published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Master / Master of Philosophy

This dissertation combines psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic and cognitive linguistic approaches to study the language production phenomenon of crosslinguistic influence (CLI). Modern psycholinguistics has taken an active interest in language production studies, offering a particularly influential model of speech production that is examined in detail. And yet, as many researchers have argued, language data alone are insufficient to paint an accurate portrait of a given speaker’s language use. Whether mono- or multilingual, a speaker’s system of language(s) is itself a sub-system of the language system of the speaker’s family, community, culture, etc. At the same time, recent cognitive linguistic advances in the study of conceptual blending and construction grammar offer unique insights into the structure of the lexicon and even concepts themselves. This dissertation examines the speech production of multilinguals whose English language system has been acquired but is still developing. Such a system is dynamic and subject to unpredictable dynamic effects, here grouped under the general rubric of CLI. The psycholinguistic aspects of this study are concerned with establishing the psychology of students’ language use. The sociolinguistic aspect addresses the need to research the sociocultural background within which the English language system has been acquired. The cognitive linguistic aspects allow in-depth insights into the cognitive and conceptual mechanisms underlying the... [to full text] / Šioje disertacijoje, siekiant ištirti kalbos produkavimo fenomeną, taikomi psicholingvistikos, sociolingvistikos ir kognityvinės lingvistikos metodai. Šių dienų psicholingvistai atliko daugybę kalbos produkavimo tyrimų, siūlydami itin svarbų kalbos produkavimo modelį, kuris bus išsamiai išnagrinėtas. Tačiau, kaip dauguma mokslininkų įrodinėjo, vien tik kalbos duomenų nepakanka norint pateikti išsamų konkretaus kalbos vartotojo kalbos vartojimo vaizdą. Nepriklausomai nuo to, ar kalbantysis yra vienakalbis, ar dvikalbis, jo kalbos (-ų) sistema pati yra kalbančiojo šeimos, bendruomenės, kultūros ir kt. kalbos sistemų posistemė. Be to, dabartinės kognityvinės lingvistikos progresas nagrinėjant konceptualiąją metaforą, konceptualųjį derinimą ir konstrukcijų gramatiką teikia unikalių įžvalgų apie žodyno ir net pačių sąvokų struktūrą. Šioje disertacijoje yra nagrinėjamas daugiakalbių, kurie jau yra įsisavinę anglų kalbos sistemą, tačiau kurių kalbos įgūdžiai tebesivysto, kalbos produkavimas. Tokia sistema yra dinamiška ir priklauso nuo iš anksto nenumatomų kintamųjų, kurie šiame darbe pateikti bendrame skyriuje tarpkalbinė įtaka. Psicholingvistiniu šio tyrimo požiūriu siekiama nustatyti studentų kalbos vartojimo psichologinius aspektus. Sociolingvistiniu šio darbo aspektu pabrėžiamas poreikis išnagrinėti sociokultūrinę aplinką, kurioje tiriamieji įsisavino anglų kalbos sistemą. Kognityvinės lingvistikos aspektai leidžia giliau pažvelgti į kognityvinius ir konceptualius mechanizmus... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

