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The article by Eichler, Jansen, and Muller presents a genuine and impressive contribution to the study of bilingual first language acquisition in general and to the analysis of gender acquisition [...]

Abstract The present study addresses questions concerning bilinguals' attainment in the two languages by investigating the extent to which early bilinguals manage to apply the information structure required in each [...]

Aims and objectives: This study examines how social information is utilized in processes of bilingual speech perception. Specifically, we investigate whether racialized expectations of native language background trigger language-specific processing strategies in early or simultaneous Spanish–English bilinguals. Methodology: We coupled a visually-primed phoneme categorization task with a social evaluation questionnaire to test whether Spanish–English bilingual adults living in the United States (n = 30) drew on racialized ideologies about what speakers of certain languages look like during speech perception. We predicted that, if participants drew on these ideologies during the phoneme categorization task, they would cue an expectation of what language was being spoken and, consequently, a shift in the identification boundary. Data and analysis: Mixed logistic regression was used to investigate the effects of photograph (the visual prime) and voice on how participants categorized the continua while paired, two-tailed t -tests were used to compare how participants socially evaluated the two speakers. Findings: Raciolinguistic evaluations appeared to influence bilingual speech perception, significantly affecting how the continua were categorized, but they did not work the same way for every voice. Originality: Prior work has posited that interactional context influences bilingual language control (e.g., Grosjean, 2001); the ideological nature of this context has, however, been understudied. This paper offers insight into how ideologies related to race may shape language perception and use in bilinguals. Implications: The findings provide evidence for the role of social information in bilingual speech perception, suggest that multiple cues (acoustic and social) integrate to determine the interactional context, and indicate that the influence of raciolinguistic ideologies is neither straightforward nor homogeneous but rather contingent on complex aspects of the perceived speaker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: We discuss how children with various language backgrounds interact in preschool playgrounds in Limburg, the Netherlands. This paper addresses the question how power dynamics between Dutch and/or Limburgish, and other languages are enacted in, by, and through language choice in preschool settings, and to what extent this leads to social (in)equality. Approach: This paper incorporates data collected during ethnographic fieldwork and discusses literature about language socialisation, multilingualism, and language policy. Data and analysis: All data were collected at three preschools in Southern Limburg with over 30 children and more than five teachers. The data were analysed using various theoretical perspectives. Findings and conclusions: We conclude that the ways in which, when, how, and in which activities children and teachers select languages show a social order. This order renders Limburgish and other languages than Dutch unequal in the earliest educational setting that children encounter. No concrete language policy has been developed for children who speak other home languages than Dutch and/or Limburgish. Children discover quickly that using Dutch is more important than other languages in the preschool. Consequently, children, as individual agents, will start acting accordingly. Originality: Through its ethnographical approach, this paper offers a unique insight in the multilingual landscape including regional language use at preschools in Southern Limburg. This approach is based on actual, observed behaviour instead of reported behaviour or behaviour stipulated by language policies. Significance/implications: The initial stimulus for this research is societal: 60.8% of the Limburgish participants in a study reported to speak Limburgish, yet this amount is decreasing, and concerned parents and municipalities requested insights why their children prefer Dutch over Limburgish at home soon after attending preschool. This research aims to provide answers why this happens and how to ensure a more linguistically equal preschool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: Proficiency assessment is a key methodological consideration in the field of bilingualism, and previous reviews have highlighted significant variability in both the use and type of assessment methods. Yet, previous reviews of proficiency assessment methods in bilingualism have failed to consider key study characteristics (e.g., methodology and subfield) that may impact the choice of proficiency assessment method. This paper provides an updated systematic review of proficiency assessment methods in the field of bilingualism, analyzing trends within different methodological approaches and linguistic subfields. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic review was conducted, examining recent research articles in the field of bilingualism, broadly defined. A total of 17 journals (of 100) and 140 empirical research articles (of 478) with bilingual participants fit the relevant inclusionary criteria. Data and analysis: Studies were coded for several characteristics, including methodology (e.g., quantitative vs qualitative), linguistic subfield (e.g., psycholinguistics), and the method of proficiency assessment (e.g., standardized testing, self-reporting). Findings/conclusions: Analyses revealed a number of different methods of proficiency assessment currently used in bilingualism research. However, different trends were found by methodology type and linguistic subfield. Broadly, the results revealed greater use of proficiency assessments in quantitative research than qualitative research. Moreover, while there was significant variability in all of the subfields examined, several within-subfield trends were identified. Originality: This study provides an update to previous findings, establishing current proficiency assessment practices in bilingualism research. In addition, acknowledging the unique needs of different types of research, this study is the first to examine trends within different methodological approaches (i.e., quantitative vs qualitative) and subfields of bilingualism (e.g., psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics). Significance/implications: The notable variability in proficiency assessment methods within different subfields suggests a greater need for subfield-specific norms to facilitate comparative analysis. Several key considerations are given for the selection of proficiency assessment methods in bilingualism research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives: Spanish subject pronoun expression (SPE) among Bube speakers in Equatorial Guinea has hardly been examined. Thus, the paper aims to (a) examine the SPE rate (b) and the linguistic and social predictors of SPE in this variety. Methodology: The data for the present study were collected using sociolinguistic interviews. These interviews lasted between 45 minutes and an hour. Data and analysis: The audio recordings of 18 bilinguals of Bube and Spanish in Equatorial Guinea were transcribed and analyzed using the Rbrul mixed-effects statistical software. Findings: The overt SPE rate of these bilingual speakers is 17.9%. This pronoun rate is one of the lowest ever found among bilinguals. The significant factors are grammatical person and number, ambiguity, the lexical content, and gender. The insignificant predictors were reference, reflexivity, and education. Originality: This is the first variationist study on Spanish SPE among Bube speakers in Equatorial Guinea. In this study, switch reference, a usually robust predictor, is insignificant among bilingual speakers. Significance: This study expands on the scarce research conducted on Equatoguinean Spanish and opens new avenues for exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: This paper seeks to determine the degree to which bilinguals and monolinguals use the semantic information available to them to activate semantically related lexical associates and facilitate processing. Design: We conduct a visual word masked priming task with 300 pairs of words that differed in forward strength of association in English-dominant early-acquiring and late bilinguals and monolinguals. We measured the reaction time for participants who completed a semantic judgment. Data and Analysis: Reaction times from 34 college-aged bilinguals and 28 monolinguals were analyzed with a series of analyses of variance (ANOVAs). The coefficient of variation (CV), a measure of efficiency, was calculated and used to compare speaker groups. Conclusions: Results indicated bilinguals were generally slower than monolinguals and did not display a benefit of additional semantic context on reaction time speed. The increase of semantic information in highly associated word pairs compared to unassociated word pairs did not increase reaction time in bilinguals to the same degree as it did in monolinguals. Comparing CV values indicate that the speaker groups were processing semantic information with approximately equal efficiency, although both groups were processing at different speeds. Originality: This study expands on previous research exploring the effect of semantic relations across three word strengths conditions and using visual pairs in a masked priming paradigm using predominantly English-dominant bilinguals. Significance: The findings indicate that even early-acquiring bilinguals may not be using meaning-related information to activate semantic associates in the same way as monolinguals. Such differences with word-level processing and activation may contribute to bilinguals' differences and delays in sentence processing tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The basic characteristic of composite codeswitching is that the languages involved share responsibility for framing bilingual constituents. This paper points to evidence of this characteristic in the nature of morpheme distribution in mixed possessive constructions in Ewe–English codeswitching, spoken in Ghana. An Ewe semantic distinction between two types of possessive constructions is consistently neutralized when English possessum nominals are used instead of their Ewe counterparts, and the paper demonstrates that the neutralization of this distinction results from direct mapping of English-origin grammatical information about English nominals onto Ewe grammar. It explains that this mapping of information from one grammar onto another one is characteristic of composite codeswitching and that it is facilitated by the fact that language production is modular in the sense of Levelt ((1989). Speaking: From intention to articulation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press) and Myers-Scotton ((1993). Duelling languages: Grammatical structure in codeswitching. