Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics
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Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics jest międzynarodowym przeglądem zagadnień teoretycznych i metodologicznych w badaniach językoznawczych. Czasopismo publikuje oryginalne artykuły z teoretycznym wpływem na dowolną z dziedzin językoznawstwa, recenzje i przeglądy artykułów, dyskusje oraz recenzje książek.
Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics is an international review of theoretical and methodological issues in linguistic research. The journal carries original articles with a theoretical impact on any area of linguistics, review articles, discussion papers and reply articles, and book reviews.
Redaktor naczelny: Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kołaczyk
Kontakt: Faculty of English
Adam Mickiewicz University
Collegium Novum
al. Niepodległości 4
61-874 Poznań, Poland
e-mail: psicl@ifa.amu.edu.pl
strona www: http://wa.amu.edu.pl/psicl/
Nazwa wydawcy: Versita Ltd., de Gruyter
ISSN 0137-2459
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Item Smitherman, Geneva. 2006. Word from the mother: Language and African Americans. New York: Routledge. xiii + 172 pages. ISBN: 0-415-35876.(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2007) Dylewski, RadosławItem TWO LANGUAGES, TWO CULTURES, ONE MIND: A STUDY INTO DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGES IN THE STUDENTS’ VIEW OF LANGUAGE AS A TOOL IN CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2007) Whyatt, BogusławaIn this paper I report on the preliminary results of a longitudinal one-year study of students’ progression from a low level of language awareness manifested in their superficial/intuitive use of language/languages to a higher level of language self-awareness manifested in their more con- trolled use of language. The data gathered for this study include four sources: a language aware- ness questionnaire, think aloud protocols, error analysis and post error analysis in-class discussions. The results of this study are intended to be further explored in a larger research project.Item ON CERTAIN CONSEQUENCES OF FEATURE SPREAD IN PHASE-BASED SYNTAX(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2007) Witkoś, Jacek; Cegłowski, PiotrThe paper presents some empirical consequences resulting from the application of Chomsky’s phase-based system (Chomsky 2005, 2006) and, specifically, the implementation of feature spread between phase heads (C, v) and their complements (T,V) , respectively. We begin with a brief overview of the “old” rules for the syntactic derivation and proceed with the description of the innovative concept of feature spread and the way it modifies the derivational process. Next, we hint at some problematic areas for the new system, i.e. extraction from the subject as well as that trace phenomenon. As for the former, we present, based on the comparison of the behaviour of raising as well as control verbs (including, among others, raising and control constructions), some evidence for the theory of Control as movement. What follows, we derive a parametrised version of Subject Condition. Finally, we look at certain facts from Polish (e.g. Genitive of Negation) that seem to lend credibility to the feature spread analysis.Item PHONOLOGY IN TEXT MESSAGES(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2007) Kul, MałgorzataText messages operate on a protocol which allows from 148 to160 characters per message, including spaces between words. In such a highly circumscribed environment, writing is seriously hampered by the limited space and the usage of the numeric phone keypad. Thus, the advent of a new quality of the text language, sometimes referred to as “textese”, was inevitable under those conditions. One of the characteristics of text messages is frequent deletion of letters in ortho- graphical forms, like in the following example: IfYaMthWozNEBiGrUWdntHavNEFAcLft2Wsh (if your mouth was any bigger you wouldn’t have anything else left to wash). In order to investigate the nature of letter deletions in text messages a study was undertaken, which analyzed ten examples of text messages coming from various sources. The aim of the study was to determine whether the deletion of letters was regular, the gen- eral prediction being that text messages are decoded via the mediation of their phonemic representations (or via mental reading). It was speculated that the regularities were governed by phonological principles such as the semiotic “figure and ground” principle (Dressler 1996) and the “rich-get-richer” principle (Donegan 1978/1985). The results demonstrate that phonology is very likely to govern reductions albeit without any recourse to the prosody level.More specifically, phonology apparently affects the pattern of deletions in text messages, whereas there is a marked tendency that stress assignment does not determine the nature of deletions.Item MEASURING FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING APTITUDE. POLISH ADAPTATION OF THE MODERN LANGUAGE APTITUDE TEST BY CARROLL AND SAPON(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2008) Rysiewicz, JacekThis article sets itself two main aims. The first is to describe the rationale behind the decision to adapt for Polish learners the Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) by Carroll and Sapon (1959), rather than to develop a new measure. The reasons behind the decision are discussed in the context of the relevant individual differences (ID) research in Poland and the need for a reli- able and theoretically valid measure of foreign language (FL) aptitude for L1 Polish is articu- lated. The other aim is to describe the development, piloting and initial validation of the Polish MLAT-based adaptation of a new measure of FL aptitude. Two methods of test adaptation (trans- lation and paraphrase) are discussed and justified with relation to the current project. It was de- cided that all four components of FL aptitude, as proposed by Carroll (1981), would be repre- sented in the Polish adaptation of the MLAT. The piloting was done on approximately 200 sec- ondary school learners aged 19, while the data for the initial validation study, in the form of sec- ond language (L2) English proficiency test results as well as simple measures of motivation, length of study, social background and others, came from ca. 250 subjects, aged 18–22.Item SUBJECT-VERB CONCORD WITH COLLECTIVE NOUNS OR THE COUNT-MASS DISTINCTION: WHICH IS MORE DIFFICULT FOR POLISH LEARNERS OF ENGLISH?(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2008) Dziemianko, AnnaTwo aspects of English syntax were chosen for closer analysis in the present paper, i.e., subject- verb concord involving collective nouns in the singular and the syntactic marking of noun reclas- sification from the category of uncountable nouns to that of countable ones with the help of the indefinite article. The study aims to find out which of them is more difficult for Polish learners of English and whether the degree of difficulty depends on the learners’ proficiency in the foreign language. The discussion is based on the results yielded by an empirical study in which interme- diate and advanced Polish students of English took part. The subjects had to complete partial English translations of Polish sentences with specific low-frequency English nouns which substi- tuted true English equivalents of the Polish nouns shown in the sentences. The study reveals that marking subject-verb concord in the case of collective subject nouns was as difficult for the sub- jects as signaling the count-mass distinction by means of the indefinite article and the zero arti- cle, respectively.Item MINIMISE AD (?/*IN-)FINITUM? IN DEFENSE OF WEAKLY CARTOGRAPHIC COMPUTATIONAL MODELS(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2008) Cegłowski, PiotrThis paper provides a critical overview of the strongly derivational and non-cartographic approaches to syntax based solely on the relation between a newly selected lexical item (LI) and the so-called derivational space (the existing syntactic object) treated as the pivot of the syntactic derivation. Specifically, it is argued that, given the asymmetry requirement requisite for lineariza- tion, as stated in Kayne’s (1994) Linear Correspondence Axiom (LCA) and Chomsky’s (1994) Bare Phrase Structure (BPS), the abovementioned procedure is unattainable in certain strongly derivational syntactic configurations. The latter sections of the paper, while still arguing against the excessively minimized derivational space, focus on the non-cartographic Escape system pro- posed by Zwart (2007). It is shown that the data (comprising mostly the so-called “look-ahead”- based cases) that prove problematic for Escape can be captured within a moderately (i.e. weakly) cartographic view of the left periphery in accord with Thráinsson’s (1996) Limited Diversity Hypothesis.Item REPRESENTATIONAL HANDLING OF POZNAŃ-CRACOW VOICING IN GOVERNMENT PHONOLOGY(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2008) Michalski, GrzegorzThis article discusses the problem of accounting for Poznań-Cracow voicing in Government Phonology. It is concluded that in order for the process to be handled representationally, Polish words beginning with non-obstruents would need to carry the element {L} as part of the melody at the leftmost skeletal slot. It is explained that although such a move would make a representa- tional analysis of Poznań-Cracow Voicing straightforward, the presence of the element {L} on non-obstruents is against the tenets of the phonological model. The article is organised as follows. Section 1 presents a selection of voice phenomena in Pol- ish. Section 2 introduces the basic concepts of Government Phonology relevant to the analysis. Section 3 summarises Gussmann’s (2007) analysis of voice phenomena in Polish. Section 4 dis- cusses the differences between Warsaw Polish and Poznań-Cracow Polish in terms of voice as- similation. Section 5 briefly summarises two earlier analyses of voice phenomena in Polish that account for Poznań-Cracow Voicing, namely Gussmann’s (1992) SPE-type analysis of SEGMENT- TO-CONSONANT SPREADING, and Rubach’s (1996) Lexical Phonology (LP) analysis of CRACOW SPREAD. Section 6 presents theoretical considerations of why these two analyses cannot be me- chanically translated into GP theoretical machinery. The section also points to the limitations of VOICE ADJUSTMENT with respect to Poznań-Cracow Voicing. Section 7 introduces the flawed idea of enriching the left edge of words with the element {L}, and provides an attempt at a repre- sentational analysis of Poznań-Cracow Voicing using the enriched representation. Section 8 dis- cusses the limitations of the analysis, and proposes an alternative approach to the issue. Section 9 summarises the most important conclusions.Item THE USEFULNESS OF THE DEFINITIONS OF ABSTRACT NOUNS IN OALD7 AND NODE(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2008) Grochocka, MartaItem NON-VERBAL CUES IN POLITICS: AN ANALYSIS OF GESTURAL SIGNALS SENT BY AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN POLITICIANS(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2008) Rominiecka, Marta“Speech is accompanied by an