The submitted M.A. thesis builds on the B.A. thesis entitled On general questions of psycholinguistics and develops factual points of departure related to the topic of adoption of a foreign language by a child. A part of the theoretical section is the definition of basic concepts in the field of psycholinguistics, in particular developmental psycholinguistics, and the design of the notion of adoption of a foreign language by a child. The primary goal of the study is to provide a comparative listing of the individual theories of adoption of a foreign language by a child, not only at the level of the mother tongue, but at the level of a second language as well. The basic theoretical concepts of adoption of a foreign language are based on linguistic, psychological and especially psycholinguistic scientific research. The other goals of the thesis include the definition of extensive variable determinants which participate in the process of adoption of a foreign language by a child and also influence the resultant level of adoption of a non-native language. In the concluding part of the theoretical compilation, space is provided for the psycholinguistic aspects of adoption, such as enunciative, speech and written displays of a foreign language. The empirical part is built up in a way so that it highlights the applicability of the process of adoption of a foreign language by a child in a natural environment, i.e. in a bilingual family environment where the resultant process is the most effective and verifiable. For this reason, it is not possible to talk about learning a foreign language but rather about the adoption of a second language.

[pt] Esta tese investiga a aquisição de pessoa, como traço formal do português brasileiro, por crianças com desenvolvimento lingüístico normal e comprometido. A hipótese de trabalho é a de que a criança, diante do input de sua língua, proceda à delimitação de elementos de categorias funcionais e lexicais encontrados no fluxo da fala, identificando a expressão morfológica de pessoa na categoria funcional D e no afixo flexional do verbo (classes fechadas, delimitadas na interface fônica) e que o locus da interpretabilidade do traço pessoa na interface semântica constitui um problema na aquisição do PB. A tese fundamenta-se nos pressupostos do Programa Minimalista (Chomsky, 1995) e numa proposta teórica que visa a uma articulação entre teoria lingüística e psicolingüística no tratamento da Aquisição da Linguagem e do Déficit Específico da Linguagem (DEL) (Corrêa, 2002; 2006). A operação computacional de concordância sujeito-verbo necessária para a valoração de pessoa em T é considerada no contexto da produção e da compreensão. A expressão morfofonológica do traço de pessoa é analisada em dados de fala espontânea de duas crianças de 18 a 30 meses. 5 experimentos são relatados, nos quais se busca verificar a compreensão da informação referente a pessoa por crianças sem queixas de linguagem, de 3 e de 5 anos de idade, de duas classes sociais (131, no total) e por duas crianças diagnosticadas como portadoras de DEL. Os resultados sinalizam que crianças por volta dos 20 meses já expressam 1a e 3a pessoa do discurso por meio de formas de 1a e 3a pessoa gramatical tanto no DP sujeito (Dmax) quanto no verbo, ainda que apenas por volta de 24 meses haja evidência da expressão morfológica da concordância sujeito-verbo e 1a pessoa do discurso e 1a pessoa gramatical se identifiquem. O estabelecimento da referência com base exclusiva na compreensão de informação gramatical relativa a pessoa apresenta dificuldades para crianças de idade inferior a 5 anos. Crianças DEL de idade superior a 5 anos apresentam dificuldades na compreensão de informação relativa à 3a pessoa e no processamento de informação relativa a pessoa associada a número plural. / [en] This thesis is concerned the acquisition of person, as a formal feature of Brazilain Portuguese (BP), by normally developing and language- impaired (SLI) children. The working hypothesis is that children initially identify grammatical information concerning person in the closed classes delimited at the phonetic interface and that the locus of the interpretability of this formal feature at the semantic interface constitutes a difficulty children face in the acquisition of BP. The theoretical framework is the Minimalist Program (Chomsky, 1995), in the context of a psycholinguistic approach to language acquisition (Corrêa, 2002; 2006). The computation of Agree in the valuation of the person feature in T is considered both in the production and in the comprehension of linguistic utterances. The morphophonological expression of person is analyzed in the longitudinal data of the spontaneous speech of two Brazilian children (18 to 30 month old). Five comprehension experiments are reported, which aimed at investigating how person information is processed by 3 and 5 year olds (total= 131), from two social groups, as well as by two SLI children. The results suggest that the morphophonological expression of person both in D and in the verbal affix is present in children´s early production though morphological evidence of subject-verb agreement can be detected only by the age of 24 months.. The establishing of reference exclusively on the basis of the morphological expression of person presents difficulties for the normally developing children under five. SLI children older than five have particular difficulty in the comprehension of the third person and in the processing of both person and plural number information.