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press; (2002). Contact linguistics: Bilingual encounters and grammatical outcomes. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aims: Multilingual families are often challenged with the transmission of their heritage language (HL) to future generations. Departing from this observation, this study aims to investigate which factors correlate with multilingual families' HL maintenance efforts. The variables taken into account are the families' language policy (FLP), advice from both Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) professionals and other (informal) sources, the parents' linguistic and educational resources, as well as their migration generation. Methodology: Exclusively quantitative in nature, the data for this study involve 776 multilingual families in the Flemish community of Belgium. Analysis: These data have subsequentially been subjected to two inferential analyses: a bivariate correlational analysis followed by a logistic regression for a more detailed understanding of the relations at play. Findings: The results indicate a positive correlation between families' policies and their HL maintenance efforts, in addition to confirming the independence of FLP's three components (beliefs, practices, and management). Furthermore, contrary to advice from ECCE professionals, advice from other sources is positively and significantly associated with HL maintenance efforts. Finally, families comprised of parents with access to higher linguistic and educational resources are less likely to try and pass on the HL to their children, probably favouring the acquisition of the institutional language (IL). Originality: This paper quantitatively explores factors that correlate with parental HL maintenance efforts using a large and language-diverse sample. This quantitative approach facilitates generalizations for future (qualitative) research and advice-giving bodies to build on. Significance: Our findings bring about greater insights into the motivation of parents concerning HL maintenance and could contribute to the advice given to multilingual families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research is to critically examine the concept of linguistic discreteness in multilingual practices, responding to contemporary debates that question the existence of languages as separate entities. We present a range of empirical data to demonstrate the theoretical necessity of maintaining the concept of language as discrete system in understanding multilingual practices. The research questions focus on how linguistic discreteness manifests in multilingual repertoires and the role it plays in the production and comprehension of the complexes of nuances of social-indexical meanings.This paper is a small-scale meta-analysis. The database comprises a diverse collection of empirical examples of code-switching drawn from documented studies, inter-personal interactions, media content, and linguistic landscapes. The research adopts a qualitative methodological approach to show creative, social-indexical uses of languages in multilingual contexts.Drawing from a range of empirical sources, this paper provides evidence to claim that multilingual repertoires do indeed exhibit discrete linguistic-epistemic inventories that are recruited routinely in complex ways in the production and comprehension of referential and social- indexical meanings.The key finding is that mobility of linguistic resources do not erase discreteness; in fact, it is precisely in the movement of various mobile resources where the discreteness of codes, or language “archives,” become significantly relevant in meaning-making.The paper reinforces the significance of linguistic discreteness through the synthesis of diverse examples to argue for the necessity of discrete linguistic systems in multilingualism studies.This paper underscores the persistent relevance of discrete linguistic systems in multilingual practices that facilitates complex meaning-making processes, enabling speakers to navigate and articulate social and referential meanings effectively. Methodologically, the research advocates for a nuanced analysis that recognizes the complexity and specificity of linguistic resources.One limitation is the analytic focus, which does not capture the emic perspective of the speakers in multilingual practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: By applying the savings paradigm to determine the presence of residual Irish language knowledge, this study seeks to investigate the relearning advantage for the acquisition of words likely to have been acquired during the second language acquisition of Irish compared with newly acquired Irish words. Furthermore, self-efficacy will be assessed as a robust self-assessed predictor of performance. Methodology: Using a corpus of Irish language, low- and high-frequency nouns were used to create a list of 'old' and 'new' words. Thirty-six participants were tested over 2 months, across three phases. Each participant was provided with a relearning session before being tested on their individualised list of 40 words. Participants were asked to rate their self-efficacy confidence levels before each testing session. Data and analysis: An online survey platform was used at each phase to test residual knowledge and to gather self-efficacy and attitudinal data. Correlation analyses and independent t-tests were carried out to measure the effect sizes over the 2-month time period of testing. Findings: The data provide evidence that Irish nouns likely to have been previously encountered, but since forgotten, are recalled more efficiently than newly encountered Irish nouns. Furthermore, evidence of cognateness as a retrieval strategy reveals an active Irish language residual knowledge base. Originality: This paper is the first effort in applying the savings paradigm methodology, as demonstrated in de Bot et al., to the Irish language context, and is the first attempt at measuring perceived pre-test Irish language abilities using self-efficacy. Implications: With Irish language as a compulsory school subject in Ireland, and so few daily users of the language, the identification of residual Irish knowledge in a population that has not used the language in decades may encourage reactivation of a language presumed to be forgotten. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: No recent studies have investigated language effects on counterfactual reasoning in bilinguals. This paper investigates the impact of bilinguals' native language and language of testing on counterfactual reasoning, addressing two questions: (1) Do older Chinese reasoners, educated before English became a school subject, draw different inferences, or use different cues to draw inferences, compared with English peers and younger ChineseL1 reasoners? Does knowing English affect their reasoning? and (2) Do Chinese reasoners draw different inferences, or use different cues, when tested in Chinese and when tested in English? Design: Experiment 1: The explanatory variables are first language (between-group: Chinese, English), age cohort (between-group: young, older), inferential chain length (within-group: short, long). Experiment 2: The explanatory variables are language of testing (between-group: Chinese, English) and inferential chain length (within-group: short, long). The outcome is the consequent probability rating. Open questions investigate cues used to draw inferences. Analysis: The sample comprised 188 participants. Generalised linear mixed-effects models were used for quantitative data, thematic analysis for qualitative data. Findings: Older Chinese speakers rate long-chain consequents as more probable than English peers. Chinese and English reasoners use different cues to make inferences, as do Chinese reasoners tested in Chinese L1 or English L2. Originality: This is the first paper to compare Chinese reasoners educated before and after English entered the school curriculum, and to investigate inferential chain length effects on Chinese counterfactual reasoning. It introduces a novel task (consequent evaluation), and adopts a mixed-method approach to investigate both the product and process of reasoning, using quantitative and qualitative data respectively. Significance: The study provides new evidence and interpretation for the old debate about language effects on counterfactual reasoning in cognitive psychology; shows that conditional reasoning is a fruitful topic for linguistic relativity and bilingual cognition research; and testifies that qualitative data allows detection of differences in thinking processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives: Bilingualism is a complex construct, and it can be difficult to define and model. This paper proposes that the field of bilingualism can draw from other fields of psychology, by integrating advanced psychometric models that incorporate both categorical and continuous properties. These models can unify the widespread use of bilingual and monolingual groups that exist in the literature with recent proposals that bilingualism should be viewed as a continuous variable. Approach: In the paper, we highlight two models of potential interest: the factor mixture model and the grade-of-membership model. These models simultaneously allow for the formation of different categories of speakers and for continuous variation to exist within these categories. We discuss how these models could be implemented in bilingualism research, including how to develop these models. When using either of the two models, researchers can conduct their analyses on either the categorical or continuous information, or a combination of the two, depending on which is most appropriate to address their research question. Conclusions: The field of bilingualism research could benefit from incorporating more complex models into definitions of bilingualism. To help various subfields of bilingualism research converge on appropriate models, we encourage researchers to pre-register their model selection and planned analyses, as well