Kinas ofullbordade revolution : om romanisering av kinesiska språket

This paper deals with questions of romanization of the Chinese language. It examines the history of phonetic Chinese transcription and writing systems, from the first occurrences of such systems in the 16th century to the present day. The paper’s main focus is on the two systems Gwoyeu Romatzyh and Latinxua Sinwenz which were in use from the 1920s to the 1940s and aimed at replacing Chinese characters as a writing system. The paper raises the questions: why the desire to abandon Chinese characters altogether? Is it possible to write Chinese with a phonetic script? And, if the reasons for abandoning the characters are valid and their substitution by a phonetic script is possible, why has this not be done? The paper is roughly divided into two parts. The first part, in six chapters, begins with a brief history of the early romanization up to the turn fo the 19th century, followed by the bulk of the text concerning historical and technical aspects of Gwoyeu Romatzyh and Latinxua Sinwenz. The last chapter of the first part is a brief history of the development of the romanization of Chinese language until today. The second part of the paper concerns a number of theoretical aspects of the romanization of Chinese in general and the two systems under scrutiny in particular. First it deals with the first question posed, i.e. whether the reasons are valid. Then it examines the possibility of romanization by discussing what constitutes a word in Chinese, and problems connected with that definition. It also discusses ortography and written style, and seeks to answer the question why a romanization of Chinese has not been undertaken

Irreversible Specialization for Speech Perception in Early International Adoptees

In early childhood, the human brain goes through a period of tuning to native speech sounds but retains remarkable flexibility, allowing the learning of new languages throughout life. However, little is known about the stability over time of early neural specialization for speech and its influence on the formation of novel language representations. Here, we provide evidence that early international adoptees, who lose contact with their native language environment after adoption, retain enhanced sensitivity to a native lexical tone contrast more than 15 years after being adopted to Sweden from China, in the absence of any pretest familiarization with the stimuli. Changes in oscillatory brain activity showed how adoptees resort to inhibiting the processing of defunct phonological representations, rather than forgetting or replacing them with new ones. Furthermore, neurophysiological responses to native and nonnative contrasts were not negatively correlated, suggesting that native language retention does not interfere with the acquisition of adoptive phonology acquisition. These results suggest that early language experience provides strikingly resilient specialization for speech which is compensated for through inhibitory control mechanisms as learning conditions change later in life

What's a language error? A discussion

Peer reviewe

The effects of Contracaecum osculatum larvae on the growth of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua)

Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) from the Eastern Baltic stock have decreased in numbers and condition since the 1990′s. Among several causes, an increased prevalence and intensity of the nematode Contracaecum osculatum has been discussed. This increase has been attributed to a population increase of the parasites final host, the grey seal (Halichoerus grypus). Other studies have looked at the role of Contracaecum osculatum on cod growth and condition on recently caught cod, or done short term experimental studies in lab. This study instead investigated the importance of Contracaecum osculatum for cod growth in a sea pen based experiment, where cod were kept and fed in order to monitor growth. The results show that a higher density (number of nematodes per gram liver) decreases cod growth potential. If the number of nematodes exceeded 8 per gram liver cod did not grow in length, even when given generous amounts of food. Accounting for the lack of growth due to Contracaecum osculatum may improve stock assessments and increase the possibility to reach management targets

Does bilingualism come with linguistic costs? A meta-analytic review of the bilingual lexical deficit

A series of recent studies have shown that the once-assumed cognitive advantage of bilingualism finds little support in the evidence available to date. Surprisingly, however, the view that bilingualism incurs linguistic costs (the so-called lexical deficit) has not yet been subjected to the same degree of scrutiny, despite its centrality for our understanding of the human capacity for language. The current study implemented a comprehensive meta-analysis to address this gap. By analyzing 478 effect sizes from 130 studies on expressive vocabulary, we found that observed lexical deficits could not be attributed to bilingualism: Simultaneous bilinguals (who acquired both languages from birth) did not exhibit any lexical deficit, nor did sequential bilinguals (who acquired one language from birth and a second language after that) when tested in their mother tongue. Instead, systematic evidence for a lexical deficit was found among sequential bilinguals when tested in their second language, and more so for late than for early second language learners. This result suggests that a lexical deficit may be a phenomenon of second language acquisition rather than bilingualism per se

Age and Constraints on Language Learning : First Language Retention and Second Language Acquisition in International Adoptees

