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Moments and conditions that foster creativity and innovation are frequently those caused by existential challenges that need to be addressed to restore balance in various fields of human activity. Education is no exception. Therefore, our assumption was that the circumstances brought on by the pandemic steered teachers toward exploring new avenues for creation of knowledge. Cognitive science tells us that human creativity appeared when our working memory had developed to the extent that we could simultaneously juggle two seemingly different or contradictory elements. The resulting cognitive mechanism of conceptual integration (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002) is believed to be responsible for emergent meanings in the core of creative endeavors. In this conceptual paper, supported by the results of a project conducted with EFL teachers, teachers of German and Math teachers, we discuss the idea of conceptual integration as a key process in creating paradigm shifts in teaching fundamental, but cognitively demanding school subjects, such as foreign languages and math.

Ovaj je vodič rezultat suradnje skupine stručnjaka s Filozofskoga fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu koji su na temelju svojega dugogodišnjega iskustva rada u obrazovanju budućih osnovnoškolskih i srednjoškolskih nastavnika prepoznali potrebu za njegovom izradom, s ciljem kontinuiranoga podizanja kvalitete studijskih programa koji uključuju nastavnu praksu. Vodič je nastao u sklopu projekta Učenje kroz rad i sustav upravljanja studentskim iskustvom na Filozofskom fakultetu u Zagrebu (2020. – 2023.) koji se financira iz Europskoga socijalnoga fonda. Namijenjen je svim mentorima nastavnicima, bez obzira na to koji nastavni predmet predaju. Cilj je vodiča afirmirati ulogu mentora koji rade sa studentima i koji su važna karika u obrazovanju nastavnikā. Naglasak je stavljen na opće vještine potrebne za mentoriranje, a ne na specifična znanja iz predmetnih metodika.

The global energy crises and the dramatic spike in natural gas prices, coupled with the upcoming European winter and uncertainties related to the availability as well as affordability of energy, makes energy a powerful topic that affects and shapes our leaders’ political image(s). The topic in question exposes their strengths and weaknesses in planning as well as managing the circumstances that arise from the crisis. In other words, energy as a topic has a huge potential for creating contrast within political discourse, which is by far the most powerful frame for constructing images of power vs. powerlessness. The talk focuses on the Croatian Prime Minister’s communication with journalists and members of the opposition parties in the Parliament. Our discussion of the data selected relies on the typological analysis of the narratives that invoke (verbal and non-verbal realizations of) seven master myths (see Jack Lule 2001). Furthermore, we discuss aspects of multimodal meaning construction by identifying emergent meanings that originate in conceptual blends, as described by Fauconnier and Turner (2002 and elsewhere). Finally, we address the role of the audience, the nature of the social occasion, underlying cultural practices, and dominant patterns in communication that create the leader’s political image.

As implied by many and explicitly stated by Florida (2002), „human creativity is the ultimate economic resource.“ However, just like human knowledge, which is one of the preconditions for creativity to occur, creativity does not happen out of thin air. It has its foundations, triggers and constituents. Consequently, it can be developed and fostered as well as studied and analyzed. The aim of this paper is to propose the idea of education-based situated creativity. According to Nonaka and Zhu (2012), situated creativity assumes “sense-making, context-interpreting, situation-framing, meaning-giving, fact-projecting, problem-shaping, opportunity- exploring, future-envisioning” (pp. 172-173). Expanding the concept by adding “education” we focus on the necessity of perceiving creativity as a backbone of any educational process and its systematic honing by focusing on one of its fundamental academic preconditions – interdisciplinarity. This particular precondition is related to the cognitive mechanism of conceptual integration responsible for human creative spark (Fauconnier and Turner 2002, Turner 2014). In other words, evolutionarily speaking, human creativity is quite likely to have developed at the time when our working memory could simultaneously hold and juggle two elements that are different, distant or seemingly unrelatable (e.g. think of William Kamkwamba’s wind turbine made out of bike parts and materials from a scrapyard, or the invention of the axle that combines a rod and wheels, or the system of Braille alphabet consisting of three-dimensional bumps). We shall exemplify the idea of education- based situated creativity by discussing the content as well as the process of creating a new standard of occupation and qualification (Applied Cognitive Science/Scientist) that is oriented towards creative economy, especially various aspects of R&D, while being anchored in the hexagon of interdisciplinary study of human mind known as cognitive science.

Evolutionarily speaking, moments and conditions that foster creativity are often those that are caused by crisis and existential challenges that need to be addressed so as to restore balance and/or create advancement to social groups and individuals. Teachers at all levels of education have been facing such challenges during COVID pandemic and their rather urgent transition to online teaching environment. Creativity can be discussed in terms of two complementary perspectives: the perspective of (creative) individuals and their cognitive capacities and the perspective of communities surrounding potentially creative individuals, that is a larger situational context within which creative solutions are born. In my talk I will address the two perspectives and their relation to language, or, more specifically, in relation to the nature of language and the ways languages are taught. Language is complex and dynamic, and cognitive mechanisms, such as conceptual integration, proposed to be responsible for semantic complexities, meaning construal, and dynamics of thought (Fauconnier & Turner 2002, Geld & Stanojević 2018, Turner 2014) point to the importance of investigating and teaching languages as endeavors yielding novelty and creative solutions. Cognitive science tells us that human creativity probably appeared at the time when our working memory had developed to the extent that we could simultaneously juggle two seemingly distant, different or contradictory elements. The integration of such elements results in creative wholes. Naturally, creativity that results in such composite wholes has its contextual preconditions and triggers. This aspect of creativity has been labeled as situated (see Nonaka and Zhu 2012) and largely discussed within disciplines focused on economic growth. However, I believe that this particular aspect of creativity needs to be expanded and redefined as education-based situated creativity and become a backbone of education. Recent research conducted among Croatian teachers, including teachers of English and German as L2, has shown that the above- mentioned transition to online teaching environment served as a strong trigger for creative processes. Fauconnier, G. & Turner, M. (2002). The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books Geld, R. & Stanijević, M.-M. (2018). Strateško konstruiranje značenja riječju i slikom - konceptualna motivacija u ovladavanju jezikom. Zagreb: Srednja Europa Nonaka, I., & Zhu, Z. (2012). Pragmatic Strategy - Eastern Wisdom, Global Success. New York: Cambridge University Press Turner, Mark (2014). The Origin of Ideas: Blending, Creativity, and the Human Spark. Oxford University Press

This paper examines cognitive linguistics’ concepts of salience and situatedness in Croatian Sign Language used by three groups of hearing impaired participants: profoundly deaf, cochlear implant users and participants who are hard of hearing. The results showed that the discussed cognitive concepts cannot be traced systematically in the linguistic expressions of the hearing impaired participants and that their verbal ability and communicative competence depend severely on their hearing status. Surprisingly, CI participants produced less, raising question about their rehabilitation.