as to share their data and analysis scripts. Originality: The paper uniquely proposes the incorporation of advanced statistical psychometric methods for defining and modeling bilingualism. Significance: Conceptualizing bilingualism within the context of these more flexible models will allow a wide variety of research questions to be addressed. Ultimately, this will help to advance theory and lead to a fuller and deeper understanding of bilingualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the findings of two studies of Copenhagen multiethnolect. The first study depicts a set of linguistic features that constitutes the linguistic variety which is termed multiethnolect. This study was by and large carried out from a perspective which in the paper is called a variety perspective. The second study was carried out from a stylistic practice perspective where multiethnolect is analyzed in more holistic terms as part of a broad range of stylistic repertoires in a local community of practice. The two studies serve in this article as illustrations of different approaches to studying language use and variation in multiethnic urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: This paper explores children's experiences and perceptions of their own bilingualism in two contexts in Scotland, UK: a primary school with a high proportion of children using a language other than English at home; and a primary school where the language of instruction is an indigenous, minority language, Gaelic. Methodology: The paper draws upon data gathered from multiple qualitative methods, including interviews, group activities and discussion, with both children and their parents. The data in this paper draw upon a broader interdisciplinary project exploring children's experiences of bilingualism. Ethics were duly considered. Data and analysis: Data were gathered from 27 children and 11 parents. Data were coded and analysed using thematic analysis. Comparison between contexts was of particular interest for this article. Findings: This paper highlights the importance of research with children in order to gain an insight into their experiences and perceptions of their own bilingualism. In particular, our findings illustrate how children's language learning is encouraged and supported by children's connections with others and the fundamental role of family (particularly parents/carers) and diverse community-based support systems (which encompass a wide range of individuals and community groups) in order to develop active bilingualism. Originality: This paper addresses a research gap in a largely quantitative field, by adopting a qualitative approach to explore children's experiences and perceptions of their own bilingualism. A qualitative approach facilitates attention to complexity and the participants' own meanings and understandings. Significance: The paper highlights the value of research with children in order to explore their views and perspectives. In particular, qualitative research methodologies, where children's experiences are central to understanding the research phenomenon, and to facilitating the exploration of the range of complex issues that interact with a child's bilingualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: This paper describes the multilingualism patterns practiced in the Zauzou community, a small ethnic group in Southwestern China. Zauzou is in contact with Lisu, Bai, Lama, and Mandarin Chinese. The present study aims to characterize the relationship between the social/linguistic factors including age, second language (L2), types of code-alternation, and the multilingualism patterns in this community. Design/methodology/approach: Self-reports and participant observation were used to discover any recurrent multilingualism patterns regulated by social/linguistic factors. Data and analysis: Self-reported data on Zauzou speakers' language repertoire and language use were collected by means of demographic survey. Code-alternation between Zauzou and different L2s were collected from systematic linguistic fieldwork. Findings/conclusions: Zauzou is the dominant language in intragroup multilingualism, while intergroup multilingualism is dominated by Zauzou speakers' L2s. Zauzou speakers exhibit a shift from the local multilingualism toward Mandarin-Zauzou bilingualism. The two patterns can be characterized by speakers' age, L2, and the type of code-alternation. Zauzou-Mandarin bilingualism is realized as both code-mixing and code-switching, and is pervasive among the younger generation, while multilingualism is realized as code-switching and is dominant among older speakers. This shift is due to the new market economy and the language policy that promotes Mandarin in the whole area. Originality: This study presents naturalistic data on multilingualism practices in a small minority group in China, which is overlooked by most linguistic descriptions and sociolinguistic studies of lesser-studied languages in China. Significance/implications: This paper discovers three parameters to define two cross-linguistic multilingualism patterns in small indigenous societies: the local multilingualism and the national bilingualism, and the shift toward bilingualism that directly results from language policy and economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: The paper describes the current multilingual language ecology and explores two subdomains of the lexicon in order to infer information about the extent and nature of multilingualism in the past. Methodology: The paper employs quantitative and qualitative analysis of a sociolinguistic questionnaire in the first part. The second part includes a qualitative analysis of lexemes in the domains of bird names and plant names, and then compares them with old ethnographic sources as well as recent information on the surrounding languages. Data: The data of this study come from original fieldwork by the author in the village of Rouku and surrounding villages collected between 2010 and 2016. It is supplemented by material from colleagues working on related languages (Evans, Kashima and Siegel). Findings: The method suggests that the type of multilingualism that was practiced in the past is similar to today. Originality: The study is novel in providing a description of multilingualism from the Southern New Guinea area. Moreover, it advances a lexicographic and ethnographic approach in reconstructing the past state of a language ecology. Implications: The main conclusion is that in the absence of written historical sources – a problem that one is almost always facing in New Guinea – it is possible to extrapolate from the lexicon of Komnzo to a past state of the local language ecology. Limitations: The method does not allow for dating the point in time for which the inferences can be made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: The paper studies Kpelle–Mano bilingualism in the broader context of local multilingual repertoires and assesses symmetry in the patterns of language use. Methodology: We combine natural speech sampling with ethnographic observations, interviews, sociolinguistic surveys and elicitation tasks. Data and analysis: The data analyzed includes 88 questionnaire responses, targeted elicitation with 21 individuals, as well as corpus collection and ethnographic observations over the course of fieldwork from 2008 onwards. Findings: Neither Mano nor Kpelle has an overt prestige value. Marriage patterns and economic activity are symmetrical, and both languages can be in certain cases chosen as a means of interethnic communication. However, bilingualism is typically unreciprocated, and the Mano speak Kpelle more often than the other way round. Contact-induced change is almost exclusively unidirectional, with Kpelle influencing Mano. We suggest relative population size as the main explanatory factor. In contrast, both Mano and Kpelle are in an asymmetric relationship with Maninka, which is frequently used by urban Mano and Kpelle speakers. Even if some Maninka claim to speak Kpelle to a certain extent, they rarely use it in real life. Originality: This paper is a report on a previously unstudied multilingual setting. We stress the theoretical and the empirical importance of the patrilect. In addition to its being the defining identity feature, the patrilect is also the main predictor defining the language choice in communication and the volume of the repertoire. Significance: We applied long-term participant observation in various social settings to obtain a fine-grained account of the rules governing language choice, which a typical background questionnaire would overlook. We also sampled natural and elicited speech of L1 and L2 speakers of Mano and Kpelle, a method that yields better results than proficiency tests because it captures interference in grammar, which has far-reaching consequences for contacting languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: This paper reconstructs past multilingualism (1900–1930s) among the nomadic people of the Lower Yenisei in northern Siberia, with particular attention to the language ideologies behind it; it is validated by parallels from small-scale communities worldwide. Approach: An ethnographic approach is taken, which interprets sociolinguistic data in view of emic categorizations. Data and analysis: The reconstruction is based on: (a) 1926 census data; (b) ethnographic reports from the 1920s to 1960s; (c) narratives from the 1940s; (d) retrospective sociolinguistic interviews; and (e) ethnonyms of local languages. (a), (b) provide a background for the interpretation of the linguistic data from (c)–(e). Findings: The connection of local social categories/groups to languages was unstable both synchronically and diachronically. Linguistic repertoires described the authenticity of the speech communities better than the command of individual languages. The linguistic indexing of identity was relational and depended on social networks more than on ancestry/kinship. These ideologies together with constant migrations shaped the sociolinguistic profile of the area and facilitated language shifts. Originality: Besides providing a detailed sociolinguistic description for an underresearched part of the world, this paper uses a novel methodology for reconstructing multilingualism of the past. Implications: The described mechanisms of language shift within communities that are multilingual in related languages contribute to theories of language diversification and spread at least in the north, but possibly also in a broader perspective. The methodology can be applied to other cases of past multilingualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The paper