intricate set of gestural signals which affect meaning, emphasis and other aspects of utterances” Argyle (1972: 245). They are at least as influential as the verbal content of the message in determining how an individual is perceived (Rosenberg et al. 1986). Kopacz (2006) claims that non-verbal behaviours play an immense role in forming people’s judgements and may be used in political persuasion to elicit positive reactions from voters. The objective of this paper is to analyze some of the most popular body signals sent by American and European politicians and show which of them are considered positive and strengthen the verbal message and which are said to be negative and make the performer look unprofessional and un- trustworthy. The next purpose is to determine which non-verbal channel such as eyes, face, hands, posture, legs is the strongest and attracts the greatest attention.Item Karwatowska, Małgorzata and Jolanta Szpyra-Kozłowska. 2005. Lingwistyka płci: Ona i on w języku polskim. Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej. 294 pages. ISBN: 83-227-2342-3.(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2008) Glapka, Ewa; Kiełkiewicz-Janowiak, AgnieszkaItem AUTONOMY, EXPERIENCE AND CONCEPTS: A STUDY IN EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSES(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2008) Siek-Piskozub, Teresa; Strugielska, AriadnaThe aim of this article is to investigate the impact of educational reforms launched in Poland in the last decade upon the notion of learner autonomy as evidenced by the results of a cross- sectional study. Necessarily, standard definitions of the concept of autonomy will be re-defined against the background of socio-political reforms in the country and their reflections in sylla- buses and curricula. Re-evaluating the notion of learner independence in the Polish context will be primarily viewed from the perspective of the learner; however, relevant comparisons with teachers’ perceptions will be also provided. Employing methodological guidelines offered by Conceptual Metaphor Theory, conclusions will be drawn concerning the practicability of foster- ing learner autonomy in the Polish milieu.Item PARTIAL CONTROL IS TRICKIER THAN WE THOUGHT(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2008) Snarska, AnnaThis paper discusses partial control, a notoriously intricate phenomenon. Brought to the linguistic limelight only recently (cf. Landau 2000), its bizarre nature renders it a real challenge to any the- ory of control. I contribute to the Agree vs. Move debate on control by making an empirical claim concerning cases of what I call Parasitic Partial Control Effects which are extremely problematic to Landau’s Agree Theory of Control. To account for these facts, I propose a solution framed within the theory of control based on Move. Refining insights in Rodrigues (2007), I suggest that the licensing of the PC effect depends on the presence of the projection of wollP dominated by TP in the structure of the infinitive and the sideward movement of the DP controller from within the adjunct to the matrix. Thus, Landau’s claim that partial control is licensed only in complements must be loosened (if not dropped).Item PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN ERGATIVITY... STILL TO BE DISCUSSED(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2008) Bavant, MarcSince Uhlenbeck’s seminal article (“Agens und Patiens im Kasussystem der indogermanischen Sprachen”, 1901) many scholars have accepted the hypothesis of an ergative case in Proto-Indo- European (PIE) given the light it could shed on obscure facts discovered by the comparatist school inside the IE family. The Soviet linguistic school has been particularly active on ergativity in rela- tion with their interests for living languages of the Caucasus and for ancient languages of the Mid- dle East. More recent works on ergativity have shifted the focus to Australian languages. When the theory of language universals took ergativity into consideration, scholars began to seek an expla- nation of the so-called “split ergativity” in relation with Silverstein’s animacy hierarchy. A sequel of this was that the kind of split ergativity demonstrated by PIE seemed contrary to the accepted universals and, consequently, discarded. This paper challenges the way language universals have been used to refute the PIE ergativity hypothesis. Indeed, the influence of the animacy hierarchy is known to be effective in many languages, but more as a tendency than as an absolute universal. Also, PIE is not a fully-fledged language, but rather a field of experimentation. I also present the viewpoint that PIE could have had no split at all, but solely a semantic impossibility to use inani- mate noun phrases in an agent role, which seemed backed up by similar “embarrassments” in modern languages and by the so-called “Hittite ergative”.Item Atkins, B. T. Sue and Michael Rundell. 2008. The Oxford guide to practical lexicography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. xii+540 pages. ISBN: 978-0-19-927771-1.