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We attempt to further our understanding of the beginnings of language change by analyzing a semantic innovation in Multicultural London English: the use of still as a discourse-pragmatic item in utterance-final position. We show that the change follows well-attested processes of semantic change, so it could have occurred at any time and amongst any group of speakers. Its emergence now, amongst young men in inner city London, can be explained by considering not only well-known external factors such as population change but also by analyzing the interactional contexts in which the new meaning emerges and by relating this to the local peer group culture. In this way we gain insights into how speakers can be motivated to use a form with a new meaning during interactional moves that are especially important for them in their everyday lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars consider clause-final adverbs (CFAs) like already, also, and only to be a prominent feature of Colloquial Singapore English (CSE), but little is known about their use in present-day CSE. Using data from the Corpus of Singapore English Messages (CoSEM), we investigate patterns of variation involving CFAs and examine whether they are sensitive to factors such as speaker age and gender. We find that clause-final already and only has increased over time, while clause-final also has remained stable. Overall, the results suggest that CFAs are a stable feature of CSE. Variation in the use of CFAs is conditioned by semantic function, age, and gender. Specifically, clause-final already is associated with the inceptive function. Clause-final already and also are more likely to be used by younger speakers, while clause-final also and only are more likely to be used by males and in all-male conversational settings respectively. We suggest that these patterns are due to present-day English-Mandarin bilingualism, increasingly positive attitudes toward CSE, and National Service for males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives/Purposes/Research Questions: Studies on incomplete first language (L1) acquisition emphasize restricted input, the low prestige of heritage/immigrant/minority languages, and age of acquisition as significant factors contributing to changes in L1. However, it is not always clear whether it is possible to distinguish results of incomplete acquisition and contact-induced language change. This article deals with two Yiddish–Lithuanian bilinguals who acquired both languages at home (recorded in 2010 and 2011). The focus of the article is the absence of the Yiddish past tense auxiliary in both informants and the replacement of Yiddish discourse-pragmatic words by their Lithuanian or English equivalents in the speech of the second informant. Design/Methodology/Approach: Qualitative analysis of the speech of two Yiddish–Lithuanian bilinguals. Data and Analysis: Two sets of recordings analyzed for the past tense use and other features mentioned in Yiddish attrition studies. Findings/Conclusions: Restricted input is to be considered as a factor in any case. However, it is argued that phenomena reported in the heritage language literature are often the same as in the contact linguistic literature: impact on non-core morphosyntax, prosody, and word order are usually mentioned as primary candidates of contact-induced structural change. Based on purely linguistic phenomena, it is not possible to distinguish between the results of acquisition under the conditions of limited input and in other contact situations where limited input is not necessarily the case. Many features of the informants' Yiddish are a result of Lithuanian impact. Originality: Yiddish–Lithuanian early bilingualism is extremely rare nowadays. The data and analysis contribute to a general understanding of the interplay between contact-induced language change and limited input. Significance/Implications: Unlike what is often presumed, it is not always possible to make comparisons to monolinguals or balanced bilinguals because monolingual speakers of Yiddish do not exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Can engagement with far-right social media communities socialize users into a new political identity? This study addresses concerns about the spread of far-right groups on mainstream social media platforms by examining how newcomers are affected by their engagement with these groups. I theorize that changes in social identity expression indicative of socialization will be measurable in the language users use to express themselves on social media, and that the magnitude of this linguistic change will intensify with more frequent far-right engagement. I develop a custom dictionary of far-right-relevant terms sourced from communities like The Daily Stormer and Stormfront. Using an original dataset of Reddit user posting histories from 2015–2017, I test for increases in the frequency of this far-right vocabulary. I find that users who engage often with a far-right community like r/The_Donald begin to sound more like white nationalists within three months. Socialized users also use far-right vocabulary more frequently in other spaces on their platform, contributing to the spread and normalization of far-right rhetoric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Words and the concepts they represent vary across languages. Here we ask if mother-tongue concepts are altered by learning a second language. What happens when speakers of Tsimane', a language with few consensus color terms, learn Bolivian Spanish, a language with more terms? Three possibilities arise: Concepts in Tsimane' may remain unaffected, or they may be remapped, either by Tsimane' terms taking on new meanings or by borrowing Bolivian-Spanish terms. We found that adult bilingual speakers (n = 30) remapped Tsimane' concepts without importing Bolivian-Spanish terms into Tsimane'. All Tsimane' terms become more precise; for example, concepts of monolingual shandyes and yụshñus (~green or blue, used synonymously by Tsimane' monolinguals; n = 71) come to reflect the Bolivian-Spanish distinction of verde (~green) and azul (~blue). These results show that learning a second language can change the concepts in the first language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper based on quantitative and qualitative analysis on data on language attitudes and geopolitical orientations obtained in Central and Southern Ukraine shows significant differences between two regions. The assessment of linguistic changes occurred after the collapse of the USSR in both regions is unequivocal: most participants in open interviews noted a positive trend for the Ukrainian language, including the expansion of functional spheres of its use (on television, in politics, in education) and its higher prestige in society. Post-Soviet changes toward the expansion of the use of the Ukrainian language were viewed positively even by predominantly Russian-speaking respondents, who opposed "Ukrainization" in other aspects. Based on the answers to the questions in the "Geopolitics" and "Identity" blocks of questionnaire, two types of respondents were identified using cluster analysis: (1) "pro-European" and (2) "pro-Russian." The language preferences of respondents belonging to different clusters differed in the regions studied: while more Ukrainian speakers, both in the Center and in the South, mainly belonged to the first cluster, and more Russian speakers (to a somewhat lesser extent) to the second, speakers who used a mixed idiom known as Surzhik in the Center, were more "pro-Russian," and in the South, more "pro-European" oriented. That can signal