2023 - 2024
Kate Bellamy (Leiden University) - Code-switching in nominal constructions: Evidence from three communities
Code-switching, or the use of two or more languages in the same conversation, occurs in many multilingual settings (e.g. Deuchar, 2012). Of particular interest are the exact points in the clause where code-switches occur, and which language contributes the different elements therein. These constraints vary as a function of many linguistic and extralinguistic factors, yet generalisations regarding these factors can be drawn across unrelated language pairs. Nominal constructions are a particularly common locus of switches (e.g. Eichler, Hager & Müller, 2012), whereby a noun from one language is inserted into a clause of another, as in example (1), where the Spanish noun manguera is inserted into an otherwise English clause.
(1) My mom got the manguera
hosepipe
‘My mom got the hosepipe’ (Parafita Couto, Bellamy & Ameka, 2023: 411)
In example (1), the Spanish noun can be inserted directly into the English clause. However, where the matrix language of the clause possesses grammatical gender, the inserted noun (which may or may not originate from a gendered language) must therefore be assigned gender. Previous codeswitching studies have identified three main gender assignment strategies in mixed nominal constructions: (i) the gender of the noun’s translation equivalent dictates assignment; (ii) phonological or orthographic cues from the language of the inserted noun influence gender assignment in the recipient language; and (iii) a default gender preference (often masculine) proliferates (for an overview, see Bellamy & Parafita Couto, 2022).
In this talk I will present the results of two experimental (one production and one judgement) tasks, and one corpus study from two diverse communities: P’urhepecha-Spanish bilinguals in Michoacán (Mexico), and Tsova-Tush-Georgian speakers in Zemo Alvani (Georgia). Both P’urhepecha and Georgian have no grammatical gender, while Spanish possesses a binary gender system (masculine and feminine) and Tsova-Tush has five-way classification (masculine human, feminine human, and three ‘neuter’ genders called B, D, J after the form of their agreement targets). Taken together, the findings of these studies indicate that task type plays a role in the type of gender assignment strategy applied (Bellamy, Parafita Couto & Stadthagen-González, 2018). They also support the claim that sequential bilinguals who acquired the gendered language first (here, the Tsova-Tush group) are more likely to prefer a translation equivalent strategy (e.g. López, 2020).
I will also present the findings of a noun insertion study in Heritage Piedmontese (HP)- Spanish bilinguals in Argentina (Goria & Bellamy, accepted). Based on five hours of spontaneous speech, we find that in the majority of cases where a Spanish noun is inserted into a HP frame, the bare stem is used, with the addition of HP morphology occurring in only 10% of attested instances. This preference may be borne out of the typological similarity between the two languages involved.
To conclude, I will reflect on the bilingual bias of the majority of previous code-switching research. This will set the scene for a short presentation of my FNRS-funded project (to begin in 2026) on trilingual code-switching in heritage P’urhepecha communities in the USA.
References
Bellamy, K. & Parafita Couto, M.C. (2022). Gender assignment in mixed noun phrases: State of the art. In: Dalila Ayoun (Ed.), The Acquisition of Gender: Crosslinguistic perspectives. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 14-48.
Bellamy, K., Parafita Couto, M.C. & Stadthagen-González, H. (2018). Investigating gender assignment strategies in mixed Purepecha–Spanish nominal constructions. Languages 3(3): 28. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages3030028.
Deuchar, M. (2012). Code switching. In: C.A. Chappelle (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0142.
Eichler, N., Hager, M. & Müller, N. (2012). Code-switching within determiner phrases in bilingual children: French, Italian, Spanish and German. Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur, 122: 227-258.
López, L. (2020). Bilingual grammar: Toward an integrated model. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Parafita Couto, M.C., Bellamy, K. & Ameka, F.K. (2023). Theoretical linguistic approaches to multilingual code-switching. In: Jennifer Cabrelli, Adel Chaouch-Orozco, Jorge González Alonso, Sergio M. Pereira Soares, Eloi Puig-Mayenco & Jason Rothman (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Third Language Acquisition and Processing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 403-436.
