Zur syntaktischen und prosodischen Markierung pragmatischer Phänomene im Bereich der Konnektorenforschung

Nach Eve Sweetser (1990) kann eine Äußerung auf drei kognitiven Ebenen - Sachverhaltsebene, epistemische Ebene und Sprechaktebene - gedeutet werden. In diesem Beitrag werden auf der Basis eines Korpus gesprochensprachlicher Daten' sowohl syntaktische als auch prosodische Besonderheiten kausaler und konditionaler konnektorhaltiger Relationen untersucht, die auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen gedeutet werden können. Ein besonderes Interesse gilt dabei der Frage, ob die Sweetser’sehen Ebenen im Deutschen sprachlich markiert sind. Es wird gezeigt, dass syntaktische und prosodische Signale mit den Ebenen sehr stark korrelieren, die Ebenen im kausalen Bereich aber anders markiert sind als im konditionalen Bereich. Aufgrund dieses Befundes wird gegen die Annahme Sweetsers argumentiert, dass Kausalität als Basisbedeutung für Konditionalität angesehen werden könne

Wenn-Relationen. Schnittstelle zwischen Syntax, Semantik und Pragmatik

Die vorliegende empirisch basierte Studie zu Verwendungsweisen von ‘wenn' in gesprochenem Deutsch versteht sich als kleiner Beitrag zur Konnektorensemantik. Anhand eines Korpus gesprochener Sprache werden im ersten Schritt die Bedeutungsvarianten von wenn auf der Basis der Oppositionspaare ‘faktisch' vs. ‘nicht-faktisch’ und ‘generisch' vs. ‘spezifisch' typologisiert und im Hinblick auf ihre syntaktischen Spezifika untersucht. Im zweiten Schritt wird gezeigt, wie die so ermittelten Typen von wenn-Relationen mit den in Sweetser (1990) ausgefiihrten Verknüpfungsdomänen (Sachverhaltsebene, epistemische Ebene, Sprechaktebene), die durch pragmatische Ambiguität gekennzeichnet sind, korrelieren

Number of books at home as an indicator of socioeconomic status: Examining its extensions and their incremental validity for academic achievement

The present study investigates the incremental validity of the traditional books-at-home measure and selected extensions (i.e., number of children’s books and number of ebooks) for explaining students’ academic achievement as measured by their academic language comprehension. Using multiple linear regressions, we additionally explore the role of the source of information (i.e., whether information is given by parents or children). Based on cross-sectional data of a German sample of 2353 elementary school children from Grades 2 through 4, we found that parents’ information on the number of books and children’s books contributed to students’ academic language comprehension over and above parental occupation and education. Children’s information on the number of books did not further increase the amount of explained variance, and the effects were smaller than those for parents’ information. Yet, when investigated separately, both parents’ and children’s information on the number of books and children’s books at home predicted students’ academic language comprehension and mediated the relationship between more distal structural features of socioeconomic status (i.e., parents’ occupational status and education) and the outcome variable. No effect emerged for the number of ebooks. Our findings point to the robustness of the traditional books-at-home measure when used in parent questionnaires.Peer Reviewe

Current State of Heterotrophic Bacterioplankton and Bacteriobenthos in the Northern and Middle Parts of the Caspian Sea

Data on the abundance of heterotrophic bacterioplankton and bacteriobenthos in the northern and middle parts of the Caspian during the period from 2013 to 2017 are presented. In the waters of the northern part of the Caspian, a peak in the number of saprotrophs and crude oil degraders was recorded in 2013. In the middle part of the Caspian and in the region of the Mangyshlak regression, high numbers of heterotrophic bacteria were recorded in 2013 and 2016. The biodiversity of bacterioplankton in the surveyed areas is almost the same; the species composition of saprotrophs and crude oil degraders is identical. In the bottom sediments of the northern and middle parts of the Caspian Sea, two peaks of saprotrophic bacteriobenthos development (in 2013 and 2016) were recorded; in the region of the Mangyshlak threshold, the concentration of saprotrophs remained stable. The number of crude oil degraders was inferior to those of saprotrophs, while the proportion of crude oil degraders to saprotrophs changed annually. The species composition of saprotrophs is relatively stable, the biodiversity of oil-oxidizing bacteriobenthos has changed in the direction of increasing the proportion of non-fermenting bacteria. Constant changes in the ratio of the number of saprotrophs and crude oil degraders, together with the transformations of the dominant groups of the species composition of bacteria, indicated the instability of bacteriobenthos, and, as a result, the vulnerability of the microecosystem of bottom sediments under changing environmental conditions

International differences in gradients in early childhood overweight and obesity : the role of maternal employment and formal childcare attendance

Background There are significant cross-country differences in socio-economic gradients in later childhood and adulthood overweight/obesity; few studies assess whether this cross-national variation is evident from early childhood. Furthermore, the role of childcare in explaining overweight/obesity gradients might vary across countries, given differences in access, quality and heterogeneity within. Additionally, childcare is linked to parental characteristics such as maternal employment. The interplay between childcare and employment in producing early overweight/obesity gradients has received little attention, and might vary cross-nationally. Methods Using harmonized data from six high-quality, large datasets, we explore the variation in gradients in early overweight/obesity (at age 3–4 years old) by parental education across several high-income countries (USA, UK, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Japan). We then assess whether differential formal group care use attenuates some of these gradients, and whether this varies across maternal employment. Results Gradients in early childhood overweight/obesity by parental education are evident across several developed countries. Countries with higher overall prevalence of early overweight/obesity did not have the largest inequalities across education groups. The contribution of formal group care to producing these gradients varied across countries and across maternal employment status. Conclusion Early childhood inequalities in overweight/obesity are pervasive across developed countries, as noted for older children and adults. However, mechanisms producing these gradients vary across national contexts. Our study shows that, given the right context, quality childcare and maternal employment can successfully support healthy weight trajectories and not contribute (or even reduce) social inequalities in early overweight/obesity