Sociolinguistic variation in the nativisation of BSL fingerspelling

British Sign Language (BSL) is a visual-gestural language distinct from spoken languages used in the United Kingdom but in contact with them. One product of this contact is the use of fingerspelling to represent English words via their orthography. Fingerspelled loans can become “nativised”, adapting manual production to conform more closely to the native lexicon’s inventory of phonemic constraints. Much of the previous literature on fingerspelling has focused on one-handed systems but, unlike the majority of sign languages, BSL uses a two-handed manual alphabet. What is the nature of nativisation in BSL, and does it exhibit sociolinguistic variation? We apply a cross-linguistic model of nativisation to BSL Corpus conversation and narrative data (http://bslcorpusproject.org) obtained from 150 signers in 6 UK regions. Mixed effects modelling is employed to determine the influence of social factors. Results show that the participants’ home region is the most significant factor, with London and Birmingham signers significantly favouring use of fully nativised fingerspelled forms. Non-nativised sequences are significantly favoured in signers of increasing age in Glasgow and Belfast. Gender and parental language background are not found to be significant factors in nativisation. The findings also suggest a form of reduction specific to London and Birmingham

Esperanto as a family language

Peer reviewe

A new rootedness? Education in the technological age

There is little doubt that European societies have undergone a profound transformation in the last two-hundred years. From the self-sufficient farm economies of pre-industrial times, through a period of intense industrialisation and urbanisation, and now the globalisation of tele-technology and capitalism. In the course of these social developments educational regimes underwent their own changes: from the rote schools, through the progressive movement, and into our own technocratic, managerial and performance focussed approaches in mass education. How should we think through the questions concerning the goal of education in our time? This essay considers contributions to this issue from Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Dewey and Nietzsche, highlighting two interrelated themes. The first, concerns the goal of education; the second concerns the characterisation of our time. The essay answers the first question in terms of human flourishing in a place; and the second in terms of the ubiquity of modern technology. Today, young children are not just “natives” of a town or country or region, rooted in the milieu of a national culture; they are increasingly becoming delocalised “digital natives”, and it is easy to think that they are becoming “rootless” as a result. The essay argues that we are not seeing a transition from rootedness to rootlessness, but a transition within a general space of nativisation. The implications of this transition for the education of young people today are introduced and briefly considered. I In a memorial address delivered in his home town of Meskirch in 1955, Martin Heidegger invited his audience to “dwell upon that which concerns us, each one of us, here, on this patch of home ground, and now, in the present hour of history” (MA, p. 47). Heidegger thinks that the “now” of our present hour of history is marked precisely by a distinctive loss of rootedness, the accelerating deracination of our lives from any “patch of home ground”, an uprooting from any definite “here”. In this essay I will try to introduce the problem this new social condition raises with respect to the education; the second concerns the characterisation of our time. The essay answers the first question in terms of human flourishing in a place; and the second in terms of the ubiquity of modern technology. Today, young children are not just “natives” of a town or country or region, rooted in the milieu of a national culture; they are increasingly becoming delocalised “digital natives”, and it is easy to think that they are becoming “rootless” as a result. The essay argues that we are not seeing a transition from rootedness to rootlessness, but a transition within a general space of nativisation. The implications of this transition for the education of young people today are introduced and briefly considered

The wolf in sheep's clothing: Camouflaged borrowing in Modern German

This article addresses a phenomenon of language contact that has not received much attention in mainstream contact linguistics, namely borrowing via a mechanism Zuckermann (2003) calls MULTISOURCED NEOLOGISATION. Multisourced neologisation is a subtype of Zuckermann's larger class of CAMOUFLAGED BORROWING, and constitutes a special form of calquing in which the calque is phonetically similar to the source language material: It has much in common with folk etymology and is sometimes identified with it, but there are good theoretical reasons to keep the two phenomena apart. Though German is well known for its calquing ability, the application of this special type of calquing has gone virtually unnoticed in the literature as well as in the ongoing public debate over the excessive influx of loanwords. This paper shows that multisourced neologisation is not uncommon in the integration of elements borrowed from English into German, and argues that factors favouring its use include lexical and structural congruities between both languages as well as the relatively high transparency of English to the average speaker of German. Thus, though German does not belong to the protypical language groups using multisourced neologisation that are described by Zuckermann (2003), special circumstances prompt the application of this and other methods of camouflaged borrowing