Víctor Royo Viñuales and Wout Van Praet - Clause-combining at the grammar-discourse interface: Hypothetical manner clauses as a case in point
As previous research has suggested (Haiman & Thompson 1988, Bybee & Noonan 2002), speakers’ strategies of clause-combining may be more diverse than hitherto accounted for. From assessing different degrees of syntactic integration (Evans 2009) and different levels of dependence (Mithun 2008, Verstraete & D’Hertefelt 2014) to exploring the (non)discreteness of the different categories (Croft 2000), scholars have developed an interest in new accounts for the diversity of clause-combining relations and strategies observed in speakers’ discourse. In the same vein, our project aims to better understand the nature of the grammar-discourse interface by investigating so called hypothetical manner clauses from a cross-linguistic perspective, comparing two Germanic languages (Dutch alsof-clauses and English as if-clauses) and two Romance languages (French comme si-clauses and Spanish como si-clauses).
After an introduction to the project, we will devote this seminar to the results from our two case studies, in which we investigate how both the syntactic and the discourse-pragmatic configurations of hypothetical manner clauses are reflected in prosodic realization. We will show that, while the correlation between functional profiles and pitch contour remain specific to each language, speakers do consistently co-signal syntactic and prosodic integration (Elvira-García et al. 2017), using the same prosodic strategies (i.e. phrasing, onset, pausing, contours) cross-linguistically.
References
Bybee, J. L. & Noonan, M. (Eds.). (2002). Complex sentences in grammar and discourse: Essays in honor of Sandra A. Thompson. John Benjamins Publishing.
Croft, W. (2000). Explaining Language Change. An Evolutionary Approach. London: Longman.
D’Hertefelt, S., & Verstraete, J. C. (2014). Independent complement constructions in Swedish and Danish: Insubordination or dependency shift?. Journal of Pragmatics, 60, 89-102.
Elvira-García, W., Roseano, P. & Fernández-Planas, A.-M. (2017). Prosody as a cue for syntactic dependency. Evidence from dependent and independent clauses with subordination marks in Spanish. Journal of Pragmatics, 109, 29-46.
Evans, N. (2007). Insubordination and its uses. In Finiteness: Theoretical and empirical foundations. Oxford University Press.
Haiman, J. & Thompson, S. A. (Eds.). (1988). Clause combining in grammar and discourse (Vol. 18). John Benjamins Publishing.
Mithun, M. (2008). The extension of dependency beyond the sentence. Language, 69-119.
Fanny Meunier and Julie Van de Vyver - (Re-)awakening to languages as an open door to plurilingual critical (digital) citizenship
In this seminar, we address the connections between language education, technological (r)evolutions and digital citizenship education.
To do so, we comment on two concepts that we have put forward (Meunier & Van de Vyver, 2022) namely, ‘re-awakening to languages’ and ‘plurilingual critical (digital) citizenship’.
After some brief terminological comments, we discuss awakening to languages (AtL), an approach which is being implemented in an increasing number of language curricula. Often designed as a way of introducing schoolchildren to linguistic diversity, AtL is defined as an approach “in which some of the learning activities are concerned with languages which the school generally does not intend to teach” (Candelier, 2012). It seems, however, that AtL is often subject to misconceptions (e.g. mistaken for early language learning; believed to be meant for pre-school or primary school children only).
We subsequently put forward the concept of ‘re-awakening to languages’ (RAtL) and discuss its value as a recursive lifelong process. We also frame RAtL against the backdrop of other plurilingual approaches.
We then focus on the second concept, viz. plurilingual critical (digital) citizenship or PC(d)C, in the context of current digital [r]evolutions (see Sayers, Sousa-Silva, Höhn et al., 2021). Given the urge for a critical approach (affordances vs limitations), we argue that RAtL can ideally sustain PC(d)C. To illustrate our point, we present concrete illustrations of activities meant for a range of language users/learners. The activities come (and/or have been adapted from) two ongoing European research projects.
Candelier, M. et al. (2012). Le CARAP : Un cadre de référence pour les approches plurielles des langues et des cultures. Compétences et ressources. Centre européen pour les langues vivantes, Conseil de l’Europe. URL : https://www.ecml.at/Resources/ECMLresources/tabid/277/ID/20/language/en-GB/Default.aspx
Meunier, F. & Van de Vyver ; J. (2022). Awakening to languages as a lifelong entry point to plurilingual (digital) critical citizenship. Ling@num conference, Salzburg, 24-25.11.2022.
Sayers, D., R. Sousa-Silva, S. Höhn et al. (2021). The Dawn of the Human-Machine Era: A forecast of new and emerging language technologies. Report for EU COST Action CA19102 ‘Language In The Human-Machine Era’. https://doi.org/10.17011/jyx/reports/20210518/1
The presentation and the discussion will be in English.