Šioje disertacijoje, siekiant ištirti kalbos produkavimo fenomeną, taikomi psicholingvistikos, sociolingvistikos ir kognityvinės lingvistikos metodai. Šių dienų psicholingvistai atliko daugybę kalbos produkavimo tyrimų, siūlydami itin svarbų kalbos produkavimo modelį, kuris bus išsamiai išnagrinėtas. Tačiau, kaip dauguma mokslininkų įrodinėjo, vien tik kalbos duomenų nepakanka norint pateikti išsamų konkretaus kalbos vartotojo kalbos vartojimo vaizdą. Nepriklausomai nuo to, ar kalbantysis yra vienakalbis, ar dvikalbis, jo kalbos (-ų) sistema pati yra kalbančiojo šeimos, bendruomenės, kultūros ir kt. kalbos sistemų posistemė. Be to, dabartinės kognityvinės lingvistikos progresas nagrinėjant konceptualiąją metaforą, konceptualųjį derinimą ir konstrukcijų gramatiką teikia unikalių įžvalgų apie žodyno ir net pačių sąvokų struktūrą. Šioje disertacijoje yra nagrinėjamas daugiakalbių, kurie jau yra įsisavinę anglų kalbos sistemą, tačiau kurių kalbos įgūdžiai tebesivysto, kalbos produkavimas. Tokia sistema yra dinamiška ir priklauso nuo iš anksto nenumatomų kintamųjų, kurie šiame darbe pateikti bendrame skyriuje tarpkalbinė įtaka. Psicholingvistiniu šio tyrimo požiūriu siekiama nustatyti studentų kalbos vartojimo psichologinius aspektus. Sociolingvistiniu šio darbo aspektu pabrėžiamas poreikis išnagrinėti sociokultūrinę aplinką, kurioje tiriamieji įsisavino anglų kalbos sistemą. Kognityvinės lingvistikos aspektai leidžia giliau pažvelgti į kognityvinius ir konceptualius mechanizmus... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / This dissertation combines psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic and cognitive linguistic approaches to study the language production phenomenon of crosslinguistic influence (CLI). Modern psycholinguistics has taken an active interest in language production studies, offering a particularly influential model of speech production that is examined in detail. And yet, as many researchers have argued, language data alone are insufficient to paint an accurate portrait of a given speaker’s language use. Whether mono- or multilingual, a speaker’s system of language(s) is itself a sub-system of the language system of the speaker’s family, community, culture, etc. At the same time, recent cognitive linguistic advances in the study of conceptual blending and construction grammar offer unique insights into the structure of the lexicon and even concepts themselves. This dissertation examines the speech production of multilinguals whose English language system has been acquired but is still developing. Such a system is dynamic and subject to unpredictable dynamic effects, here grouped under the general rubric of CLI. The psycholinguistic aspects of this study are concerned with establishing the psychology of students’ language use. The sociolinguistic aspect addresses the need to research the sociocultural background within which the English language system has been acquired. The cognitive linguistic aspects allow in-depth insights into the cognitive and conceptual mechanisms underlying the... [to full text]

Nelle lezioni di lingua straniera a scuola, gli studenti sono spesso amotivati e poco coinvolti. Al contrario, potrebbero giocare (e, di fatto, giocano) ai videogiochi per ore senza tregua e con costante piacere. Ma cosa rende la prima attività noiosa e la seconda divertente? Ed esiste un modo per usare alcuni elementi dei videogiochi al fine di aumentare l’intensità della motivazione degli studenti di lingue a scuola? La risposta alle due domande è l’obiettivo del nostro lavoro. Intraprenderemo innanzitutto l’analisi della natura del videogioco come medium e del suo potenziale glottodidattico. In seguito esamineremo otto ’elementi ludici’ che le lezioni di lingue a scuola usano comunemente, sebbene non siano concettualizzati come tali: regole, narrativa, obiettivi, feedback, progresso, partecipazione, competizione e cooperazione, emozioni; descriveremo il diverso uso di questi elementi comuni nei videogiochi e nelle classi di lingue per spiegarne i differenti esiti motivazionali. Rileggeremo poi i risultati della nostra analisi alla luce della letteratura sulla motivazione in ambito psicologico e psicolinguistico e delle buone pratiche di gamification. Proporremo infine una serie di linee guida per fare dell’insegnamento e apprendimento delle lingue a scuola un’esperienza ludicizzata ed esamineremo alcuni scenari di successo negli ambiti dell’educazione e dell’educazione linguistica. / When learning a foreign language at school, students are often amotivated and disengaged. Conversely, they could (and do) play video games for hours straight and seemingly enjoy every second of it. What makes the first activity boring and the second fun? And is there a way to use some elements of digital games to enhance the intensity of language learners’ motivation in school settings? The answer to both questions is the aim of our work. We will start by analysing the nature of digital games as media and their potential for language teaching and learning. Then, we will point out eight ’game elements’ that language teaching in schools commonly uses, but does not conceptualise as such: rules, narrative, goals, feedback, progress, participation, competition and cooperation, emotions; we will describe the different use of these shared elements in video games and in the language classroom to explain their different motivational outcomes. We will then ground our claims in the existing literature on motivation in psychology and psycholinguistics and in the good practices of gamification. In the end, we will propose a series of guidelines to make language teaching and learning at school a gamified experience and review several successful case studies in education and language education.

