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This chapter draws on the field of psycholinguistics to give an overview of studies that have focused on how we can observe pronoun processing within the brain. Detailing experimental procedures, this chapter explains how researchers have sought to understand pronoun processing by testing how the brain responds to pronoun mismatches. It explains how ERPs (event-related potentials) are measured and documents what the P600 and N400 effects can tell us about how humans process the information that is encoded in pronoun resolution.

Aims and objectives:This study examines fennicisms (i.e., Finnish loanwords and calques) in Finland-Swedish, a Swedish variety spoken in Finland. We investigate how fennicism frequency relates to speakers’ regional backgrounds and fluency in Finnish.Methodology:134 participants from four regions in Finland performed a picture-naming task designed to elicit fennicisms. The participants also rated their own fluency in Finnish.Data and analysis:A regression analysis with the outcome variable of fennicism frequency and the predictors of region, fluency in Finnish, and gender was performed.Findings:Results show that speakers from the more bilingual regions of Southern Finland and Helsinki used significantly more fennicisms than speakers from Ostrobothnia or Swedish-speaking Åland. The study suggests that fluency in Finnish was a strong predictor for fennicism use, as speakers with low or moderate knowledge of Finnish used fewer fennicisms than speakers with high or native(-like) fluency. No significant effect of gender was found.Originality:While fennicisms are considered widespread in Finland-Swedish, there is little previous research on their use and distribution.Implications:The results demonstrate that while many of the fennicisms are well-established in the Finland-Swedish variety, their use is limited to certain groups and communities.

This chapter draws on the field of psycholinguistics to give an overview of studies that have focused on how we can observe pronoun processing within the brain. Detailing experimental procedures, this chapter explains how researchers have sought to understand pronoun processing by testing how the brain responds to pronoun mismatches. It explains how ERPs (event-related potentials) are measured and documents what the P600 and N400 effects can tell us about how humans process the information that is encoded in pronoun resolution.

By means of a large-scale web-based investigation, we established the degree of mutual intelligibility of 16 closely related spoken languages within the Germanic, Slavic and Romance language families in Europe. We first present the results of a selection of 1833 listeners representing the mutual intelligibility between young, educated Europeans from the same 16 countries where the test languages are spoken. Next, we present the data from a sub-group of listeners who had not learned the test language and had had minimal exposure to it. This allows us to investigate how well the listeners understand the test language on the basis of structural similarities between their own language and the test languages. Finally, we compare the results of the two data sets to the traditional genealogic characterisation of the three language groups. We expect the intelligibility results from the second group of listeners who had had minimal exposure to the test language to be a better reflection of the genealogical characterisation than the results from the larger group who had sometimes been exposed to the test language or had learned it at school.

By means of a large-scale web-based investigation, we established the degree of mutual intelligibility of 16 closely related spoken languages within the Germanic, Slavic and Romance language families in Europe. We first present the results of a selection of 1833 listeners representing the mutual intelligibility between young, educated Europeans from the same 16 countries where the test languages are spoken. Next, we present the data from a sub-group of listeners who had not learned the test language and had had minimal exposure to it. This allows us to investigate how well the listeners understand the test language on the basis of structural similarities between their own language and the test languages. Finally, we compare the results of the two data sets to the traditional genealogic characterisation of the three language groups. We expect the intelligibility results from the second group of listeners who had had minimal exposure to the test language to be a better reflection of the genealogical characterisation than the results from the larger group who had sometimes been exposed to the test language or had learned it at school.