Isabelle Violette (Université de Moncton) - De l’insécurité à la sécurité linguistique chez les jeunes francophones du Nouveau-Brunswick: une perspective longitudinale
Cette conférence présente les résultats préliminaires d’une enquête sur l’insécurité linguistique (désormais IL) effectuée en 2023 auprès des jeunes francophones du Nouveau-Brunswick (Acadie, Canada). L’IL est un concept phare de la sociolinguistique francophone qui désigne un complexe d’infériorité face à sa langue, particulièrement répandu dans des contextes de minorisation linguistique tels que l'Acadie (Boudreau, 2016). Il y a 30 ans, l'enquête Boudreau-Dubois, menée auprès d’élèves de la 12e année du Nouveau-Brunswick, a fait ressortir une dévalorisation du français parlé en Acadie, variant selon le degré de diglossie des régions (Boudreau et Dubois, 1992 et 1993). Dans une récente synthèse consacrée à l'IL, Boudreau et Dubois reviennent sur cette première enquête et se demandent : «les rapports que les jeunes disaient entretenir avec leur langue restent-ils d'actualité, trente ans plus tard?» (Boudreau et Dubois, 2021: 44). La question est d’autant plus pertinente que plusieurs changements sont susceptibles d'avoir modifié le rapport au français depuis, notamment les mouvements migratoires intraprovinciaux et internationaux, l'intensification des contacts entre l'Acadie et la Francophonie, l'ascension socioéconomique des francophones et la revalorisation des parlers vernaculaires. C’est la raison pour laquelle le Centre de recherche sur la langue en Acadie (CRLA) de l'Université de Moncton a entrepris de reproduire l’enquête Boudreau-Dubois auprès du même groupe d’âge. L’objectif de cette conférence est d’analyser les nouvelles données recueillies dans une perspective longitudinale de sécurisation linguistique. Il s’agit de repérer les manifestations de résistances aux idéologies normatives et de confiance envers ses pratiques linguistiques en comparaison à celles présentes il y a 30 ans. Les premiers résultats montrent des signes contradictoires : les jeunes d’aujourd’hui refusent de hiérarchiser les français régionaux selon un modèle de bon usage mais démontrent toujours un persistant malaise par rapport à la qualité de leur français et celui de leur communauté. En somme, l’insécurité et la sécurité linguistiques tendent à se côtoyer plutôt qu’à se substituer l’une à l’autre.
BOUDREAU, A. (2016), À l’ombre de la langue légitime. L’Acadie dans la francophonie, Paris, Classiques Garnier.
BOUDREAU, A. et DUBOIS, L. (2021). « Agir sur l’insécurité linguistique », dans Landry, M., D. Pépin-Filion et J. Massicotte (dir.) L’état de l’Acadie, De Busso, p. 42-46.
BOUDREAU, A. et DUBOIS, L. (1993). «J'parle pas comme les Français de France, ben c'est du français pareil ; j'ai ma own p'tite langue», dans L'insécurité linguistique dans les communautés francophones périphériques (Michel Francard et alii, dir.), Actes du colloque de Louvain-la-Neuve, Cahiers de l'Institut de linguistique de Louvain, 2 : 147-168.
BOUDREAU, A. et L. DUBOIS (1992), « Insécurité linguistique et diglossie : étude comparative de deux régions de l’Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick », Revue de l’Université de Moncton, vol. 25, no 1-2, p.3-22.
Prof. Hans-Martin Gärtner - On the Rise of Embedded Infinitival Interrogatives in the History of English
I'll study the rise of embedded infinitival interrogatives ("Mary finally remembered where to search for the keys") in English, relating it to the inventories of indefinite and interrogative pronouns. Selective attention will also be paid to neighboring languages and dialects.
The presentation and the discussion will be in English.