of differences in language attitudes and labeling regarding Surzhik in those regions of Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The goal was to examine the effectiveness of fear language in the protective action recommendation of an emergency warning, which instructs people how to prepare and stay safe. Background: Past work is limited because it has focused on describing the severity of the weather crisis, not improving the recommendation. Likewise, other research has examined fear appeals that overemphasize death, which leads to poor risk perceptions. Method: In Experiment 1, the presence of fear language and second-person personal pronouns (i.e., "you") in a recommendation was manipulated. Experiment 2 examined how fear language and a hurricane changing in intensity influenced risk perceptions across three decision points. Results: Experiment 1 suggested that fear language was more influential than a pronoun on risk perceptions. Experiment 2 suggested that fear language in a protective action recommendation was most impactful in the case of a hurricane decreasing in intensity. Conclusion: Protective action recommendations with fear language influence risk perceptions and behaviors. The magnitude of this influence is dependent on how people have categorized the hurricane (i.e., low vs. high risk). Application: These results demonstrate that fear appeals in hurricane warnings can be useful, especially in cases when a low to medium risk event is still extremely dangerous. Likewise, these results demonstrate a need for caution, as fear appeals are not a "one size-fits-all" approach to increasing risk perceptions and should be used thoughtfully. Recommendations of when to use fear appeals in protective action recommendations are provided based on the present data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does language change reveal the psychological trajectories of people coping with a COVID-19 infection? This study examined writings on social media over 12 weeks from people who self-reported having tested positive for COVID-19. People used fewer words reflecting anxiety and distancing but more words indicating reinterpretation over time. The language patterns for describing the experience of COVID-19 infections differed from those for describing other unrelated topics. The findings reveal the temporal dynamics of psychological adjustment to an unfolding crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of the effect of language contact has been a source for extensive investigation in the linguistic field. More specifically, the case of reborrowing, that is, the shift from language A to language B and then cyclically back to language A, often involving a change in meaning and/or form, has been a source for extensive interest. In this paper, we examined the word ṣabāba/sababa ‘o.k’ as a case study of reborrowing from Classical Arabic into Israeli Hebrew and then back to Spoken Palestinian Arabic. We show that while language contact does motivate and affect change, it does not necessarily take part in internal changes exhibited in the target language itself, but can, in turn, later be exhibited back in the original language or one of its dialects. In addition, as language-contact change operates according to more general principles of linguistic change, such as grammaticalization, we shall demonstrate both intra- and inter-language changes.We used the Lisān al-ʿArab (لسان العرب, ‘Tongue of Arabs’) dictionary for the etymological investigation in Arabic,1 the corpus of the Quran for historical Arabic data, scripts and poems from the Mamluk Arabic period for the Middle Ages’ Arabic data,2 and for contemporary spoken Arabic, we used a corpus of 100 random WhatsApp messages of Israeli Arab Bedouin students (such usage exists in all Palestinian Arabic dialects). For the Hebrew data, we used the Israeli Historical Jpress Corpus3 and the Hebrew Historical Maagarim corpus;4 and finally, for contemporary Hebrew data, we used 100 random examples from the hetenten corpus.5We found a reborrowing ‘ping pong effect’, from classical Arabic to 20th-century Hebrew, and in the contemporary 21st century back to Spoken Palestinian Arabic. We also found a phonetic change from Classical Arabic ṣabāba صَباَبة to Contemporary Arabic sababa صبابا. A similar phonetic change occurred in Hebrew, from sabaaba סבאבה to sababa סבבה. Thus, this was not a diachronic shift from Classical Arabic to Spoken Arabic, but rather the classical Arabic word was borrowed into Hebrew and then, in a ‘ping-pong’ reborrowing shift, went back to spoken Arabic. This process involved mechanisms of metonymy, bridging contexts, and lexicalization.While language contact does motivate and affect change, it does not necessarily occur through internal changes exhibited in the target language itself but rather can be transferred back, in a cyclical fashion, to the original language. These results focused on a bilingual community, shedding additional light on the nature of linguistic processes of reborrowing and language contact. [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: The goal of this special issue is to anchor an understanding of language variation and change in a relatively newly adopted framework for researching 'new speakers' of minoritized languages. Approach: This paper first reviews basic principles of variationist sociolinguistics as they apply to new-speaker contexts before critically engaging with the notion of speakerhood. Conclusions: We frame our discussion of new speakers as mobile bilinguals in contexts of sociolinguistics change. We call into question traditional ideals of speakerhood that have been couched in studies of bilingualism and language variation and change, and we emphasize the need to understand variation as part of the new social conditions that these speakers must navigate. This approach enriches approaches to measuring key factors in bilingualism (e.g. input, peer identity, language dominance), that are better adapted to the sociolinguistic ecologies of new speakers. Originality: This is the first special issue dedicated to the bi-/multilingual repertoires of minoritized language speakers that more readily encapsulates both a new speaker framework and standard principles of language variation and change. This introduction discusses important theoretical and methodological advancements in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a vast proliferation of categories, descriptors and labels used to describe gender and sexual identity over the past few years, with terms now numbering in the hundreds. Many terms, such as heteroflexible, asexual, demigirl and sapiosexual actively contest masculine/feminine and hetero/homo binary arrangements of identity, and LGBTQ minority rights discourses and arguably represent an epochal shift in gender/sexual knowledge frameworks. The cultural conditions that make such change possible have yet to be explored. This paper draws on theoretical approaches to populism to analyse the role of popular culture, digital communication and contestation of institutional and expert knowledges in driving the emergence of new gender and sexual terminology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the extent of L1 vocabulary attrition in a Korean child following her relocation to the United States at the age of 6 years 10 months, and the subsequent restoration of her L1 vocabulary upon her return to Korea 10 months later.A picture-naming task was administered on a regular basis over a period of several months, beginning shortly after the child’s arrival in the United States.The data were analyzed to determine the child’s accuracy in producing common nouns in the