Cognitive phonologists tend to describe the concept of phoneme theoretically, without addressing its content. However, scholars investigating development of reading skills discuss phonological representation - the construct containing various types of knowledge required for speech development. According to Sutherland (2006), phonological representation includes acoustic information containing phonemic and phonetic elements. Furthermore, detailed phonological representations also contain visual information such as lip movements. The content of phonological representations is also discussed by laboratory phonologists (Munson et al. 2005). They call it phonological knowledge and suggest the following structure: perceptual and articulatory representations, higher-order phonological knowledge and socioindexical information. The representations are interconnected and connected to lexical and semantic representations. However, the phonological knowledge, does not comprise the role of anatomical development in phonetic knowledge, and higher-order phonological knowledge does not include distinctive function of the phoneme. Rvachew and Bernhardt (2010) propose a model that is primarily focused on the phonological knowledge, but does not address the relationship between phonological, lexical and semantic representations. Their model came as a result of applying dynamic systems theory in clinical practice, and they claim that phonological representations consist of various types of knowledge interconnected and related according to the principles of the theory in question. The model of phoneme proposed here assumes that speech development relies on the following: the growth of lexicon, maturation of articulators (anatomical and motor development), and cognitive development evident in the skills pertaining to phonological processing. In addition to providing a detailed description of the model, the paper presents the results of a study related to the model we are proposing. The study included a sample of 600 (300 female and 300 male) participants aged 3-7, who were at different stages of speech development of the sound that was the focus of our interest: /r/. In terms of the order of speech sounds development in Croatian, the /r/ sound is last to develop. The aim of the study was to investigate development of phonological knowledge by establishing the interrelationships among the following: a) spontaneous speech production of the target sound, b) production based on repetition (which tends to occur approximately six months before the spontaneous production due to stimulability), c) perception of the target sound, and d) phoneme awareness of the target sound. The central finding of the study was that the participants aged 3-4, who have not yet developed the spontaneous speech production of the target sound, are able to perceptually differentiate the sound if they can repeat the sound, which suggests development of new phonological knowledge, first observable in their speech perception.

Povezanost reprezentacija i procesiranja te opće i jezične spoznaje omogućava bolje razumijevanje govornojezičnog razvoja, fonoloških poremećaja ali i fonološke obrade pri ovladavanju stranim jezikom. U ovom se radu fonološki razvoj sagledava iz kognitivnolingvističke perspektive određujući jedinice koje se oblikuju tijekom razvoja te opće kognitivne i jezične procese u kojima sudjeluju. Takva interakcija pokazuje povezanost sustava jezične obrade s općim kognitivnim sustavima. Fonem tj. fonološka reprezentacija je multimodalni mentalni konstrukt koji se tijekom razvoja oblikuje različitim vrstama znanja prije nego što preuzme tradicionalno mu pripisivanu funkciju razlikovanja većih jezičnih jedinica. Sadržaj fonološke reprezentacije tijekom razvoja odredit će urođeni čimbenici i utjecaj okoline, leksički čimbenici materinskog jezika koji su u interakciji s urođenim čimbenicima, te perceptivno artikulacijske čimbenici. Potreba za procjenom kvalitete fonološke reprezentacije kao umnog konstrukta javlja se u području istraživanja disleksije unutar dva dominantna teorijska okvira: 1) unutar hipoteze razlikovnosti (Elbro 1996) koja kaže da razlikovnost fonoloških reprezentacija ovisi o količini fonetskih informacija nužnih za razlikovanje od susjednih unutar mentalnog leksikona i 2) hipoteze segmentacije (Fowler 1991 ; Walley 1993) koja kaže da tijekom razvoja stupanj segmentacije leksičkih jedinica postepeno raste. Iako na prvi pogled suprotstavljene, čini se da se ove dvije hipoteze nadopunjavaju. Prva se bavi sadržajem, materijalom koji sudjeluje u obradi a druga procesima obrade. Procesi obrade tj. uporabe fonoloških informacija u obradi govora i jezika (Wagner i Torgesen 1987) dio su opće kognitivnih mehanizama, a mjere se fonološkim pristupom leksičkom pamćenju, fonološkim pamćenjem i fonološkom osjetljivošću te su povezane su s općim kognitivnim sposobnostima (McBride-Chang 1995), dok je fonološka osjetljivost ujedno i dio metajezičnog razvoja (Gillon 2004). Osim pregleda jedinica i procesa, u radu se iznosi i presjek metodologije istraživanja kvalitete fonoloških reprezentacija.

Knjiga se bavi strateškim konstruiranjem značenja, odnosno procesima uključenim u konstruiranje značenja u drugome jeziku. Daje se pregled istraživanja autora i njihovih suradnika u posljednjih desetak godina uključujući i najnovija istraživanja višemodalnog konstruiranja značenja riječju i slikom. Cilj je knjige pokazati sponu između kognitivne lingvistike i teorije ovladavanja jezikom, uz primjere inovativne metodologije istraživanja, ali i primijenjenih aspekata saznanja proizašlih iz rezultata dobivenih u navedenim istraživanjima. Knjiga je namijenjena svima koji žele osvijestiti temeljne spone između prvoga i drugoga jezika, spoznaje i iskustva, a kroz perspektivu strateškog razmišljanja o jeziku.

Hearing impairment causes numerous difficulties on the development of oral communication skills. Usually, rehabilitation is based either on spoken language or sign language. Foreign language learning among HI is no longer an exception but a frequent educational challenge, especially when HI learners are part of the inclusion process. Learners are faced not only with difficulties in speech perception but also insufficient L1 knowledge and together with their teachers with lack of proper teaching material, environmental support etc. In order to address this issue so that necessary advancement of the teaching process can be made, both qualitative and quantitative studies should be conducted. The qualitative study reported in this paper included focus group and in-depth interviews with teachers who had experienced teaching hearing impaired children. The topics included previous experience with learners in inclusion, benefits of inclusion, types of impairment and specific difficulties during teaching, satisfaction with support provided by institution and additional education aimed at teaching impaired learners. The analysis revealed that teachers find inclusion beneficial, but stronger support to the teaching process is required. Support should include not only materials, education, but also information about impairment which are often missing. The teachers also emphasize that their teaching competence and skills are mostly based on in- service experience, whereas the specific knowledge about a disability and evidence-based approach to teaching is missing. Based on the analysis, a questionnaire for quantitative study was prepared. It consists of one section regarding diagnosis and impairment typology, followed by practical suggestions for classroom activities, curricular adaptation, teaching strategies, teachers‘ education and language teaching challenges.