2022 - 2023
Kyle Conway (uOttawa) - La traduction du paysage comme texte : Une approche herméneutique
En traductologie l’idée d’un texte de cesse d’évoluer. Si par le passé il était possible de se fier à un texte unitaire (le texte source qui se transforme en texte cible), ce n’est plus forcément le cas. Les traditions sémiotiques en particulier contribuent depuis les années 1970 à élargir notre conception d’un texte pour en faire un terme qui peut référer à tout phénomène sensible et porteur de sens. Je propose dans cette présentation de continuer dans cet esprit en élargissant la notion de texte et celles de traduction qui y correspondent. J’emprunte aux géographes Henri Lefebvre et Milton Santos et au philosophe Paul Ricoeur pour y ajouter une dimension spatiale. Pour ce faire, je fais du « paysage » un média qui comporte les éléments naturels et construits qui remplissent un espace, avec des qualités perceptibles (et porteuses de sens) telles que la couleur, la forme et l’emplacement. Je fais d’un « site » un texte, c’est-à-dire une configuration particulière de ces éléments. Je soutiens qu’un site, ainsi compris, a un double statut paradoxal : il existe dans le monde ostensif mais, en tant que texte, il produit en même temps un monde non-ostensif qui lui est propre. Pour bien interpréter ce texte – pour le traduire – il faut naviguer entre ces deux mondes.
Natalia Levshina (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics) - Parallel corpora and causative constructions
Parallel corpora are indispensable in contrastive linguistics and typology. In the first part of my talk, I will discuss the contribution of parallel corpus research to answering big linguistic questions about universal functional biases of communication. I will present a quantitative investigation of causative constructions in a sample of typologically diverse languages, where I show that multivariate variation does not support the iconicity-only account of causatives (cf. Haiman 1983), suggesting instead an explanation based on the principle of negative correlation between accessibility and costs (Levshina 2022a, cf. Haspelmath 2008). The second part of my talk is more methodological. I will present a pilot study demonstrating how parallel corpora can help us determine the nodes of semantic maps (Haspelmath 2003; van der Auwera 2013) in highly abstract and multidimensional conceptual domains, such as causation (e.g., Talmy 2000; Dixon 2000). I will also compare the results with typological data and discuss the impact of text types and translationese (Levshina 2022b). For the case studies, I will use data from the ParTy corpus of film subtitles (Levshina 2015), several spoken corpora, and multivariate statistical methods (random forests, Multidimensional Scaling, hierarchical cluster analysis) and graph-theoretical approaches.
Carlos Manuel Hidalgo Ternero (University of Malaga) - Lexytrad’s technologies for translation and interpreting: the cases of gApp and VIP
In this seminar, we present two translation and interpreting technologies developed by Lexytrad research team (University of Malaga, Spain): gApp and VIP.
gApp is a text-preprocessing system designed for automatically detecting and converting discontinuous multiword expressions (MWEs) into their continuous forms in order to improve the performance of current neural machine translation (NMT) systems (see Hidalgo-Ternero, 2021 and 2023; Hidalgo-Ternero & Corpas Pastor, 2020, 2023a & 2023b, among others). To test its effectiveness, several experiments with different NMT systems (DeepL, Google Translate and ModernMT, among others) and in different language directionalities (ES/FR/IT>EN/DE/ES/FR/IT/PT/ZH) have been carried out so as to verify to what extent gApp can enhance the performance of NMT systems under the challenge of phraseological discontinuity.
VIP (Corpas Pastor, 2021), the first integrated system specifically designed to meet the needs and requirements of interpreters, aims at contributing to the improvement of the working environment for professional interpreters, as well as providing support for trainee interpreters. The development of the VIP project has led to the conclusion that it is possible to provide interpreters with a complete working environment that meets all their needs and improves the quality of their work.
References
Corpas Pastor, G. (2021). Technology Solutions for Interpreters: The VIP System. Hermēneus. Revista de Traducción e Interpretación, 23, 91-123.
Hidalgo-Ternero, C. M. (2021). El algoritmo ReGap para la mejora de la traducción automática neuronal de expresiones pluriverbales discontinuas (FR>EN/ES). In G. Corpas Pastor, M. R. Bautista Zambrana & C. M. Hidalgo-Ternero (Eds.), Sistemas fraseológicos en contraste: enfoques computacionales y de corpus (pp. 253-270). Comares.
Hidalgo-Ternero C. M. (2023/forthcoming). A la cabeza de la traducción automática neuronal asistida por gApp: somatismos en VIP, DeepL y Google Translate. In G. Corpas Pastor y M. Seghiri (Eds.), Aplicaciones didácticas de las tecnologías de la interpretación. Comares.
Hidalgo-Ternero, C. M., & Corpas Pastor, G. (2020). Bridging the ‘gApp’: improving neural machine translation systems for multiword expression detection. Yearbook of Phraseology, 11, 61-80. https://doi.org/10.1515/phras-2020-0005
Hidalgo-Ternero C. M., & Corpas Pastor, G. (2023a/forthcoming). Qué se traerá gApp entre manos… O cómo mejorar la traducción automática neuronal de variantes somáticas (ES>EN/DE/FR/IT/PT). In Seghiri, M. & Pérez Carrasco, M. (Eds.). Aproximación a la traducción especializada. Peter Lang.