Le but de ce travail de thèse, qui fait partie du projet ANR ReFlex (n° NT 05-2_41686 Renforcer la flexibilité lexicale et syntaxique dans l’expression orale et écrite des adolescents), est l’étude des capacités linguistiques d’enfants et d’adolescents appartenant à une CSP défavorisée et scolarisés en ZEP dans la région de Lyon. Partant du constat que l’adolescence était une période clef du développement de l’expression orale et écrite en situation monologique (Berman, 2006), nous étudions les productions de trois groupes d’enfants monolingues français (scolarisés en CM2 (âge moyen : 10;9), 5ème (âge moyen : 12;7) et 3ème (âge moyen : 15;2)). Les textes ont été produits dans divers contextes de production : à l’oral et à l’écrit, en exposition et en narration. Nous étudions alors le passage de l’enfant du statut de « native speaker » à celui de « proficient speaker » (Berman, 2004:9, 2008:2). L’enfant, après avoir acquis des unités et des règles linguistiques, doit apprendre lors de l’encodage d’un message à s’adapter aux différents contextes communicationnels, etc. : il doit devenir flexible. Des analyses off line ont été effectuées, et mon travail de thèse se concentre essentiellement sur une thématique spécifique : les syntagmes nominaux dans une perspective syntaxique, développementale et discursive. Notre analyse des syntagmes nominaux est fortement inspirée par l’hypothèse de la Preferred Argument Structure (Du Bois 1987) et examine la cohésion référentielle de textes produits dans différents contextes (oral/écrit ; narratif/expositif). Notre but est ainsi de démontrer : (1) que les choix syntaxiques sont gouvernés par les contraintes communicationnelles et (2) que ces contraintes communicationnelles varient selon la modalité de production (oral ou écrite). / The main aim of this research, which is apart of a large project (the ANR project : ReFlex project, n° NT 05-2_41686 Renforcer la flexibilité lexicale et syntaxique dans l’expression orale et écrite des adolescents), is the study of linguistic capacities in lower-class children attending an educational priority school in the suburbs of Lyon. Much development in the ability to produce a monologue text occurs during childhood and adolescence (Berman, 2006). For this reason, I have studied the productions of three groups of French monolingual children (mean age: 10;9 (CM2), 12;7 (5ème) and 15;2 (3ème)). Each participant produced two text types (expository/narrative) in two modalities (written/spoken). The primary focus is on how children grow from “native speaker” to “proficient speaker” (Berman, 2004:9, 2008:2). After having acquired linguistic forms and rules children must learn to adapt their verbal message to the different communicational contexts, etc.: this requires that children become expressively flexible. Off line analyses were conducted, and my PhD thesis tackles a specific theme: noun phrases in a syntactic, developmental and discursive perspective. Our analysis of noun phrases is inspired by the hypothesis of Preferred Argument Structure (Du Bois 1987) and examines referential cohesion in texts produced in different contexts (spoken/written, expository text/narrative text). Our aim is to demonstrate: (1) that language production is governed by communicative constraints; and (2) that those communicative constraints differ for written and spoken production.