The aim of this study was to investigate strategic construal of particle verbs (PVs) in Croatian secondary school learners of English. Previous research on the topic, involving Croatian and Mexican university students (Geld 2011, Geld and Maldonado 2011) as well as blind and sighted Croatian teenagers (Geld and Čutić 2014), has shown that there are two groups of factors that affect strategic meaning construal: (1) language-internal factors (verb- framed vs. satellite-framed languages, semantically “light” vs. semantically “heavy” lexical components, and degree of informativeness of the particle), and (2) language-external factors (general language proficiency, years of learning L2, etc.). The major factor under the scrutiny in the present study was age. Considering the fact that after the age of 11 children's cognitive development displays some major qualitative changes, the assumption was that children aged 12 and 14 would be able to explain cognitive motivation underlying the meaning of the selected PV constructions. However, due to their age and, consequently, lower language proficiency, we expected certain differences in strategic meaning construal in comparison to older language learners. The sample consisted of two groups of learners: 43 12-year-olds and 47 14- year-olds. The instrument consisted of 10 English PVs with in and out. Participants were provided with the meaning of each PV construction and asked to try to explain why each particular combination produces the given meaning. The corpus collected consisted of 900 answers and the analysis has shown that younger learners employ the same strategies in meaning construction as older learners of English. Their answers imply either compositionality or lexical vs. topological determination. However, contrary to older learners, their default strategy, irrespective of the semantic “heaviness” of the lexical components, tends to be compositionality. In other words, they first attend to both components of the PV construction, and only then tackle them individually.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of the particles up and down in the strategic meaning construal of particle verbs (PVs) in blind and sighted users of English as L2. The paper is situated within the cognitive linguistic framework. Based on the results of a speaker-judgment study with 20 blind and 20 sighted users of English, we show that PVs with down are more informative to all the participants, and that blind users rely on the particles (particularly the particle up) more than sighted users. We claim that the difference in informativeness is related to the experiential status of up and down. Down is more informative because it is at human scale, which limits its metaphorization potential. Up is more open-ended, making it more schematic and allowing greater departure from its original topology. Blind users rely on the particles more because they are more inclined to analyzing linguistic cues, since they often serve as additional experiential input. Moreover, the blind rely more on egocentric topology, which produces similar results for down, and different for the particle up.

Inkluzivni pristup obrazovanju nameće nove kriterije znanja i vještina nastavnika stranih jezika zbog čega se oni često smatraju nemoćnima ili nedovoljno kompetentnima iako o njima ovisi ostvarenje uspjeha (Ivančić i Stančić, 2003). U ovom se radu ispituju potrebe nastavnika stranih jezika nužne za poučavanje djece s teškoćama u razvoju o kojima u Hrvatskoj nije proveden velik broj istraživanja. Istraživačkom problemu pristupilo se primjenjujući kvalitativne istraživačke metode: polustrukturirani intervju i fokus grupu provedene u zagrebačkoj osnovnoj školi u kojoj se inkluzivni pristup dugotrajno primjenjuje. Teme obuhvaćene intervjuom i fokus grupom uključile su: (1) broj učenika i vrste teškoća u razvoju u razredima s programom inkluzije, (2) korisnost inkluzivnog pristupa za učenike bez teškoća u razvoju, (3) vrste poteškoća u razvoju s kojima se nastavnici najteže snalaze, (4) stupanj zadovoljstva nastavnika s materijalnom i stručnom podrškom dostupnom za rad i (5) obrazovanje nastavnika za rad s djecom s teškoćama u razvoju prije i tijekom obavljanja nastavničkog posla (Westwood i Graham, 2003). Intervju je proveden s nastavnicom stranih jezika (N=1), transkribiran i kvalitativno obrađen te su rezultati primijenjeni za pripremu fokus grupe sa šest sudionika. Rezultati pokazuju da veći broj učenika s različitim teškoćama u razvoju postavlja pred nastavnike jezika specifične i složene izazove te je usko povezano s (4) materijalnom i nematerijalnom podrškom u školi (dostupnost stručnog tima, asistenta u nastavi, iskusnijeg kolege koji pomaže u pripremi materijala i sl.). Nastavnice u intervjuima i fokus grupama smatraju da je inkluzija pozitivna za učenike bez teškoća u razvoju jer razvijaju svijest o različitosti i toleranciju, također ističu da se najteže snalaze s poteškoćama o kojima nemaju dovoljno znanja ili ako im informacije o vrsti i stupnju oštećenja nisu dostupne. Na kraju, nastavnici ističu da nemaju dovoljno znanja i kompetencija za rad s učenicima s teškoćama u razvoju navodeći kako stiču znanja i vještine uglavnom iskustveno bez stručnih znanja o samom oštećenju i znanstvene podloge za rad s takvim učenicima. Rezultati kvalitativne analize primijenit će se za pripremu upitnika za kvantitativno istraživanje o potrebama nastavnika za rad s učenicima s teškoćama u razvoju.

Strategic construal – the process of constructing meaning in a second language – has been studied as an offline process through the use of linguistic explications (Geld 2009, 2011). In the study, learners of English were asked to report on how they made sense of figurative meanings of phrasal verbs, which combined a number of schematic and specific verbs with two particles (in and out ; e.g. go out 'stop burning'). The analysis, which used a mix of qualitative and quantitative methodology, showed that learners' construals depend, among other things, on the schematicity of the verb and the informativeness of the particle. In this paper we take a qualitative view into strategic meaning construal based on multimodal evidence. We look into the same set of phrasal verbs, this time asking learners to explicate meaning using both language and drawings. Given that the drawings have to depict relations (i.e. schemas that help learners make sense of phrasal verbs) as well as that pictorial representations tend to be concrete even for figurative senses (Forceville 2009), we expected to find scenario-based representations. The results confirm this: in their drawings the learners clearly rely on a number of more or less conventional metaphorical and non-metaphorical scenarios, which is how they "concretize" the schematic meanings of the verbs (e.g. to depict go down 'worsen, deteriorate' one learner used a number of phases of a stick person from standing upright to being more and more stooped). Moreover, the text and the picture anchor each other (Forceville 1996), in some cases producing true multimodal metaphors (the picture without the text, or vice-versa, would not be metaphorical). Overall, in addition to providing rich multimodal data, the methodologically innovative technique of asking learners to provide linguistic and pictorial explications may prove to be a way of facilitating deeper processing of figurative meaning.

This paper focuses on the pronunciation of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) in Croatia. We analyse the English pronunciation of five focus group members representing five different first languages. They are university students of English and discuss topics of their common interest. A recording was made of their conversation, which was preceded by the reading of a test passage serving as a prompt for discussion. Four independent trained listeners performed an auditory analysis of the recording. There were two basic research questions. First, to what extent and in what way does the participants' pronunciation at this highest level of competence differ from the pronunciation which was found in the interlanguage of Croatian learners? Second, what are the characteristic, national features which distinguish this 'mature' ELF pronunciation of individual focus-group members from the other participants who are native speakers of phonologically different languages? Despite the limitations of scope and method, the results provide unambiguous answers to our questions. At this level of pronunciation, as opposed to learners' pronunciation, we have found all the features necessary for complete international intelligibility. However, the 'non-core' features giving away non-native pronunciation, such as absence of allophonic alternation and non-native prosody, have also been found with all five participants. The manifestation of these give-away features depends on the phonological background of the participant. What they all turn out to have in common is the impression of a syllable-based rhythm. Accordingly, guidelines are provided for a comparative study of their rhythm by vowel duration measurement and comparing their syllabicity indices based on Low, Grabe and Nolan (2000) and Deterding (2010).