Hidalgo-Ternero C. M., & Corpas Pastor, G. (2023b/forthcoming). ReGap: a text preprocessing algorithm to enhance MWE-aware neural machine translation systems. In J. Monti, G. Corpas Pastor y R. Mitkov (Eds.), Recent Advances in MWU in Machine Translation and Translation technology. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Hidalgo-Ternero, C. M., & Zhou-Lian, X. (2022). Reassessing gApp: does MWE discontinuity always pose a challenge to Neural Machine Translation? In G. Corpas Pastor y R. Mitkov (eds.), Computational and Corpus-Based Phraseology (pp. 116–132). Springer.
Pauline Degrave (UCLouvain) - Anglicisation de l’enseignement supérieur en FWB : menace ou opportunité ?
L'enseignement supérieur connaît une expansion rapide des cours dispensés en anglais dans les régions non-anglophones (EMI), notamment en Belgique francophone. Cette tendance soulève de nombreuses questions quant aux avantages et aux difficultés associés à ce mode d'enseignement.
Cette présentation aura pour objectif d’évaluer les opportunités et les menaces potentielles de l’anglicisation de l’enseignement supérieur, à partir de données établies dans la littérature scientifique. Cette synthèse des connaissances actuelles sur le sujet permettra de mieux comprendre les implications concrètes de l’anglicisation de l’enseignement supérieur et d'identifier des recommandations pratiques pour l’enseignement en FWB.
Cette présentation a lieu dans le cadre du projet institutionnel de l’UCLouvain « FDP2 – enseignement et apprentissage de contenus disciplinaires en langue étrangère », actuellement en cours (2022-2024) et mené par Pauline Degrave. https://intranet.uclouvain.be/fr/myucl/administrations/adef/fdp/enseignement-et-apprentissage-de-contenus-disciplinaires-en-langue-etrangere.html
Ferran Suñer (UCLouvain), Kristel Van Goethem (F.R.S.-FNRS, UCLouvain) and Philipp Wasserscheidt (HUBerlin) - DIONE multiplier event
As part of the Erasmus+ strategic partnership DIONE, UCLouvain is organising an international multiplier event on Thursday 26 January from 13:00 to 17:00.
The event aims at disseminating the outcomes of the DIONE project. Our focus will be on introducing and explaining our concept of “micro-collaboration”. We see this as an important tool for the realisation of international cooperation in teaching, as it makes cross-border learning more accessible and flexible. The concept tackles questions such as:
• How can we offer more students international experiences?
• How can teachers internationalise their teaching in a self-determined way?
• How do we create a common European learning space?
• How can we develop internationalisation at home into an active collaboration of students?
After a general presentation of the goals and outcomes of the DIONE project and of the concept of microcollaboration, we will present two particular micro-collaboration kits, which are online accessible on our platform after registration.
The first kit deals with “Corpus-based constructional analysis” and provides a multilingual course kit, spread over foursessions, starting with a basic introduction into Construction Grammar and introducing the method of corpus-based constructional analysis (data extraction, annotation and analysis). The students apply this method to a specific case study (the Expressive Binominal Construction, e.g. a dream of a car, a hell of a job) and analyse it from a cross-linguistic perspective.
The second kit on “Figurative language” provides participants an opportunity to (re)familiarize themselves with key concepts related to figurative language, to apply metaphor extraction methods
(MIPVU), to identify the functions of metaphors in their own corpus and to include the functions of figurative language as an analytical category in their research projects.
Programme:
13:00 - 14:00 Goals and outcomes of the DIONE project. Presentation of the concept of microcollaboration
14:15 - 15:00 How to use the micro-collaboration kit on “Corpus-based constructional analysis”?
15:15 - 16:00 How to use the micro-collaboration kit on “Figurative language”?
16:15 -17:00 Discussion and closing
Participation is free of charge but registration is required. Please fill in our registration form before 15 January 2023 and indicate which parts of the programme you plan to attend.
