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Connections between linguistic heterogeneity, educational choices and (family) biographies are complex and ever shifting. With this paper, my aim is to explore the question how social spaces are constructed by multilingual families in migration societies and how they situate social spaces 'in between', thereby challenging both binary and national logics and creating third spaces. Especially in view of national educational institutions, family decisions on language transmission and use are reflected upon and at times re-evaluated. Analysis of family interviews with German migrants in Norway shows how both continuity and change are relevant for the parents as they try to produce an uninterrupted family biography but at the same time need to be open to adaptations to new situations. Expectations, language ideologies and perspectives that transcend one's own family spaces gain relevance while (national) institutions may call for changes in language regimes and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating research on multilingualism and computer-mediated communication, this paper proposes the term ‘networked multilingualism’ and presents findings from a case study to explore its implications for the theorising of multilingualism. Networked multilingualism is a cover term for multilingual practices that are shaped by two interrelated processes: being networked, i.e. digitally connected to other individuals and groups, and being in the network, i.e. embedded in the global mediascape of the web. It encompasses everything language users do with the entire range of linguistic resources within three sets of constraints: mediation of written language by digital technologies, access to network resources, and orientation to networked audiences. The empirical part of the paper discusses the Facebook language practices of a small group of Greek-background secondary school students in a German city. Data collection follows an online ethnography approach, which combines systematic observation of online activities, collection and linguistic analysis of screen data, and data elicited through direct contact with users. Focusing on four weeks of discourse on profile walls, the analysis examines the participants’ linguistic repertoires, their language choices for genres of self-presentation and dialogic exchange, and the performance of multilingual talk online. The findings suggest that the students’ networked multilingual practices are individualised, genre-shaped, and based on wide and stratified repertoires. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Heritage speakers have been shown to use multiword units, which merge structural elements of both their languages, which do not conform to the combinability patterns of the monolingual variety. However, it is not clear to what extent heritage speakers actually have the knowledge of the corresponding monolingual sequences. The present study on Russian heritage speakers in Germany addresses the question of whether heritage speakers have receptive knowledge of monolingual multiword units that they do not command in production.The study followes a mixed methods design by combining corpus and experimental methodology.First, language production data of heritage speakers from two corpora were analysed for nontypical multiword units with prepositional phrases. In the second step, these nontypical multiword units as well as their typical monolingual equivalents served as test items in an acceptability judgement task performed by 53 Russian-German heritage speakers and 56 Russian native speakers.The results show that heritage and native speakers rate nontypical multiword units as less acceptable than their monolingual equivalents. However, the acceptability of typical and the unacceptability of nontypical expressions were more salient for native speakers, whereas heritage speakers in many cases tended to equally accept typical and nontypical items. Acceptability ratings varied according to test items in both groups, but there was no overlap between nontypical multiword units most acceptable to monolinguals and those most acceptable to heritage speakers.Our paper applies an innovative mixed method approach in investigating the receptive knowledge of monoloigual multiword units in heritage speakers. Additionally, it is one of the first studies looking at the reactions of native spekaers to novel multiword units produced by heritage speakers.The findings support the idea of a unified multilingual construction, suggesting that heritage speakers do have some receptive knowledge of monolingual multiword units but this knowledge differs from that of monolingual speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the prosody of rhetorical questions (RQs) and information-seeking questions (ISQs) in German for two question types—polar questions and constituent questions (henceforth " wh -questions"). The results are as follows: Phonologically, polar RQs were mainly realized with H-% (high plateau), while polar ISQs mostly ended in H-^H% (high-rise). Wh -RQs almost exclusively terminated in a low edge tone, whereas wh -ISQs allowed for more tonal variation (L-%, L-H%, H-^H%). Irrespective of question type, RQs were mainly produced with L*+H accents. Phonetically, RQs were more often realized with breathy voice