When blind and sighted users of English as L2 are asked to make sense of the figurative meanings of English particle verbs (PVs), they may rely more on the particle or on the lexical part of the verb. This depends on a number of factors (Geld 2009), such as the extent to which their first language is satellite-or verb-framed, and whether the PVs contain semantically light, schematic verbs (take in or put in ; when speakers more readily rely on the particle) or semantically heavier verbs (cut in or break in ; when speakers predominantly rely on the verb). The particles in and out have been shown to have a different degree of informativeness (semantic contribution in relation to other components in the composite whole): out was more informative than in (Geld 2011), which was ascribed to the relative default (experiential) status of being inside a container as opposed to being outside a container. Blind users of English as L2 exhibit a bias towards topological determination (reliance on the particle), which may point to the importance of space in their extraordinary experience (Geld and Čutić 2014). In this paper we explore the informativeness of up and down in 12 figurative senses of PVs coupling a heavy or light verb (go, put, take, break, cut, and pull) with the particle on a sample of 20 blind and 20 sighted users of English as L2 with similar backgrounds and profiles. We used an adapted version of an instrument previously validated in studies with blind participants (Geld and Čutić 2014), and we analyzed the answers quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative results show that there was a difference in the number of answers for up and down (F=18.582 ; p

Ovaj se rad nadovezuje na dosadašnja istraživanja vezana za stavove prema izgovoru engleskog jezika u Hrvatskoj u kontekstu globalizacije te na istraživanje engleskog izgovora hrvatskih učenika osnovnih škola (autor, u tisku). Analizira se engleski izgovor fokus grupe sveučilišnih studenata, govornika pet različitih prvih jezika (hrvatskoga, njemačkog, poljskog, litvanskog i arapskog), koji u promatranom kontekstu koriste engleski kao lingua franca (ELF) u razgovoru o temama vezanim za njihov zajednički predmet studija – jezik. Snimka strukturiranog razgovora fokus grupe potaknuta pojedinačnim čitanjem zadanoga teksta vezanog za temu razgovora koristi se za slušnu analizu izgovornih obilježja definiranih u okviru teorije izgovornih obilježja ELF-a (Jenkins 2000). Analizu provode četiri samostalna kvalificirana slušača. Traže se odgovori na dva temeljna pitanja. Prvo, u kojoj mjeri i na koji način se izgovor korisnika ELF-a na ovoj najvišoj razini kompetencije razlikuje od engleskog izgovora na koji nailazimo u međujeziku hrvatskih učenika? Drugo, po kojim se karakterističnim nacionalnim obilježjima taj 'zreli' korisnički izgovor ELF-a razlikuje od izgovora članova iste fokus grupe i usporedive kompetencije koji su izvorni govornici drugih, fonološki potpuno različitih i raznorodnih jezika? Uz sva ograničenja opsega i metode istraživanja dobiveni rezultati nedvojbeno daju odgovore na postavljena pitanja. Na ovoj razini izgovora za razliku od one učeničke prisutna su sva obilježja ključna za neupitnu i potpunu međunarodnu razumljivost. Ostala obilježja, koja predstavljaju odstupanja od alofonskih pravila ili prozodijskih obilježja izvornoga engleskog, utvrđena su kod svih članova fokus grupe. Paradoksalno, ispitanici i sami u slobodnom razgovoru pokazuju 'jezičnu shizofreniju' te za izgovor koji se udaljava od izvornoga smatraju da 'zvuči loše'. Kod svakog ispitanika ovakva obilježja manifestiraju se ovisno o fonološkoj pozadini prvoga jezika. Jedino što se pokazuje zajedničko svim ispitanicima je utisak slogovnosti ritma. Na temelju toga daju se smjernice za egzaktnu usporedbu ritma mjerenjem vokalskih duljina i izračunavanjem indeksa slogovnosti ritma prema Low, Grabe i Nolan (2000).

The present research follows up some earlier studies on the pronunciation features of Croatian young learners of English and relates to attitude studies on ELF in Croatia (Authors 2011 ; 2012). Here we focus on 'mature' ELF users at the highest level of English competence. The participants are five graduate students of English with different first languages, who have reached the level of complete fluency and international intelligibility. The only give-aways of their foreign accent are the non-core features as defined by Jenkins (2000), which, according to an earlier study (Authors, in preparation) Croatian ELF users, exhibiting linguistic schizophrenia (Kachru 1977) tend to explicitly associate with 'bad pronunciation'. The questions we raise here are: What are the non-core features of Croatian-accented ELF? What is their auditory and acoustic description? Finally, how do they set apart Croatian ELF users from comparable ELF users of other nationalities? The participants were a focus group of five university students of English with different first languages: Croatian, Arabic, Lithuanian, Polish, and German. They discussed topics related to cross-linguistic and cross-cultural differences among them. The recorded material covered three hours of their speech, which was analysed auditorily and acoustically. Four independent assessors identified the features of the participants' pronunciation. These were shown to depend on their first-language background. However, what they all share is the impression of a syllable-based rhythm. To define acoustically the participants' nationally identifiable rhythm, we used the PVI method according to Low, Grabe and Nolan (2000) and worked out the Pairwise Variability Indices for Croatian-accented English paired with each of the remaining four accents. It is shown that the identity of each of these accents is defined by the extent of the syllabicity of rhythm. We discuss the implications that these findings have for teaching English pronunciation and further research on ELF rhythm.

This paper describes and discusses issues pertaining to investigating meaning construal in the language of the blind. It introduces key problems in this largely unexplored area and proposes possible avenues of research by outlining four studies conducted over a period of eight years. The central arguments are built around the fundamental cognitive linguistic premise that language is an experiential phenomenon intimately related to general cognitive processes. The author focuses on the role of salience (or attention) and demonstrates how it is coded in the language of the blind. The main part of the paper starts with the outline of two exploratory studies the aim of which was to identify possible differences in salience and situatedness. The author discusses the contribution of the two studies and proceeds by describing a more focused study whose hypotheses were motivated by some of the questions raised in the previous two studies. The primary research question was related to the idea of the primacy of space in the blinds’ mental imagery and meaning construal. Finally, the author proposes a model integrating key language internal and language external factors affecting the process of meaning construal in this extraordinary population, and finishes by describing the fourth study whose primary aim was to double– test the research instrument used to investigate spatial (topological) elements in the language of the blind.

One cannot help judging people according to their accent. For instance, we prefer historically powerful over less powerful groups based on their pronunciation (Lindemann 2005), and the in-group over the out-group (Dailey 2005). However, speakers of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) – English used in international communication among non-native speakers – do not form an imagined community (Prodromou 2008), because there is no stable “horizontal comradeship” (Anderson 1991:7). This means that ELF is stratified (Stanojević and Josipović Smojver 2013) rather than monolithic (Jenkins 2006:161), and that attitudes towards it are constructed between individuals in particular communicative situations. One aspect of this is referred to as “linguistic schizophrenia” (Kachru 1977): being aware that one's non-native ELF pronunciation is a reality, all the while believing that one should strive towards a native-like pronunciation. This paper explores linguistic schizophrenia as a result of the ELF speaker's perceived status as a “learner” or a “user” in a given situation. It is a part of a larger study which used a range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies to ensure validity. We report on the results of two focus groups, one which predominantly focused on the ELF speakers' “learner” identity, and one which focused on the “user” identity. The results of the “learner” focus group show that the native speaker is seen as an authority figure, which is connected with the prestige of native accents. Imitating a native accent is not only related to correctness, but also a point of pride, and may sometimes stem from the belief that native speaker accents are easier to understand. As opposed to that, members of the “user” focus group are aware of the fact that certain native accents may be more difficult to understand than non-native speakers, although they do mention certain non-native Englishes as problematic in this respect too. They are aware that achieving a native-like pronunciation is a daunting, if not an impossible task. In other words, they realize that their production norm is based on international intelligibility, although they do not believe that this should be the teaching norm. Despite recognizing their pronunciation as non-native, they still seem to have to mediate that to themselves. These results confirm the appearance of linguistic schizophrenia, and indicate that in (research) situations when their “learner” identity is called up, ELF speakers prefer a normative approach to pronunciation based on native-speaker pronunciation primacy, whereas in cases when their “user” identity is called up, they prefer a non-normative approach. This is in line with a quantitative study performed on a Croatian sample (Josipović Smojver and Stanojević 2013). Still, the learner identity, along with its native-speaker primacy, necessarily comes up as part of judgments of one's own pronunciation (and the pronunciation of others) as users, perhaps due to the “model – learner” inequality inherent in the more traditional (non learner-centered) approaches.