Kleanthes K. Grohmann - The Gradience of Lingualities: Some Research Issues for (A)typical Language Development in Diglossia
This talk will present the research agenda of the Cyprus Acquisition Team (CAT Lab). Cyprus is in a unique position for many purposes and for many reasons. I aim to bring closer the potential impact the confined geographical space of this small island has on issues pertaining to language acquisition and subsequent development from a variety of perspectives, of imminent relevance for any study of multilingualism—that is, even beyond Cyprus: bilectal Greek Cypriot children, multilingual children from multicultural backgrounds, and children with atypical, even impaired, language development. This line of research takes the local linguistic variety, Cypriot Greek, seriously as the native language of Greek Cypriot children. At the CAT Lab, we developed the notion of ‘(discrete) bilectalism’ to characterize speakers in diglossic environments. Our research, in particular on object clitic placement, further suggests that bilectal children undergo refinements in their grammatical system after the critical period for first language acquisition. A prominent factor is schooling, which falls within ‘sociosyntactic’ developments of language. The larger picture is one that places bilectalism on a gradient scale, which ranges from monolectal, monolingual speakers to multilectal, multilingual speakers across further differentiations, and different degrees of bilingualism.
The presentation and the discussion will be in english.
Mathilde Hutin - PPaDisM: Phonetic Patterns in Discourse Markers
In this presentation, I will introduce my 3-year project in collaboration with Valibel starting in January 2023. I plan on exploring fine-grained phonetic variation in discourse markers to establish patterns allowing disambiguation in speech, both at the lexical (ex. Fr. "ben" vs "bain") and pragmatic levels (ex. additional "et" vs concessive "et"). Moreover, as markers of fluency and disfluency, discourse markers are the ideal locus to observe phonetic characterics (both prosodic and segmental) relative to cognitive aspects of interaction (cognitive load, discursive intent...). I therefore plan on exploring self-directed (or egocentric), other-directed (or allocentric), child-directed and even robot-directed speech, both in first and second language productions.
The presentation and the discussion will be in English.
Pauline Degrave and Philippe Hiligsmann (UCLouvain) - Les besoins en langues étrangères des jeunes diplômé·es universitaires en Belgique francophone
Le séminaire abordera les compétences linguistiques dont doivent disposer les diplômé·es universitaires en Belgique francophone afin d'augmenter leurs chances sur le marché de l’emploi. Nous examinerons quelles langues les diplômé·es de l'enseignement supérieur doivent connaître et quel(s) niveau(x)/quelles compétences sont attendu(e)s. Pour répondre à ces questions, une double étude a été réalisée. 3.300 alumni de l'UCLouvain de 2014 et 2018 ont répondu à un questionnaire en ligne qui sondait, entre autres, les langues utilisées sur le lieu de travail. Nous avons également analysé de manière approfondie 2.362 offres d'emploi publiées sur la plateforme « UCLouvain Career Center par JobTeaser » entre juillet 2018 et juin 2019.
Lors du séminaire, nous aborderons les principaux résultats des deux études et nous nous attarderons sur quelques recommandations tant pour la rédaction des offres d’emploi que pour le développement ou l'adaptation des formations de l’enseignement supérieur.
Pauline Degrave & Philippe Hiligsmann (te verschijnen), ‘De behoefte aan vreemde talen van jonge universitair opgeleiden op de werkvloer in Franstalig België’. In: Verslagen & Mededelingen (Themanummer: Taal en werk), jaargang 131, Aflevering 2, 99-128.
Rocío Cuberos Vicente (Universitat de Barcelona/UCLouvain) - Vocabulary and genre: analysis in the variation of lexical correlates of linguistic proficiency through genre in French-speaking learners of Spanish
In this seminar, I present the project “Vocabulary and genre: analysis in the variation of lexical correlates of linguistic proficiency through genre in French-speaking learners of Spanish”. This project examines university French-speaking learners of Spanish’s lexical complexity in two different genres: narrative and academic writing. Lexical complexity is defined by five dimensions that have been reported to indicate lexical proficiency in L2: diversity, density, sophistication, and the use of collocations and metaphors. Writing performance is operationalized by writing quality ratings evaluated by experienced L2 Spanish teachers. By comparing lexical complexity across narrative and academic genres, this project seeks to reveal lexical differences in writing performance that result from genre-specific language demands faced by learners. Two main questions drive this project. First, do L2 learners’ overall writing quality ratings and/or lexical features vary by genre? Second, which lexical features predict overall writing quality ratings within each genre? The ultimate goal of this project is to generate findings that would inform the design of pedagogical approaches that will be specially attuned to the needs of French-speaking learners of Spanish as they learn to participate in two prevalent discourse genres: narrative production and academic writing. Previous researched on characterizing lexical correlates of language proficiency and text quality in L1 and L2 Spanish (L1 = Chines, Arabic and Korean) conducted in the context of my PhD thesis provided a complex developmental framework for the use of these lexical measures in L1 and L2. In this seminar, I elaborate on these findings and point to directions that would need further investigation.