tests the hypothesis that the larger the population of language speakers, the smaller the number of second languages mastered by these speakers. Design/methodology/approach: We match the size of the population of 29 Dagestanian languages and the number of second languages spoken by the speakers of these languages from 54 villages, and run a Poisson mixed effects regression model that predicts the average number of second languages spoken by speakers from first-language communities of different size. Data and analysis: Data for this study comes from two sources. The information on the population of Dagestanian languages is based on the digitalized census of 1926. The information on the number of second languages in which the residents of Dagestan are proficient is taken from the database on multilingualism in Dagestan (4032 people). Findings/conclusions: The study supports the hypothesis that the size of language population is negatively correlated with the multilingualism of the language community. Originality: The paper is the first to test the correlation between the size of language population and the level of multilingualism of its speakers using statistical methods and a large body of empirical data. Significance and implications: Population size is a factor that could have influenced patterns of language evolution. The population is interrelated with other factors, one of which is long-standing multilingualism. The methodological lesson of this research is that there is a difference in the level of multilingualism within a range of populations where the largest was about 120,000 people. Limitations: The data is limited to one multilingual region. The revealed correlation probably does not hold for areas where language communities do not interact with their neighbors and even speakers of minority languages can be monolingual, or for the territories where many people migrated and the area where a language is spoken was discontinuous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: This paper captures social dimensions of language in highly diverse small-scale multilingual contexts that appear to pose challenges for (socio)linguistic description and documentation. I focus on the seeming contradiction of monolingual imaginations of places with heterogeneous and multilingual inhabitants, on great fluidity and variability of language use and the concomitant limits of reification-based identification of codes, and on personalised repertoires shaped by individual trajectories and relational, rather than categorical, stances. Approach: I propose patterns and perspectives as two interrelated dimensions to guide research in configurations of this kind, illustrating epistemological and methodological points through data from multilingual settings in Casamance, Senegal. Data and analysis: I focus on data collected in the village of Agnack Grand and its surroundings, but also include data from across the Lower Casamance and adjacent regions of Guinea-Bissau, discussing patterns of multilingual organisation and extracts from conversation and how their speech forms are categorised. Findings: The paper brings sociohistorical dimensions of small-scale multilingualism to the fore and identifies their lasting influences on spatial representations of language regimes. Linguistic spaces influence perspectives on speech events taking place in them and circumscribe speech participants' and observers' choices in describing repertoires, producing and analysing speech forms. Beyond the selection of language modes, perspective also determines how speech forms are categorised. I demonstrate that the patterns speakers and observers have experienced and the perspectives they assume are decisive in shaping their perception. Originality: My central observation is that there is no objective, neutral viewpoint on (multilingual) speech, but that positionality frames it at all levels. I develop new epistemologies for studying these dimensions. Significance: Putting the categorisation processes employed by speakers and observers and their underlying motivations centre stage and integrating sociolinguistic and anthropological linguistic methods and historical knowledge into linguistic description and documentation constitutes an innovative research programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To contribute to the establishment of a novel approach to language documentation that includes bilingual and multilingual speech data. This approach would open this domain of study to work by specialists of bilingualism and multilingualism. Approach: Within language documentation, the approach adopted in this paper exemplifies the "contemporary communicative ecology" mode of documentation. This radically differs from the "ancestral-code" mode of documentation that characterizes most language documentation corpora. Within the context of multilingualism studies, this paper advocates for the inclusion of a strong ethnographic component to research on multilingualism. Data and Analysis: The data presented comes from a context characterized by small-scale multilingualism, and the analyses provided are by and large focused on uncovering aspects of local metapragmatics. Conclusions: Conducting language documentation in contexts of small-scale multilingualism requires that the adequacy of a corpus is assessed with regard to sociolinguistic, rather than only structural linguistic, requirements. The notion of sociolinguistic adequacy is discussed in detail in analytical terms and illustrated through an example taken from ongoing research led by the authors. Originality: To date, there are no existing publications reviewing in the detail provided here how the documentation of multilingual speech in contexts of small-scale multilingualism should be structured. The contribution is highly original, in particular, for its theoretical grounding of the proposed approach. Significance/Implications: This article can serve as a reference for those interested in methodological and theoretical concerns relating to the practice of language documentation in contexts of small-scale multilingualism across the world. It may also help clarify ways for sociolinguists to engage more closely with work on language documentation, a domain that has thus far remained primarily informed by structural linguistic approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each of the 65 inhabited islands of Vanuatu hosts its own unique linguistic environment in which varying degrees of multilingualism are found. This paper defines various types of small-scale multilingual settings in Vanuatu and explores what sociohistorical factors have led to them. This paper is based on first-hand observations and primary data collected by the authors in four locations in the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu since 2016: two neighboring villages of Emae Island (Makatu and Tongamea), North Malekula, and on Maewo Island. The assessments of multilingualism in these examples from Vanuatu were qualitative, based on observations of sociolinguistic practices in each of these areas, as well as data from language history and language use surveys carried out in each place. Through defining and comparing the types of multilingualism present in the four case studies, we identify patterns in the social and historical processes that lead to various kinds of multilingualism: (a) interaction of linguistic and sociocultural identities and (b) mobility of both individuals and entire speech communities. The examples described in this paper are used to highlight the diversity of multilingualism found in Vanuatu and to explore how their differing linguistic environments and histories have contributed to their varying degrees of multilingualism. This paper makes an original contribution to knowledge about the small-scale multilingual situations in Vanuatu, offering descriptions of previously undocumented and endangered multilingual environments. Through an examination of the sociocultural motivations for multilingualism, alongside historical migrations of speaker groups and marked sociolinguistic identities, this paper contributes to research on why and how small-scale multilingualism can develop. Furthermore, this paper provides the foundation for future, more rigorous investigations into the small-scale multilingual situations of this highly understudied region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Threshold Hypothesis states that it is students who develop a high level of competence in two languages that most benefit from their bilingualism. This is borne out by findings that show children who have added a second language to their linguistic repertoire are better at acquiring a third language. However, fostering additive bilingualism in education is a complex process. The language used at school is definitely crucial, but active use of the target language is also essential for students to attain a high level of competence. In the case of a minority language, active use can be even more important because its development often depends on school instruction alone. This paper reports on a study carried out on 155 bilingual adolescents, aged 12-16, in a school in the Basque Country (Northern Spain). The language of instruction is Basque (minority language). Spanish (majority language) is taught as a subject for 3-4 hours a week as is English (foreign language). The students have been learning through the medium of Basque since the beginning of their schooling. Spanish and English were introduced in grade 3 when students were eight. For half of the students (78) their education through the medium of Basque constitutes a maintenance program whilst it is an immersion program for the other half (77). The results show that all the adolescents are highly competent in Basque and Spanish but that it is the students who use Basque in more language domains, who get the best scores in English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research questions: This paper explores the connotations that emergent bilinguals attach to grammatical gender and discusses the difficulties adults experience when learning a second grammatical gender system. The results from a study of emergent bilinguals with French as a second language suggest that these difficulties can be partly explained by gender connotations associated with the grammatical gender of the lexical item in the bilingual’s first language. The paper also discusses the dynamic side of these gender-linked connotations, by asking if they are modified when learning the grammatical gender of the lexical items in a second language. Design/Methodology/Approach: In the study, we surveyed 282 adult