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The contribution aims at * arguing about a valuable definition of multilingualism – proposing also to connect it with the term multicompetence; * giving some examples of how neurolinguistics and sociolinguistics can – adopting an interdisciplinary approach – give important insights into how multilingual experience modulates the brain. * It will also propose to look at forgotten phenomena, such as the influence of multilingualism on both sides of language contact: not only in the minority but also in the language majority (language adoption).

The various collections of language biographies starting in the 1990s have given rise to a new field of investigation in sociolinguistics. The interest in the very individual, autobiographical viewpoint on languages in speakers’ own repertoires offers new insights for macrosociolinguistic research. These detailed corpora also provide data for microanalytical investigations into the specificity of autobiographical narrations, i.e. how speakers construe their language repertoires in the narrative interview setting. This contribution seeks to depict how the interest in LB emerged and subsequently describes the most important developments in LB research, which to date is still limited to the European arena. Since the field is still growing and is in need of formalization, this overview must remain incomplete. Finally, the contribution warns of pitfalls and highlights some fields where LB has provided important input, from language didactics to neurolinguistic studies.

Tous ceux qui, depuis une décennie, entreprennent une recherche linguistique empirique ont l’embarras du choix face au développement des méthodes empiriques, les apports de la part des sciences sociales et le développement informatique. Ces contributions forcent de plus en plus les chercheurs à approcher le recueil des données dans une réflexion constante sur leurs propres activités. Les décisions méthodologiques ne se font plus seulement au début – comme semblent souvent le suggérer les manuels de fieldwork – mais il devient de plus en plus évident que les questions de méthodologie doivent accompagner toutes les phases de la recherche, à l’instar d’un deuxième regard autoréflexif. Il est donc toujours plus difficile de se limiter à une discussion sur les outils pratiques (« bon questionnaire », « évitement du biais », « type de transcription », etc.) sans envisager leurs conséquences epistémiques et éthiques.

Early acquisition of a second language influences the development of language abilities and cognitive functions. In the present study, we used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to investigate the impact of early bilingualism on the organization of the cortical language network during sentence production. Two groups of adult multilinguals, proficient in three languages, were tested on a narrative task; early multilinguals acquired the second language before the age of three years, late multilinguals after the age of nine. All participants learned a third language after nine years of age. Comparison of the two groups revealed substantial differences in language-related brain activity for early as well as late acquired languages. Most importantly, early multilinguals preferentially activated a fronto-striatal network in the left hemisphere, whereas the left posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) was activated to a lesser degree than in late multilinguals. The same brain regions were highlighted in previous studies when a non-target language had to be controlled. Hence the engagement of language control in adult early multilinguals appears to be influenced by the specific learning and acquisition conditions during early childhood. Remarkably, our results reveal that the functional control of early and subsequently later acquired languages is similarly affected, suggesting that language experience has a pervasive influence into adulthood. As such, our findings extend the current understanding of control functions in multilinguals.

Speaking more than one language is associated with neurocognitive benefits in seniors (Alladi et al. 2013). Few studies however have tested this hypothesis directly by comparing bilingual seniors who vary in chronological age. We report a Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) study showing cumulative effects of age on grey matter volume (GMV) in brain structures that are involved in cognitive control in bilingual seniors and found no differences in RT or accuracy between bilingual and monolingual seniors on a behavioral test of cognitive control called the Attentional Network Task (ANT), and no differences in GMV for selected ROIs between groups. However, chronological age predicted the size of interference and conflict effects for monolingual speakers only. We also observed a more widespread pattern of bilateral aging-effcts in brain regions that are classically associated with aging in monolingual speakers compared to bilingual speakers. Notably, GMV in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the level of daily exposure to a second language (L2) independently predict performance on the ANT in bilingual speakers. We conclude that regular (daily) bilingual experience mitigates the typical effects of aging on cognitive control at the behavioral and the neural level.