En este estudio, mostraremos principalmente la importancia que las imágenes formadas por los componentes fraseológicos pueden adquirir desde un punto de vista no sólo puramente lingüístico, sino también psicolingüístico si se contempla el posible carácter analizable y transparente de muchas EI. Explicaremos cómo se puede utilizar esta iconicidad para fomentar el desarrollo de estrategias de aprendizaje (especialmente vinculadas a la descodificación metafórica o a la asociación icónica con expresiones de la LM) que suponen para el alumno un alto grado de implicación cognitiva. Teniendo en cuenta dos factores importantes para la memorización de nuevas EI -su grado de transparencia semántica y su grado de conexión icónica con la LM-, propondremos en un apartado experimental investigar acerca del impacto memorístico e interlingüístico que se puede atribuir al trabajo de enfoque icónico y verificar la influencia que la combinación de los dos factores citados puede ejercer en este ámbito. / This study will mainly show how important the images formed by the phraseological components could be from not only a merely linguistic point of view but also from a psycholinguistic one, if we consider the possible analyzable and transparent nature of most idioms. We will explain how to use this iconic aspect of idioms in order to encourage the development of learning strategies (especially related to the metaphorical decodification or to the iconic association with L1 idioms) that involve a high degree of cognitive implication for the L2 learner. Considering two important factors for the memorization of L2 idioms - its degree of semantic transparency and its degree of iconic connection with the L1 -, we propose, in an experimental part, to investigate the memory and interlinguistic effects of an image-oriented work and to verify the influence that the combination of the two factors mentioned before could have in this field.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references.

Originally published as author's thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 1974. / Bibliography: p. 206-211.

La cohésion d’un texte repose sur un ensemble de liens syntaxiques et pragmatico-sémantiques entre les unités de discours dont les reprises anaphoriques. Les reprises assurent la continuité référentielle et thématique de phrases successives mais ne suffisent pas à assurer la cohérence des enchaînements. Elles font l’objet d’inférences qui permettent au système cognitif de trouver la relation de cohérence exprimée par l’enchaînement. Dans les cas simples, le système cognitif résout une reprise pronominale en lui attribuant un antécédent contextuellement pertinent, sélectionné parmi les éléments saillants actifs en mémoire. Lorsque la reprise concerne des arguments pluriels, les opérations cognitives sont plus complexes. Rentrent alors en ligne de compte non seulement la saillance de ces référents mais aussi le mode de relation qu’ils entretiennent au sein du prédicat de leur phrase d’accueil. Un prédicat d’accueil collectif tendra à effacer les distinctions entre les référents et facilitera les reprises plurielles au contraire des prédicats distributifs qui faciliteront les reprises de singuliers. Les prédicats réciproques lexicaux, quant à eux, établissent des liens de symétrie entre les entités dont on fait l’hypothèse qu’ils nécessitent des traitements cognitifs spécifiques. Les liens établis entre les arguments de prédicats collectifs, distributifs et symétriques sont étudiés d’un point de vue théorique. L’influence de ces liens sur la résolution de reprises pronominales au pluriel d’arguments dispersés mais aussi au singulier d’un élément d’une pluralité, est examinée expérimentalement (tests psycholinguistiques en production et en compréhension). L’étude théorique permet de mettre en évidence des différences fondamentales entre prédicats réciproques et prédicats symétriques d’une part, et entre prédicats collectifs et prédicats symétriques d’autre part. Les résultats expérimentaux corroborent l’étude théorique et permettent de proposer un pattern argumental pour les verbes lexicalement réciproques. / The cohesion of a text is based on a set of syntactic and pragmatico-semantic links between discourse units, including anaphoric referring terms. These terms ensure referential and thematic continuity in successive sentences, but are not sufficient to ensure the coherence of the chains. They involve inferences that enable the cognitive system to find the relationship of coherence expressed by the chain. In simple cases, the cognitive system resolves a pronominal anaphor by allocating to it a contextually relevant antecedent, selected from the salient elements that are active in memory. When the co-reference concerns plural arguments, the cognitive operations are more complex. In this case, it is necessary to take into account include not only the salience of the referents but also the type of relationship they have within the predicate of their host sentence. A collective hosting predicate will tend to remove distinctions between referents and will facilitate plural co-reference, unlike distributive predicates that facilitate singular coreference. Lexically reciprocal predicates, meanwhile, establish links of symmetry between entities that, are predicted to require specific cognitive processing. The links established between collective, distributive and symmetrical predicates are studied from a theoretical viewpoint. The influence of these links on the resolution of pronominal anaphora whose antecedent forms part of a plurality, or whose antecedents are dispersed in a comitative construction, is examined experimentally (psycholinguistic tests of production and comprehension). The theoretical study points to fundamental differences between reciprocal predicates and symmetrical predicates on the one hand, and between collective predicates and symmetrical predicates on the other. The experimental results support the theoretical study and lead to the proposal of an argumental pattern for symmetrical verbs.