The future tense in Croatian is formed using the present tense of the auxiliary htjeti ‘want’ (which may be cliticized ; e.g. hoću ‘I will’ > ću, etc.) and the infinitive, as in igra će trajati ‘the game will last’. It may refer to the future (e.g. Sutra ću te nazvati ‘I will call you tomorrow’), general truths (Dok je novca, bit će i prijatelja ‘While there is money, there will be friends’) and has some other minor uses (Silić and Pranjković 2005: 193-194). It has been suggested that the Croatian future tense is epistemically immediate (Author 2011), which is cross-linguistically plausible (cf. e.g. Dahl 2000 ; Langacker 2011). The aim of this paper is to show that the Croatian future tense expresses a non-subjectified future-directed epistemic immediacy. This is in line with mixed tense/aspect view of the Croatian TAM system. There are several pieces of evidence for this. Firstly, the future tense may be used in the protasis of actual hypotheticals much like the present tense (which is epistemically immediate ; cf. Author 2007), but it cannot be used when the ground is shifted to a counterfactual virtuality (cf. (1) and (2)): (1) Ako će ovako igrati, onda će izgubiti. ‘If they play like this, they will lose’ But not: (2) *Da će ovako igrati, onda bi izgubili. The Croatian present tense may be used in both of these – expressing epistemic immediacy with ako ‘if’, (Ako ovako igraju, onda će izgubiti) and a virtual (epistemically immediate) point from a surrogate ground with da ‘if’ (Da ovako igraju onda bi izgubili ‘If they played like this, they would lose’). The future tense is impossible in (2) because the counterfactual context would require a suspension of its future directedness. No such directedness appears in the present tense, which simply refers to immediacy. Secondly, the future tense is not completely grammaticalized in form or meaning. Thus, it has different forms for different persons, and clitics are used alongside full auxiliary forms (unlike, e.g., Bulgarian, with its single clitic šte). Semantically, it has not (completely) developed towards subjectified modal meanings on the future tense grammaticalization cline (Bybee, Perkins and Pagliuca 1991: 26-29), which suggests that it is not extremely subjectified. Thirdly, a corpus study (random sample of 1000 tokens each of the future and the present tense from the Croatian National Corpus) suggests that the future tense is generally used once a “contextual baseline” is established. In most cases, it tends to be introduced by a complementizer (cf. objavljeno da in (3)) or another space builder: (3) Iako je potkraj prošlog tjedna objavljeno da će se … pokušati riješiti pitanje. ‘Although it was announced last week that they will attempt to resolve the issue…’ Moreover, it rarely appears in simple SVO structures (e.g. Borussia će ugostiti Arsenal ‘Borrusia will host Arsenal’). In the present tense, simple SVO structures predominate. Thus, the future tense requires scaffolding connecting it to the ground, and the present tense does not, because of its subjectification. In terms of Cutrer (1994: 89-90), the future space is necessarily viewed from a parent space (which is the viewpoint), whereas the present is not. On a more general scale, this analysis is in line with a mixed tense/aspect-based view of the Croatian TAM system, situating Croatian into the transitional zone among Slavic languages (cf. e.g. Dickey 2000). References Author. 2007. Author. 2011. Cutrer, Michelle. 1994. Time and Tense in Narratives and Everyday Language. Ph. D. dissertation, San Diego: University of California, San Diego. Dahl, Östen. 2000. “The grammar of future time reference in European languages.” In Tense and aspect in the languages of Europe, ed. Östen Dahl, 309–328. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Dickey, Stephen M. 2000. Parameters of Slavic Aspect: A Cognitive Approach. Stanford: Center for the Study of Language and Information. Langacker, Ronald W. 2011. “The English present: Temporal coincidence vs. epistemic immediacy.” In Cognitive Approaches to Tense, Aspect and Epistemic Modality, ed. Frank Brisard and Adele Patard, 45–86. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Silić, Josip, and Ivo Pranjković. 2005. Gramatika hrvatskoga jezika za gimnazije i visoka učilišta. Zagreb: Školska knjiga.

Particle verbs (PVs) are notoriously difficult for users of English as L2. This is due to their semantic complexity: the composite structure (the whole particle verb) is never construed as merely the union of the verb and the particle, nor do the verb and the particle appear as unmodified components in the composite whole (Langacker 2000: 94). The aim of this paper is to investigate the strategic construal of down in PVs and retest the findings proposed by Geld (2009, 2011) and Geld and Letica Krevelj (2011). We gave a questionnaire with 23 metaphoric meanings of a number of PVs to a sample of 68 Croats and 32 Mexicans, users of English as L2. As expected, the results suggest that the construal of PVs depends on: (1) the type of verb in the composite whole ; (2) the degree of informativeness of the particle ; (3) the level of users’ L2 proficiency and (4) the users’ L1. We will show that the users’ knowledge of down affects the overall construal of the PV construction, and at the same time depends on other language-internal and language-external factors. For example, the semantic contribution of down in break down ‘fail’ as opposed to down in put down ‘criticize somebody’ depends on semantic “lightness/heaviness” of the verb (cf. Geld 2009), as well as the user’s L1 and general language proficiency. Moreover, the basic up-down opposition may show similar tendencies as the in-out opposition. The first member of the in-out pair is more informative than the second: the number of types of construal of out in PVs outnumbered those of in with a particular verb (Geld 2009). By the same token, we expect the up-down relationship to be asymmetrical in this sense (data for up available in Geld and Letica Krevelj 2011). References Geld, Renata. 2009. “From Topology to Verbal Aspect: Strategic Construal of in and Out in English Particle Verbs”. Ph. D., Zagreb: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. Geld, Renata. 2011. “Topological vs. lexical determination in English particle verbs (PVs).” Language Value 2 (2) (December 28): 49–75. Geld, Renata, and Stela Letica Krevelj. 2011. “Centrality of Space in the Strategic Construal of up in English Particle Verbs.” In Space and Time in Language, ed. Mario Brdar, Marija Omazić, Višnja Pavičić Takač, Tanja Gradečak-Erdeljić, and Gabrijela Buljan, 145–166. Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang. Langacker, Ronald W. 2000. Grammar and Conceptualization. Berlin ; New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