The German Studies seem to be deeply splitted. On the whole as well as in each of their traditional parts (Linguistics, Literary Studies, Medieval Studies) they distinguish themselves through cyclic figures of permanent resolution. Paradoxically, however, these figures of thinking manage to cross the former interior boundaries as well. This might be seen especially in the different turns which occur in the German Studies like in other humanities, but with a certain kind of exaltation. So it may be that the cyclic figures of thinking in turns do not only have a centrifugal, but centripetal effect. Therefore one could, polemically spoken, postulate a paradox germanistic turn — this would be no ordinary positioning, rather a vote for the intriguing dynamics of German Studies.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the attentional mechanisms of multilingual children with differential degrees of language competence. For this purpose, 118 children (61 female/57 male; mean age 10.9 years (SD = 0.29); early acquisition multilinguals) from the Ladin valleys in South Tyrol, Italy, performed the Attentional Network Test (ANT). Our results proved that proficiency levels in early multilingual children may play a crucial role in the development and enhancement of the alerting component of the attentional system. Interestingly enough, we were able to deduce that linguistic competence rather than competence in other skill domains may have a decisive role in the alerting component. We suggest that the peculiarity of highly competent multilinguals relies on their ability to better detect, and consequently react faster to, the target stimulus than their less competent multilingual peers.

The overall aim of this article is to argue that the functioning of every language system is basedon a potential multilingual competence. The empirical basis for this is now broad enough togain a comprehensive view on the overall competence of a multilingual individual. Moreover,increasingtheoreticalreflectionhasconferredanincreasinglyindependentprofileinthefieldof multilingualism research. In the main part of this article, a definition of multilingualism isproposed and related to the term “multicompetence.” The proposed definition of multilin-gualism, emerging from sociolinguistically rooted studies, distinguishes not only the classicalsocial, institutional, and individual dimensions of observation but includes a new interactiondimensionaswell.Theterm“multicompetence”isthendiscussedinitshistoricaldevelopmentform on which psycholinguistics oriented studies. The European LINEE project tries to en-large the concept of multicompetence with the aim of making it suitable for a sociolinguisticembedding. This usage-based approach is presented and further claims for more conceptualreflections in the field of multilingualism are made.THE TERM “MULTILINGUALISM” HAS estab-lished itself over the past two decades in linguis-tics. It is widely used and describes the variousforms of social, institutional, and individual waysthat we go about using more than one language.Included are not only varieties such as nationallanguages but also regional languages, minor-ity languages, migrant languages, sign languages,and, in the broadest sense, dialects. The area ofresearch is extensive and seems to be increasinglyexpanding; it is now time to clarify the definitionof multilingualism and multicompetence.This contribution has a conceptual vein; nev-ertheless, it is grounded on direct empiricalresearch, worked out mainly in the Europeanresearch network LINEE (Languages in a Net-work of European Excellence).

It is generally accepted that the presence of a second language (L2) has an impact on the neuronal substrates build up and used for language processing; the influence of the age of L2 exposure, however, is not established. We tested the hypothesis that the age of L2 acquisition has an effect on the cortical representation of a multilingual repertoire in 44 multilinguals with different age of exposure to a L2 (simultaneous or covert simultaneous exposure to L1 and L2, sequential acquisition of L1 and L2 between 1 and 5 years, late learning of L2 after 9 years of age) and all fluent in a late learned L3. Regional activation in a language production task showed a high in-between-subject variability, which was higher than within-subject variability between L1, L2, and L3. We, therefore, performed a single subject analysis and calculated the within-subject variance in the numbers of activated voxels in Broca's and Wernicke's area. Subjects with early exposure to L2 showed low variability in brain activation in all three languages, in the two early as well as the late learned language. In contrast, late multilinguals exhibited higher variability. Thus, cerebral representation of languages is linked to the age of L2 acquisition: early exposure to more than one language gives rise to a language processing network that is activated homogeneously by early and late learned languages, while the inhomogeneous activation in late multilinguals indicates more independent access to the multilingual repertoire. Early passive exposure to L2 results in the same low variance as active bilingual upbringing. Variability in local brain activity increases progressively from the simultaneous to late L2 exposure, indicating a gradual transition from the mode of early bilingual language representation to that of late ones.

Face au grand nombre de travaux sur les differentes facettes du phenomene du plurilinguisme, on pourrait se demander si les analyses conduites jusqu’a nos jours peuvent avoir une retombee sur le developpement de la theorie linguistique en general. S’agit-il seulement d’un theme a la mode (pour des raisons sociales bien comprehensibles, et incontestees) ou bien plutot d’un defi pour la linguistique ? Apres avoir examine des questions de terminologie, l’article cherche a repondre a ces questions par onze theses. L¹importance pour le developpement d¹une theorie linguistique fondee sur une pluralite linguistique est mise en evidence, ainsi que la centralite de concepts utilises pour analyser l’acquisition de langues secondes (ou, recemment, de troisiemes et quatriemes langues). Les fondements cognitifs sont discutes, ainsi que le traitement conjoint ou separe de plusieurs langues au niveau cerebral.