(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2008) Szczepaniak, RenataItem ON HEARING COLOURS – CROSS-MODAL ASSOCIATIONS IN VOWEL PERCEPTION IN A NON-SYNAESTHETIC POPULATION(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2009) Wrembel, MagdalenaThe present study is a continuation of previous investigations into the nature of sound−colour as- sociations in a non-synaesthetic population conducted on English and Polish vowel sound sys- tems and it aims at providing further evidence for the non-arbitrary nature of cross-modal map- pings. The experiment1 was run on a specially designed computer program and involved 90 par- ticipants who were asked to match randomised auditory stimuli (12 English vowel sounds re- corded in 2 conditions: in isolation and in a CVC context) with one of 11 basic colours (red, yel- low, green, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange, black, white and grey) presented as coloured rec- tangles on a computer screen. The program kept record of the colour choice and reaction time of the participants, who fell into 2 groups with respect to the level of their language proficiency and phonetic awareness. An analysis of the results revealed statistically significant interactions between specific col- ours and individual vowel sounds for all 12 English vowels examined in the combined analysis; for 10 vowels in Condition 1 (isolated auditory stimuli) and for 7 vowels in Condition 2 (stimuli in the CVC context). A group effect was not found to be significant as far as the quality of map- pings was concerned; however, in the case of reaction times the less advanced learners took sig- nificantly longer to assign colours to sounds in context. The findings indicate that vowel−sound mappings in non-synaesthetic perception appear non-arbitrary and follow the general tendencies in which bright colours (yellow, green) are associated with high front vowel sounds, whereas dark colours (brown, blue, black) are attributed to back vowels, while open sounds tend to be perceived as red and central vowels are mapped onto achromatic grey.Item Gurevich, Naomi. 2004. Lenition and contrast: The functional consequences of certain phonetically conditioned sound changes. (Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics se- ries.) New York and London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-97099-7.(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2009) Kul, Małgorzata; Jaworski, SylwesterItem NATURAL PHONOLOGY AS A FUNCTIONAL THEORY(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2009) Balas, AnnaThis paper presents Natural Phonology as a functional theory. Natural Phonology is shown to be functional in two senses: as focusing on explanation and thus increasing our understanding of how language works, and as having practical applications, especially to second language acquisi- tion and speech therapy. The contribution argues that crucial as formalism is in computational linguistics and speech technology, Natural Phonology, with less rigid and less formalized claims, has important applications in the areas where language and not totally predictable human factors are involved. The paper discusses approaches to autonomy in language, explanation and hy- pothesis in Natural Phonology, and applications of Natural Phonology.Item Idiom processing in aphasic patients(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2009) Morawski, MarcinThe aim of the present paper is to provide insight into the issue of idiom comprehension in pa- tients who are in the process of recovery from the syndrome of aphasia. Research in figurative language comprehension has seen a robust development in the recent decades. However, it has not been until quite recently that psycholinguists began to delve into the aspect of metaphorical language comprehension in brain damaged populations. It was observed that even though the ability to produce and understand language is recovered in the majority of patients with head trauma, the impairment of some aspects of comprehension may protract. The understanding of idioms, metaphors, similes and proverbs, due to their specific, non-literal character, has been evi- denced to pose a serious problem to aphasic patients, as they fail to decipher the figurative mean- ing of the utterance, and, instead, tend to process the message literally (Papagno et al. 2004). In the present study, three patients who suffered from aphasic disorder were tested for com- prehension of idioms by means of two multiple choice tasks. The obtained results corroborated the hypothesis that patients who are in the process of recovery from aphasia encounter various pitfalls in the comprehension of idiomatic language. Predominantly, they exhibit an inclination to choose the erroneous, literal paraphrases of the presented idioms over their correct, idiomatic counterparts. The present paper aims at accounting for the reasons underlying such a tendency.Item THE ADESSIVE CASE IN POLISH: A COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE ON SOME LOCATIVE PREPOSITIONS(Versita Ltd., de Gruyter, 2009) Kokorniak, IwonaThe aim of this paper is to show that what is considered in Polish as one heterogeneous LOCA- TIVE case in the “formal” approach only on the surface seems rather complex and appears to lack any natural order. Due to the limited size of the paper, focus will be laid only on one locative case, the ADESSIVE, representing the static external locative, expressing different aspects of a relationship outside an entity and describing the “location ‘on top of’ or ‘near’, ‘owner’ or ‘in- strument’ by means of which an action is performed” (Karlsson 1999: 115). It has no single lin- guistic equivalent in Polish; instead it is represented by several prepositions, such as na + LOC ‘on’, przy + LOC ‘by’ and u + GEN ‘at’, etc., reflecting different aspects of proximity and coin- cidence in space. Taking just the case of the ADESSIVE relation, data observations based on the IPI PAN Corpus of Polish allow us to claim that although each preposition is responsible for a different aspect of the external spatial relation, they complement one another and are related in a family resemblance fashion, expressing an adessive relation.