Mary Carroll

The Relevance of Information Organization to Second Language Acquisition Studies. The Descriptive Discourse of Advanced Adult Learners of German.

The present cross-linguistic study deals with the relevance of principles of information organization in adult second language acquisition. It looks at typological features of information structure that allow speakers to organize and shape the flow of information when carrying out complex tasks, such as giving a description, and pinpoints factors that lead to the selection of linguistic form. At the focus of our attention are means used in reference introduction, such as existential and locational constructions, the morphosyntactic forms of expressions applied in reference maintenance, and word order. The cross-linguistic comparison shows that the options found in the expression of these functions in German, English, and Romance languages (French, Italian, and Spanish) follow distinct patterns in that the linguistic means used reflect unifying principles of a typological nature. These principles are perspective driven and are associated with patterns of grammaticization. Structures in language that reflect core principles in information organization may be difficult to acquire because learners have to recognize clusters of form-function relations that range over different domains. The nature of the analyses required is described for learners of German with English and Spanish as their source languages. The interlanguages (ILs) of these speakers show a high degree of compatibility with German in formal syntactic terms and are near native in many respects, but the levels at which the IL and target language diverge can be linked to fundamental principles of organization underlying information structure. Although the stage of acquisition is advanced, the languages still retain core principles in information structure typical of those found for English and Romance languages.

How grammaticized concepts shape event conceptualization in language production: Insights from linguistic analysis, eye tracking data, and memory performance

Abstract The role of grammatical systems in profiling particular conceptual categories is used as a key in exploring questions concerning language specificity during the conceptualization phase in language production. This study focuses on the extent to which crosslinguistic differences in the concepts profiled by grammatical means in the domain of temporality (grammatical aspect) affect event conceptualization and distribution of attention when talking about motion events. The analyses, which cover native speakers of Standard Arabic, Czech, Dutch, English, German, Russian and Spanish, not only involve linguistic evidence, but also data from an eye tracking experiment and a memory test. The findings show that direction of attention to particular parts of motion events varies to some extent with the existence of grammaticized means to express imperfective/progressive aspect. Speakers of languages that do not have grammaticized aspect of this type are more likely to take a holistic view when talking about motion events and attend to as well as refer to endpoints of motion events, in contrast to speakers of aspect languages.

Deictic and Intrinsic Orientation in Spatial Descriptions: A Comparison Between English and German

Abstract The present study focuses on the use of the system of coordinate axes when structuring space in complex communicative tasks. Speakers of English and German show different preferences in the way information is conceptualized and organized for expression. Differences in the use of spatial concepts can be attributed to the role played by abstract conceptual domains (time, space, things) in interrelating categories of information and establishing cohesion in texts.

Subjektwahl und Topikkontinuität im Deutschen und Englischen

SummaryCross-linguistic studies of event time structures which include Semitic (Algerian Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic), Germanic (English, German, Dutch, Norwegian), and Romance languages (French, Italian, Spanish) reveal language-specific effects in the way events are construed, showing that the underlying principles are both perspective driven and linked to patterns of grammaticisation. In this paper a further syntactic domain will be investigated with respect to its functional implications for information organisation: the grammatical subject.We take a closer look at English and German, which differ with respect to the syntactic properties of the subject category. Using film-renarrations as the data base it can be shown that cross linguistic differences in the realisation of the subject category are systematic at the formal as well as at the functional level. These findings are explained on the basis of differences in information organisation which are driven by grammatical properties of the respective subject category and word order constraints such as V2.Against this background, very advanced learner languages English-German/German-English are analysed, using parallel elicitation methods. It can be shown that although the full range of expressive means are available for the L2 speakers, they have not identified the implications which a syntactic category such as the subject has for information organisation.

Principles of information organization in L2 use: Complex patterns of conceptual transfer

Abstract

Progressive Attraction: On the Use and Grammaticalization of Progressive Aspect in Dutch, Norwegian, and German

This paper investigates the use of aspectual constructions in Dutch, Norwegian, and German, languages in which aspect marking that presents events explicitly as ongoing, is optional. Data were elicited under similar conditions with native speakers in the three countries. We show that while German speakers make insignificant use of aspectual constructions, usage patterns in Norwegian and Dutch present an interesting case of overlap, as well as differences, with respect to a set of factors that attract or constrain the use of different constructions. The results indicate that aspect marking is grammaticalizing in Dutch, but there are no clear signs of a similar process in Norwegian. *

Durch die Grammatik fokussiert

The present crosslinguistic study relates to narratives based on a film retelling task and focuses on the way speakers of German, English, and French proceed at the level of macrostructural planning. The type of information organisation required in carrying out a task of this kind can be described at different levels of analysis. There are questions involving information selection (deciding what to say), thematic continuity (e. g. topic assignment), referential framing, which relates to predicate-argument structures and how they are anchored with respect to times, worlds, and spaces. In order for a sequence of propositions to be coherent, these referential properties have to be related in consistent terms across utterances. The study presents evidence for a hierarchy of factors and associated constraints at the level of macrostructural planning that are both grammatically based and perspective driven.

Introduction: Conceptualizing in a second language

Abstract

Grammaticalized temporal categories, language specificity, and macroplanning in expository texts

Abstract The linguistic knowledge which is brought to bear in carrying out a complex task such as a narrative or route directions has been at the centre of a series of studies on language-specific patterns in the organization of information for expression. Analyses of oral and written texts in German, Standard Arabic, and Russian show different patterns in macro-structural organization and macroplanning that correlate with grammatical features of the respective languages. The findings for expository texts present evidence for a hierarchy of factors in the organization of information that are linked to grammaticalized temporal categories and their role in guiding options in perspective taking and information organization at text level. We assume that inflectional categories function as a scaffold in organizing content for expression since concepts that have paved their way into the grammar of a language will have prominence in language use, given their obligatory status in associated domains of reference. Global planning principles allow the speaker or writer to integrate knowledge from different sources on a systematic basis and thus meet constraints with respect to text coherence without having to solve core issues for each sentence anew.

From time to space: The impact of aspectual categories on the construal of motion events: The case of Tunisian Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic

Abstract Motion events and their linguistic form have been studied extensively over the past decades from a typological as well as a psycholinguistic point of view. While many studies take Talmy’s (1985. Lexicalization patterns: Semantic structure in lexical forms. In Timothy Shopen (ed.), Language typology and syntactic description: Grammatical categories and the lexicon, vol. 3, 57–149. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Toward a cognitive semantics. Cambridge: MIT Press) distinction as the starting point of their theoretical considerations, this twofold, lexicon-based typology has since been extended to capture the range of variation which languages display. Although the specifics of motion event conceptualization entail other factors in addition to space and lexical form, there are few studies on the implications of temporal categories. The aim of the present study is to document the role of aspectual categories in the construal of motion events, as observed in Tunisian Arabic (TA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), two closely-related varieties with relevant contrasts in the types of verbal aspectual categories they encode. The analysis is based on descriptions of different types of motion events elicited on the basis of video clips. The findings reveal basic differences in the spatial and temporal categories selected for encoding-differences which are rooted in the respective linguistic systems: while TA, in contrast to MSA, has fewer forms to express directed motion via spatial concepts (path verbs, prepositions), its aspectual system is richer. The comparison indicates how the expression of directed motion in spatial terms in MSA is conveyed via temporal aspect (progression) in TA. In conclusion, the study outlines the case for the inclusion of temporal categories, in particular grammaticalized aspect, in approaches to the typology of motion events.