Linguistik
Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Article (15) (remove)
Has Fulltext
- yes (15)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (15)
Keywords
- German (2)
- L2 (2)
- (non-)gradable predicate (1)
- Aymara (1)
- Frauenzeitschrift (1)
- Geschlecht (1)
- Musical rhythm (1)
- Männerzeitschrift (1)
- P600 (1)
- Portuguese (1)
Institute
- Neuere Philologien (15) (remove)
Der sprachfamilienbezogene Erwerb einer L3 bis Lx hat durch die jüngeren sprachpolitischen Forderungen der Europäischen Kommission 1997 entscheidenden Auftrieb erhalten. Im Livre Blanc sur l´éducation et la formation von 1995 bilanziert die Europäische Kommission das Ergebnis der fremdsprachlichen Bemühungen der großen Flächenstaaten der Union als eher kümmerlich und fordert eine Wende. Künftig soll eine Europäische Mehrsprachigkeit drei Perspektiven aufweisen: eine differenzierte Betrachtung von Kompetenzen (rezeptive Mehrsprachigkeit), die Ermöglichung des gezielten Erwerbs von Teilkompetenzen mit modularen Aufbaumöglichkeiten (fachsprachlicher approach zur rezeptiven Lesekompetenz) und das Nutzen der Verwandtschaftsbeziehungen zwischen Sprachen (u.a. romanische Interkomprehensionsforschung). Diese drei Perspektiven werden in dem dreigliedrigen Projekt zur "Eurocomprehension" der Universität Frankfurt zusammengefaßt. Der Frankfurter Beitrag bezieht sich auf die Gruppe der romanischen Sprachen. ...
This paper argues that short (clause-internal) scrambling to a pre-subject position has A properties in Japanese but A'-properties in German, while long scrambling (scrambling across sentence boundaries) from finite clauses, which is possible in Japanese but not in German, has A'-properties throughout. It is shown that these differences between German and Japanese can be traced back to parametric variation of phrase structure and the parameterized properties of functional heads. Due to the properties of Agreement, sentences in Japanese may contain multiple (Agro- and Agrs-) specifiers whereas German does not allow for this. In Japanese, a scrambled element may be located in a Spec AgrP, i.e. an A- or L-related position, whereas scrambled NPs in German can only appear in an AgrP-adjoined (broadly-L-related) position, which only has A'-properties. Given our assumption that successive cyclic adjunction is generally impossible, elements in German may not be long scrambled because a scrambled element that is moved to an adjunction site inside an embedded clause may not move further. In Japanese, long distance scrambling out of finite CPs is possible since scrambling may proceed in a successive cyclic manner via embedded Spec- (AgrP) positions. Our analysis of the differences between German and Japanese scrambling provides us with an account of further contrasts between the two languages such as the existence of surprising asymmetries between German and Japanese remnant-movement phenomena, and the fact that unlike German, Japanese freely allows wh-scrambling. Investigation of the properties of Japanese wh-movement also leads us to the formulation of the "Wh-cluster Hypothesis", which implies that Japanese is an LF multiple wh-fronting language.
Rezeptive Mehrsprachigkeit ist eine der jüngsten Forderungen der EU-Kommission zum Erreichen einer realistischen Mehrsprachigkeit in Europa. Die maximalistischen Forderungen nach Perfektion in allen sprachlichen Kompetenzen haben sich in den nationalen Unterrichtswesen als illusionär erwiesen, da diese nirgendwo von statistisch nachvollziehbarem Erfolg gekrönt sind. Die sprachliche Diversität im multilingualen Europa findet sich nicht in der Realität der Bildungssysteme wieder. Zwar verfügen heute europaweit 26 % der Europäer über eine zweite und 8% über eine dritte Fremdsprache, in den einzelnen Ländern sieht es jedoch oft desolat aus. Während in den kleineren Unionsländern kaum jemand als nur monolingual gilt (Luxemburg 2%) ist die Krankheit der Einsprachigkeit in den großen EU-Staaten seuchenhaft verbreitet, etwa Großbritannien mit 66%. Dies hat in den neunziger Jahren in der Kommission zu den Postulaten geführt, die sich die Forschergruppe EuroCom als Programm gesetzt hat, nämlich Mehrsprachigkeit über den Einstieg in rezeptive Kompetenzen modularisiert und kognitiv über Transferbasen innerhalb von Sprachfamilien zu erreichen. EuroCom steht dabei als Kürzel für Eurocomprehension, ein Akronym für Europäische Interkomprehension in den drei großen Sprachengruppen Europas, der romanischen, slawischen und germanischen. Die Beschränkung auf rezeptive Kompetenzen ist dabei nur ein methodisches Ausgangsprinzip, das es ermöglicht, Mehrsprachigkeit besonders schnell über das Leseverständnis zu erreichen und modularisiert auf Hörverständnis und aktive Sprechkompetenz sukzessiv auszuweiten. Die Methode EuroCom arbeitet über die Aktivierung intralingualen Wissens mit linguistischem Transfermaterial in nahverwandten Sprachen, das als kognitives Potential den Erschließungsprozess optimiert und in kürzester Zeit ein Lese- und Hörverstehen in einer ganzen Sprachenfamilie erreichbar macht. ...