Submitted by Fabiano Vassallo (fabianovassallo2127@gmail.com) on 2017-05-15T18:29:58Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) RICCI_Adiel__O_processamento_psicolinguístico_da metáfora_um_estudo_experimental_no_PB.pdf: 2535918 bytes, checksum: 4c5a972843609c909a1ef4d2a6c087bc (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Josimara Dias Brumatti (bcgdigital@ndc.uff.br) on 2017-06-12T17:59:31Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) RICCI_Adiel__O_processamento_psicolinguístico_da metáfora_um_estudo_experimental_no_PB.pdf: 2535918 bytes, checksum: 4c5a972843609c909a1ef4d2a6c087bc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-12T17:59:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) RICCI_Adiel__O_processamento_psicolinguístico_da metáfora_um_estudo_experimental_no_PB.pdf: 2535918 bytes, checksum: 4c5a972843609c909a1ef4d2a6c087bc (MD5) / Universidade Severino Sombra, Letras, Vassouras, RJ / Um estudo experimental, inédito no português brasileiro (PB), do processamento psicolinguístico de metáforas nominais (“X é um Y”, por exemplo: “Irene é um furacão”) foi conduzido com o objetivo de evidenciar, com base em tempos de leitura, o processamento direto de metáforas familiares, high-apt (bem construídas) e convencionalizadas, de acordo com o que preconizam Glucksberg e cols. (GLUCKSBERG & KEYSAR, 1990; GLUCKSBERG, 1998; GLUCKSBERG, 2003) no modelo teórico de Class-inclusion (ou de inclusão em categoria). Na primeira fase da pesquisa, realizaram-se dois norming studies (ou estudos normativos) para o ranqueamento de metáforas (por exemplo: “Algumas mulheres são furacões”) em relação à “Familiaridade”, “Aptness” (ou adequação) e “Convencionalidade”. Na segunda fase da pesquisa, realizou-se um experimento de leitura automonitorada (self-paced, non-cumulative, moving-window reading), recorrendo, para a composição dos estímulos, às metáforas que alcançaram ratings de “muito familiares”, “very high-apt’’ e “altamente convencionalizadas”. Oferecendo evidências do PB de processamento direto de metáforas – conforme preconiza o modelo Classinclusion de Glucksberg e cols. – não se observaram diferenças significativas entre os tempos de leitura das metáforas nominais, expressões equivalentes de significado literal e declarações literais de inclusão em classe, em contraposição aos achados de Janus & Bever (1985), que observaram tempos de leitura de metáforas novas significativamente maiores do que os de expressões literais, de acordo com as predições do Modelo Pragmático Padrão de processamento indireto, em três estágios (SEARLE, 1993 [1979]) / An experimental, unprecedented study in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), the psycholinguistic processing nominal metaphors ("X is a Y", e.g., "Irene is a hurricane") was conducted in order to demonstrate, based on reading times, the direct processing of familiar, high-apt (well-constructed) and conventionalized metaphors, according to what Glucksberg et al. (GLUCKSBERG & KEYSAR, 1990; GLUCKSBERG, 1998; GLUCKSBERG, 2003) defend in the theoretical model of Class-inclusion (or inclusion in category). In the first phase of the research, two norming studies were performed in order to rank metaphors (e.g., "Some women are hurricanes") regarding "Familiarity", "Aptness" and "Conventionality". In the second phase of the research, a self-monitored reading experiment (self-paced, noncumulative, moving-window reading) was carried out, using the metaphors previously rated as "very familiar", "very high-apt '' and "highly conventionalized" for the composition of the stimuli. Providing evidence of direct metaphors processing BP – not unlike the Class-inclusion model of Glucksberg et al. – there were no statistically significant differences between the reading times of nominal metaphors, of equivalent literal meaning expressions and of literal statements of class inclusion, in opposition to the findings of Janus & Bever (1985), who observed significantly higher reading times of novel metaphors rather than that of literal expressions, according to the predictions of the three-stage Standard Pragmatic model of indirect processing (SEARLE 1993 [1979])

The importance of extensive literature reading in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context has been given increasing attention in recent research. Literature reading is also a required part of the national syllabi of the (EFL) courses offered to both adolescents and adults at Upper Secondary level in Sweden. This thesis aims to investigate the teachers’ process of making literature choices for extensive reading in upper secondary EFL courses in Sweden. Eight teachers of three different student groups took part in the study, representing adolescent university preparatory programs and vocational programs, as well as programs for adult students. Questionnaires were used and the data was analyzed for patterns revealing three main factors affecting teachers’ literature choice: language proficiency, reading experience and contextual factors. These three factors were fitted into the theoretical framework of psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic reading models, with the addition of a perspective of motivational research. The results of this survey underline the importance of extensive reading, according to teachers, and that motivation for literature choice can be primarily related to factors associated with psycholinguistic reading models. The survey also points to the need for further investigating of teachers’ own experiences of literature reading, searching for deeper motivational factors which influence teaching choices. Another future field of research is the choice of reading activities assigned together with the chosen literature, which probably also influence teachers’ choices in the Swedish EFL classroom.