quality than ISQs, in particular in the beginning of the interrogative. Furthermore, they were produced with longer constituent durations than ISQs, in particular at the end of the interrogative. While the difference between RQs and ISQs is reflected in the intonational terminus of the utterance, this does not happen in the way suggested in the semantic literature, and in addition, accent type and phonetic parameters also play a role. Crucially, a simple distinction between rising and falling intonation is insufficient to capture the realization of the different illocution types (RQs, ISQs), against frequent claims in the semantic and pragmatic literature. We suggest alternative ways to interpret the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In two paper-and-pencil studies on university students and trainees, we studied how general language competence and the motivation to use accurate language are linked to people’s actual and potential gender-fair language use. Overall, participants’ actual gender-fair language use was lower than their potential. The higher the participants’ language competence, the higher their potential. Trainees’ actual gender-fair language use was predicted by the interaction of language competence and motivation to use accurate language, those with relatively high language competence used less gender-fair language the higher their motivation to use accurate language was. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research questions: German and Spanish differ in lexicalization of object position in placement events (e.g. They stand/lay-put the binoculars on the shelf). Do native (L1) speakers of these languages show different recognition memory for object position in placement scenes ("Thinking for Speaking" (TFS))? And if so, can learning German as a second language (L2) improve memory accuracy? Originality: There is very little research on the effect of language on memory in L2 speakers and no such studies have focused on placement events. By adopting a short time course (750 ms) between the prime and recognition phase this study makes a methodological advancement. Design/Methodology/Approach: We employed a design with L1 speakers (N = 54) of German and Spanish, and a group of Spanish L2 learners (N = 123) of German. Participants were presented with a two-phased memory task with minimum delay, with language and pictures showing placement events. Following the direction indicated by German placement verbs we changed position of objects in the picture recognition phase. L2 German speakers received a form-focused instruction on German placement verbs (stand/lay) before the memory task. Data and Analysis: We analysed recognition accuracy for object position changes. Findings/Conclusions: Results showed that L1 German speakers had more accurate recognition memory for object position changes than L1 Spanish speakers. When Spanish learners of L2 German performed the experiment in German, their accuracy exceeded L1 German speakers' scores. Significance/Implications: The findings provide support for TFS effects on memory for object position in placement events for L1 speakers and show accuracy advantages for L2 speakers. Future studies should consider employing tasks with short time courses as the one used in this paper, in order to establish a base of controlled and reliable findings to unravel the linguistic relativity literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel approach to the distinction between borrowing and code-switching is proposed, called the Simple View of borrowing and code-switching. Under this view, listedness is seen as the key condition for classifying words or multiword units (MWUs) as borrowings. For MWUs, listedness is operationalized with mutual information (MI) scores: the higher the MI score of a given set of words, the higher the likelihood it is listed in the lexicon. Under the Simple View, the distinction between borrowing and code-switching is seen as a specific instantiation of the distinction between what belongs in the lexicon (fixed, arbitrary patterns) and what is computed online (productive rules), and should therefore be considered as part of the grammar.Assumptions from the Simple View were tested on a corpus of switches of single words and MWUs from a Turkish-German code-switching corpus (87,000 words), which was transcribed in CHAT format.The frequency of switches in either direction, and their morphosyntactic integration patterns were analysed with CLAN. The formulaicity of the MWUs was analysed with MI scores through Sketchengine.The MI scores of the donor language MWUs were found to be above 3, which is the cut-off point for formulaicity in Corpus Linguistics. Thus, the MWUs were found to be borrowings. In addition, MWUs were found to be more likely to be borrowed than single words.Insights about formulaic language from Corpus Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition were used to inform analyses of language contact phenomena, and new ways to test the model are proposed.The Simple View offers a unified approach to borrowing of lexical items and function words and opens a new avenue for research using neuroscientific methods to test whether items are listed in speakers’ mental lexicons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Closely related Swedish and German both mark information