Can the Humboldtian view of universities — i.e. a community of researchers and students involved in a creative, often solitary but nonetheless comprehensive discursive process — serve as a guideline for the highly topical discussion about reform processes of the university system? The answer to this key question is divided into three parts. In a first step, it is answered by a critical yet humorous spotlight on arguments often provided by key decision-makers and university managers. Globalisation and the quest for efficient research efforts that render immediate results, the profit-oriented distribution of resources as well as the necessity of assets made available by third parties are presented as clumsy guidelines which fail to take into account the fundamental long-term benefits of research and higher education. The humanities in particular very often face sharp criticism in this regard. In a second step, a deconstruction of the economic-oriented line of thought is attempted. Finally, a vision of a Humboldtian University and an answer to the initial question is provided in the form of a short — and paradisiacal — sketch.

The aim of this chapter is to examine European higher education from the perspective of language use, that is, in view of the multilingual reconfiguration currently affecting universities in EU countries. In the first section recent developments of EU language policies are illustrated, and the notion of ‘functional multilingualism’, which informs such policies, is discussed against the background of societal, political and economic changes, determining a reconsideration of linguistic needs in Europe. The second section is devoted to the analysis of communicative practices in multilingual universities, in particular at the trilingual Free University of Bozen-Bolzano in Italy. Different ways of handling linguistic diversity in the classroom are examined, showing how the use of more languages in teacher-student interaction cannot only enhance learning processes and participation but can also prepare professionals who can successfully act in a multilingual, multicultural Europe.

Multilingualism is a human potentiality which can be developed when circumstances permit it anywhere and at any time throughout human evolution: Sporadic or prolonged language contact between populations through cohabitation, trade, intermarriage, conquest, exploration, travel, or shared interests raises the desire or need for exchange. Keywords: bi/multilingualism; history; language acquisition; language learning; nationalization; repertoire; sociolinguistics

Linguists look with high expectancy towards the neurosciences and their findings on the neuronal basis of language(s). New functional neuroimaging techniques such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET) or functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), but also EEG and MEGi, have raised an enormous interest in the scientific community (as well as in the general public) and led to enthusiastic exclamations such as “finally, we can have a look at the brain while it is at work”. However, these techniques, just as any other technique, have their specific limitations (cf. Posner and Raichle 1996; see Fabbro 2001 for a summary). The view on the brain with neuroimaging techniques (fMRI and PET) is not yet as fine-grained in spatial resolution as one may wish (see also De Bot, in press). We do not see single neurons at work, but only areas of a variable extension (from about 1.5 to 3 mm, with a 1.5 tesla-tomograph). In the dimension of time, we cannot follow the brain’s activities step by step in the order of milliseconds. Electrophysiological techniques, on the other hand, provide a good time-resolution, but are even less precise in the localisation. Compromises between a better time or spatial resolution have always to be made.

Rita Franceschini remet en question l’idee recue selon laquelle la principale caracteristique du citoyen suisse serait son aptitude a parler plusieurs langues. Les statistiques qu’elle presente montrent que la societe helvetique est multiculturelle et multilingue, notamment en raison de la presence sur son sol d’une importante population d’origine etrangere. De par sa Constitution, la Confederation Helvetique est polyglotte: les langues officielles sont, par ordre d’importance, l’allemand, le francais, l’italien et le romanche. D’autres langues sont egalement en usage dans le pays. Il est a noter que chaque region n’a qu’une seule langue officielle pour l’administration, l’enseignement et la justice.

Innerhalb der Kategorisierungsaktivitaten (categorization devices, Sacks 1992) zeigen diejenigen, die menschliche Gruppen zum Gegenstand haben, besondere Eigenschaften auf, die sie von anderen Kategorisierungsaktivitaten unterscheiden. Dies mag am Referenzobjekt “Mensch”, “menschliche Gruppe”, “menschliche Eigenschaften” liegen, welches im Referenzuniversum fur seinesgleichen eine prominente Stellung innehat (Givon 1983). Es last sich besonders leicht mit emotionalen, egozentrischen und identitatsstiftenden Aktivitiaten verbinden. Die Manifestationen von Fremdbildern im Diskurs (die zugleich in komplementarer Weise auch Eigenbilder vermitteln) sind oft impliziter Natur. Sie lassen sich aber steigern bis zu verbaler Aggression und expliziter Auserung, bspw. in ubergeneralisierenden Aussagen.