Eva Richterová - Early reading skills development in children with specific language impairment This study investigated the development of early reading skills in children with specific language impairment within a psycholinguistic framework. The investigation is based on theories concerning linguistic and cognitive skills which play a crucial role in the development of reading skills. This approach is utilized to identify groups which are at risk of difficulties in literacy acquisition as a result of language impairment. Theoretical background of reading development in children with SLI is presented, in addition to current knowledge about the relationship between language and reading skills. Studies on SLI highlight the need of longitudinal investigations, which enable better understanding of the relationship between literacy development and preliteracy skills. The aim of the study was to provide a systematic description of the reading skills development in children with SLI from first to fourth Grade. A group of 25 children with SLI was repeatedly investigated in terms of their reading skills (decoding and reading comprehension) and preliteracy skills. Assessment of language and cognitive skills was also carried out and involved phonological awareness, rapid authomatised naming, and letter...

This work deals with possible interferences in gender conceptualization of inanimate objects in bilingual speakers of Hungarian and Slovakian language. It closely pursues the grammatical category of gender (which is present in one of the examined languages, in Slovakian, and absent in the other one - Hungarian). The aim of the performed experiment, in which two groups of speakers participated (one was the previously mentioned group of bilingual speakers of Hungarian and Slovakian, and the second one was a control group of Hungarian monolingual speakers) was to verify if the presence of grammatical gender in one of the two languages, spoken by the bilingual group of speakers, will affect their conceptualization of gender of the inanimate referents. Another aspiration was to find out if bilingual speakers, as well as the monolingual speakers of Hungarian had accordant responses to some of the inanimate objects, and also if there was a congruence in the responses between the two participating groups of speakers. A secondary aim of this experiment was to examine a phenomenon, which appeared in the previous conducted research (Červenková, 2017), which was the effort of the respondents to make the first phoneme of their response identical with the first phoneme of the name of particular object in...

Национальный менталитет выражается в языке, в частности, через ключевые слова, одно из которых надежда. Данные толковых словарей русского и китайского языков позволяют представить лексикографическое описание лексемы надежда, сравнить их значения в разных языках. Проведенный психолингвистический эксперимент среди русских и китайских респондентов позволил выявить лексические значения, существующие в реальном употреблении. Если для русских респондентов надежда – это ожидание, мечта и женское имя, то для китайских респондентов надежда – это успех, мотивация. / National mentality is expressed in language, in particular, through keywords, one of which is hope. The data of the explanatory dictionaries of the Russian and Chinese languages allow us to present a lexicographical description of the lexeme hope, to compare their meanings in different languages. A psycholinguistic experiment conducted among Russian and Chinese respondents revealed lexical meanings that exist in actual use. If for Russian respondents hope is an expectation, a dream and a female name, then for Chinese respondents hope is a success, motivation.