L1.The study shows significant L1 vocabulary attrition after just 1 month, with an inability to access half of the test items after just 4 months and a drop in accuracy to 25% after 9 months. Upon return to Korea, the child’s L1 vocabulary improved rapidly, surpassing English usage within 3 weeks and reaching 82% accuracy within 6 weeks. These findings underscore the vulnerability of children to language attrition in a monolingual environment while also highlighting the remarkable resilience of their L1 skills.The study traced the child’s L1 decline and recovery in accordance with a strict timetable. By beginning measurements within a week of the child’s exposure to English following her subsequent reintroduction to Korean, the study was able to document the earliest manifestations of lexical attrition, its rapid progression, and its subsequent reversal—a pattern of decline and recovery that is rarely studied in this manner.This study contributes to the field by systematically documenting the impact on L1 vocabulary of a sudden change in linguistic environment, providing rare insights into the dynamics of lexical attrition in early bilingualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Languages persist through a cycle of learning and use: You learn a language through immersion in the language used in your linguistic community, and in using language to communicate, you produce further linguistic data, which other people might learn from in turn. Languages change over historical time as a result of errors and innovations in these processes of learning and use; this article reviews experimental and computational methods that have been developed to test the hypothesis that those same processes of learning and use are responsible for creating the fundamental structural properties shared by all human languages, including some of the design features that make language such a powerful tool for communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates when and why members of privileged groups choose to describe inequality using disadvantage frames (e.g., "women have lower wages than men") or advantage frames (e.g., "men have higher wages than women"). Four studies (N = 1,251) test the hypothesis that advantage frames are more threatening than disadvantage frames for privileged groups, and that privileged groups may strategically avoid using advantage frames when discussing illegitimate—but not legitimate—inequality. In Study 1, members of a privileged group (White Americans) exhibited more behavioral and cardiovascular indicators of threat when reading about, reflecting on, and discussing racial inequality framed as White advantage versus Black disadvantage. In Studies 2–4, members of privileged groups (but not underprivileged groups) used advantage frames less often when describing illegitimate inequality than when describing legitimate inequality. These studies suggest that subtle linguistic changes in descriptions of inequalities can threaten privileged groups, and that privileged groups may adjust their descriptions of inequality depending on its legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: How health risks are communicated can have a substantial impact on medical judgments and choice. Here, we examine whether the language used to process health-related information systematically changes bilinguals' perceptions and preferences. Methodology: Chinese-English bilinguals were presented with 10 medical scenarios in either their native language (Mandarin Chinese; n = 76) or a second language (American English; n = 84) and made judgments regarding their familiarity with the medical conditions and the perceived severity of the possible symptoms (incurability, emotional distress, physical pain, social harm). Participants then rated their agreement with statements pertaining to beliefs about medical decision-making (trust in the good intentions of doctors, acceptability of challenging doctors, importance of involving family, preference for standard treatments, preference for experimental treatments). Data and analysis: Linear mixed-effects models were constructed for judgments of medical conditions and for beliefs regarding medical decision-making. Findings and conclusions: Medical conditions were perceived to be easier to cure, less physically painful, and less emotionally distressing when processed in the second language, English. Using English also increased endorsement of beliefs (such as challenging doctors' opinions and accepting experimental treatments) that were more consistent with individualistic than with collectivistic norms. We propose that the activation of emotions and values is linked to language, with consequences for how individuals make decisions that impact their health and well-being. Originality: The present study is among the first to systematically examine the interactive psychological impact of language context and experience on judgments and beliefs in an applied medical domain. Significance: With millions of practitioners and patients worldwide making medical decisions in a combination of native and non-native languages, the present findings highlight the need to account for language, including language use, context, and experience, in order to optimize health-related communication and judgments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This short essay seeks to restore the keywords approach initiated by Williams to a more central place within the cultural materialist paradigm he also developed. Combining Williams' cultural materialist account of language with the practical orientation of Keywords, it sketches a way of developing the keywords approach as a method of sociocultural analysis. Drawing on some practical examples, it offers 'keywords-as-method' as a means of carrying out a historicist and materialist study of the relationship of linguistic to social change, that goes beyond the simple glossary of terms approach that has thus far limited the explanatory and critical potential of Keywords. In so doing, I hope to contribute to the renewal of Williamsian scholarship that has coincided with the centenary of his birth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The late linguist M.A.K. Halliday described the last paragraph of Darwin's Origin of Species, with its description of a tangled bank, as one of the most remarkable paragraphs in the whole of literature. Yet it appears marred by an obvious grammatical mistake. In this article, we seek to show that the apparent mistake is actually the vestige of a now extinct form of paragraph in which the structure we now reserve for a single sentence could be extended over a whole paragraph or even many paragraphs. We first zoom out to show that the final sentence makes sense in the context of the paragraph as a whole, and then zoom out again to show that the modern paragraph itself is still a work in progress. Finally, we use a comparison between English and Farsi to try to show that all such grammatical choices mediate between humans and their environment. This relationship too is a work in progress in which the grammar of a language has an important role to play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The interconnectedness of phonological categories between the two languages of early bilinguals has previously been explored using single-probe speech production and perception data. Our goal was to tap into bilingual phonological representations in another way, namely via monitoring instances of phonetic drift due to changes in language exposure. Design: We report a case study of two teenage English–Czech simultaneous bilinguals who live in Canada and spend summers in Czechia (Czech Republic). Voice