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"Languages and linguistics"
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Spatial, occupational, and age-related effects on reported variation in colloquial German
While dialectal variation is often investigated from a geographical angle, there exists substantial variation both within the community and individual. The aim of the present article is to investigate the extent to which spatial, occupational, and age-related factors are associated with the diversity of linguistic variants reported per informant at a given locality. Drawing on colloquial language data from the Atlas zur deutschen Alltagssprache ‘Atlas of Colloquial German,’ we found that informants from southeastern Germany and Austria reported familiarity with more variants. Moreover, we multifactorially operationalize occupational complexity, a variable that can capture the effects of different communicative, technical, and physical skills required in a job (via the Dictionary of Occupational Titles). Bayesian multilevel modeling revealed that informants in occupations involving physical precision work and communicative complexity reported less familiarity with variants, and that younger informants were familiar with a wider range of variants.
Journal Article
Headedness and modification in Functional Discourse Grammar
The notions of head and modifier are two basic tenets of general linguistic theory and play a fundamental role in the view of grammatical structure endorsed by Functional Discourse Grammar. The aim of this paper is to refine the theory’s current approach to headedness and modification, according to which linguistic expressions that lack a head at the semantic or the pragmatic level are not available for any sort of lexical modification. It is argued that this assumption originates from a view of headedness and modification inherited from traditional Functional Grammar, where heads and modifiers were conceived of, respectively, as “first” and “second” restrictors of the variable to which they apply; such an approach, I will suggest, is no longer tenable in the light of the theoretical principles that have meanwhile been introduced in the framework of Functional Discourse Grammar. The main proposal put forth in the paper is that, by shifting to a definition of the head/modifier opposition in terms of internal vs. external specifications of the linguistic units which they serve to qualify, Functional Discourse Grammar becomes perfectly capable of accounting for any possible type of modification of headless pragmatic or semantic units.
Journal Article
“Some Don’t Even Know Where South Is!”: Linguistic Strategies for Spatial Reference and Seasons in Ishigaki Yaeyaman and Their Disappearance
Many inhabitants of the Yaeyama Archipelago continue to hold a low status view towards their heritage language despite current efforts to halt language shift. An ideology of inferiority stemming from the colonization of the mind renders them psychologically dependent on being Japanese and unable to see their own language as valuable. The problem is further compounded by the lack of ethnolinguistic and sociolinguistic research on the knowledge concepts of the language including the reference system despite it being a profound feature of the language. This paper first rectifies this by describing the unique conceptualizations in the orientation systems as well as the seasonal terms of Yaeyaman. The focus is then shifted to the situations and frequency of their use in Yaeyaman and in Ishigaki-substrate Japanese to look for how language shift has impacted these spatial and environmental viewpoints in the minds of Yaeyaman speakers. I show through the words of the speakers, while describing their use of these systems, how their minds have been unconsciously colonized and how this drives an automatic behavior of language accommodation towards the Japanese. I argue that language accommodation to speakers of Japanese is largely responsible for the disuse of the unique Yaeyaman worldview concepts as well as the decrease in domains where the language is spoken. As a consequence, a unique way of looking at the world and a feature to take pride in is falling into disuse.
Journal Article
Official bilingualism and indigenous language loss: the case of Cameroon
Cameroon is an African country whose complex linguistic and cultural situation has attracted a lot of interest in academia. From the early days of independence, decision-makers in Cameroon have attempted to find ways to promote a peaceful coexistence between the various languages and cultures within the country. Nevertheless, they have mostly encouraged the use of two colonial languages as evidenced by the country’s dual system of education. Though the dominance of English and French in Cameroon’s education has had positive effects such as opening the country to the world, it has also contributed to the marginalisation and gradual extinction of vernacular languages, which were spoken before the arrival of colonial masters. This paper therefore sets out to examine the reasons behind the overwhelming presence of European languages in Cameroon’s education. It is also a call for the preservation of Cameroon’s indigenous languages in a context where most of them are losing domains of use. Claims made in this paper are backed by a review of research works on Cameroon’s language situation, a description of Cameroon’s education system, and an observation of the country’s linguistic and cultural dynamics. The foregoing shall be complemented by the author’s first-hand experience and continuous contact with teachers and other educational stakeholders.
Journal Article
Open Data from the Third Observing Run of LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO
The global network of gravitational-wave observatories now includes five detectors, namely LIGO Hanford, LIGO Livingston, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO 600. These detectors collected data during their third observing run, O3, composed of three phases: O3a starting in 2019 April and lasting six months, O3b starting in 2019 November and lasting five months, and O3GK starting in 2020 April and lasting two weeks. In this paper we describe these data and various other science products that can be freely accessed through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center at https://gwosc.org. The main data set, consisting of the gravitational-wave strain time series that contains the astrophysical signals, is released together with supporting data useful for their analysis and documentation, tutorials, as well as analysis software packages.
Journal Article