Ce travail de doctorat a été réalisé dans le cadre d'une cotutelle entre l'Université Grenoble Alpes en France et l'Université de Montréal au Canada. / Ce travail de thèse étudie les Troubles du Développement des Sons de Parole (TDSP). Les TDSP correspondent à un délai de développement des sons de la langue conduisant à un déficit d’intelligibilité (degré pour lequel la parole d’une personne est comprise) et d’acceptabilité (degré pour lequel la parole d’une personne est perçue comme différente). Les TDSP sont les troubles de la communication les plus fréquents chez la population pédiatrique et peuvent avoir des conséquences majeures sur la scolarité des enfants et sur l’inclusion sociale. Malgré la haute prévalence et les possibles conséquences à long terme, il n’existe actuellement que peu d’outils d’évaluation en français permettant l’identification des enfants avec un TDSP et la caractérisation du trouble. La partie théorique de la thèse met en évidence le manque d’outils et de critères diagnostics. L’objectif de ce travail est de proposer une batterie de tests, fondée sur un modèle psycholinguistique, permettant l’évaluation et le diagnostic des enfants avec un TDSP. L’outil d’évaluation, nommé EULALIES, comprend cinq tâches, impliquant chacune de façon différente des niveaux du modèle psycholinguistique : (1) une tâche de jugement de lexicalité, (2) une tâche de dénomination, (3) une tâche de répétition de pseudomots, (4) une tâche de diadococinésies et (5) une tâche de répétition de syllabes. Les données ont été collectées auprès de 119 enfants typiques et 9 enfants avec un TDSP. Tous les enfants sont francophones. La première partie des résultats s’intéresse spécifiquement à la tâche de répétition de pseudomots et démontre la validité de cette tâche. Nos résultats mettent en lumière le fait que le score à la tâche de répétition de pseudomots dépend de l’âge des enfants, de leurs habiletés de mémoire phonologique à court terme, de la présence d’un vrai mot inclus dans le pseudomot, de la structure et de la longueur du pseudomot. Les données recueillies montrent que la tâche n’est pas sensible aux facteurs sociolinguistiques tels que le statut socio-économique ou le statut linguistique, ce que nous recherchons pour une application clinique. La seconde partie des résultats aborde le diagnostic différentiel entre deux types de TDSP : la dyspraxie verbale et le trouble phonologique. Les épreuves de la batterie mettent en évidence des indicateurs spécifiques à la dyspraxie verbale, tels que la lenteur aux diadococinésies ou les erreurs sur les voyelles. Par rapport à ce qui est décrit pour l’anglais, certains indicateurs semblent être moins pertinents pour les enfants francophones. C’est le cas des épenthèses de schwas. A l’issue de ces travaux, nous soutenons que l’évaluation des enfCants présentant un TDSP doit prendre appui, à la fois sur l’analyse des patrons d’erreurs produits par l’enfant mais aussi sur une perspective psycholinguistique. Celle-ci permet de mieux décrire le profil de parole de l’enfant et de proposer une intervention adaptée. / This thesis work investigates Speech Sound Disorders (SSD). SSD are defined as a delay in speech sound development affecting intelligibility (degree to which a person's speech is understood) and acceptability (degree to which a person's speech is perceived as different). SSD are the most common communication disorder in the pediatric population. Children with SSD are at high risk for later academic and social inclusion. Despite the high prevalence and possible long-term consequences, there are currently few assessment tools available to diagnose French-speaking children with SSD and characterize the disorder. The theoretical part of this work highlights the lack of diagnostic tools. This work intends to create a speech sound assessment tool, based on a psycholinguistic model to diagnose children with SSD. The assessment tool, named EULALIES, includes five tasks, each involving different levels of the psycholinguistic model: (1) a lexicality judgment task, (2) a picture-naming task, (3) a nonword repetition task, (4) a diadochokinetic task, and (5) a syllable repetition task. Data were collected from 119 typical children and 9 children with SSD. The first part of the results focuses specifically on the nonword repetition task and describes the validity of this task. Our results highlight the fact that nonword repetition performance depends on children's age, phonological short-term memory skills, inclusion of a real word in the nonword, syllable structure, and length of the pseudoword. Data collected show that the task is not sensitive to sociolinguistic factors such as socioeconomic status or linguistic status, which is what we were looking for from a clinical perspective. The second part of the results addresses the differential diagnosis between childhood apraxia of speech and phonological disorder, both of which being subtypes of SSD. The assessment tool reveals specific markers for childhood apraxia of speech, such low diadochokinetic rate or errors on vowels. Contrary to what is described for English, some markers seem to be less relevant for French-speaking children. This is the case for schwa epenthesis. At the end of this work, we argue that children with SSD assessment should be based on the analysis of error patterns produced by the child as well as on a psycholinguistic approach. This helps to better describe the child's speech profile and to offer an adapted intervention.

<p>The present study concerns cross-linguistic influence in the spoken French of multilingual learners. The main purpose is to investigate to what degree, and in what manner, previously acquired languages (L1, L2(s)) influence the target language, L3. Given the fact that the study only concerns spoken interlanguage, it makes use of a psycholinguistic perspective, which takes models of oral production into account.</p><p>The analysis is divided into two main parts. The first concerns the oral production of 30 Swedish learners of French, who fall into three groups according to their previous exposure to French: beginners, secondary school students and university students. The results show that proficiency in the L3 is crucial in at least two ways. First, there is a correlation between the level of proficiency in the L3 and the number of instances of cross-linguistic influence in that the least advanced learners produce the highest number of cross-linguistic lexemes, whereas the most advanced learners produce the lowest number. Second, the level of proficiency in the L3 is decisive for the number of background languages (L1, L2) used during oral production in L3: the lower the proficiency in the L3, the more background languages are used, and vice versa.</p><p>The second part of the analysis contains six case studies of learners with partly different L1s and L2s. It focuses on the roles of the background languages during conversation in L3 and on the factors contributing to the attribution of these roles. The results point at both similarities and differences between the learners with respect to the roles of the background languages. A result common to all the learners is the use of Swedish L1/L2 and English L1 as an instrumental language, i.e. a language used rather strategically with a communicative purpose. The use of these languages in this function seems to be due to the fact that Swedish and English are shared languages between the learner and the interlocutor.</p>