The central aim of this work is to describe the strategic construal of in and out in English particle verbs. The term strategic construal assumes the following: 1) exploration of strategic thinking in L2 learning and processing, and 2) exploration of dynamic and subjective construction of meaning pertaining to the human ability to understand and portray the same situation in alternate ways (Langacker 1987). In other words, the paper relies on two theoretical paradigms with self-evident commonalities – a strong link between language and cognition, and the insistence on the individual and subjective nature of meaning construction. The aim was to investigate whether L2 users of English are aware of the symbolic nature of language when dealing with highly schematic linguistic categories. Our hypotheses were that construal of in and out is comparable to their cognitive linguistic description in English as L1 and that it shows a cognitively motivated path from the topological to the aspectual. Both hypotheses have been confirmed. El objetivo central de este trabajo es describir la conceptualización estratégica de entrada y salida en los verbos de partículas inglés. La conceptualización estratégica a largo plazo presupone lo siguiente: 1) la exploración del pensamiento estratégico en el aprendizaje de una L2 y procesamiento, y 2) la exploración de construcción dinámica y subjetiva del significado perteneciente a la capacidad humana de comprender y describir la misma situación de maneras alternativas (Langacker 1987). en otro palabras, el documento se basa en dos paradigmas teóricos con evidentes puntos en común - una sólida relación entre el lenguaje y la cognición, y la insistencia en el carácter individual y subjetivo de significado construcción. El objetivo fue investigar si los usuarios L2 de Inglés son conscientes de la naturaleza simbólica de lengua cuando se trata de categorías lingüísticas muy esquemáticos. Nuestra hipótesis fue que la conceptualización de y salir es comparable a la descripción lingüística cognitiva en Inglés como L1 y que muestra una cognitivamente motivado camino de la topológica a la aspectual. Ambas hipótesis han sido confirmadas.

The central aim of this work is to describe semantic determination, i.e., topological vs. lexical determination, by investigating aspects of construal (Langacker 1987) in English PVs with in and out. The paper focuses on L2 processing related to what we might call strategic thinking about linguistic meaning. More specifically, it attempts to demonstrate the following: a) how the nature of verbs affects the overall semantic determination of particle verb constructions, and b) if/how the users of English make sense of particle verbs, and how much they rely on topological/grammatical components in the process of constructing meaning. The results suggest that the nature of verbs does affect the users’ strategic meaning construal – it differs in terms of their tendency towards one of the following types of semantic determination: a) topological, b) lexical, and, c) compositional. El objetivo central de este trabajo es describir la determinación semántica, es decir, la determinación topológica vs léxico, mediante la investigación de los aspectos de la conceptualización Langacker (1987) en inglés PVs con entrada y salida. El documento se centra en el procesamiento de L2 en relación con lo que podríamos llamar el pensamiento estratégico del significado lingüístico. Más específicamente, se trata de demostrar lo siguiente: a) cómo la naturaleza de los verbos afecta a la determinación global semántica de las construcciones verbales de partículas, y b) si / cómo los usuarios de Inglés sentido de los verbos de partículas, y lo mucho que dependen topológico components / gramaticales en el proceso de construcción de significado. Los resultados sugieren que la naturaleza de los verbos afecta conceptualización de los usuarios significado estratégico - que difiere en términos de su tendencia hacia uno de los siguientes tipos de determinación semántica: a) topológico, b) léxico, y, c) de la composición.

The central aim of this work is to describe semantic determination, i.e., topological vs. lexical determination, by investigating aspects of construal (Langacker 1987) in English PVs with in and out. The paper focuses on L2 processing related to what we might call strategic thinking about linguistic meaning. More specifically, it attempts to demonstrate the following: a) how the nature of verbs affects the overall semantic determination of particle verb constructions, and b) if/how the users of English make sense of particle verbs, and how much they rely on topological/grammatical components in the process of constructing meaning. The results suggest that the nature of verbs does affect the users’ strategic meaning construal – it differs in terms of their tendency towards one of the following types of semantic determination: a) topological, b) lexical, and, c) compositional.

L’objectiu principal d’aquest treball és descriure les estratègies de construcció conceptual que els parlants d’anglès com a segona llengua utilitzen en l’adquisició de verbs amb partícula. El terme “estratègies de construcció” suggereix ja una vessant teòrica d’aquest treball, i pressuposa dues qüestions bàsiques: 1) l’exploració de les estratègies mentals que operen en el processament i aprenentatge d’una segona llengua i 2) l’exploració de la construcció dinàmica i subjectiva del significat, pròpies de la capacitat humana de comprendre i representar una mateixa situació de maneres alternatives (Langacker 1987). Dit d’una altra manera, l’article es basa en dos paradigmes teòrics amb evidents punts en comú: l’estreta relació entre llenguatge i cognició, i la insistència en el caràcter individual i subjectiu de la construcció del significat. La finalitat és investigar si els usuaris d’anglès com a segona llengua són conscients de la naturalesa simbòlica del llenguatge quan es tracta de categories lingüístiques molt esquemàtiques. Partim de les hipòtesis que les estratègies de construcció mental d’in (dins) i out (fora) empleades pels parlants de la segona llengua són equiparables a les descripcions cognitives que fan els parlants natius d’anglès i que aquestes estratègies mostren l’existència d’una sèrie de trajectòries cognitives que van des de l’aspecte topològic cap a l’aspectual amb un alt nivell de motivació. Ambdues hipòtesis han sigut confirmades per les dades d’aquesta investigació., The central aim of this work is to describe strategic construal of in and out in English particle verbs. The term subsumes the basic framework assumed in the work: 1) exploration of strategic thinking in L2 learning and processing, and 2) exploration of dynamic and subjective construction of meaning pertaining to the human ability to understand and portray the same situation in alternate ways (Langacker 1987). In other words, the paper relies on two theoretical paradigms with self-evident commonalities – a strong link between language and cognition, and the insistence on the individual and subjective nature of meaning construction. The aim was to investigate whether L2 users of English are aware of the symbolic nature of language when dealing with highly schematic linguistic categories. Our hypotheses were that construal of in and out is comparable to their cognitive linguistic description in English as L1 and that it shows a cognitively motivated path from the topological to the aspectual. Both hypotheses have been confirmed., El objetivo central de este trabajo es describir las estrategias de construcción conceptual que los hablantes de inglés como segunda lengua emplean en la adquisición de verbos con partícula. El término “estrategias de construcción” sugiere ya la vertiente teórica de este trabajo. Presupone dos cuestiones fundamentales: 1) la exploración de las estrategias mentales que operan en el procesamiento y el aprendizaje de segundas lenguas, y 2) la exploración de la construcción dinámica y subjetiva en la conformación del significado como parte de las habilidades humana que se despliegan para entender y representar la misma situación de maneras alternas (Langacker 1987). En otras palabras, el artículo se basa en dos paradigmas teóricos con evidentes rasgos en común: una fuerte asociación entre lenguaje y cognición y una notable insistencia en el carácter individual y subjetivo de la construcción del significado. El objetivo es investigar si los hablantes de inglés como segunda lengua son conscientes de la naturaleza simbólica de la lengua cuando se enfrentan con categorías de alto grado de esquematicidad. Partimos de las hipótesis de que las estrategias de construcción mental de in ‘adentro’ y out ‘afuera’ que emplean los hablantes de L2 son equiparables con las descripciones cognitivas que hacen los hablantes nativos de inglés y que tales estrategias ponen de manifiesto la existencia de trayectorias cognitivas que van desde lo topológico hasta lo aspectual con un alto nivel de motivación. Ambas hipótesis son confirmadas por los datos que arroja esta investigación.

