Contrastive Linguistics and Multilingualism Notes

Course Objectives & Learning Objectives

  • The session introduces contrastive linguistics and multilingualism.
  • It outlines course objectives and learning outcomes for both contrastive linguistics and multilingualism.

Study Plan

  • The study plan includes lectures in English and German, mostly on Tuesdays, with some on Mondays.
  • The course utilizes a Moodle platform and online lectures via Zoom.
  • Specific dates for lectures and topics are provided, including:
    • No class on March 11.
    • Introduction & Organisation on March 18.
    • Contrastive Linguistics I & II in March.
    • Contrastive Linguistics III & IV in April.
    • Multilingualism I & II in May.
    • Presentations and summing up in June.
    • Final exam on June 24.

Assessment

  • The final exam includes a presentation of a Linguistic Landscaping (LL) research project and a final exam about the course contents.

Systemic Linguistics

  • Systemic linguistics explores similarities and differences between languages.
  • It provides systematic descriptions of individual languages.
  • Key areas include:
    • Phonetics & Phonology: Study of speech sounds and their rules.
    • Morphology: Word formation and structure.
    • Syntax: Sentence structure.
    • Semantics: The study of meaning.
    • Pragmatics: The use of language.

Contrastive Linguistics (KL) Seminar Structure

  • The seminar covers contrastive linguistics, including goals, development, fundamental concepts, methods, and investigation processes.
  • It provides case studies of inner-Romance and Romance-German language comparisons.
  • Areas of focus include:
    • Phonology
    • Vocabulary
    • Lexical Semantics (ambiguity, semantic incongruence, word fields)
    • Word formation (composition, derivation)
    • Phraseology (idioms, collocations)
    • Genus and Gender
    • Temporality and Aspectuality
  • The seminar emphasizes the benefits of comparison for enhanced observation and understanding.

Further Topics in Contrastive Linguistics (KL)

  • Determinants and Determination
  • Prepositions
  • Participial Constructions and Gerunds
  • Passive and Impersonal Constructions
  • Syntax and Information Structure
  • Pro-forms and Connectors
  • Text Types and Discourses
  • Deixis and Forms of Address
  • Speech Acts
  • Varieties

Definitions of Contrastive Linguistics (KL)

  • Contrastive Linguistics (KL) is described as a sub-discipline of linguistics that uses comparative methods to uncover interlingual commonalities, similarities, and differences.
  • It encompasses language means and purposes and integrates cultural aspects of language.
  • Haberzettl emphasizes the function of contrastive linguistics in explaining errors and predicting learning difficulties by comparing a target language with previously acquired languages, using the transfer concept.
  • Mehlhorn views language comparisons as a continuous mediation principle and guided learning strategy.
  • Contrastive linguistics is a sub-discipline of applied linguistics involving the comparison of at least two languages, important in second language acquisition research and multilingual didactics.

Overview of Contrastive Linguistics (KL)

  • The lecture provides an overview of contrastive linguistics within the broader field of linguistics, distinguishing it from:
    • historical-comparative linguistics (diachronic)
    • areal linguistics (synchronic)
    • typology (synchronic)

Introduction to Multilingualism: Learning Outcomes

  • The session aims to enable students to identify different types of multilingualism.
  • Students should be able to comment on various notions and concepts of multilingualism.
  • The session includes an analysis of a multilingual situation at a doctor's office.
  • Students will discuss communicative strategies in multilingual workplace situations.

Multilingualism: Initial Discussion

  • Participants are asked to consider and discuss their definitions of multilingualism, their own multilingual abilities, and the presence of multilingualism in their daily lives.

Types of Multilingualism

  • Individual Multilingualism: A person being monolingual, bilingual, or multilingual.
  • Societal Multilingualism: Languages having different functions within a society.
    • Example: Switzerland where German, Romansh, and Italian are official languages but German dominates due to the bilingualism of minorities.
    • Modern cities where speakers of different languages live side by side without functional separation of languages
  • Territorial Multilingualism: Political spaces divided into more or less monolingual areas.
    • Example: Belgium with Flemish, French, and German.
  • Institutional Multilingualism: Institutions offering services in multiple languages.
    • Examples: UN, EU, Swiss Federal Railways (SBB).

Individual Multilingualism: Plurilingual Competence

  • Multiple processes of language acquisition and learning:
    • Simultaneous vs. successive acquisition
    • Early vs. late acquisition.
    • Guided vs. unguided
    • Bilingualism can be stable and self-reinforcing
    • L2 may become fossilized or replace L1.
    • Symmetrical vs. balanced bilingualism depends on acquisition use.

Individual Multilingualism: Older Notions

  • Bloomfield (1933) defined bilingualism as native-like control of two or more languages.
  • Ducrot/Todorov (1972) stated bilingualism/multilingualism involves having two or more languages learned like native languages with perfect fluency.
  • Belief: multilingualism = confusion, from the Tower of Babel.
  • Myth of one nation = one language, from 19th-century Romanticism.

