UNIVERSITÄT ZU KÖLN

Overall question

This project aims at better understanding how register knowledge relates to grammatical aspects of linguistic knowledge. It does so by specifically taking a comparative viewpoint and addressing aspects of the universal and language-specific nature of register variation. We will test our hypotheses by directly comparing three typologically different languages (Persian, German, Yucatec Maya) with widely different register distinctions through the parallel application of the same methods.

Languages greatly vary in register diversity. Some languages (Persian) show more salient differences between registers than others (German), in spite of both being used orally as well as in written form. Still other languages (Yucatec Maya) are mainly used for oral communication with only incipient written use.

Research goals

First, we will investigate cross-linguistic vs. language-specific properties of register (Research goal 1), tackling the question of which aspects of syntactic variation are cross-linguistically associated with register and which aspects are language-specific.

Second, we will concentrate on the impact of differences in register diversity and normative aspects on cross-linguistic similarities and differences in register variation (Research goal 2). Third, in order to disentangle language-specific and cross-linguistic components of register variation, we will focus on syntactic phenomena related to the encoding of information structure that are likely to be register sensitive (Research goal 3).

The phenomena to be considered for these three research goals include (a) word order operations reducing syntactic compactness, such as right- and left-dislocations and (b) the choice of referential expressions as pronominal or null. More specifically, we will investigate i) whether there is a cross-linguistic association of structural devices that reduce syntactic compactness. We will compare informal spontaneous speech to formal speech and written language, where we expect existing word order variation to be more clearly restricted to positions within clausal boundaries. We will investigate ii) to what extent variability in the use of referential expressions differs by register within and across languages.

Fourth, since cross-linguistic studies on register variation are still rare, we will develop methods for the parallel investigation of register variation across languages involving both language production and perception (Research goal 4). At first, we will build a Lang*Reg corpus based on guided naturalistic (spontaneous) language production in different situations. In a second step, production data will be complemented with perception data collected through a gradient judgement study and a situative classification task on the association of syntactic variants with specific situative contexts.

Project leaders

Elisabeth Verhoeven, Institut für deutsche Sprache und Linguistik (IdSL) der HU Berlin
Aria Adli, Romanisches Seminar der Universität zu Köln

"Multilingualism in the Old and New Worlds" is an ambitious, research-based teaching project that uses digital and virtual methods and combines them with concrete sociolinguistic field research. Developed by Prof. Dr. Aria Adli, from UzK, and Prof. Dr. Gregory Guy, from New York University, and on the basis of their last year's project, this venture is projected to test an initially "local" method onto global, intercontinental issues. 
The focus is on "Languages in Latin America", in which autochthonous and Afro-Latin American minorities in the New World are looked at and compared with the multilingualism and diversity of varieties in Europe (especially on the Iberian Peninsula), as well as on the observation of how they are historically related.The innovative didactical aspect will be the virtual field trip students will be able to do throughout the course to several of these New World speaking communities. 
In each location and with the help of a previously built network of local consultants, authentic interviews are performed in the living environments of the speakers in their native languages.
The virtual field trip begins in São Paulo (Afro-brazilian Portuguese), and runs through in the south-brazilian Rio Grande do Sul (Riograndensen Hunsrückisch & Brazilian Portuguese), the peruvian capital of Lima (Chanka Quechua & Spanish), the northwest of Colombia (Embera Chami & Spanish), the Yucatán region in Mexico (Yucatan Maya & Spanish), and will end in the caribbean Havana (Afro-Cuban Spanish). The interviews with the speakers will be transcribed, translated, and archived in a sustainable format in the SAMD Database, whose bases were laid out in the first funding period. The students will carry out small-group projects and term papers with this empirical data.

The MISOGRA project fosters collaboration and dialogue between Germany and Iran - its capital Tehran and the province Kurdistan - through academic exchange as well as novel methods in the digital era.
Thematically, the project centers around the anthropological concept of facework and linguistic politeness strategies, whose similarities and differences between German, Farsi, and Kurdish language can only be understood by taking into account the social and cultural realities of speakers. In this context, it enables students to explore the ethnic and linguistic diversity in Iran and Germany and learn from each other’s experiences discussing the differences between indigenous and immigration-related diversity. This is achieved through a combination of mobility actions for students and early-stage researchers and an active use of online interaction through remote virtual field exploration, thematic podcasts and videos, as well as a travel blog. This approach also provides material for future student projects and teaching, and it communicates the international experience to a wider audience.
Another objective is to strengthen collaboration in higher education in order to build up a sustainable West-Eastern network on multilingualism. To this end, a virtual international spring school and a joint lecture in fall offer insights on "classical" as well as digital field work methods, where student projects are jointly supervised by the international project partners. International academic exchange also includes co-teaching activities in collaboration with students and faculty from New York University. As a further outcome, a Kurdish language course at the University of Kurdistan that is the first of it's kind is offered to international students in Iran.
In order to promote equal opportunities for young Iranian academics, a committee formed by all three partner institutions ensures that gender parity is respected in the selection of fellows and explicitly encourages the inclusion of ethnic minorities.