onset time (VOT) of word-initial voiced and voiceless stops was measured upon the bilinguals' arrival to and before their departure from a two-month stay in Czechia. Data and Analysis: Each bilingual read the same set of 71 Czech and 58 English stop-initial target words (and additional fillers) at each time of measurement. The measured VOT values were submitted to linear mixed effects models, assessing the effects of target language, measurement time, and underlying voicing. Findings/Conclusions: After the immersion in a Czech-speaking environment, for both speakers the count of voiced stops realized as prevoiced (i.e., having negative VOT) increased and the measured VOT of voiced stops (appearing different for English and Czech initially) drifted towards more negative (more Czech-like) values in both languages, while no change was detected for the voiceless stops of either English (aspirated) or Czech (unaspirated). The results suggest that the bilinguals maintain three-way VOT distinctions, differentiating voiceless aspirated (English), voiceless unaspirated (Czech), and voiced (English–Czech) stops, with connected bilingual representations of the voiced categories. Originality: Data on phonetic drift in simultaneous bilinguals proficient in their two languages have not previously been published. Significance/Implications: We show that observing phonetic shifts due to changes in the ambient linguistic environment can be revealing about the organization of phonological space in simultaneous bilinguals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: This article analyses English–Spanish code-mixing in Gibraltar. I describe the distribution of clause-peripheral alternation patterns in order to demonstrate that there is a correlation between single age-groups and particular types of bilingual patterns. This is interpreted as a case of fusion. Methodology: By seeking a correlation between age groups and particular instances of bilingual speech, this study adopts an apparent-time perspective. Furthermore, it tries to combine the quantitative methodology adopted in sociolinguistic studies with the theoretical tools of the sociology of language that are involved in the description of linguistic repertoires. This provides an important key for the interpretation of fusion in this scenario. Data and analysis: The study was based on a corpus of nearly 20 h of interviews with bilingual speakers belonging to three age-groups. After identifying three qualitatively different bilingual patterns, which mainly differed in the presence or absence of pragmatic functions, I took into account their distribution across age groups. Findings and conclusions: The results showed that elderly speakers were associated with pragmatically motivated code-switching, while younger speakers were associated with cases of single-word peripheral switches that were not related to any discourse- or participant-related function. This may be interpreted as incipient fusion in the periphery of the clause, possibly determined by recent changes in the linguistic repertoire. Originality: This is the first study to have applied the fusion framework to the case of Gibraltar and is also one of the few that has analysed code-mixing in this scenario from a quantitative corpus-based perspective. Significance: The data presented here shed new light on the early stages of the fusion process, highlighting the correlation between the onset of this phenomenon and macro-sociolinguistic processes involving the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study is to examine the language processing mechanisms involved when young children bring structural innovations into their community way of speaking, as part of conventionalising code-switching practices to become a mixed language. Approach: The study takes a qualitative approach to the analysis of child language acquisition and adult speech data in two contexts. Data and Analysis: The study analyses naturalistic and spontaneous speech data of children and adults speaking the mixed language, Light Warlpiri, and adults older than that age group who do not speak the new mixed language. It compares an innovative auxiliary form in Light Warlpiri to child non-target speech in English with data taken from the Child Language Data Exchange System corpus. Findings: The findings are that the Light Warlpiri-speaking children used processes of re-analysis that are commonly found in child first language acquisition in other contexts to re-analyse elements of the verbal input, but because of the sociolinguistic context they created an innovative structure. Originality: The study is the first to directly compare processes of innovation in language contact with those of non-target structures in monolingual child language acquisition, identifying the same processes in each. It is also the first to show that a dramatic structural change from a linguistic perspective may be a small, incremental change from a child learner's perspective. Significance/Implications: The significance of the study is that until now processes of innovation in language contact situations have been thought by many to differ in quality from those in monolingual child language acquisition contexts. This study shows that the child language acquisition processes are the same in each situation, but different sociolinguistic contexts lead to different outcomes for the communities' ways of speaking. It also shows that children do not bring in new structure that is not motivated by their input; rather, they make small changes to the input they receive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the experiences of romantic couples who maintained their relationship when one partner transitioned gender. For this phenomenological study, 13 couples were interviewed as a dyad and individually. Relationship changes included improved communication skills and language changes, affirming sexual relationships, and redistribution of power within the couple dyad. Benefits of the gender transition included improved relationships overall, emergence of support from communities and loved ones, passing privilege, and improved awareness to social issues. Challenges included losing close relationships, difficulty with remaining patient in transition, and adjusting to new identities such as feeling queer invisibility or a loss of heterosexual privilege. Finally, couples shared that political issues in the current sociopolitical climate had a personal impact on their felt safety and daily lives. Clinical and empirical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The aim of the study is to contribute to the debate about a possible contact-induced change in the heritage language and to examine whether there is contact-induced language change at the morpho-syntactic level in Turkish spoken in Germany. We focus on the perception and use of the converbs –Ip and –IncA in heritage Turkish. Design/methodology/approach: The perception and production of the converbs –Ip and –IncA by 30 German–Turkish bilinguals, who were born and have resided in Germany, are compared with those of the control group. Data and analysis: Two tasks are used in the study: a grammaticality judgement task and a picture-story description task. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses are utilized. Findings/conclusions: The analysis of the perception of the converbs by the participants revealed that the bilinguals' perception of the grammatical constructions with –IncA and of the ungrammatical constructions with –Ip and –IncA differed significantly from that of the monolinguals; however, the perception of the grammatical constructions with –Ip was found to be similar between the bilingual and monolingual groups. The analysis of the production of the converbs by the bilingual participants showed that they tended to use the converbs significantly less than the monolingual control group did. The qualitative analysis of the production task also revealed that there were several cases in the use of the converbs that could be considered as ungrammatical and/or unconventional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to study the structure of the literary problem in the formation of the local text substrate. The study uses the methodology of studying the language when it changes in time and space. The article explains the basics of the methodological support of the translation complex and the structure of its application in private studies of foreign cultures and communicants. The results of the study showed the possibility of interaction between the subjects of linguistic exchange and the dynamics of the translation and literary component. The novelty of the study is determined by the fact that the work defines methods that can be used not only by local researchers but also by foreign-speaking communicants. The research results can be used in practical activities to bridge the gap between understanding the local text in translation studies and its structuring in the local versions of individual authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives/purpose/research question: We propose a model that captures general patterns in bilingual language processing, based on empirical evidence elicited in a variety of experimental studies. We begin by considering what linguistic outputs are logically possible when bilingual speakers communicate based on the typological features of two languages in the bilingual mind. Our aim is to explain why some outputs are more frequent or more likely than others in bilingual language use. Design/methodology/approach: Our empirically derived multi-factor model combines insights from various empirical studies of different bilingual populations and it includes a variety of methodologies and approaches, such as lexical categorisation, lexical priming, syntactic priming, event verbalisation and memory, historical language change, grammaticality judgments and observational reports. Data and analysis: We critically discuss both lexical and syntactic processing data, as well as data that reflect bilingual type differences and different communicative situations (i.e. who the bilingual speakers are talking to and for what purpose). Crucially, we explain when the relevant factors collaborate and when they compete. Originality: There are three main reasons why this paper can be deemed original: 1) it offers a unified model for understanding bilingual language processing that is not focused on a single factor or a single linguistic level, as has most often been the case in the past; 2) it brings together the study of bilingualism from both psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives and in a unifying fashion, which is rare in the literature; and 3) it creates a platform for testing numerous predictions that are not dependent on any one theory. Significance/implications: This new model opens up new avenues for research into bilingual language processing for all types of bilingual speakers and in different communicative situations. It captures and explains the variety of outputs in bilingual communication and enables us to make predictions about communicative outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do faces with social-cultural identity affect bilingual language control? We approach this question by looking at the switch cost patterns and reversed language dominance effect, which are suggested to reflect bilingual language control mechanisms, in the absence (i.e., baseline context) or presence of faces with socio-cultural identity (Asian or Caucasian). In separate blocks, the face matched (i.e., congruent context) or mismatched (i.e., incongruent context) the language to be spoken. In addition, cue preparation time was manipulated to be long (Experiment 1) or short (Experiment 2). In both experiments, a unique asymmetric switch cost with larger costs for L2 was observed in the congruent context as compared with the baseline and incongruent contexts. Furthermore, the reversed language dominance effect was not modulated across contexts. These results suggest a critical role of contextual faces in modulating local but not global language control. Thus, bilingual language control changes flexibly within an environment that includes faces with socio-cultural identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mid-adolescence is a period of considerable potential growth in the language for academic writing. Yet, to date, few writing studies explore language development during this period and even fewer focus on longitudinal or diverse samples. In this study, we examined the development of language skills for academic writing in a socio-economically diverse sample followed from sixth to seventh grade (n = 124). In each grade, participants wrote summaries of a science text. Subsequently, summaries were scored for writing quality (WQ) and analyzed for productive language skills (lexico-syntactic and discourse features). Participants completed a receptive academic language assessment and a test that measured reading comprehension of the source text. First, we examined if WQ or productive language skills changed over time. Next, we tested if Grade 6 productive and receptive language skills predicted Grade 7 WQ. Results revealed syntactic growth over time. Grade 6 use of connectives and receptive language skills emerged as predictors of Grade 7 WQ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkish-Kurdish social setting where the Turkish and Kurdish languages are in contact for a long time induces borrowing and change at different levels.This study explores the contact between Kurmanji Kurdish and Turkish that take place at both morphological and lexical level. The data consist of three hours of recordings of family talks on the phone. Corpus analysis of data obtained from audio and video recordings of a family talk on the phone was done. Preliminary findings revealed that verbs are borrowed from Turkish and then integrated into Kurdish. The changes that Turkish borrowed verbs undergo include the integration process of morphological elements and the combination of verbs with light verbs (kirin, bûn) in Kurdish. The change that takes place in the integration process can be explained by interference and long-lasting contact between the two languages. The results are in line with the findings reported by Dorleijn and Bulut who suggested that the influence is mostly unidirectional, which in turn suggests that external language change results in borrowing of some particles and grammatical chunks from Turkish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classified as an endangered language, the Laz language is spoken in a restricted area by a small number of speakers. The contact between Turkish and Laz is intense and unidirectional in that the latter is only restrained to communication among family members in small speech communities. Contact-induced change, which is an inevitable outcome of Turkish-Laz contact, is investigated by placing special emphasis on loanwords. This paper, thus, addresses the contact between Turkish and the Laz language at lexical level and aims to examine whether the existence of Turkish nouns as loanwords in the Laz language is due to contact-induced language change with a culture-heavy loanword transmission or to gradual language loss. The data analysis reveals that these alterations can be