status of referents morphologically, though little is known about its acquisition. This study investigates character introductions in the narratives of 4- and 6-year-old Swedish–German bilinguals (N = 40) in both languages, elicited with MAIN Cat/Dog. We analyse effects of age group, language and animacy (human vs nonhuman characters) on the type of referring expression (indefinite NP and pronoun), as well as effects of language proficiency and exposure on the use of indefinite NPs for each language. We also explore which syntactic constructions indefinite NPs occur in. A significant difference was found between the two age groups, but not between languages. No effect was found of language skills or exposure. Four-year-olds used more pronouns and a lower proportion of indefinite NPs than 6-year-olds. Pronouns were more frequent for the human character than for nonhuman animate characters. Whilst animacy (humanness) promoted the use of pronouns, it did not affect the choice of morphological form for lexical NPs (indefinite/definite). The age groups differed in how indefinite NPs were used. Four-year-olds produced fewer narrative presentations (where a character is introduced as part of a typical story opening, e.g. Once upon a time there was a cat) than 6-year-olds, and more labellings (with only an NP, or a clausal predicative, e.g. That's a cat). Qualitative analyses suggest that the children's indefinite NPs in labelling constructions can be both referential (when setting the narrative scene), and type-denoting (when naming referents in individual pictures). Whilst the children's abilities to introduce story characters develop measurably from 4 to 6 years in Swedish and German, appropriateness of character introductions not only depends on whether an indefinite NP is chosen, but also on the syntactic construction this indefinite NP is used in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dutch and German employ voicing contrasts, but Dutch lacks the 'voiced' dorsal plosive /ɡ/. We exploited this accidental phonological gap, measuring the presence of prevoicing and voice onset time durations during speech production to determine (1) whether preliterate bilingual Dutch–German and monolingual Dutch-speaking children aged 3;6–6;0 years generalized voicing to /ɡ/ in Dutch; and (2) whether there was evidence for featural cross-linguistic influence from Dutch to German in bilingual children, testing monolingual German-speaking children as controls. Bilingual and monolingual children's production of /ɡ/ provided partial evidence for feature generalization: in Dutch, both bilingual and monolingual children either recombined Dutch voicing and place features to produce /ɡ/, suggesting feature generalization, or resorted to producing familiar /k/, suggesting segment-level adaptation within their Dutch phonological system. In German, bilingual children's production of /ɡ/ was influenced by Dutch although the Dutch phoneme inventory lacks /ɡ/. This suggests that not only segments but also voicing features can exert cross-linguistic influence. Taken together, phonological features appear to play a crucial role in aspects of bilingual and monolingual children's speech production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an exploratory study on the use of frequency-based probabilistic word combinations in Heritage Russian. The data used in the study are drawn from three small corpora of narratives, representing the language of Russian heritage speakers from three different dominant-language backgrounds, namely German, Finnish, and American English. The elicited narratives are based on video clips that the participants saw before the recording. Since the current study is based on a relatively small corpus, we conducted a manual corpus-based analysis of the heritage corpora and an automated analysis of the baseline (monolingual) corpus to investigate the differences between the heritage and monolingual language varieties. We hypothesize that heritage speakers deploy fewer probabilistic strategies in language production compared with native speakers and that their active knowledge of and access to ready-to-use multiword units are restricted compared with native speakers. When they cannot access a single lexical item or a collocation, heritage speakers are able to tap both into the resources of the dominant language and the resources of their home language. The connection to the dominant language results in transfer-based non-standard word combinations; when heritage speakers tap into the resources of their home language, they produce unattested in the monolingual variety, “heritage” collocations, many of which are nevertheless grammatically legitimate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Germany, there are no self-report questionnaires assessing emotion awareness in youth under the age of 16 years or simultaneously with emotion suppression. The "Emotion Expression Scale for Children" (EESC) measuring lack of emotion awareness and reluctance to express emotions in 10- to 15-year-olds can fill this gap. Goal of this study was to evaluate the factorial structure of the German version of the 16-item EESC in a test and a validation sample of overall 588 adolescents (314 boys; M age = 11.6 years; SD =.74). The original structure comprised of the factors "Poor Awareness" and "Expressive