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Over the last few decades, minority language issues have been attracting increasing attention in the media, among academics, and in the affairs of national governments and international organizations. Nowhere has this been truer than in the European Union, where concern over the ‘endangered languages crisis’ has led to an increasing awareness of Europe’s small languages and of the challenges they face in a globalised, English-dominated linguistic marketplace. A more tangible outcome of this concern has been a growth in rhetoric within EU institutions advocating a general respect for multilingualism and linguistic diversity, and a series of support measures and resolutions designed to guarantee this. Despite the widespread rhetoric of concern and support, however, in terms of concrete legislation there is still a wide gap between debate and policy in Europe, and until now it has been left unclear to what extent this gap is actually affecting the vitality and prospects of individual minority languages. This dissertation addresses this question by analysing how the European Union, both in the by-products of the integration process and in its deliberate rhetoric of support, is impacting the vitality of three specific minority language communities: Galician in Spain, Corsican in France and Sorbian in Germany. Drawing upon research collected via sociolinguistic surveys in these communities, it attempts to gauge whether Europe as an integrated entity is positively or negatively affecting the prospects of minority languages within its borders; if member state policies toward their minorities have been positively swayed by European rhetoric; if minority language speakers themselves see a positive effect on language use from European policy and promotion; and whether the role of English as a necessary lingua franca inside and outside Europe is eroding the position of the minority languages as the second language of choice. Quantitative and qualitative analysis on the survey results indicate that unfortunately, despite the amount of attention these minority languages receive from both government and media, language decline seems to show no sign of abating in any of these communities, and indeed the actions of the EU are apparently having very little impact on individual language situations. In addition, the survey indicates that hostile or indifferent member state policy is continuing to be one of the biggest stumbling blocks to minority language maintenance in Europe. From this perspective it seems reasonable to assess that the EU has in effect failed at what it claims to be trying to achieve, namely to provide a social and political climate that is favourable to minority language maintenance, and to assume that if this is the case in these three communities it is likely to be the case across Europe. With this in mind, the study concludes with the recommendation that the EU reconsider its involvement in language matters across the board, particularly in its current working-language structure and the reluctance to put some force of law behind its minority language support, and cautions that without this, the EU will likely face the imminent erosion of much of the very diversity upon which it has been built.

Questions pertaining to the unique structure and organisation of language have a long history in the field of linguistics. In recent years, researchers have explored cultural evolutionary explanations, showing how language structure emerges from weak biases amplified over repeated patterns of learning and use. One outstanding issue in these frameworks is accounting for the role of context. In particular, many linguistic phenomena are said to to be context-dependent; interpretation does not take place in a void, and requires enrichment from the current state of the conversation, the physical situation, and common knowledge about the world. Modelling the relationship between language structure and context is therefore crucial for developing a cultural evolutionary approach to language. One approach is to use statistical analyses to investigate large-scale, cross-cultural datasets. However, due to the inherent limitations of statistical analyses, especially with regards to the inadequacy of these methods to test hypotheses about causal relationships, I argue that experiments are better suited to address questions pertaining to language structure and context. From here, I present a series of artificial language experiments, with the central aim being to test how manipulations to context influence the structure and organisation of language. Experiment 1 builds upon previous work in iterated learning and communication games through demonstrating that the emergence of optimal communication systems is contingent on the contexts in which languages are learned and used. The results show that language systems gradually evolve to only encode information that is informative for conveying the intended meaning of the speaker - resulting in markedly different systems of communication. Whereas Experiment 1 focused on how context influences the emergence of structure, Experiments 2 and 3 investigate under what circumstances do manipulations to context result in the loss of structure. While the results are inconclusive across these two experiments, there is tentative evidence that manipulations to context can disrupt structure, but only when interacting with other factors. Lastly, Experiment 4 investigates whether the degree of signal autonomy (the capacity for a signal to be interpreted without recourse to contextual information) is shaped by manipulations to contextual predictability: the extent to which a speaker can estimate and exploit contextual information a hearer uses in interpreting an utterance. When the context is predictable, speakers organise languages to be less autonomous (more context-dependent) through combining linguistic signals with contextual information to reduce effort in production and minimise uncertainty in comprehension. By decreasing contextual predictability, speakers increasingly rely on strategies that promote more autonomous signals, as these signals depend less on contextual information to discriminate between possible meanings. Overall, these experiments provide proof-of-concept for investigating the relationship between language structure and context, showing that the organisational principles underpinning language are the result of competing pressures from context, cognition, and communication.

This thesis addresses a major problem facing any attempt to account for language structure through a cultural mechanism: The processes required by such a mechanism are only possible if we assume the existence of a range of preconditions. These preconditions are not trivial, and themselves require an explanation. In this thesis I address the nature and origin of these preconditions. I approach this topic in three stages. In the first stage, I pull-apart the functioning of one prominent cultural account of language evolution—the Iterated Learning Model —to identify the preconditions it assumes. These preconditions cluster into two main groups. The first concerns the traditional transmission of the communication system. The second relates to the emergence of particular skills of social cognition that make learned symbols and language-like communication a possibility. In the second stage, I turn to comparative evidence, looking for evolutionary analogies that might shed light on the emergence of these preconditions. Two case studies—the Bengalese finch and the domestic dog—are considered in detail, both of which show aspects of one of the preconditions emerging in the context of domestication. In each case I examine what it is about the domestication process that led to this outcome. In the final stage, I consider whether this same context might explain the emergence of these preconditions in humans. The claim that humans are a self-domesticated species has a long history, and is increasingly invoked in contemporary discussions of language evolution. However, it is often unclear exactly what this claim entails. I present a synthesis and critique of a range of empirical and theoretical perspectives on self-domestication. I conclude that human self-domestication is a coherent concept, and that there are several plausible accounts of how it might have occurred. The realisation that humans are a self-domesticated species can, therefore, provide some insight into how a cultural account of language structure might be possible at all.

