scholarly journals Multimodal language use in Savosavo

Pragmatics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Bressem ◽  
Nicole Stein ◽  
Claudia Wegener
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Solomon Islands ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Southwest Pacific ◽  
Short Overview ◽  
Endangered Language ◽  
First Results ◽  
Multimodal Language ◽  
Manual Mode

Abstract Departing from a short overview on pragmatic gestures specialized for the expression of refusal and negation, the article presents first results of a study on those gestures in Savosavo, a Papuan language spoken in the Solomon Islands in the Southwest Pacific. The paper focuses on two partly conventionalized gestures (sweeping and holding away) and shows that speakers of Savosavo use the gestures in a very similar way as speakers of German, English or French, for example. The article shows how a linguistic and semiotic analysis might serve to uncover proto-morpho-semantic structures in a manual mode of communication and contributes to a better understanding of the conventional nature and cross-linguistic distribution of gestures. Moreover, by examining partly conventionalized gestures in a small, little known and endangered language, it presents a particular approach to the analysis of multimodality in the field of language documentation.

Assessing agreement level between forced alignment models with data from endangered language documentation corpora

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian T. DiCanio ◽  
Hosung Nam ◽  
Douglas H. Whalen ◽  
H. Timothy Bunnell ◽  
Jonathan D. Amith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Documentation ◽  
Endangered Language

Language Documentation in Diaspora Communities

2018 ◽  
pp. 398-418
Author(s):  
Daniel Kaufman ◽  
Ross Perlin
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Ex Situ ◽  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Language Endangerment ◽  
Endangered Language

Due to environmental, economic, and social factors, cities are increasingly absorbing speakers of endangered languages. In this chapter, the authors examine some of the ways that organizations can work with communities in an urban setting to further language documentation, conservation, and revitalization. They base their discussion on their experience at the Endangered Language Alliance, a non-profit organization based in New York City that facilitates collaboration between linguists, students, speakers of endangered languages, and other relevant parties. While ex-situ language documentation has not been given much attention in the literature, they argue that it has its own unique advantages and that diaspora communities need to be taken seriously, both to fully understand language endangerment and to better counteract it.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
pp. xxviii-18
Author(s):  
Lyle Campbell ◽  
Kenneth L. Rehg
Keyword(s):  
Language Revitalization ◽  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
Language Endangerment ◽  
Reference Volume ◽  
Endangered Language ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Comprehensive Reference

The Oxford Handbook of Endangered Languages’ purposes are (1) to provide a reasonably comprehensive reference volume for endangered languages, with the scope of the volume as a whole representing the breadth of the field; (2) to highlight both the range of thinking about language endangerment and the variety of responses to it; and (3) to broaden understanding of language endangerment, language documentation, and language revitalization, and, in so doing, to encourage and contribute to fresh thinking and new findings in support of endangered languages. This chapter introduces the thirty-nine chapters of this Handbook, which are addressed to the themes and approaches in scholarship on endangered language and to these objectives of the book. The authors introduce the criteria for determining whether a language is endangered and just how endangered it is, address the causes of language endangerment, review the reasons for why the language endangerment crisis matters, and discuss the variety of responses to it.

Turning variation on its head

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Meyerhoff
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
Narrative Texts ◽  
Endangered Language ◽  
Variationist Sociolinguistics

This paper uses variationist methods to attack a descriptive problem: by looking at the distribution of a typologically unusual subject prefix (tem- in realis and t- in irrealis) in a set of narrative texts recorded in Nkep, the language of Hog Harbour (Vanuatu), it explores the extent to which the goals of language documentation and variationist sociolinguistics can be pursued simultaneously. It concludes that a dual focus can benefit both enterprises. We find out considerably more about the nature of subject-verb prefixes in Nkep and about the ways in which the Nkep language handles grammatical properties such as the realis/irrealis distinction. The paper also notes that studies of variation in endangered language contexts can provide a positive framework for the local community to evaluate synchronic variation and change.

The use of English among Italo-Australians in Sydney

1991 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Rubino ◽  
Camilla Bettoni
Keyword(s):  
First Generation ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Italian Regions ◽  
First Results ◽  
Australian Community ◽  
Main Factors

Abstract This article presents the first results of a research project which investigates patterns of language use in the Italo-Australian community in Sydney. All three languages spoken by the majority of Italo-Australians are taken into account: Italian, dialect and English. This article focusses on English. Use of English by 202 subjects (of different generations, Italian regions, age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds) is explored in 46 situations in four domains (family, friendship, work/school and transactions), taking into account congruent and incongruent situations with regard to three main factors: interlocutor, topic of conversation and place where it takes place. The data show a widespread shift to English which starts among younger subjects of the first generation and increases dramatically among the second generation. Furthermore, use of English by Italo-Australians depends more on personal characteristics of speakers and addressees (such as age and generation) than on topic or place of conversation.

Language and sexuality studies today

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heiko Motschenbacher
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Sexuality Studies ◽  
Short Overview

Abstract This article presents a short overview of the field of language and sexuality since the mid-1990s and discusses two issues that have repeatedly played a role in my own work in the field during the last decade: the incompatibility of the term homosexual with non-heteronormative language use, and the question of what counts as queer linguistic work.

Attitudes towards Belhare, Nepali and English

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-217
Author(s):  
Ichchha Purna Rai
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Documentation ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
The Government

Abstract This paper reports on a sociolinguistic study of the Belhare speech community which is a part of the Belhare language documentation project funded by the Language Commission of the government of Nepal in 2018. This article presents sociolinguistic information on Belhare, a lesser known speech community originally settled in Dhankuta, east Nepal. The main contribution of this paper is to examine domains of language use, language use among generations, attitude towards Belhare, Nepali and English, Belhare speakers as multilingual speakers, languages resources and language proficiency among children.

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