Reluctance" could not be confirmed in the test sample using confirmatory factor analysis. An exploratory factor analysis yield a one-factor structure. Modification process led to an adjusted one-factor model with 13 items, which fitted the data best in the validation sample. The factor was named "Low Emotion Awareness/Suppression." Results indicated that the EESC structure is not measurement invariant. Reasons for missing fit of the two-factor model are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In East Asian cultures, people maintain larger interpersonal distances than in European or American cultures. We investigated whether a preference for averted gaze might be responsible for this difference. Typically, when measuring interpersonal distance, participants are asked to maintain eye contact. This request might bias findings due to cultural differences in the interpretation of direct gaze. We had Japanese and German participants adjust preferred interpersonal distance in a standardized laboratory task, using averaged faces with straight-ahead or averted gaze direction. In line with previous findings, Japanese participants preferred overall larger interpersonal distances, and female–female dyads preferred the smallest distances. In contrast, there was no pervasive effect of gaze on interpersonal distance, as confirmed with Bayesian statistics. Thus, differences in the reactions to mutual gaze cannot explain the cultural preferences for interpersonal distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children in Austria are exposed to a large amount of variation within the German language. Most children grow up with a local dialect, German standard language and ‘intermediate’ varieties summarized as ‘Umgangssprache’. Using an ABX design, this study analyses when Austrian children are able to discriminate native varieties of their L1 German (standard German vs local dialect). The results show children’s early ability to register differences and similarities on an across-speaker level when sentences are held constant (i.e. to discriminate translation equivalents in the two varieties) and a later, rather sudden emergence of more abstract categories of the varieties, which encompass different phonological and lexical variables and enable children to match sentences which also differ lexically. In sum, discrimination ability seems to be relatively stable and consistent at the age of 8/9. Other than age, the mother’s educational background, language variation at home and the immediate sociolinguistic setting (urban/rural) predict children’s discrimination performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We elicited the production of various types of relative clauses in a group of German-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing controls in order to test the movement optionality account of grammatical difficulty in SLI. The results show that German-speaking children with SLI are impaired in relative clause production compared to typically developing children. The alternative structures that they produce consist of simple main clauses, as well as nominal and prepositional phrases produced in isolation, sometimes contextually appropriate, and sometimes not. Crucially for evaluating the movement optionality account, children with SLI produce very few instances of embedded clauses where the relative clause head noun is pronounced in situ; in fact, such responses are more common among the typically developing child controls. These results underscore the difficulty German-speaking children with SLI have with structures involving movement, but provide no specific support for the movement optionality account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individual and collective forms of memory are driving forces behind the phenomenon of ‘homesick tourism’, the journeys undertaken by German expellees and refugees to their former homes in what is now Poland. Based on a content analysis of travel reports written by homesick tourists, this article applies concepts and theoretical approaches in the field of Memory Studies to the field of tourism, arguing that travelling can be considered an extension of the process of remembering. With reference to specific examples, it is illustrated how the encounter of ‘personal memory sites’ impacts autobiographical memory and how the activities of the homesick tourists and the transnational exchange and circulation of memory facilitated through personal contacts contributes to the emergence of new discourses about the past and ultimately the production of cultural memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1907, German anthropologist Theodor Mollison invented a unique method for racial differentiation, called ‘deviation curves’. By transforming anthropometric data matrices into graphs, Mollison’s method enabled the simultaneous comparison of a large number of physical attributes of individuals and groups. However, the construction of deviation curves had been highly desultory, and their interpretation had been prone to various visual misjudgements. Despite their methodological shortcomings, deviation curves became very popular among racial anthropologists. This positive reception not only stemmed from the method’s utilities, but was related to additional interests of its protagonists which the method helped promote. Deviation