French L2 learners who were studying at two university language centres. Participants performed a voice attribution task, followed by a French grammatical gender production task. Data and Analysis: We analysed answers to the voice attribution task using a generalized linear mixed model. Findings/Conclusions: The results of this study reveal a strong influence of the objects’ L1 grammatical gender, while no effects of L2 French grammatical gender on voice attribution were found. However, an effect of the grammatical gender participants assigned to objects in the French grammatical gender production task was observed. It appears that L2 grammatical gender has an influence on the voice attribution task, but that the effects are related to the participant’s own L2 French gender assignment, rather than to the correct French grammatical gender of the object. Originality: This research investigates the difficulties experienced by adults learning a second grammatical gender system by tasks used in studies on grammatical gender and (bilingual) cognition. Significance/Implications: The results of this paper enable a discussion of the effects of grammatical gender on (bilingual) cognition, by its focus on L2 grammatical gender learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: The aim of this manuscript is to provide an overview of the population and languages studied and the methods and practices surrounding the definition of bilingualism in children below age 3. Methodology: A quantitative descriptive scoping review Data and analysis: From 530 articles, we identified 127 papers (167 studies) that met our predefined criteria, of which 144 studies defined their bilingual population. Findings/conclusions: The samples investigated were predominantly western in geographical origin and languages. Percent exposure was the most common method to measure bilingualism among infants and young children, with 20% and 25% the most used cutoffs as the minimum requirement for children's second language. We also analyzed the predictive value of these cutoffs on the likelihood that studies reported a significant difference between monolinguals and bilinguals. The stricter the inclusion requirement for bilinguals was, the higher the odds of a study to report a difference between monolingual and bilingual children. We conclude that a lack of uniformity of definition in the field may be one factor that predicts whether or not significant differences are reported. Originality: This scoping review provides developmental researchers with a unique overview of the different practices used in the field to characterize bilingual and monolingual infants/toddlers. The reported results can be used as preliminary evidence for the field to report and carefully formulate how to categorize monolinguals and bilingual infants. Significance/implications: As globalization continues to foster migration and intercultural exchange, it is essential for developmental researchers to diversify their samples and language groups. We highly encourage researchers to carefully document the definitions and rationale for all their language groups and to consider analyzing the impact of bilingualism both from a categorical and continuous approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The sparse available evidence on verbal fluency in bilingual children shows them to perform lower than monolinguals on semantic fluency (taken as indicating vocabulary) but on par or better on phonemic fluency (taken as indicating executive functioning). This study takes a more detailed look at verbal fluency skills in bilingual children by examining their search strategies, the extent to which verbal fluency skills are related to bilingual exposure, and how bilinguals perform on verbal fluency across their languages. Data and Analysis: First-graders (n = 43) and third-graders (n = 45) included monolingual speakers of French and French bilinguals who varied in their overall exposure to French and age of acquisition (AoA) to French. Participants were tested in French or in French and English on vocabulary and semantic and phonemic fluency. Language exposure was measured through detailed parent report. Group analyses, correlations, and regressions were conducted to examine performance and the involvement of language experience and vocabulary. Findings: Bilinguals performed lower than monolinguals on semantic fluency, but on par on phonemic fluency. Bilingual performance was not affected significantly by AoA or bilingual exposure. For all participants, performance was predicted by vocabulary size as well as cluster size and switching. However, the groups showed different use of search strategies. In semantic fluency, bilinguals relied more on switching, whereas monolinguals relied on both. Originality: The current paper related the measurement of search strategies (cluster size, switching) and the effect of language experience to the examination of verbal fluency in bilingual children. Implications: The results suggest that verbal fluency is dependent on vocabulary size, regardless of amounts of language exposure or AoA, and highlights need for more research into the relationship with other language skills, such as phonological awareness and reading ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a quantitative corpus-based variationist analysis of the English insertions used by Belgian Dutch and Netherlandic Dutch participants to the reality TV show ‘Expeditie Robinson’. The data consist of manual transcriptions of 35 hours of recordings for 46 speakers from 3 seasons of the show. Focusing on the expressive utterances in the corpus, we present a mixed-effect logistic regression analysis to pattern which of a variety of speaker-related and context-related features can help explain the occurrence of English insertions in Dutch. The results show a strong impact of typical variationist variables such as gender, age and location; but features that are more situational, such as emotional charge and topic of the conversation, also prove relevant. Overall, in its combined focus on (a) oral corpora of spontaneous language use, (b) social patterns in the use of English and (c) inferential statistical modeling, this paper presents new perspectives on the study of Anglicisms in weak contact settings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Integrating research on multilingualism and computer-mediated communication, this paper proposes the term ‘networked multilingualism’ and presents findings from a case study to explore its implications for the theorising of multilingualism. Networked multilingualism is a cover term for multilingual practices that are shaped by two interrelated processes: being networked, i.e. digitally connected to other individuals and groups, and being in the network, i.e. embedded in the global mediascape of the web. It encompasses everything language users do with the entire range of linguistic resources within three sets of constraints: mediation of written language by digital technologies, access to network resources, and orientation to networked audiences. The empirical part of the paper discusses the Facebook language practices of a small group of Greek-background secondary school students in a German city. Data collection follows an online ethnography approach, which combines systematic observation of online activities, collection and linguistic analysis of screen data, and data elicited through direct contact with users. Focusing on four weeks of discourse on profile walls, the analysis examines the participants’ linguistic repertoires, their language choices for genres of self-presentation and dialogic exchange, and the performance of multilingual talk online. The findings suggest that the students’ networked multilingual practices are individualised, genre-shaped, and based on wide and stratified repertoires. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is a summary of the four papers presented by the invited panel on African multilingualism to ISB8. The presenters and the respective countries they represented were panel chair Charlyn Dyers (South Africa), Felix Banda (Zambia), Feliciano Chimbutane (Mozambique) and Omondi Oketch (Kenya). The four papers in this panel apply the notion of multilingualism as social practice to the urban African context in a post-modern era characterized by intense mobility, not only across spaces but also across linguistic and other semiotic systems. In particular, they reveal how identities are performed through harnessing multiple semiotic systems, different practices and modalities, and how different semiotic resources are adopted, reconstituted and adapted to different contexts and communication needs, leading to the transformation and reconstruction of everyday discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One major controversy in the study of code-switching (CS) has been the treatment of structural regularities or patterns. Formal approaches attribute these patterns to syntactic constraints or models that are independent of socio-pragmatic or discourse factors, and hence they fall short of accounting for the variation and diachrony of CS constructions. Functional approaches call for due consideration of inter- and intra-speaker variation and discourse or processing factors, but they do not seem to go very far in pinpointing precisely what factors motivate a particular structural pattern. This paper attempts to integrate these two approaches in examining an emergent pattern in Cantonese–English CS in which postmodifying phrases are attested with English prepositions. The form of the construction may well be captured by some version of the Null Theory, but nonetheless it has little to say about why it is a new and variant pattern in Cantonese–English CS. This paper suggests that the construction is prompted by discourse factors such as salience, information status (i.e. given versus new) and heaviness (of the modifying noun phrase); typological differences (i.e. word order difference between Cantonese and English) and syntactic properties of words (such as prepositions) also have a role to play. Diachronically, this paper suggests that the construction evolves from a continuous English noun phrase with a further switch, which this paper terms “reinsertion”, within this noun phrase. Variants and possible changes of this postmodifier construction are also discussed in the light of “reinsertion” and “schematization”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Logba, a Ghana-Togo Mountain language, operates an active noun class system in which there is agreement within the noun phrase (NP) and the subject NP is cross-referenced on the verb in a form that agrees with the class of the subject. As a minority language dominated by Ewe, a non-noun class language, it is exposed to the phenomenon of borrowing. In this paper, I examine the repercussions of borrowing in terms of nouns, locative verbs, grammatical items, and culturally loaded expressions. I will show that nouns borrowed from Ewe are allocated to a class with similar semantics, while verbs show the subject–noun cross-reference on them in a clause. Grammatical items—relativizers, conjunctions, and clause linkers—have forms very similar to those found in Ewe. Other forms of borrowing shown in this paper are proverbs, riddles, and emotional expressions calqued in Logba from Ewe. It is noted that there is generalization and simplification going on among younger native speakers of Logba. The paper concludes that there is a contact-induced change in progress in which a noun class system of a minority language is exposed to interference by a majority language. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: The present paper aims to situate Macaronic Latin, a peculiar type of linguistic mixture that was used in literary works in early modern Europe, within the context of phenomena such as code-switching and borrowing, as well as mixed and constructed languages. The main objective is to see whether and how it can be compared to various instances of linguistic structures originating from more than one source language. Design/Methodology/Approach: After a description of its historical background and sociolinguistic features, main linguistic traits of Macaronic Latin are sketched and, finally, compared to other language contact phenomena, with particular reference to the fusion hypothesis. Data and Analysis: The main data for the analysis are sixty samples from macaronic works belonging to eleven language pairs. The analysis shows that mixed words in Macaronic Latin have properties of both borrowings and loans, being very similar to nonce formations. When compared to mixed and constructed languages, Macaronic Latin shows peculiarities that set it apart from either group. Findings/Conclusions: Although individual structural aspects of Macaronic Latin align its individual aspects with various outcomes of linguistic contact, the sociolinguistic pattern of its creation and later development make it a rather untypical case of linguistic mixing. Originality: Latin served as the main language of learned communication in medieval and early modern Europe; yet, this paper is the first study devoted to putting it in the context of mixed language debate. Significance/Implications: The study suggests that the preservation of the widespread use of a language with no native speakers requires sociolinguistic forces so strong so as to override many trends of what has been established as regular linguistic development. This implies that in investigating such cases we might need a modified research methodology and an extended terminology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Distinguishing between language mixing and language fusion is a non-trivial task, particularly in situations of long-standing bilingualism. The main goal of this paper is thus to propose and test a methodology for discerning language fusion from conventionalized mixing. In addition, we examine the hypothesis that the fusion of unbound elements evolves from alternational mixing. Design: The paper addresses the goals through a distributional analysis of a vernacular variety of Kildin Saami, a seriously endangered East Saamic (Uralic) language spoken on the Kola Peninsula in Northwest Russia, as a partially fused lect due to contact with Russian. Data and Analysis: A one-hour recording of an informal group conversation with three native speakers, comprising some 10,000 word tokens, was transcribed and annotated for Russian-origin items. For comparison, other available speech samples, documenting the earlier stages of the language development, as well as the few existing grammatical descriptions and dictionaries were referred to. Findings: The paper develops and showcases three diagnostic criteria indicative of language fusion: (a) regularization of the donor language items' usage patterns in the mixed variety; (b) functional reduction, or functional extension, of the donor language element, and/or of its inherited native equivalent; (c) the introduction of new constructions involving the donor language grammatical elements by way of loan translation. Finally, we report multiple parallels existing between the distribution of Russian-origin items in vernacular Kildin Saami and alternational mixing. Originality: This paper is the first to propose and systematically test diagnostic criteria indicative of language fusion in a situation of long-term bilingualism. Significance: The proposed criteria may reliably be employed as indicators of fusion in future studies of contact varieties with little, or undocumented, linguistic histories. Furthermore, in contrast to the mainstream assumption, this study also provides evidence for the claim that alternational mixing can be a starting point for the emergence of a fused lect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language debates in Latvia often focus on the role of Latvian as official and main societal language. Yet, Latvian society is highly multilingual, and families with home languages other than Latvian have to choose between different educational trajectories for their children. In this context, this paper discusses the results of two studies which addressed the question of why families with Russian as a home language choose (pre)schools with languages other than Russian as medium of instruction (MOI). The first study analyses family narratives which provide insight into attitudes and practices which lead to the decision to send children to Latvian-MOI institutions. The second study investigates language attitudes and practices by families in the international community of Riga German School.The paper discusses data gathered during two studies: for the first, semi-structed interviews were conducted with Russian-speaking families who choose Latvian-medium schools for their children. For the second study, a survey was carried out in the community of an international school in Riga, sided by ethnographic observations and interviews with teachers and the school leadership.Interviews and ethnographic observations were subjected to a discourse analysis with a focus on critical events and structures of life trajectory narratives. Survey data were processed following simple statistical analysis and qualitative content analysis.Our data reveal that families highly embrace multilingualism and see the development of individual plurilingualism as important for integration into Latvian society as well as for educational and professional opportunities in the multilingual societies of Latvia and Europe. At the same time, multilingualism and multiculturalism, including Russian, are seen as a value in itself. In addition, our studies reflect the bidirectionality of family language policies in interplay with practices ineducational institutions: family decisions influence children’s language acquisition at school, but the school also has an impact on the families’ language practices at home. In sum, we argue that educational policies should therefore pay justice to the wishes of families in Latvia to incorporate different language aspects into individual educational trajectories.Language policy is a frequent topic of investigation in the Baltic states. However, there has been a lack in research on family language policy and school choices. In this vein, our paper adds to the understanding of educational choices and language policy processes among Russian-speaking families and the international community in Latvia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The primary aim of this special issue is to advance theoretical and empirical knowledge about the role of emotion in family language policy (FLP). To better capture the complexity and multiplicity of emotion, the issue brings together five articles that reflect on different aspects of emotions in multilingual families and approach the topic from different perspectives, methods, populations, and settings. Approach: In this paper, we first address the conceptual and theoretical grounds of emotions in multilingual families through an interdisciplinary perspective to integrate recent developments in emotion research in psychology of language learning into FLP framework. We present two distinct ways in which language and emotion intersect in different subdisciplines of linguistics and in various research contexts while we centre on the context of FLP: (1) the language of emotions and (2) emotions about language(s), linguistic repertoire, and language practices. We then introduce the articles in this special issue and address the implications for the pivotal role played by emotion in FLP and their social, cultural aspects (e.g., family ties, identity construction, agency, and socialization). Conclusions: We conclude with a discussion of implications for future research on emotion in the study of FLP and multilingualism. We emphasize the need to treat emotion as one of the individual components of multilingualism and FLP because of its critical role in multilingual parenting and/or caregiving. Originality: This special issue is devoted to a better understanding of emotion in FLP research.This introduction addresses key theoretical and methodological issues in the study of emotion in FLP. It contributes to the need for epistemological vigilance and methodological diversity in investigating emotions in multilingualism and FLP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: This study on Belgian Dutch caregivers aims to complement research on multilingual family language planning with a multivarietal perspective. As transitions between varieties are often more gradual, it is revealing to study which emotions surface in caregivers' reflection on these varieties. The Belgian Dutch case is selected given its historically highly emotional macro-level language debate, its exoglossic norm and its transition from diglossia to diaglossia. Methodology: The aim is pursued through mixed methodology, combining variationist analysis with a bottom-up discourse analytic approach. Data and analysis: We juxtapose data from two Belgian Dutch families. For each family, a qualitative analysis identifies the expressions of (the lack of) emotions found in metalinguistic interviews on varieties of Dutch with the caregivers (80'). This information is triangulated with a quantitative analysis of the caregivers' use of standard