L’objectiu principal d’aquest treball es descriure la determinació semàntica, és a dir, la determinació topològica davant de la lèxica, mitjançant la investigació dels aspectes de construcció conceptual (Langacker 1987) dels verbs preposicionals (VPs) de l’anglès amb in i out. L’article se centra en el processament de la segona llengua en relació amb el que podríem anomenar pensament estratègic sobre el significat lingüístic. Concretament, es tractava de demostrar el següent: a) com la naturalesa dels verbs afecta a la determinació semàntica general de les construccions de verbs preposicionals, i b) si/com els usuaris d’anglès donen sentit als verbs preposicionals, i fins a quin punt depenen dels components topològics/gramaticals en el procés de construcció del significat. Els resultats suggereixen que la naturalesa dels verbs afecta la conceptualització estratègica del significat dels usuaris – difereix en la tendència que mostren cap a un dels tipus de determinació semàntica: a) topològica, b) lèxica, i c) composicional., The central aim of this work is to describe semantic determination, i.e., topological vs. lexical determination, by investigating aspects of construal (Langacker 1987) in English PVs with in and out. The paper focuses on L2 processing related to what we might call strategic thinking about linguistic meaning. More specifically, it attempts to demonstrate the following: a) how the nature of verbs affects the overall semantic determination of particle verb constructions, and b) if/how the users of English make sense of particle verbs, and how much they rely on the topological/grammatical components in the process of constructing meaning. The results suggest that the nature of verbs does affect the users’ strategic meaning construal – it differs in terms of their tendency towards one of the following types of semantic determination: a) the topological, b) lexical, and, c) compositional., El objetivo principal de este trabajo es describir la determinación semántica, es decir, la determinación topológica frente a la léxica, mediante la investigación de los aspectos de construcción conceptual (Langacker 1987) de los verbos preposicionales (VPs) del inglés con in y out. El artículo se centra en el procesamiento de la segunda lengua en relación con lo que podríamos llamar pensamiento estratégico sobre el significado lingüístico. Concretamente, se trataba de demostrar lo siguiente: a) cómo la naturaleza de los verbos afecta a la determinación semántica general de las construcciones de verbos preposicionales, y b) si/cómo los usuarios de inglés dan sentido a los verbos preposicionales, y lo mucho que dependen de los componentes topológicos/gramaticales en el proceso de construcción del significado. Los resultados sugieren que la naturaleza de los verbos afecta a la conceptualización estratégica del significado de los usuarios – difiere en la tendencia que muestran hacia uno de los siguientes tipos de determinación semántica: a) topológica, b) léxica, y c) composicional.

Croatian conditionals and epistemic stance In Croatian, ako ‘if’, and kad(a) ‘when’ appear with actual and hypothetical conditionals, da ‘if’ appears with counterfactuals (Silić and Pranjković 2005:348-349). Thus, ako + the present tense in (1) signals an actual conditional, ako + the past tense in (2) signals a hypothetical conditional, and da + the present tense in (3) a counterfactual conditional. (1) Ako nas ujutro nitko ne poveze, otići ćemo vlakom. ‘Unless someone gives us a lift in the morning, we will take the train.’ (2) Ako ih je zaista poslao u Carigrad, bit će tu nešto drugo u igri. ‘If he really sent them to Constantinople, something else must be at play.’ (3) Da danas mogu ponovno birati, ne bih se nikada stranački angažirao. ‘If I could do it all over again today, I would never go into politics’. The data looks parallel to English, where access and epistemic stance signaled by the tense used in the protasis yield different types of conditionals (Cutrer 1994:256-323). However, there are additional facts to be taken into account in Croatian. For instance, the protasis allows a range of verbal forms in actual conditionals: perfective verbs in the present tense (1), the so-called second future (Ako budu ovako igrali, onda će izgubiti ‘If they play like this, they will lose), and the future tense (Ako će ovako igrati, onda će izgubiti ‘If they play like this, they will lose’), whose meanings appear very similar. Similarly, the passive does not adhere to the prescribed tense formation: what is formally a present tense passive (je napisana lit. ‘is written’) may refer to a counterfactual situation requiring the past tense (je bila napisana lit. ‘was written’): (4) Da je ta priča (…) napisana ‘realističkije’, ona zacijelo ne bi mogla biti objavljena 1978. ‘If that story had been written more realistically, it could not have been published in 1978.’ All this (and some other facts) suggests that epistemic stance in Croatian conditionals is based on the interplay of mood, tense, aspect, voice and conjunction, and that the conditional construction is not fully grammaticalized. Based on corpus data (Croatian National Corpus) we list the most frequent patterns (e.g. ako + the perfective present in the protasis, future tense in the apodosis ; da + the past tense in the protasis, the conditional in the apodosis, etc.). We explain their workings in terms of cognitive grammar (e.g. in (1) the epistemic immediacy of the present tense and the perfective verb signal removal from the actual to the epistemically immediate virtual plain ; in (4) the terminal prominence of the n-participle signals removal from the conceptualizer’s viewpoint and may refer to epistemic distance, etc.), listing some of the idiosyncrasies in the cross-Slavic perspective (e.g. the use of kad in conditionals ; the use of the second future, etc.). On a more general scale, these coincide with aspectual data showing that Croatian is a transitional zone among Slavic languages (Dickey 2000). Cutrer, Michelle. 1994. Time and Tense in Narratives and Everyday Language. Ph. D. dissertation, San Diego: University of California, San Diego. Dickey, Stephen M. 2000. Parameters of Slavic Aspect: A Cognitive Approach. Stanford: Center for the Study of Language and Information. Silić, Josip, and Ivo Pranjković. 2005. Gramatika hrvatskoga jezika za gimnazije i visoka učilišta. Zagreb: Školska knjiga.

This is an interdisciplinary thesis dealing with semantic determination (lexical/topological/compositional)of particle verb (PV)constructions and strategic construal (i.e. meaning construal in L2)of in and out in PV constructions in English as L2. It examines the data obtained from 100 users of English as L2 and analyzes the results in relation to several language internal and language external factors such as language typology (verb-framed vs. satellite-framed languages), language proficiency, different L1, educational background, etc.).

Istraživanje se bavi stavovima govornika hrvatskog jezika prema planskom jeziku esperantu.

The aim of the paper is to outline a semantically coherent view of the dative case in Croatian. More specifically, our claim is that the semantic coherence of the Croatian dative hinges on the notion of the speaker's dominion. Speaker's dominion signals the availability of a particular element for interaction to a participant, the possibility of its influence on the participant, the location of the element with regard to a familiar participant, and requires the participant to be conscious or some other type of prominent entity. In order to check whether the Croatian dative is a dominion phenomenon, we performed two corpus studies of the Croatian National Corpus to find nouns and pronouns in the dative case, and performed a semantic analysis. The results have shown that the Croatian dative case exhibits all of the semantic characteristics of a dominion phenomenon. Future research should focus on establishing the dative schema in Croatian and on additional issues (such as the dative's affinity to the middle voice). This may lead to some general limiting factors in the notion of mental access.