La difficulté de lecture de Una meditación a été soulignée tant par la critique que par Juan Benet lui-même. Ce travail essaie de caractériser cette difficulté et, par ce biais, la spécificité de l’expérience de lecture du roman de Benet. Notre étude s’appuie sur la psycholinguistique de la compréhension des textes, qui nous permet de définir la norme de lisibilité implicite par rapport à laquelle Una meditación est jugé « difficile ». Nous étudions les deux aspects qui, par rapport à cette norme, constituent les principales sources de difficulté du texte bénétien : la disposition de la matière romanesque (au niveau du récit et de la phrase) et le système de référenciation des personnages. Sur le plan de la disposition, le récit et – à son échelle – la phrase se caractérisent par une forte discontinuité pourtant dissimulée, par un développement temporel de forme spirale, et par le brouillage des relations hiérarchiques entre les événements. Sur le plan de la référenciation, la notion de nom du personnage perd son sens traditionnel, car les noms sont peu employés, ambigus, multiples, ou inexistants ; mais c’est surtout l’omniprésence de la référenciation pronominale qui déroute le lecteur en lui exigeant implicitement de ne pas oublier un seul détail du texte. Nous analysons aussi la figure du narrateur et nuançons une lecture courante selon laquelle le texte serait le produit d’une remémoration. Nous concluons que la « difficulté » de Una meditación semble être au service d’une écriture qui, à travers l’indifférenciation des personnages et des histoires, dépasse la fiction et vise un portait générique de la nature humaine. / The difficult nature of Una meditación has been highlighted by both scholars and Juan Benet himself. This dissertation characterizes such a text complexity and thereby the singularity of the reading experience of Benet’s novel. Our work relies on the psycholinguistics of reading comprehension. This framework allows us to achieve a definition of standard readability to which Una meditación is implicitly compared when judged as “difficult”. We study the two features that revealed to be the main sources of reading difficulty in Benet’s text: the narrative and sentence structures, and the particular system of reference to the characters. At the level of the text structure, the narration and—at its own scale—the sentence are characterized by a strong discontinuity, however concealed; by a spiral temporal development; and by the scrambling of the hierarchy of the fictional events. At the level of character reference, the notion of name of the character loses its traditional meaning. Names are barely used or these are ambiguous, multiple, or inexistent. However it is above all the omnipresence of the pronominal reference that disconcerts the reader, implicitly imposing memorizing every detail of the text. We also analyze the figure of the narrator, and criticize a common reading of Benet’s novel in which the text is the produce of a recollection. We conclude that the “difficulty” of Una meditación is the result of a writing that, by means of the indiscernibility of the characters and their stories, goes beyond literary fiction and aims at a generic portrait of human nature.