divided into four major categories which are i) treatment of vowels, ii) treatment of consonants, iii) direct insertion, and iv) loanblends. The results show that nouns that are transmitted from Turkish into the Laz language undergo phonological and morphological alterations. The contact-induced change in the Laz language is probably due to historical process, lack of knowledge of the Laz language among the young generation and the dominance of Turkish language in social and educational setting. The study is original as it is the first attempt to examine the contact-induced change at lexical level in addition to studies by İmer (1997) and Kutcher (2008) investigating contact between Turkish and the Laz languages. The findings of the study are limited to contact-induced changes taking place in nouns transmitted from Turkish into the Laz language. Therefore, further research is needed to shed light on changes in other lexical categories like adjectives, adverbs, verbs, and so on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: We investigate the robustness of cross-language phonetic correspondences in two bilingual communities over time, focusing on whether corresponding sounds (e.g. Mandarin /s/ and Korean /s'/) remain coupled in the face of language change, or whether the categories diverge over time in younger, more proficient bilinguals. Design/Methodology/Approach: We quantify the extent of assimilation versus independence of categories across languages by comparing bilinguals' production of place of articulation and laryngeal contrasts in Mandarin and Korean sibilants. Distinct language-internal changes were expected on each dimension. Data and analysis: 107 speakers varying in age (aged 19-83), gender, and dialect participated in the study. Acoustic measurements (center of gravity of frication, voice onset time) and statistical analyses were performed on a total of ~11,000 tokens. Findings/Conclusions: The extent of cross-language independence differed on the two dimensions. Corresponding segments across the two languages remained tightly coupled in terms of place of articulation, even in the face of change; on the other hand, a language-internal change in the Korean laryngeal contrast left corresponding Mandarin segments unaffected, resulting in divergence of originally corresponding categories. We also found unpredicted changes on each dimension, and these changes progressed concurrently in the two languages. Originality: The study of correspondences in the context of independent sound change provides a unique perspective from which to evaluate the robustness of cross-language interaction, and the parallel analysis of two separate dimensions in two communities adds to the generalizability of results. Significance/Implications: Most changes occurred concurrently in the two languages, suggesting that similar phonetic categories across languages can remain tightly coupled, even in highly proficient bilinguals where phonetic independence is expected. However, one of the primary expected changes (voice onset time merger in Korean) did not affect corresponding segments in Mandarin, indicating that the extent of cross-language independence in phonetic correspondences may differ even within the same population. We discuss potential reasons for the different results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, several studies have investigated developments in academic language over the last four decades: An analysis of a large number of PubMed abstracts by Vinkers, Tijdink, and Otte showed a dramatic rise in use of positive words such as “innovative,” “robust,” “novel,” and “unprecedented.” In the field of psychology, Pritschet, Powell, and Horne found an increase in mentions of marginally significant statistical findings, and social psychologist Michael Billig raised concerns about a surge of technical jargon in the social sciences. All these phenomena are believed to be a consequence of higher publication pressure and the need to become visible as a researcher in an increasingly competitive climate that is often referred to as academic capitalism. In our study, we tested the aforementioned indicators of linguistic change for a sample of 1,680 research articles from the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (JCCP) and 657 research articles from Cross-Cultural Research (CCR), published between 1970 and 2014. Overall, we found a consistent increase in positive framing, a rise in reports of marginally significant statistical findings, and indicators for growth in technical jargon. These findings suggest that self-marketing strategies are also on the rise in cross-cultural psychology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mutual exclusivity (ME) refers to the assumption that there are one-to-one relations between linguistic forms and their meanings. It is used as a word-learning strategy whereby children tend to map novel labels to unfamiliar rather than familiar referents. Previous research has indicated a relation between ME and vocabulary development, which could either be due to children’s developing knowledge of the labels for familiar objects, or to enhanced general word-learning skills. In this study, ME was related to receptive vocabulary for 17- to 19-month-old children in a novel paradigm where children’s familiarity with the objects and labels was controlled. It was found that infants with larger receptive vocabularies employed ME to a greater extent than infants with a smaller vocabulary size. The results indicate that ME use is more reliable in infants with larger receptive vocabulary size, and, critically, that ME gradually consolidates as an abstract word-learning strategy as infants’ linguistic experience increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally accepted in usage-based theories of language that language change is facilitated by contexts of use that allow for semantically and/or structurally ambiguous readings of a construction. While this facilitative effect is well attested in the literature, much less attention has been paid to factors that constrain language change. Furthermore, the idea that ambiguities may also promote stability and discourage change has not been explored in detail. In this article I discuss the development of three participle constructions that have gained increasingly adjective-like uses in recent history: ADJ-looking (e.g., modest-looking), N-Ving denoting a change in psychological state (e.g., awe-inspiring), and the adjectival -ed participle headed by a psych-verb (e.g., surprised). I argue that the development of these constructions has been significantly constrained by unresolved ambiguities as well as source structures that continue to support the earlier, verbal categorization instead of an adjectival one. As a consequence, the participles have acquired adjectival uses gradually and often at a slow rate. The data are analyzed from a constructionist perspective, where constructions are connected in a network, and categories like “verb” or “adjective” are regarded as emergent schemas that arise from actual patterns of use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilingualism in indigenous language communities brings forth tensions and creativity related to language change. In this article, taking dynamic multilingual indigenous Sámi language practices as a focus of ethnographic and discourse analytical research, I examine rhizomatic discourses on changing language in multilingual Sámi spaces. Based on longitudinal research on multilingualism in Sámiland, I will argue that the interlinked discourses of endangerment, commodification and carnivalisation simultaneously circulate across Sámi spaces, and