This paper addresses a set of issues related to language documentation that are not often explicitly dealt with in academic publications, yet are highly important for the development and success of this new discipline. These issues include embedding language documentation in the socio-political context not only at the community level but also at the national level, the ethical and technical challenges of digital language archives, and the importance of regional and international cooperation among documentation activities. These issues play a major role in the initiative to set up a network of regional language archives in three South American countries, which this paper reports on. Local archives for data on endangered languages have recently been set up in Iquitos (Peru), Buenos Aires (Argentina), and in various locations in Brazil. An important feature of these is that they provide fast and secure access to linguistic and cultural data for local researchers and the language communities. They also make data safer by allowing for regular update procedures within the network.
Event-related potential (ERP) data in monolingual German speakers have shown that sentential metric expectancy violations elicit a biphasic ERP pattern consisting of an anterior negativity and a posterior positivity (P600). This pattern is comparable to that elicited by syntactic violations. However, proficient French late learners of German do not detect violations of metric expectancy in German. They also show qualitatively and quantitatively different ERP responses to metric and syntactic violations. We followed up the questions whether (1) latter evidence results from a potential pitch cue insensitivity in speech segmentation in French speakers, or (2) if the result is founded in rhythmic language differences. Therefore, we tested Spanish late learners of German, as Spanish, contrary to French, uses pitch as a segmentation cue even though the basic segmentation unit is the same in French and Spanish (i.e., the syllable). We report ERP responses showing that Spanish L2 learners are sensitive to syntactic as well as metric violations in German sentences independent of attention to task in a P600 response. Overall, the behavioral performance resembles that of German native speakers. The current data suggest that Spanish L2 learners are able to extract metric units (trochee) in their L2 (German) even though their basic segmentation unit in Spanish is the syllable. In addition Spanish in contrast to French L2 learners of German are sensitive to syntactic violations indicating a tight link between syntactic and metric competence. This finding emphasizes the relevant role of metric cues not only in L2 prosodic but also in syntactic processing.
As language rhythm relies partly on general acoustic properties, such as intensity and duration, mastering two languages with distinct rhythmic properties (i.e., stress position) may enhance musical rhythm perception. We investigated whether second language (L2) competence affects musical rhythm aptitude in Turkish early (TELG) and late learners (TLLG) of German in comparison to German monolingual speakers (GMC). To account for inter-individual differences, we measured participants’ short-term and working memory capacity, melodic aptitude, and time they spent listening to music. Both L2 speaker groups perceived rhythmic variations significantly better than monolinguals. No differences were found between early and late learners’ performances. Our findings suggest that mastering two languages with different rhythmic properties enhances musical rhythm perception, providing further evidence of cognitive share between language and music.
Children’s interpretations of sentences containing focus particles do not seem adult-like until school age. This study investigates how German 4-year-old children comprehend sentences with the focus particle ‘nur’ (only) by using different tasks and controlling for the impact of general cognitive abilities on performance measures. Two sentence types with ‘only’ in either pre-subject or pre-object position were presented. Eye gaze data and verbal responses were collected via the visual world paradigm combined with a sentence-picture verification task. While the eye tracking data revealed an adult-like pattern of focus particle processing, the sentence-picture verification replicated previous findings of poor comprehension, especially for ‘only’ in pre-subject position. A second study focused on the impact of general cognitive abilities on the outcomes of the verification task. Working memory was related to children’s performance in both sentence types whereas inhibitory control was selectively related to the number of errors for sentences with ‘only’ in pre-subject position. These results suggest that children at the age of 4 years have the linguistic competence to correctly interpret sentences with focus particles, which–depending on specific task demands–may be masked by immature general cognitive abilities.