and nonstandard pronouns of address in self-recorded dinner table conversations (260'; N = 1004). Findings: Results reveal caregivers' attempts to manage conflicting emotions related to the Flemish language situation, and how they lead to (dis)harmony in the family. Originality: This paper contributes to our understanding of emotions in family language policy (FLP) in its focus on a multivarietal context and in its mixed methodology. Implications: Our findings resonate with research on multilingual FLP's, which we tie to caregivers' diglossic description of the diaglossic Flemish context. The shifting relationship between emotions expressed in the interviews and the language choices made in practice, overall support the value of mixed methods FLP research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metrolingualism can be defined as the contemporary practice of creative uses, or mixing, of different linguistic codes in predominantly urban contexts, transcending established social, cultural, political and historical boundaries, identities and ideologies (Otsuiji & Pennycook, 2010). The present paper examines how this term can be applied to theorizing instances of contemporary text art that combine two or more languages, or that transform known linguistic codes into ‘fake’ or fantasy ones. The paper extends the scope of metrolingualism beyond multilingualism and includes a multimodal dimension, the mixing of genres, styles, accents, texts’ materiality, as well as their emplacement and pragmatic relevance. Finally, the paper suggests a reframing of metrolingualism as a manifestation of heteroglossia. International multimedia and performance artists whose work is analysed include Laurie Anderson, Xu Bing, Wenda Gu, Song Dong, Zhang Peili and Claire Fontaine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The aim of the present paper is twofold. Firstly, we look into the effects of a number of factors on crosslinguistic influence (study 1). Secondly, we analyse the role played by morphological awareness in the production of crosslinguistic instances (study 2). In this way, we contribute to the understanding of how crosslinguistic and metalinguistic dimensions of third language acquisition are intertwined. Methodology: We investigate lexical adaptations of the first language and second language in third language English (i.e. adapted loan words) and combine quantitative and qualitative research methods. A quantitative analysis explores the impact of the first language, the L2 factor, typology and proficiency in the target and the source languages (study 1). A qualitative analysis then proposes a categorization of the strategies used by participants to adapt their first language and second language to the target language (study 2). Data and Analysis: Language proficiency was evaluated in 222 compositions, 74 written in each language (Basque, Spanish and English). The adapted loan words found in English compositions were classified according to their source language, word category, word class and type/token categories (study 1). In addition, the strategies used by participants were identified and analysed (study 2). Findings: The results indicate that language typology is the main predictor of the source language of crosslinguistic influence, and a variety of strategies point at morphological awareness as a key factor in the strategic use of participants' first language and second language. Originality: By mixing quantitative and qualitative methods, this paper provides additional support to the claim that crosslinguistic influence and morphological awareness are intertwined in third language writing. Significance: The overall results show that students who are morphologically aware make crosslinguistic and morphological associations and use them strategically in their third language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: Japan has traditionally been thought of as a linguistically homogenous and therefore monolingual society. Consequently, very few Japanese people consider themselves bilingual, let alone translingual; however, the reality of Japanese society would suggest otherwise. This paper's objective was to shed light on the largely unrecognized translanguaging practices prevalent throughout Japanese society. It also attempts to address the question of why Japanese people largely fail to recognize their own translingual status despite their ability to live and act in an increasingly translingual society with few communicative issues. Design/Methodology/Approach: This paper takes a visual ethnography approach to examine an assortment of concrete photographic materials collected by the researcher. A descriptive qualitative framework was employed whereby written explanations and interpretation consolidate visual photographic representations to provide an insight into the translingual practices of Japanese society. Data and Analysis: Based on a descriptive qualitative framework, in which emphasis was placed on understanding the identified phenomena in their own right through analysis of emergent descriptions rather than predetermined options, 10 instances of translanguaging practices were analyzed in depth throughout this paper under six different themes: simple translation, intersentential practices, intrasentential, practices interlexical practices, intralexical practices, and semiotic-reliant practices. Findings/Conclusions: The findings provide concrete evidence of intersentential, intrasentential, interlexical, intralexical, and semiotic-reliant translingual practices working together to create a linguistically rich Japanese society that is undeniably deserving of a translingual accreditation. Originality: This is the first study that has looked at the translanguaging practices of Japanese society and identified it as being deserving of a translingual accreditation. Significance/Implications: This paper contributes toward an epistemological shift away from the erroneous notion that Japan is a monolingual nation, and brings about awareness to celebrate the underlying translingualism that runs prevalent throughout modern Japanese society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: This paper examines whether second-generation Turkish heritage speakers in the Netherlands follow language-specific patterns of reference tracking in Turkish and Dutch, focusing on discourse status and pragmatic contexts as factors that may modulate the choice of referring expressions (REs), that is, the noun phrase (NP), overt pronoun and null pronoun. Methodology: Two short silent videos were used to elicit narratives from 20 heritage speakers of Turkish, both in Turkish and in Dutch. Monolingual baseline data were collected from 20 monolingually raised speakers of Turkish in Turkey and 20 monolingually raised speakers of Dutch in the Netherlands. We also collected language background data from bilinguals with an extensive survey. Data and analysis: Using generalised logistic mixed-effect regression, we analysed the influence of discourse status and pragmatic context on the choice of subject REs in Turkish and Dutch, comparing bilingual data to the monolingual baseline in each language. Findings: Heritage speakers used overt versus null pronouns in Turkish and stressed versus reduced pronouns in Dutch in pragmatically appropriate contexts. There was, however, a slight increase in the proportions of overt pronouns as opposed to NPs in Turkish and as opposed to null pronouns in Dutch. We suggest an explanation based on the degree of entrenchment of differential RE types in relation to discourse status as the possible source of the increase. Originality: This paper provides data from an understudied language pair in the domain of reference tracking in language contact situations. Unlike several studies of pronouns in language contact, we do not find differences across monolingual and bilingual speakers with regard to pragmatic constraints on overt pronouns in the minority pro-drop language. Significance: Our findings highlight the importance of taking language proficiency and use into account while studying bilingualism and combining formal approaches to language use with usage-based approaches for a more complete understanding of bilingual language production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: Few studies have investigated different-script cognate effects in language assessment contexts. This paper examines the impact of Japanese cognates in a test of English receptive lexical knowledge that is widely used for placement purposes in second language learning contexts. Specifically, the present paper utilizes Japanese cognate frequency to predict test accuracy. 1. Does Japanese cognate frequency influence response accuracy? 2. Does the effect vary by English word frequency and/or lexical proficiency? Design/methodology/approach: Seventy Japanese-English bilinguals completed the multiple-choice English VLT. Data and analysis: Accuracy data for 150 target items and 150 distractor items were analysed separately (10,500 data points in each analysis). Generalized linear mixed-effects models were used with Japanese cognate frequency as the primary predictor and English word frequency and lexical proficiency as covariates. Findings/conclusions: A strong facilitatory cognate frequency effect was observed on both the selection of targets and the rejection of distractor items. This effect was marginally greater for lower proficiency learners. The English word frequency effect was also greater for lower proficiency test takers in the distractor analysis. Originality: The paper is the first to utilize cognate frequency to estimate the cognate effect in different-script languages in language testing. Significance/implications: The study provides robust evidence for the Japanese-English cognate effect in a test of lexical knowledge. This finding is broadly in line with the predictions of the bilingual interactive activation plus model of bilingual lexical processing. In addition, the paper demonstrates that the proportion of Japanese cognates in the test is significantly greater than the proportion of cognates in the language in general, indicating that it may over-estimate Japanese learners' knowledge of English lexis. Test designers and users are thus recommended to be aware of the impact of cognates when making inferences about language ability based on such tests of lexical knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims/objectives/purpose/research questions: This paper investigates the issue of language choice in direct speech presentation (DS) in Kinyarwanda news articles. Two specific research questions are addressed: 1. What is the default medium of DS in these texts and how can it be accounted? 