structure language practices and experiences. Furthermore, multilingual dynamics can lead to both contestation and creativity in language practices, and may call into question various established perceptions and definitions of language and of related concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Wisdom has played a central role in the attempt to understand the positive nature of human behavior for more than 4,000 years. Neuroscientists, cognitive psychologists, and life span developmental scholars have joined this discussion in recent years to empirically investigate the physical and mental nature of wisdom. The social dimension of wisdom has not received as much scientific attention and is rather disjointed. I propose that communication scholars enter into this multidisciplinary discussion by placing communication and language at the core of the scientific study of wisdom and by investigating wisdom as enacted in our changing communication and language behaviors across the life span. An understanding and exploration of the communication of wisdom can significantly advance the positive role wisdom plays at both the individual and societal levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses a case study of scientific English from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries to test the traditional demarcation between restrictive and nonrestrictive adnominal relatives and to reconsider appropriate methods for analyzing such historical data. After an initial classification of some 1,160 clauses from the ARCHER corpus using the traditional dichotomy, alternative proposals for analyzing relative clauses are reviewed in the light of problematic examples. The concept of “aspective” relatives is adopted: those having most of the formal and pragmatic hallmarks of restrictive relatives while not strictly restrictive in the set-theoretic sense. We identify these with the clauses in present-day English that are not restrictive but that Huddleston, Pullum, and Peterson include under the heading “integrated.” We add a fourth, minor type, “continuative.” Nevertheless our data present problems even for a four-way classification. We demonstrate how some analytic difficulties are the result of changes in text-type-specific style and conventions over time, plus general diachronic change, but also that some examples genuinely resist hard-and-fast classification. We therefore treat our classes as overlapping bands on a one-dimensional gradient, testing the revised classification in detail on our seventeenth-century data. The overlaps are less numerous than any of the three main types (restrictive, aspective, and nonrestrictive), but they help to reduce the number of unclear cases from over a quarter of the total in our initial classification to a mere 1 percent. We distinguish carefully between vagueness (underspecified examples where the interpretation is in no doubt) and ambiguity (involving a choice between interpretations that depends on missing information). We suggest that our classification might be more widely applicable to the study of relative clauses. By and large, modern Sprachgefühl can be used cautiously alongside other, more objective tests to classify relatives in historical scientific texts—a point of more general theoretical relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Binomials, coordinated pairs of words, differ as to their reversibility. However, the degree of reversibility of any binomial is not necessarily stable, but is subject to diachronic changes. This article hypothesizes the different pathways of change that a binomial’s degree of reversibility may follow and presents corpus findings to show that all these pathways, and more, do occur. Some 200 high-frequency binomials were analyzed regarding their degrees of reversibility in American English across the twenty decades from 1810 to 2009 using Google Books data. While the reversibility of a binomial may remain stable, changes in terms of freezing, unfreezing, and even order reversal are frequent and probably due to a combination of intra- and extralinguistic factors. The interaction between reversibility changes and frequency changes is discussed in light of usage-based approaches to language. The example of gender binomials shows that sociocultural changes may be reflected in linguistic changes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article argues that historical linguistic change is mediated by register differences at a highly specific level. As a result, seemingly minor differences in register can correspond to meaningful and systematic differences in the patterns of linguistic change. Two specific case studies of twentieth-century historical change are presented. The first explores variation among sub-registers of news reportage, comparing the patterns of change in magazine articles from Time magazine to those found in newspaper articles from the New York Times. This case study shows that the differing readerships and purposes of magazines versus newspapers result in different historical-linguistic patterns of use. The second case study then explores variation among sub-registers of academic research writing. This study shows how differences associated with academic discipline (science vs. social science vs. humanities) correspond to systematically different trends in historical change. Even more surprising, this study shows that science articles published in journals aimed at multidisciplinary audiences differ from articles published in journals targeted toward specialized audiences. In the conclusion, we briefly consider the theoretical issue of whether these case studies illustrate historical change within a register or change to new registers. However, the primary goal of the article is methodological, to argue for more attention to register differences in corpus-based historical research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses on whether linguistic changes anticipate changes in the physical and mental health in older adults. A 10-minute oral disclosures was completed by 160 Black and White women and men with age ranging from 50 to 70, with follow-up after one month. It suggests that older adults demonstrate greater off-topic verbosity, manifest more integrated themes, and narrate in a manner that connect self experiences.

This article shows how a corpus-linguistic approach to transfer based on Jarvis (2000), Jarvis and Pavlenko (2008) and Mougeon, Nadasdi, and Rehner (2005) can help to disentangle internal and external explanations in language variation and change. The focus of the study is on grammatical collocations (Granger & Paquot, 2008) such as chercher après ‘to search for’ and verb-particle constructions (VPCs) such as recevoir dehors ‘to get out’ in Brussels French. The occurrence of such patterns in Romance varieties is often linked to contact with Germanic varieties, in which VPCs are common. This article discusses the syntactic and semantic properties of both types of constructions and argue they are to be considered as replications of grammatical use patterns (Heine & Kuteva, 2005) from the contact language, the regional variety of Dutch. Proof for covert transfer from Dutch is found through a detailed comparison of the frequency of the patterns in a range of spoken and written corpora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variationist sociolinguistics has provided essential information about community-wide patterns of language variation and change. However, as the field has developed, the need to provide coherent explanations for observed correlations has highlighted problems with the conceptualization of style, social meaning and the linguistic