Ethnic Conflict in Pakistan: The Case of MQM

It has been argued that the current scholarship on ethnicity is focused on the rise of ethnonationalism, without incorporating the possibility and the nature of decline in its scope and intensity. An absolute majority of such movements have indeeded been contained in the postwar era. There is no reason to believe that this trend will reverse in near future. In this context, one can point to Pakistan, Baloch and Sindhi nationalist movements within Pakistan. Our discussion of the rise of the mohajir movement in this paper provides clear indicators of the potential determinants of its decline. It is significant that it is the state at the non-policy level which created a situation of ethnic explosion in urban Sindh. Various macro-level explosive issues revolving around conflicts between politicians and army, federalist and provincial forces, Islamist and secularist elements and, externally, India and Pakistan seriously circumscribed the state’s capacity and will to persue micro-level issues such as urban planning educational and manpower strategies, rural-urban and inter provincial migration and investment in mental infrastructure in general. The abdication of policy by the state rendered it inactive and irrelevent. This ‘residual’ state was represented by officials at the bottom level who controlled a vast number of transactional activities outside the purview of law. Ethnicity emerged as the new source of definition and categorisation of interests and identity formation as the state defaulted on various counts such as citizen orientations, legal protection and security of life and property. In other words, it was not too much of the (Jacobin) state, as primordialists would have us believe, but rather too little of it which produced the mohajir ethnic consciousness. We can maintain that the process of nativisation of mohajir is the product of multiple locational and transactional activities which do not necessarily reflect state policies.

English in Malta : from colonialism to heritage, from social differences to opportunity

Maltese, a Semitic language, is the mother tongue of the vast majority of Maltese nationals and is used alongside a variety of English, known as Maltese-English. Although English in Malta is an inheritance of a colonial past, it is widely regarded to be of fundamental importance. Most regular users of English in Malta are normally of high socio-economic status, thereby creating a situation in which social difference can be manifest through language choice. While providing a description of the linguistic situation in Malta, I will focus on the structure of Maltese-English and place it within its sociolinguistic context. I will illustrate how this variety constitutes an example of ‘difference’ in a relatively small linguistic community and discuss the implications of this within Malta’s bilingual/diglottic context.peer-reviewe

What autonomy in learning among ESP - science students? Case study of oral presentation in English

La production orale représente souvent une difficulté pour les étudiants LANSAD (LANgues pour Spécialistes d’Autres Disciplines) – sciences et constitue un champ d’étude peu exploré. Cet article propose une recherche-action menée auprès d’étudiants en L3 de l’Université Paul Sabatier à Toulouse sur la présentation orale qui est souvent l’activité privilégiée pour l’évaluation des étudiants LANSAD-sciences. Il s’agit de montrer d’une part, comment les étudiants ont progressé au 2ème semestre après avoir été guidé au 1er semestre car certaines formes de guidage peuvent favoriser l’autonomie (Rivens Mompean & Eisenbeis, 2009) et, d’autre part, comment l’autonomie d’apprentissage s’est manifestée. Après avoir situé le contexte théorique (présentation orale, autonomie) et le cadre de l’étude (public, module), nous discuterons des résultats obtenus aux 1er et 2ème semestres. A partir de questionnaires de satisfaction distribués aux étudiants, des évaluations et des observations de l’enseignante, nous analyserons également la perception du travail par les deux acteurs. Puis nous proposerons une optimisation du dispositif pour que les étudiants s’acheminent vers l’autonomie.La producción oral representa una verdadera dificultad para los estudiantes IOD (Idiomas de otras disciplinas) - ciencias y es un campo de estudio poco explorado hasta ahora. Este artículo presenta una investigación-acción realizada con estudiantes de L3 de la Universidad Paul Sabatier en Toulouse, sobre la presentación oral que a menudo es la más preferida para la evaluación de los estudiantes IOD Ciencias. Esto es para mostrar, por una parte, cómo los estudiantes han hecho progresos en la práctica de la presentación oral en el segundo semestre después de haber sido guiados en el primer semestre, porque algunas formas de seguido pueden favorecer la autonomía y por otra parte, cómo la autonomía de aprendizaje ha aparecido. Después de situar el contexto teórico (presentación oral, autonomía) y el marco del estudio (público, módulo), discutiremos de los resultados obtenidos en el primero y segundo semestres. A partir de cuestionarios de satisfacción distribuidos a los estudiantes, evaluaciones y observaciones del profesor, también analizaremos la percepción del trabajo por la parte de los dos actores. Para acabar, propondremos una optimización del dispositivo para que los estudiantes vuelvan autónomos.Oral production is often a challenge for ESP (English for Specific Purpose) - science students and has not been much explored. This article presents an action research conducted with students in L3 at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse in the oral presentation which is often preferred for ESP student assessment. The article aims at, on the one hand, showing how students have made progress in the 2nd semester after being guided in the 1st semester because some forms of guidance can foster autonomy (Rivens Mompean & Eisenbeis, 2009) and, on the other hand, how autonomy in learning appeared. After situating the theoretical background (oral presentation, autonomy) and the framework of the study (public, module), we will discuss the results obtained in the first and second semesters. From satisfaction questionnaires handed out to the students, assessments and observations of the teacher, we will also analyze the perception of the work by both actors. Then we will propose an optimization of the system so that the students become autonomous