The study aims to describe and to explain some temporal aspects of the rhythmic structure of Swedish, and to compare Swedish, Spanish, and Finnish, characterized as rhythmically different languages. The temporal effects of some manipulations believed to have consequences for rhythm were studied in a series of experiments based on sets of Swedish sentences. These manipulations included the length of stress groups - the number of unstressed syllables between stressed ones - and their structural properties. Also the length of the surrounding stress group was varied, as well as speech rate. The results indicated the presence of several interacting factors. First, there was an inverse relation between the length of the phrase and the duration of the stress group: phrase-lenqth adjustments. Ihe effects were similar to those obtained when speech rate was independently varied. Secondly, adjacent stress groups were adjusted so that differences of duration were counteracted: stress-qroup adjustments. In addition, in longer stress groups rhythmic alternation between unstressed syllables occurred. Finally, there was an interplay between rhythm and language structure. This was evident from the stability of the temporal manifestations of the quantity distinction and the distinction between stressed and unstressed syllables irrespective of the experimental manipulations. The results were interpreted in terms of a process model of speech rhythm, the generality of which was considered in the cross-language comparisons. The presence of similar temporal effects in all three languages was taken to support assumptions of language-independent processing constraints. Deviations from the general pattern were explainable in terms of differences of language structure and adjustments to preserve important structural properties, especially quantity relations. / <p>Diss. Umeå : Umeå universitet, 1985</p> / digitalisering@umu

The purpose of this study is to illustrate how some teachers teach the concept of language structure in grades 4–6 and clarify if language structure is taught as a separate moment in teaching or as a part of the teaching of writing. The study is carried out through qualitative inteviews with five Swedish teachers in four different schools. The results of this study show that the interpretation of the concept of language structure ends up in the concept of grammar. The teachers choose to teach language structure both as separate moment as well as a part of the teaching of writing. Language structure is regularly taught as a separate moment with focus on the form of the language and then the deductive method is used, where the teacher leads the activity. The inductive method, where pupils learn from each other with the teacher as a support, is rarely used, although research shows that it is more advantageous. On the other hand, when teaching focuses on language as a process, while writing texts, the inductive method is regularly used by some of the teachers.

The purpose of this survey is to examine the approach teachers in primary school takes on grammar teaching. This study is based on interviews with nine qualified teachers whom are all working with children in the age span of six to nine years old. The study shows that there are uncertainties around the concept of grammar and which parts of the grammar teaching that should be prioritized when teaching younger students. It also shows that despite the uncertainty regarding the concept of grammar the teachers all agreed that teaching how we use our language to communicate, both verbally and in writing, is important. The interviewed teacher all varied the way they teach grammar depending on how they defined the concept of grammar teaching. Nevertheless, they all agreed that teaching the language structure is beneficial to language development.

Denna undersökning syftar till att undersöka hur lärare förhåller sig till, definierar och undervisar i grammatik med de yngre åldrarna och de svårigheter som lärarna stött på i sin grammatikundervisning. Denna undersökning baseras på intervjuer med sex behöriga lärare i årskurs 1–3, varav en speciallärare som tjänstgjorde på samma skola i förskoleklass. Som komplement till den del av lärarintervjuer gjordes också en översiktlig läromedelsanalys utifrån läromedel som lärarna uppgav att de använde i grammatikundervisningen. Grammatik och grammatikundervisningen är ett omdiskuterat ämne, även om diskussionen inte är så uttalad när det gäller undervisning på lågstadiet. Sammantaget visar undersökningens resultat att de deltagande lärarna ser begreppet grammatik som ett diffust begrepp och det definieras också olika av lärarna. Det framkom även stora variationer när det gällde lärarnas attityd till begreppet grammatik och grammatikundervisning som något svårt och tråkigt eller som något som de anser är enkelt och meningsfullt. Däremot råder samstämmighet hos deltagarna om att grammatik och grammatikundervisning är viktigt för elevernas språkutveckling. Läromedelsanalysen visade att det i vissa läromedel tydligt framgick grammatiska inslag och grammatiska begrepp användes, medan det i andra läromedel inte gick att urskilja de grammatiska inslagen. / The purpose of this survey is to examine the way teachers relate to, define and teach grammar to pupils of the younger grades and the difficulties they encounter in teaching grammar. The research is based on interviews carried out among six licenced teachers, all employed in the same school and of whom one is a special education teacher. They teach classes in pre-school and primary school, grade 1¬3. Complimentary to the interviews, a general analysis of the teaching material used in their teaching, was carried out. Grammar and grammar teaching is a widely discussed topic, even if little is said about grammar teaching in the younger years. Altogether, the results of the study show, that the teachers taking part in the study regard grammar as a vague and unspecific term and the teachers define the concept of grammar differently. Another conclusion was that the attitudes towards grammar among the teachers varied widely. Some consider grammar difficult and boring while others believe it to be meaningful and easy to grasp. On the other hand, the teachers taking part in the survey agreed upon the importance of grammar and grammar teaching in the linguistic development of the pupils. The analysis of the teaching materials showed that some materials cover grammar as an clearly defined topic and formal grammatic terms were consciously used, while in others formal grammar as a topic was less evident.