Um die Chancengleichheit für junge iranische Wissenschaftler zu fördern, sorgt ein von allen drei Partnerinstitutionen gebildeter Ausschuss dafür, dass bei der Auswahl der Stipendiaten die Geschlechterparität beachtet wird, und fördert ausdrücklich die Einbeziehung ethnischer Minderheiten.

This project aims at a better understanding of the relation between prominence and information
structure. Unlike bi-partite partitions in information structure such as topic/comment,
focus/background, frame setter/main predication, prominence is a relational property that applies to
elements of the same type and structure. Prominence plays an important role in organising the
information in coherent discourse representations, but it is not clear how prominence relates to the
specific type of packaging. First, we will investigate prominent syntactic positions (left and right
periphery, clefts, postverbal subject position), and analyse their role as structural attractors for
information-structural units. Assuming that syntactic positions establish a prominence relation
(between more or less prominent ones), we will concentrate on sentences with non-canonical word
order, comparing spontaneous speech data from several languages that show differences in these
positions (viz. French, Spanish, Catalan, Persian). Building on a pilot study on corpus data and on the
relevant literature, our assumption is that, on the surface, different information-structural functions can
be realised in the same prominent position. We will analyse how this polyvalence can be modelled and
how it is resolved in discourse. Thereby, we contribute to assessing the relation between information
packaging and the first two criteria of prominence important in our CRC: structural attractors and
relational properties. Second, we will investigate prominence-lending semantic features of
subcategorised arguments in sentences with canonical word order in which there is competition between prominent entities in information packaging. This issue can be best shown with topics.
Assuming that different topic candidates establish a prominence relation, we analyse the conditions
under which the default subject-topic relation can be overridden and how the competition between
various arguments for topicality can be modelled. This question will be addressed by carrying out two
experiments: In the first experiment, we will conduct an annotation task with both French and Spanish
data for fitting algorithmic parameters, while the second experiment consists of eliciting discourse
continuations after ambiguous sentences with one of these two languages. Thereby, we also
contribute to the third criterion of prominence in our CRC: dynamicity in discourse. In sum, we adopt a
multidimensional approach with which we will investigate the interplay of syntactic and
semantic/pragmatic prominence-lending features in conveying information-structural functions. The
data on prominent syntactic positions as well as the items for the two experiments are extracted from
the sgs corpus, which contains transcribed and partly annotated spoken data from the abovementioned
languages.

A distinguishing mark of the CRC Prominence in Language project consists in the converging use of
various methods and sources of linguistic evidence: data from neuro- and psycholinguistic
experiments based on state-of-the-art online methods (EEG, eye tracking, electropalatography (EPG),
electromagnetic articulography (EMA), in later phases also fMRI), data from elicitation tasks,
production data from spontaneous speech and existing corpora (in part based on field work), as well
as results from tests assessing the acceptability of selected constructions. Project INF supports
synergy between all projects with regard to these methods and it ensures data accountability and
sustainability. Furthermore, it supports each project with regard to the following aspects, which we
have identified as core issues in generating and maintaining the empirical foundations of the CRC:

(i) Experimental design and technical support
(ii) Corpus-linguistic support
(iii) Annotation standards and data sustainability
(iv) Statistics

We aim at complementing the academic research programme of the CRC Prominence in Language by
bringing the topic of prominence and the CRC's research to the public. “Making prominence
prominent”, as we call this public relations (PR) project, connects four target groups: (i) journalists,
also acting as disseminators, (ii) the interested public (in Cologne and the rest of the world), (iii)
agents from the fields of culture and municipality, and (iv) students from the University of Cologne. In
order to reach these four groups, we set up a number of communication measures which are designed
to fulfil three communication aims: bringing public awareness to our research, animating cooperation
between the academic and the non-academic sector, and fostering interdisciplinary scientific
exchange. We make use of different communication channels and media. In order to inform our target
groups regularly and thereby build sustainable, permanent communication, we will distribute our
measures over the four years of the first funding period. In order to communicate consistently, we
formulated three key messages, which will be disseminated throughout our public positioning.

Abstract

The current project firstly aims at proposing a model on the relation between grammar and usage making benefit of Spanish as a subject-prominent language and Persian as a topic-prominent language, while both are consistent null-subject languages. It goes beyond the dichotomy of system- and usage-based accounts of language; instead, it combines both aspects to see what empirical findings on pronouns use, subject position, and social variation tell us about the relation between grammar and usage. 

Secondly, it investigates the variation in the position of the overt subject, contrasting pre- and postverbal subjects. Both phenomena have been related in the literature. The project builds on the premise that both are essential elements of human syntax with information structure being the bridge between them. The main question is how grammar and usage are related and which role each element plays in syntax. The working hypothesis to be adopted is that some rules belong to grammar and others to usage. The former have a predictable outcome, the latter is subject to probability.

On an empirical level, the project will exploit and optimize the resources of the database sgs mainly built up in the scope of the applicant's Emmy Noether Research grant. This database includes spontaneous speech data, gradient acceptability judgments, and social information from four languages. In particular, it contains data from 152 native speakers of Spanish and Persian. The approach is thus cross-linguistic and builds on the complementarity of different sources of linguistic evidence.

Project staff 

Fahime Same