Linguistic differentiation and Mayan language revitalization in Guatemala1

This paper presents a quantitative study of syntactic change in the context of Mayan language revitalization in Guatemala. Quantitative analyses of grammatical variation and code‐switching patterns were used to examine the degree of Spanish influence in the speech of three generations of Sipakapense‐Spanish bilinguals. The younger generations show lower frequencies of code‐switching compared to the oldest generation. In terms of syntactic variation, younger speakers show patterns that suggest a resistance to influence from Spanish. The results suggest that younger speakers are hyperdifferentiating the two languages by avoiding traditional Sipakapense constructions that could be interpreted as resulting from Spanish influence. The analysis highlights the important role of language ideology in cases of language change due to contact and language shift.     

Interculturalism and the pendulum of identity

This article offers a critical appraisal of the role played by cultural identity in intercultural bilingual Arabic–Hebrew schools in Israel. While engineered as oases of interculturalism amidst a life of ethnic segregation, such schools ultimately confront serious difficulties in escaping the constraints of identity politics and representation. This is expressed by the leading part that group identity plays in the schools’ everyday life. By drawing on the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, we argue that this state of affairs diminishes the potential of the intercultural encounter to overcome emotional and conceptual inhibitions reigning in larger society. Interculturalism, in order to distance itself from a politics of ressentiment that can only restrict its capacity to flourish, needs to place itself before representation.     

Discourse anaphora in Turkish as mother tongue

The present paper researches the abilities of Turkish adults from Bulgaria to create narratives. It analyses the narratives of the adults using discourse strategies. The findings show some problems of bilingual adults in creating narratives which are not discussed in the scientific literature. This paper brings some new knowledge to the field of bilingual narrative analysis.     

Language shift and the family: Questions from the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora1

Fishman's Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS) emphasizes the family in maintaining the heritage languages of immigrant communities. This study uses interview data from Sri Lankan Tamil communities in the U.S.A., U.K., and Canada to explain how families account for the rapid loss of Tamil in the diaspora. It shows how the positive valuation of English since British colonization, the need to make up for past deprivations because of caste, religious, and gender inequality, the pressure for migrants to join the social mainstream, and the need to resolve intergenerational tensions influence the family to forego language maintenance goals. The findings encourage us to situate the family in macro‐social institutions, power, and history in order to understand the prospects for language maintenance. The article provides an inside view of the Sri Lankan Tamil migrant families to explain how they resolve the tensions of valuing cultural identity and yet disregarding heritage language proficiency.     

双语者类母语水平研究:问题与对策

双语者类母语水平研究是二语习得水平的上限研究。双语者类母语水平是接近母语者的语言能力,而非语言行为;它和单语者母语水平有本质不同。二语习得年龄研究通常存在类母语水平的误判:一是以语言行为代替语言能力;二是以单语者母语水平代替双语者类母语水平。克服以上问题的主要对策是语言项目适中、测试任务多面、复制研究广泛。     

引发语言转用的双语类型及特点研究

双语的产生是语言接触的必然结果,语言转用是双语发展到一定程度后出现的语言使用功能的变化,是语言发展中的一种普遍现象。语言转用和双语有着直接的关系,本文探讨了现如今引发语言转用需考虑的因素,分析了引发语言转用的双语类型及特点,以期对语言活力、语言保持、濒危语言等问题的研究做出更合理的判断。     

双语教学纵横谈

双语教学是一种全新的教学模式。本文综合分析了有关双语教学的几个问题 ,得出结论 :双语教学的实施与推广 ,必将全面提高学生的英语综合运用能力     

加强对四川彝藏地区双语现象的研究——谈双语制与民族教育的关系

该文论述了四川彝藏地区双语现象和双语制教育学的发展状况，提出了双语制教育中亟待研究的几个问题，同时还指出必须下大力气进一步实施和完善中国少数民族双语教育学这一新兴学科的建设，以使双语研究与双语教育沿着科学化、规范化、民族化的道路不断发展     

Two languages,one variable? Pharyngeal realizations among Arabic–Hebrew bilinguals

Linguistic features that index ethnic identities often originate in another language spoken by the same community, often involving the introduction of exogenous features absent from the mainstream variety. We examine the more unusual situation of Hebrew spoken by Arabic–Hebrew bilingual Palestinians, where the pharyngeal consonants, which occur in both Arabic and Hebrew monolingual varieties, serve as ethnically linked sociolinguistic variables. Drawing on sociolinguistic interviews with such bilinguals in Jaffa, we demonstrate that while Palestinians’ use of pharyngeals in Hebrew is commonly perceived as transfer from Arabic, their linguistic and social conditioning does not support a transfer account. Rather, for these speakers, pharyngeals are a socially meaningful resource simultaneously linked to Arab identity and to a rich indexical field in Hebrew. While the pharyngeals pattern linguistically as Hebrew features, our findings illustrate that, from a social meaning perspective, sociolinguistic features need not be unambiguously associated with a single language.     

The effect of domain prestige and interlocutors' bilingualism on loanword adaptations

There is great variability in whether foreign sounds in loanwords are adapted, such that segments show cross‐word and cross‐situational variation in adaptation. Previous research proposed that word frequency, speakers' level of bilingualism and neighborhoods' level of bilingualism can explain such variability. We test for the effect of these factors and propose two additional factors: interlocutors' level of bilingualism and the prestige of the donor language in the loanword's domain. Analyzing elicited productions of loanwords from Spanish into Mexicano in a village where Spanish and Mexicano enjoy prestige in complementary domains, we show that interlocutors' bilingualism and prestige influence the rate of sound adaptation. Additionally, we find that speakers accommodate to their interlocutors, regardless of the interlocutors' level of bilingualism. As retention of foreign sounds can lead to sound change, these results show that social factors can influence changes in a language's sound system.