2. Can the default medium be deviated from and what functions does deviance serve? Design/methodology/approach: An inductive discourse analytic methodology. Data and Analysis: Data consist of instances of DS extracted from Kinyarwanda news texts published in two Rwandan news media blogs, namely Igihe and Umuseke. Findings/conclusions: Analysis of the data reveals that, in DS, the medium of the original discourse is incidental and that the default medium of DS is Kinyarwanda. In turn, this is interpreted as conforming to the general discourse organisation principle of preference for same medium discourse. Analysis also revealed that this medium can be deviated from either because of issues in the medium itself or in order to serve specific discourse-related functions. Finally, analysis revealed that, in each case, two options are available, namely to merely reproduce verbatim items from original speech and to enter them in translinguistic apposition structures. In the latter possibility, the direction of switch is found to be significant as, in the case of issues in the medium, switching typically takes the direction Kinyarwanda–non-Kinyarwanda, while, in the case of discourse-related functions, the typical direction of switching is reversed. Originality/significance/implications: Language choice in news texts, and in DS environments in particular, remains under-investigated. Therefore, this paper serves as a call for further investigations of this aspect of language use. Also, the study has practical implications for the training of media professionals in the context it has investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies intrasentential codeswitching (CS) phenomena at two levels of abstraction: the level of lexical-conceptual structure and the level of predicateargument structure. At the level of lexical-conceptual structure, language- specific semantic and pragmatic feature bundles are activated for the speaker's intentions; at the level of predicate-argument structure, morphosyntactic directions encoding the predicate-argument structure are activated. Lemmas are abstract entries containing semantic, syntactic, and morphological information in the mental lexicon. This paper argues that lemma congruence checking between languages involved in intrasentential CS at these two levels is a fundamental organizing principle governing intrasentential CS constructions. Without exploring the issues regarding the roles of lemma congruence between languages involved in intrasentential CS,any analysis of the phenomenon would remain at the descriptive, rather than explanatory, level. Based on naturally-occurring Chinese/English intrasentential CS instances, this paper explains why certain types of salient congruence between languages are necessary in order for intrasentential CS to occur and predicts what structural restrictions and consequences may occur as a result of insufficient congruence or incongruence at any of these two levels. Accordingly, it makes proposals about the nature and structural organization of mixed bilingual production. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the diffusion of English into the linguistic ecologies of Tunisia, an Expanding Outer Circle society in North Africa. It analyzes the language practices of Tunisian business operators in five commercial localities in metropolitan Tunis. The paper focuses, in particular, on the uses of English and its interaction with Tunisia’s dominant languages, the ways the resources of English are locally understood and deployed and the intersection of the emerging “language regime” (Kroskrity, 2000) with the official linguistic landscapes policies and the wider sociohistorical, political, and economic conditions of the country.Detailed discourse-ethnographic analysis of 363 linguistic landscape signs collected from 5 commercial districts in metropolitan Tunis.The findings indicated the emergence of a bottom-up English-led public signage communicating a global corporate ideology circumventing the official language policies mandating the use and visibility of Modern Standard Arabic in public signage. However, this English-led public posting is intertwined in complex ways with Tunisia’s dominant languages, resulting in translanguaging, linguistic puns, the commodification of vernacular forms of communication as well as (supra)national and aesthetic identity markers.Tunisia, a traditionally constructed Francophone country moving toward English, is very little explored in the major Global English(es) paradigms. The paper focuses on the possible ideological, economic, and cultural changes engendered by English and connects these changes to the global socioeconomic, political, and cultural transformations undergone by the country over the last decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As there remains a paucity of research into the use of communication strategies in Polish transnational communities, this paper seeks to delineate the code-switching practices of Polish-speaking families residing in Australia. The tripartite framework of Family Language Policy has been applied for the analysis of affordances of code-switching patterns.Based on the data collected through the online questionnaire supplemented with in-depth interviews and observations, a qualitative analysis has been conducted to obtain the sociolinguistic picture of the code-switching practices.The interviews and discussions during the observations were recorded, transcribed verbatim and coded according to the Grounded Theory Approach. The recurrent themes were noted. The existing patterns were conceptualised through the process of constant comparison.The conducted study draws our attention to the fact that Polish speakers in Australia differ from speakers of other heritage languages. Language management efforts through a great exposure to Polish translates to HL proficiency, maintenance and the degree of bilingualism, as well as the rate of code-switching. All joint family and extracurricular activities organised by Saturday schools and cultural centres augment the HL retention despite the constant attempts to code-switch among the young family members.This paper delves into how Polish is maintained as a HL among Polish-speaking immigrants to Australia and their offspring. It explores one of the well-established yet understudied communities that makes up multicultural Australia. It unfolds an account of the dynamics of code-switching, illustrating how its affordances are utilised to foster communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: This paper analyzes the extent to which new speakers are participating in an ongoing phonological change in Diné Bizaad (Navajo). The implications of these patterns are discussed as they relate to theories of new speakers and language change. Methodology design: I apply a variationist methodology to analyze the pronunciation of lateral affricates from speakers representing different generations and language learning contexts. I focus on comparing new speakers, who report acquiring the language primarily through school or in a language program, with their age-equivalent peers. Data and analysis: The data come from interviews recorded with 51 bilingual Diné Bizaad-English participants, ages 18–75. This includes four new speakers. The analysis focuses on variation in the lateral affricates in connected speech samples and an oral translation task. Findings/conclusion: Results reveal that new speakers diverge from other younger participants in their lack of participation in an ongoing change in the affricates. Instead, new speakers more closely resemble middle-aged and older speakers. Originality: This study applies the new speaker framework to an Indigenous North American language, an under-represented sociolinguistic context within the literature. These findings provide a counterexample to the more frequent finding of new speakers linguistically diverging from older, traditional speakers. Significance/implications: These results are interpreted as arising due to literacy practices, language usage networks, and community values. The orthographic representation of the affricates is thought to inhibit sound change. At the same time, due to their more formal language learning background, new speakers have developed a self-monitored speech style oriented toward the prestigious, older speakers. A lack of peer group language usage is thought to prevent the development of linguistically or ideologically distinct new speaker varieties. The confluence of these factors means that instead of constituting agents of language change, new speakers are more similar to older participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: This paper first aims to examine how young Gaelic-English bilinguals in immersion education produce aspects of Gaelic phonology. We second consider the extent to which they acquire aspects of a traditional dialect. Third, we investigate how young new speakers outside of a traditional community negotiate place identity and authenticity. Methodology: Our methodology first consists of quantitative acoustic and auditory phonetic analysis of word list production data, accompanied by mixed effects regression. Second, we employ qualitative analysis of interview data from the same participants. Data and analysis: Data are presented from 22 speakers aged 13–14 in Gaelic Medium Education in Glasgow and 15 speakers aged 13–14 in GME on the Isle of Lewis. For comparison with a traditional dialect, we also include three speakers from Lewis aged 65–80. Our quantitative analysis considers 3,605 tokens in total and the qualitative analysis considers interview data with all speakers. Conclusions: Our findings show that young speakers reproduce traditional aspects of Gaelic phonology, though generally to a lesser extent that older speakers. Young new speakers in Glasgow recognise that they do not speak a traditional dialect of the language. They are beginning to create a new authenticity associated with belonging to Glasgow, which represents a new acquisition setting. Originality: This study is the first to explore acquisition of dialect and phonology among young new speakers of Gaelic. We explore perceptions of dialect and the implications of not coming from a traditional Gaelic-speaking area for the first time in young people. Implications: Revitalisation settings can lead to successful language acquisition but may also contribute to dialect levelling. However, institutional support structures can lead to increased confidence and new place identities emerging in young speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]