variable. Using data from two case studies, this article illustrates how a more nuanced account of stylistic practice provides a richer understanding of the social and cognitive basis of language use. In particular, it is argued that the linguistic analysis of social groups should be driven by the specific social concerns of the groups studied, not by the search for variable ways to ‘say the same thing’. This approach not only enables a fuller account of the social meaning of language features, it demonstrates that social meanings may be encoded at the intersection of components of the grammar (phonology, morphosyntax and discourse), and in more complex ways than has previously been assumed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An interview with Terttu Nevalainen, Professor of English Philology at the University of Helsinki, is presented. She says it took her some time to appreciate historical corpus linguistics and language change. Nevalainen talks about her role in the compilation of Helsinki Corpus, an electronic corpus of historical texts from Old English to Early Modern English. She claims that Matti Rissanen, her doctor of philosophy (PhD) supervisor, influenced her career.

This article examines general extenders (GEs) in the English spoken in Toronto, Canada, using a 1.2-million-word corpus stratified by age, sex, and education. Employing quantitative techniques, the authors assess the nature of the system, particularly the possibility that it has undergone recent grammaticalization. Diagnostic tests for phonetic reduction, decategorization, semantic change, and pragmatic shift reveal that only decategorization is visible in apparent time. Otherwise, older and younger speakers share most of the same patterns. Yet there is a dramatic shift happening in that the form stuff is rapidly becoming the predominant GE.The authors conclude that in contrast to the United Kingdom, the GEs in Toronto are not grammaticalizing but are undergoing lexical replacement. These findings suggest that discourse-pragmatic features may differ markedly across varieties and further that putative indicators of grammaticalization may not always operate in tandem. GEs provide a unique opportunity to study social and linguistic influences on discourse-pragmatic variation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study tests the extent of speakers' linguistic accommodation to members of putative in-groups and out-groups in a border locality where such categorizations can be said to be particularly accentuated. Variation in the speech of informants in dialect contact interactions with separate interviewers is analyzed for evidence of speech accommodation in the form of phonological convergence or divergence. The data do not support a straightforward interpretation of accommodation, and findings are considered in terms of evidence required for such an account. Implications for the notion of salience in explanations of contact-induced language change are also considered, as is the significance of the "interviewer effect" in the compilation of data sets for use in quantitative studies of phonological variation and change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language alternation tends to be proscribed in formal speech situations and registers; in bilingual communities, however, the use of two languages may be observed in formal speech events and registers. This article investigates the use of Spanish and English in a formal speech event, the religious ceremony performed in the Catholic mass, which is governed by prescribed rules of linguistic conduct, in order to examine the factors that constrain language alternation and choice. A quantitative analysis of six 60-minute services was used to determine the frequency of the two languages, both overall and in ritual versus non-ritual talk, and establish an empirical basis for describing the markedness of the two languages (Myers-Scotton, 2000, 2002). Patterns of language alternation are examined both at the macro level of the mass, from section to section, and at the micro level, within sections, and languages choices are explained using the Rational Choice model described by Myers-Scotton and Bolonyai (2001). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been argued that colloquial dialects of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) have undergone significant linguistic change resulting in the loss of inflected infinitives (e.g., Pires, 2002, 2006). Since BP adults, at least educated ones, have complete knowledge of inflected infinitives, the implicit claim is that they are transmitted via formal education in the standard dialect. In the present article, I test one of the latent predictions of such claims; namely, the fact that heritage speakers of BP who lack formal education in the standard dialect should never develop native-like knowledge of inflected infinitives. In doing so, I highlight two significant implications (a) that heritage speaker grammars are a good source for testing dialectal variation and language change proposals and (b) incomplete acquisition and / or attrition are not the only sources of heritage language competence differences. Employing the syntactic and semantic tests of Rothman and Iverson (2007), I compare heritage speakers' knowledge to Rothman and Iverson's advanced adult L2 learners and educated native controls. Unlike the latter groups, the data for heritage speakers indicate that they do not have target knowledge of inflected infinitives, lending support to Pires' claims, suggesting that literacy plays a significant role in the acquisition of this grammatical property in BP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contact between languages usually leads to linguistic changes. Both social and structural factors are claimed to influence this process. This study analyzes word order in Turkish as spoken in the Netherlands (NL-Turkish). Turkish is an OV language but also allows other word order patterns (including VO) in certain pragmatic contexts. Dutch, on the other hand, is VO in main clauses. Due to contact, Turkish may be expected to increase its use of VO. From a comparison with Turkish as spoken in Turkey (TR-Turkish), it appeared that there is no increase of VO in NL-Turkish. However, we did find some deviations in the information structure characteristics of VO structures and sometimes these seem to be due to Dutch influence. On the other hand, TR-Turkish data also contained certain types of VO structures that further caution against hasty contact conclusions. We conclude that contact situations need to be intense for sweeping syntactic change to occur, and that such change starts with changes in individual semilexical constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This large-scale corpus study charts differences between British English and American English as regards the use of "canonical" tag questions such as "It's raining, isn't it?, It's not raining, is it?," or "It's raining, is it?" Several thousand instances of question tags were extracted from the British National Corpus and the Longman Spoken American Corpus, yielding nine times as many tag questions in colloquial British English as in colloquial American English (but also important register differences in British English). Polarity types and operators in tags also differ in the two varieties. Preliminary results concerning pragmatic functions point to a higher use of "facilitating" tags involving interlocutors in conversation in American English. Speaker age is important in both varieties, with older speakers using more canonical tag questions than younger speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]