curves provided a unique solution to the holistic–atomistic controversy in German anthropology. By giving separate measurements a consolidated visual form, they substantiated the idea that the attributes of certain social groups were part of distinct racial compounds. Deviation curves thus reinforced racial suppositions, in face of severe criticism on the ontological reality of race itself. Finally, deviation curves emphasized the biological singularity of disadvantaged human groups – Jews, Africans and also women – and of their divergence from ideologically defined physical norms. Disciplinary and social interests thus became intertwined in the formation of a scientific method, which is used to this day in physical anthropology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: The main goal of this study was to examine noun–adjective gender agreement in Russian by comparing bilingual children with diverse L2 backgrounds (English, Finnish, German, and Hebrew) with age-matched monolingual children and monolinguals one year younger. This comparison was made to investigate the influence of L2 grammar on the acquisition of gender agreement by (L1) Russian-speaking children. Design/Methodology/Approach: The participants included four groups of 4–5-year-old bilingual children with Russian as L1 and English, German, Finnish, or Hebrew as L2, who were compared to monolingual children in Russia in two age groups (3–4 and 4–5 years old). The children were matched by socioeconomic status and parents’ educational background. All children were tested individually during one testing session. Agreement data were elicited using a semi-structured elicitation test, with verbal and visual stimuli. Data and Analysis: We used qualitative data analysis to identify types and categories of errors, and quantitative data analysis to compare the tendencies of noun–adjective gender agreement in Russian (L1) between the groups. Findings/Conclusions: Development of gender agreement in the bilingual children from different L2 backgrounds was qualitatively similar to that of the 3–4-year-old monolingual Russian-speaking children. This result suggests that bilingual development in L1 follows the same developmental path as monolingual development, albeit with a delay. In addition, bilingual children whose L2 has grammatical gender (German, Hebrew) outperformed the other bilinguals on gender agreement, indicating that the presence of a grammatical category in both languages spoken by a bilingual facilitates category acquisition. Originality and Significance/Implications: The study contributes to the discussion on how the transparency and phonological saliency might affect the bilingual children’s acquisition of inflectional morphology and on how influence of L2 on L1 might in some cases help and in other cases impede the acquisition of L1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

German questions and statements are distinguished not only by lexical and syntactic but also by intonational means. This study revisits, for Northern Standard German, how questions are signalled intonationally in utterances that have neither lexical nor syntactic cues. Starting from natural productions of such ‘intonation questions’, two perception experiments were run. Experiment I is based on a gating paradigm, which was applied to naturally produced questions and statements. Experiment II includes two indirect-identification tasks. Resynthesized stimuli were judged in relation to two context utterances, each of which was compatible with only one sentence mode interpretation. Results show that utterances with a finally falling nuclear pitch-accent contour can also trigger question perception. An utterance-final rise is not mandatory. Also, question and statement cues are not restricted to the intonational nucleus. Rather, listeners can refer to shape, slope, and alignment differences of the preceding prenuclear pitch accent to identify sentence mode. These findings are in line with studies suggesting that the utterance-final rise versus fall contrast is not directly related to sentence modality, but represents a separate attitudinal meaning dimension. Moreover, the findings support that both prenuclear and nuclear fundamental frequency (F0) patterns must be taken into account in the analysis of tune meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study comprises a phonetic analysis of the lateral phoneme /l/ in the first (L1) and second language (L2) of 10 late German–English bilinguals. The primary objective of the study was to compare the predictive power of dynamic systems theory with that of maturational constraints through a phonetic investigation of L1 attrition in the lateral phoneme /l/ of the late bilinguals.The results revealed L1 attrition in the lateral phoneme /l/, as well as a high degree of interpersonal and intrapersonal variation. These patterns are discussed in relation to dynamic systems theory and maturational constraints. Moreover, the degree of permanency of L1 attrition is discussed in relation to methodological considerations in studies on L1 attrition. It is proposed that maturational constraints are insufficient in explaining the results and that bilingual language development can be more adequately explained through dynamic systems theory, which explicitly incorporates a multitude of predictor