U izlaganju su predstavljeni rezultati dvaju istraživanja o engleskom utjecaju na hrvatski jezik, o promjenama u imeničkom skupu koje dopuštaju uporabu imenica kao predatributa i predapozicija te o prihvatljivosti takvih struktura za izvorne govornike.

As a usage-based theoretical framework, cognitive linguistics should have a tremendous impact in second language acquisition research. One of the strongest aspects of this framework in terms of SLA research is its insistence on language being an experiential phenomenon intimately connected with other cognitive abilities. A large group of cognitive processes that were neglected in modular theories of language development are cognitive (learning) strategies. Language was seen as separate from other cognitive domains and learning mechanisms operating in the process of language acquisition were considered language specific. The research presented in this paper is based on the constructivist view of language (Langacker 1988, 2000 ; Tomasello 2003), and the results suggest that meaning construal can be used as evidence towards the connection of cognitive strategies in the acquisition of L2 and general cognitive processes present in L1. The aim of the research was to establish patterns in L2 processing, particularly those related to topological (Talmy 2000) and lexical determination in the meaning construal of English particle verbs (cf. Rudzka-Ostyn 2003). The paper discusses the results obtained from quantitative and qualitative research into strategic construal, i.e. meaning construal in second language processing (Geld in press). The subjects were a group of 100 speakers of English as a second language (68 speakers of Croatian as L1 and 32 speakers of Spanish as L1). The language material consisted of 20 particle verbs combining light (go, take and put) and heavy (call, cut, break, draw, pull, shut and write) lexical parts with in and out. The 46 meanings selected for the research material were those qualified as obscure by a triangulation study conducted prior to the main stage of the research. The subjects were asked to make sense of the phrasal verb constructions and try to explain what it is in each construction that produces specific meaning(s). There were two basic hypotheses: a) topological determination is expected with particle verbs consisting of light lexical parts, b) a more “ balanced” determination is expected with particle verbs containing heavy lexical parts. Preliminary results reveal the following tendencies: 1) stronger topological determination with particle verbs containing light lexical parts, 2) higher frequency of compositional meanings with particle verbs containing heavy lexical parts, 3) higher frequency of compositional meanings in speakers with higher language proficiency, 4) more frequent topological determination in speakers with higher language proficiency. The paper offers detailed description of these tendencies, focusing on the patterns found to determine the strategic construal of in and out.

Cilj je istraživanja bio ustanoviti razlike u uspješnosti vještine čitanja s obzirom na broj školskih sati nastave, ocjenu iz engleskoga, učenje engleskoga izvan škole, učenje drugih stranih jezika i korištenje Interneta. Razumijevanje teksta čitanjem mjereno je u osmom razredu osnovne škole na uzorku od 1254 učenika i u četvrtom razredu srednje škole na uzorku od 656 srednjoškolaca. Istraživanje je pokazalo da veći broj sati učenja engleskoga u školi ima pozitivan utjecaj na rezultate u vještini čitanja kod srednjoškolaca, ali ne i kod osnovnoškolaca. Ocjena iz engleskoga umjereno je povezana s rezultatom na testu čitanja. Učenje engleskoga izvan škole ima pozitivan utjecaj na rezultate u testu čitanja u osnovnim školama, dok taj utjecaj nije zamjetan u srednjim školama. Učenje drugih stranih jezika, a posebice njemačkoga, ima pozitivan utjecaj na vještinu čitanja kod svih ispitanika. Najzad, korištenje Interneta ima pozitivnu povezanost s vještinom čitanja kod učenika osnovne škole.

Rad se bavi prihvatljivošću imenica u službi atributa i apozicije u položaju ispred glave imeničkog skupa. Istraživanje je provedeno na uzorku od 284 ispitanika iz cijele Hrvatske.

According to cognitive grammar, one of the fundamental assumptions concerning the nature of language is that “ much in language is a matter of degree” (Langacker, 1987:14). The issue of discreteness is discussed in terms of the following aspects of linguistic categories and linguistic relationships: (a) the inadequacy of simple categorical judgments, (b) doubtful cognitive validity of the criterial-attribute model, (c) the inappropriateness of applying a sharply dichotomous organization on gradient phenomena, and (d) the question whether an integrated system is adequately described componentially (Langacker, 1987). The aim of this paper is to discuss the importance of gradience in L2 processing and the implications of the traditional grammatical/ungrammatical dichotomy prevalent in teaching a second language. We wish to claim that traditional textbooks and grammars do not accommodate for learners’ judgments of “ well-formedness along a continuous scale of values” (Langacker 1987: 15) but encourage assessments based on a variety of plus/minus features in the form of lists of rules related either to the form or the function of a particular linguistic structure. Furthermore, we claim that, in case of the present perfect tense, textbooks fail to stress the important distinction between the time frame or the time sphere (Radden and Dirven, 2007), which includes both the event and the speech event, and adjuncts of time that locate the event at some point anterior to the reference time. Finally, we wish to show that even in the case of very proficient learners, non-prototypical instances are not integrated in language teaching material and syllabus, which results in students’ incapacity to go beyond the explicitly learned rules, make personal inferences about non-prototypical cases, and thus recognize the most schematic and unifying schema that keeps the category together. In order to support our hypotheses, first we analyzed the most frequently used English textbooks in Croatian schools to demonstrate the content and sequence of teaching the present perfect, and then we conducted research into strategic construal (Geld 2006) of two non-prototypical uses of the present perfect tense. The paper analyzes the answers obtained from 175 English majors and discusses the results that support the above stated hypotheses. It has been found that even proficient learners of English largely rely on the learned rules and in doing so fail to (re)consider contextual clues that point to a particular example being construed as a valid member of the present perfect category.

The aim of this paper is to uphold the cognitive linguistic view that language and knowledge are experiential phenomena, and that they are tightly related to the way we conceptualize reality (cf. Lakoff, 1987 ; Langacker, 1987, Talmy, 1988a ; 1988b ; 2000). In order to support this idea we shall present a case study of a blind speaker of English as L2, which offers an insight into differences in conceptualization due to different perceptive abilities, in this case the lack of vision. Furthermore, we shall attempt to show that blindness itself does not in any way determine the level of language proficiency, but that it does affect the way linguistic meaning is constructed. The paper explores mental imagery, that is, a dynamic and subjective process of constructing linguistic meaning (Langacker, 1987), of a legally blind person in the process of learning English as a second language. The main hypothesis was based on the findings from two previous studies (Geld and Starčević, 2006 ; Geld and Stanojević, in press) whose results suggest that the conceptual content in the language of the blind indicates a specific realization of two cognitive processes as aspects of meaning construal: firstly, there is a shift in scalar adjustment from schematicity to specificity, and secondly, the vantage point tends to indicate a different position of the conceptualizer. Thus, we hypothesized that a close examination of the subject’ s second language would reveal aspects of meaning construal identified in the first language and found in the group of blind subjects examined in the above mentioned studies. Furthermore, it was our intention to investigate potentially idiosyncratic phenomena in second language processing in a blind person with a specific impairment. Finally, we aimed to demonstrate how the particular efficiency of using residual vision and the resulting experience of reality is reflected in a second language.