis  (2022) Multilingualism In:  CRC 1412 - Fall Retreat 2022 [ViVo]
• Marklová, Anna  (2022) Reading circle autumn report In:  CRC 1412 - Fall Retreat 2022 [ViVo]
• Schnelle, Gohar; Lehmann, Nico; Marklová, Anna  (2022) Reading circle terminology In:  CRC 1412 – Spring Retreat 2022 [ViVo]
• Liu, Mingya; Adli, Aria; Szucsich, Luka  (2022) Area A on modeling In:  CRC 1412 – Spring Retreat 2022 [ViVo]
• Demian, Christoph; Szucsich, Luka; Meyer, Roland; Buchmüller, Olga  (2022) Syntactic complexity across registers in Russian In:  Grammar and Corpora (GaC) [ViVo]
• Marklová, Anna; Buchmüller, Olga  (2022) Register investigation on Czech: Designing an MDA-based experimental study In:  Linguistic CRC Meetup 2022 [ViVo]
• Buchmüller, Olga; Szucsich, Luka; Meyer, Roland; Demian, Christoph; Marklová, Anna  (2022) Speakers’ assessment of situational contexts of language use: Dimensions of variation in Czech In:  Linguistics Beyond And Within 2022 [ViVo]
• Buchmüller, Olga  (2022) Presentation in the framework of the seminar: Sprache und Intuition. Sprachphänomene im deutsch-slawischen Vergleich erschließen: Experimentelles Arbeiten In:  Seminar HU Slawistik BA SoSe 2022  [ViVo]
• Buchmüller, Olga  (2022) Register investigation on Czech In:  Summer school of linguistics 2022 [ViVo]

2021

• Marklová, Anna  (2021) Vidět jazykem: Eye-tracking v lingvistickém výzkumu In:  Evropský den jazyků 2021 [ViVo]
• Meyer, Roland; Szucsich, Luka; Demian, Christoph; Buchmüller, Olga  (2021) Syntactic Complexity and Register in Russian In:  Workshop on complexity and register (CAR21) [ViVo]