variables across the lifespan, in addition to age constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL-R) is the standard assessment method for psychopathic personality traits of offenders. PCL-R norms for German-speaking countries have not yet been published. This study reviews the extant literature on the PCL-R and its screening version in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Based on 25 published empirical studies (total N = 4,254) overall means and standard deviations were estimated using meta-analytic methods. Assuming normality, estimates of norms (percentiles and T-scores) were derived for male offenders with respect to the standard assessment protocol (PCL-R interview plus file review), purely file-based assessments, and the screening version of the instrument. Compared with the North American normative data, estimated sample means were significantly lower for PCL-R standard assessments and for the screening instrument. The present findings may serve as provisional estimates for gauging the level of psychopathic traits of male offenders in Austria, Germany, and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

German and French differ in a number of aspects. Regarding the prosody-pragmatics interface, German is said to have a direct focus-to-accent mapping, which is largely absent in French – owing to strong structural constraints. We used a semi-spontaneous dialogue setting to investigate the intonational marking of Verum Focus, a focus on the polarity of an utterance in the two languages (e.g. the child IS tearing the banknote as an opposite claim to the child is not tearing the banknote). When Verum Focus applies to auxiliaries, pragmatic aspects (i.e. highlighting the contrast) directly compete with structural constraints (e.g. avoiding an accent on phonologically weak elements such as monosyllabic function words). Intonational analyses showed that auxiliaries were predominantly accented in German, as expected. Interestingly, we found a high number of (as yet undocumented) focal accents on phrase-initial auxiliaries in French Verum Focus contexts. When French accent patterns were equally distributed across information structural contexts, relative prominence (in terms of peak height) between initial and final accents was shifted towards initial accents in Verum Focus compared to non-Verum Focus contexts. Our data hence suggest that French also may mark Verum Focus by focal accents but that this tendency is partly overridden by strong structural constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We administered German and Spanish versions of the Neuroticism Extraversion Openness–Five-Factor Inventory personality inventory to two groups of late bilinguals (second-language learners) of these two languages. Regardless of individuals’ first language, both groups scored higher on Extraversion and Neuroticism when Spanish was the test language. In turn, scores on Agreeability were higher when German was used as the test language. The results are interpreted as evidence for cultural frame shifts consistent with cultural norms associated with the presently used language. Beyond the acquisition of linguistic skills, learning a second language seems to provide individuals with a new range of perceiving and displaying their own personality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the transfer of verb-second syntax (V2) from L1 German and Dutch into L2 English. A comparative learner corpus analysis between L1 German, Dutch and French, and native English writing reveals that the German and Dutch speakers produce distinct patterns of inversion in declarative clauses, indicating the transfer of V2. They produce non-target subject–auxiliary inversion and copula inversion. However, other reflexes of V2 in interrogatives or with sentential negation are not produced. This is analysed as evidence that the German and Dutch learners have mastered the syntax of English but transfer continues to occur at the level of discourse-pragmatics, where L1 preferences for topicalization structures continue to transfer. This is in line with predictions of the Interface Hypothesis in second language acquisition, which assumes that the interfaces of syntax with other modules of the grammar are more difficult to acquire and may continue to show L1 effects even after the narrow syntax has been mastered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First language attrition refers to the changes which a first language (L1) undergoes when a second language (L2) is acquired in a context in which L1 use is reduced (Cook, 2003; Köpke, 2004). To date, some studies have focused on complete loss of an L1, for example in the case of children whose contact with their initial language ceased after adoption (Pallier et al., 2003; Ventureyra, Pallier, & Yoo, 2004). Others have investigated more subtle cases in which changes to the L1 occur, although intelligibility remains largely, or completely, unaffected (de Leeuw, Schmid, & Mennen, 2007; Flege, 1987; Flege & Eefting, 1987; Major, 1992; Mennen, 2004). The study at hand belongs to the latter category, comprising a fine phonetic analysis of prosody in 10 late consecutive German–English bilinguals. In general, the results indicate L1 attrition in the intonational alignment of the prenuclear rise. However, interpersonal variation was also