2021 - 2022
Sarah Faidt (Université de Basel) - Pleonastic constructions in German child (directed) speech
The project aims at investigating the role of pleonastic constructions (e.g., ins Haus rein, auf dem Baum drauf) in the acquisition of spatial language in L1 German. Earlier research suggests a supporting function of pleonastic constructions in the development of spatial language (Bryant 2012) in that sense that they bridge the gap between syntactically simple particle constructions and more complex prepositional phrases. Although this construction type has been observed in previous language production studies (e.g., Harr 2012, Madlener et al. 2017), concrete figures regarding their actual frequency and development in natural language use are missing up to now. The project targets at filling this gap by analyzing longitudinal data from German child-adult interaction regarding the use of pleonastic constructions in terms of frequency of occurrence, functional and constructional features. The analysis is grounded in a Construction Grammar framework and a usage-based approach to language acquisition. Results may add deeper insights into how children master the challenging domain of spatial language in German as well as to an understanding of pleonastic constructions in a broader network of constructions.
Bryant, D. (2012). Lokalisierungsausdrücke im Erst- und Zweitspracherwerb. Typologische, ontogenetische und kognitionspsychologische Überlegungen zur Sprachförderung in DaZ. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider.
Harr, A.-K. (2012). Language-specific factors in First Language Acquisition. The Expression of Motion Events in French and German. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Madlener, K., Skoruppa, K. & Behrens, H. (2017). Gradual development of constructional complexity in German spatial language. Cognitive Linguistics 28 (4), 757–798, doi: 10.1515/cog-2016-0089.
Thomas François (UCLouvain) and Marie-Aude Lefer (UCLouvain) - Revisiting simplification in corpus-based translation studies: Insights from readability research
Ever since the publication of Laviosa’s (1998a; 1998b) pioneering work, the study of lexico-syntactic simplification has held center stage in corpus translation research concerned with the typical features of translated texts. The simplification hypothesis states that translated texts are simpler than non-translated texts. The convergence hypothesis, also discussed by Laviosa (1998a; 1998b) but less so in follow-up studies, is that translated texts are more homogeneous than original texts, i.e. they display less variance. To date, simplification has mostly been operationalized in CBTS as type-token ratio, lexical density, core vocabulary coverage, list head coverage and average sentence length. Relying on these parameters, previous research has produced mixed results, with simplification varying across translation modalities, language pairs and registers. The present article sets out to revisit the simplification and convergence hypotheses through the lens of NLP-informed readability research. In particular, we rely on a larger set of simplification indicators and make use of multivariate statistical techniques. We present a simplification study of Europarl corpus data in French translated from English and in non-translated French. The results show that translated French is simpler than original French, lexically and syntactically. We also find evidence of convergence that shows that translators smooth out cross-speaker lexical heterogeneity in translated parliamentary proceedings.
ARC TrUMPo (UCLouvain) - Tracking the uses of populism in media and political discourse
In this seminar, we present the methodological steps as well as some of the preliminary research results of our interdisciplinary research project TrUMPo “Discourse, populism and democracy: Tracking the uses of populism in media and political discourse”. The project was set out to analyze the uses, the meanings, and the circulation of the term populis* (i.e. populism and its derivatives) in the public debates in Belgium, France, and Spain. This comparative corpus-driven study examines Dutch, French, and Spanish data from 2019 from three forums: parliamentary arena, mass media, and social media (Twitter). In this study, we follow a mixed methods research design and a four-step analytical procedure: (i) automatic identification of every token of populis* in each forum during the selected period; (ii) determination of around ten peaks of occurrences of populis* for each case study in order to establish the discursive events that will be the object of an in-depth analysis; (iii) creation of an annotated database in which each occurrence of populis* is contextualized in its communicative process; (iv) qualitative analysis specific to each disciplinary approach. In addition, we discuss the process of coding of our data. We have adopted an inductive approach to coding our data and have reached the first research result, that is determining analytical categories for the annotation of our database. Finally, we report preliminary findings of the linguistic analysis of populism.