Individual Multilingualism: Communicative Repertoire

  • Multilingualism is viewed as a shared resource.
  • Individuals use multicompetence (Cook 2008) or multilingual repertoires (Gal 1986, Coste/Moore/Zarate 1997) to address problems.

Individual Multilingualism: Language Competence

  • Language competence is dynamic.
  • It depends on context complexity and resource specialization.
  • Plurilingual speakers have verbal or linguistic repertoires (Gumperz).

Individual Multilingualism: Functional Multilingualism

  • Functional multilingualism involves using two or more languages and switching between them without difficulty.
  • Degrees of competence and symmetry may vary (Lüdi 2009).

Individual Multilingualism: Advantages

  • Multilingualism and creativity are linked.
  • It broadens access to information provides varied thought organization and offers different world perceptions.
  • Learning a new language enhances creative thought.

Societal Multilingualism

  • Multilingual Societies
    1. Multilingual states with the territory principle
    2. Monolingual states with minority regions
    3. Isolated Language Islands
    4. Multilingual states with a multilingual population

Institutional Multilingualism

  • Multilingual Organizations/Companies
  • The choice of a dominant language (local or English) in mixed teams is often suboptimal.
    • Assimilation into the dominant organizational culture can have negative consequences.
    • Assimilated individuals may feel unable to express themselves genuinely.

Institutional Multilingualism: Pluri-/Translanguaging at the Doctor's

  • The lecture provides an example of pluri-/translanguaging during a medical consultation where the doctor and patient use multiple languages to communicate.

Institutional Multilingualism: Communication Strategies

  • Communication strategies in companies:
    • Lingua receptiva: Each person speaks their language.
    • ELF (English as a lingua franca).
    • Simultaneous translating / Interaction partner‘s mediation
    • Pluri/Translanguaging
    • Possibilities and limits of the exolingual monolingual mode
    • Forms are situationally negotiated.

Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis

  • Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (Lado 1957)
  • Behaviorism as the predominant background learning theory
  • Identity Hypothesis (Dulay /Burt 1974)
  • present Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories: influence of L1, also other aspects.
  • Interlanguage Hypothesis (Selenker 1972)

Recap – systematic linguistics: Morphology

  • Morphology examines how word structures are built and how these structures influence word meaning.
  • Key questions include:
    • What elements constitute words?
    • How are new words formed?
    • How does word formation relate to phonology and syntax?

Recap – systematic linguistics: Phonetics and phonology

  • Phonetics examines the physical and (neuro)anatomical aspects of human speech sounds; production, recognition, and acoustic properties.
  • Phonology studies the principles and rules by which sounds are implemented.
  • Key questions include:
    • How are speech sounds produced and perceived?
    • How can speech sounds be measured and represented?
    • How many sounds are used in a language?
    • How are speech sounds combined into larger units?

Recap – systematic linguistics: Syntax

  • Syntax examines sentence structures.
  • Aims to discover the factors that influence the construction of sentence structures.
  • Key questions include:
    • What are the components of a sentence?
    • Which variations in word order are possible in a given language?
    • How does the structure of a sentence affect its meaning?
  • Examples:
    • "Bewegen muss sich die Hochschule, und das tut sie bereits."
    • "Muss sich die Hochschule bewegen, und tut sie das bereits?"

Recap – systematic linguistics: Semantics

  • Semantics deals with the meanings of words, the semantic relationships between words, and how the meanings of sentences are determined.
  • Key questions include:
    • What types of meanings occur?
    • What meanings do words have?
    • How are word meanings combined to form sentence meanings?
  • Examples:
    • kleines Kind (sehr junges Kind)
    • kleiner Schriftsteller (Schriftsteller mit wenig Talent)

Recap – systematic linguistics: Pragmatics

  • Pragmatics examines the context-appropriate use of utterances and their context-dependent interpretation.
  • Key questions include:
    • How do speakers infer additional information?
    • How do speakers structure their contributions in conversation?
    • What information does a speaker assume is given?
    • What effect does a speaker intend to achieve with their utterance?
    • How is an utterance anchored in the speaker's "here and now"?
  • Examples:
    • A: Hat die Wohnung einen Balkon
    • B: Sie hat einen schönen Garten

Recap – systematic linguistics: Text linguistics

  • Text linguistics considers the question of what a text is and what properties define it.
  • It deals not only with the content and linguistic properties of texts but also with the characteristics of specific text types and the various parameters that contribute to text understanding.
  • Example:
    • Reference to a news article about the introduction of a female traffic light symbol in Fürstenwalde.

Recap – systematic linguistics: Language as a social phenomenon

  • Speakers adapt their language to social conventions.
  • This includes specific words, intonations, and grammatical structures.
  • Examples:
    • Bitte nehmen Sie Platz.
    • Setz dich, Alter!
    • Fläz dich da hin.

Definition of Contrastive Linguistics

  • Contrastive Linguistics (CL) is defined as the synchronic comparison of two languages with respect to numerous linguistic structures to identify commonalities and differences (Kortmann 2020).