evidenced: two bilinguals performed clearly within the English monolingual norm in their German while one bilingual evidenced no L1 attrition. Intrapersonal variation occurred in the form of the start of the prenuclear rise appearing to undergo more L1 attrition than the end. The results are discussed in relation to previous studies suggesting that L1 attrition is less likely to occur in late consecutive bilinguals than in early consecutive bilinguals and, more generally, with regard to transfer and interference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The “principle of linguistic relativity” holds that, by way of grammatical categorization, language affects the conceptual representations of its speakers. Formal gender systems are a case in point, albeit a particularly controversial one: Previous studies obtained broadly diverging data, thus giving rise to conflicting conclusions. To a large extent, this incoherence is related to task differences and methodological problems. Here, a priming design is presented that avoids previous problems, as it prevents participants from employing gender information in a strategic manner. Four experiments with German native speakers show priming effects of the prime's grammatical gender on animate and nonanimate targets, an effect for the prime's biological gender on animate targets, but no effect for the prime's biological gender on nonanimate targets, and thus speak against an effect of language on thought for German gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a data set of 291 spontaneous utterances from German 5-year-olds, 7-year-olds and adults, nuclear pitch contours were labeled manually using the GToBI annotation system. Ten different contour types were identified.The fundamental frequency (F0) of these contours was modeled using third-order orthogonal polynomials, following an approach similar to the one Grabe, Kochanski, and Coleman (2007) used for English. Statistical analyses showed that all but one contour pair differed significantly from each other in at least one of the four coefficients. This demonstrates that polynomial modeling can provide quantitative empirical support for phonological labels in unscripted speech, and for languages other than English. Furthermore, polynomial expressions can be used to derive the alignment of tonal targets relative to the syllable structure, making polynomial modeling more accessible to the phonological research community. Finally, within-contour comparisons of the three age groups showed that for children, the magnitude of the higher coefficients is lower, suggesting that they are not yet able to modulate their pitch as fast as adults. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses garden-path effects in processing subject-object ambiguities in German language which differ with respect to the mode of disambiguation. It informs that in German, subject-object ambiguities may arise in relative clauses and declarative clauses. It is stated that in German, the wh-phrase may be treated as subject or be computed as subject-object structure, or the wh-phrase may be treated as accusative object and be computed as an object-subject structure. It is stated that critical disambiguating information is provided by the finite verb which in German main clauses always appears in second position in sentences.

The goal of this study is to retrace in minute detail a single step forward in the phonological development of a German-speaking child. The sound change under focus is the acquisition of velar stops in word-initial positions. Basically, two strategies of self-correction are available to the language learner wishing to approximate to the adult way of speaking. A shift from the incorrect sound /A/ to the correct sound /B/ may be effected either at the phonetic-phonological or at the lexical level.

This article cites a study that investigates the generality of an aphasic phenomenon across patients and language types. Previous research suggests that aphasics retain sensitivity to pragmatic factors governing forms of reference, in particular, the ability to choose lexical expressions that convey givenness and newness of information. Normal and aphasic speakers of English, German, and Italian describe nine picture triplets in which one element varied while the others remained constant. Dependent variables include lexicalization versus ellipsis, pronominalization, and definite and indefinite article use.

This article cites a study that examined the spectral characteristics of vowels in Modern Greek and German. Four speakers of Modern Greek and three speakers of German produced four repetitions of words containing each vowel of their native language. Measurements of the fundamental frequency and the first three formants were made for each vowel token. These measurements were then transformed into log frequency ratios and plotted as points in a three-dimensional auditory-perceptual space. Each vowel token was thus represented by one point, and the points corresponding to each vowel category were enclosed in three-dimensional target zones.

Reports the results of three experiments which investigated the role of intonation on foreign accent. Differences in the slopes of continuative intonation on French, English, and German speakers; Assessment of intonational slopes; Analysis of intonation patterns.