This thesis investigates the influence of age of acquisition on the long-term second language development of international adoptees. Because age of acquisition typically coincides with the onset of bilingualism, the study of maturational age effects in second language acquisition has been empirically and conceptually entangled with changes in language input and use. For international adoptees, however, because the adoptive language is acquired under similar linguistic conditions as non-adopted peers – albeit at a later age of acquisition – questions of age and second language acquisition can be investigated without confounding influences of bilingualism. Study I presents the theoretical argument that, because of the delay in acquisition, the language development of international adoptees should be regarded as a special case of second language acquisition. Furthermore, consistent with the contemporary study of second language acquisition, the effects of this delay should be investigated through ultimate attainment observed in adults. Study II shows that adults in Sweden who had been adopted from Spanish-speaking countries, and Spanish-Swedish bilinguals with the same age of acquisition (3-8 years), have greater difficulty in perceiving Swedish vowel distinctions that do not exist in Spanish compared to native Swedish speakers. This suggests that age of acquisition is a decisive factor for speech perception in a second language. In Study III, Chinese-Swedish adoptees are found to deviate from native Swedish speakers in their production of Swedish vowels that are phonologically identical in Chinese, but not in vowels that are distinctive in both languages. While these results are consistent with predictions based on assumptions of transfer and interference in bilingual speakers, they cannot be explained based on these premises. Instead, the results suggest that early language-specific experiences will affect the pronunciation of vowels in the second language regardless of whether the native language is in use or not. In Study IV, the neural underpinnings of the behavioral results are investigated electrophysiologically, using EEG. This study shows that adult adoptees retain increased neural sensitivity to a native Chinese lexical tone contrast without any exposure to the language for over 15 years. This is reflected in a fast neural response stemming from the auditory cortex and is indexed by the mismatch negativity event-related potential. This suggests that native language sensitivity is not only retained, but is continuously involved in the moment-to-moment processing of speech sounds. Neural oscillations furthermore reveal the involvement of inhibitory processes to attenuate this sensitivity. Finally, positive correlations between neural responses to the native and the adoptive language show that native language retention is not in itself an impediment for second language acquisition. The results from these three studies show how language-specific experiences lead to irreversible specialization in the brain, which will affect the long-term acquisition of a second language. This finding invites a re-evaluation of the hypothesis of a critical period for second language acquisition, based on the notions of probabilistic epigenesis and flexible behavioral adaptation following experience-based functional neural reorganization in early childhood

Skill, dwelling, and the education of attention: Probing the constraints of second language academic writing

This paper endeavours to take stock of academic writing not merely as an activity that precedes publishing but as an art and a craft in its own right. We also draw attention to some of the conditions that affect writing in academia today, notably second language userhood in the production of text. In order to do that, we invoke the reasoning of British social anthropologist Tim Ingold, particularly his perspective on dwelling, skill, and the education of attention. From this emerges a view of academic writing as a practice founded in skill, developed through the dweller’s practical involvement with his or her everyday tasks and influenced by different constraints. Because no one is born a skilled writer, attentive dwelling lies at the core of the writer’s education of attention as a situated mode of perceptual engagement with the environments in which he or she dwells, be it through reading, co-authorship or textual response

Pour point depressant efficacy as a function of paraffin chain-length

Pour point depressant (PPD) activity mechanisms include solubilization, morphology alteration, and steric/entropic repulsion. A wealth of complex intermolecular interactions governs PPD efficacies in real crude compositions. The current study utilizes single-component model waxes (n-C24H50, n-C28H58, n-C32H66 or n-C36H74) dissolved in dodecane to reveal chain-length dependent PPD efficacies. Wax appearance temperature depression, effected by PPD, diminishes as paraffin chain-length increases. Stronger London van der Waals attractions between longer wax components effectively diminish PPD solubilization activity. Controlled-temperature centrifugation reveals partitioning of PPD polymers and paraffin waxes between solid and liquid phases. PPD polymers typically contain a polydisperse molecular weight distribution. The highest molecular weight PPD polymers partition preferentially to solid phases, including PPD aggregates and PPD-modified wax crystals. The lowest molecular weight PPD polymers remain preferentially soluble in the liquid phase, binding only weakly to precipitated wax. The presence of precipitated wax counteracts the solubilization activity of PPD polymer. At high precipitated wax fractions, PPD shows no wax solubilization activity. As the precipitated wax fraction decreases, the wax solubilization activity of the PPD progressively increases. The wax solubilization activity of the PPD attains a maximum at the WAT. Finally, the results are consistent with a single optimal polymer molecular weight for PPD activity occurring at a single temperature. PPD polymers larger than the optimal MW undergo a coil-to-globule transition prior to wax crystallization, deactivating the polymer. Polymers smaller than the optimal molecular weight show weaker binding to wax crystals, consistent with a smaller Gibbs free energy of binding, and partition preferentially to the liquid phase. Modern PPD formulations should utilize polymers that are tailored according to molecular weight. Optimally tailored PPD polymers should be less polydisperse in nature than current PPD formulations