This article studies the use of the Bare Aorist in the Berber variety of Figuig, an oasis at the border of Morocco and Algeria. Like elsewhere in Berber, the Bare Aorist isused as a form that is... Show moreThis article studies the use of the Bare Aorist in the Berber variety of Figuig, an oasis at the border of Morocco and Algeria. Like elsewhere in Berber, the Bare Aorist isused as a form that is neutral as to aspect, whose interpretation is provided by context. It is shown that the major types of occurrence that were established for other varieties (Mauri2017) are also represented in Figuig Bare Aorists. Framed Aorists are found in main clauses that are preceded by a temporal/aspectual clause that provides the framing for its aspectual interpretation. With Chained Aorists, the framing is provided by verbs in preceding main clauses. It is shown, however, that Chained Aorists are subtly different in Figuig from the way they have been described for other varieties, as they mainly occur to express continuity at points where such a continuity is less expected. Show less
Fluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness are considered importantparameters of interpreting quality but have rarely been studiedsystematically in training programs of interpreting. Therefore,... Show moreFluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness are considered importantparameters of interpreting quality but have rarely been studiedsystematically in training programs of interpreting. Therefore, the presentstudy was set up to investigate the effect of fluency training on speechfluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness of interpreter trainees. Twogroups of interpreter trainees at a university in Iran took part in the study,receiving the same amount of instruction and practice (12 hours over 4weeks). The experimental group (N=30) spent 33% of the time (i.e., 4 of the12 hours in the training program) on dedicated fluency strategy training,encouraging the memorization, repetition, and retelling of audio and videomaterials. The remaining 67% was spent on training general speaking skills.The control group (N=30) were only taught general speaking skills in thetraining program but received no dedicated fluency training. Systematicinterviews were run to assess the interpreter trainees’ speech fluency,comprehensibility and accentedness, which were judged independently bythree expert raters at three moments of testing, i.e., pretest, immediateposttest, and delayed posttest (one month later). The findings revealed thatthe fluency training significantly enhanced the interpreter trainees’ fluency,and to a lesser extent the students’ comprehensibility but had only amarginal effect on accentedness. The pedagogical implication would be thatawareness training on speech fluency Show less
The present study investigated the use of the iBrainstorm app in a collaborative argumentation-based learning context for developing listening comprehension skills by EFL learners. Two groups of... Show moreThe present study investigated the use of the iBrainstorm app in a collaborative argumentation-based learning context for developing listening comprehension skills by EFL learners. Two groups of students were formed. All of them studied English as a foreign language at the BA level at Bu-Ali Sina University, Iran. Participants were assigned to groups at random. Participants took a pre-test of listening comprehension skills before starting the programme. The control group listened to authentic audio tracks in English and discussed their contents, watched authentic English movies, discussed issues in the movies in pairs in the classroom. The experimental group spent part of the time on theoretical explanation of, and practical exercises with, argumentation-based learning by the iBrainstorm application. The total instruction time was the same for two groups, i.e., 32 hours. Students then took a post-test and, a month later, a delayed post-test in listening comprehension skills. The results show that the use of the iBrainstorm app significantly improved the students’ listening comprehension skills, and significantly more so than those of the control group. These results have pedagogical implications for curriculum designers, material producers, and all who are involved in language study and pedagogy Show less
This book is about three West African sign languages with different time-depths, community sizes and patterns of social interactions. Adamorobe Sign Language (AdaSL), Ghana, is an old village sign... Show moreThis book is about three West African sign languages with different time-depths, community sizes and patterns of social interactions. Adamorobe Sign Language (AdaSL), Ghana, is an old village sign language used by 33 deaf people. Langue des Signes de Bouakako (LaSiBo), Côte d'Ivoire, is a new village sign language, used by six deaf people. Língua Gestual Guineense, Guinea-Bissau, is an emerging school-based sign language used by around 500 deaf people.In the three sign languages, 45 narratives of personal experiences were analysed to better understand how the time depth, the community size and the socialisation frequency influenced the three sign languages. Four different descriptive analyses of the narratives were carried out. Study 1 analysed the structure of the narratives, following Labov & Waletzky's model (1967) and Freytag's dramatic pyramid (1894). Studies 2, 3 and 4 focus on specific narrative devices that work to make narratives more convincing, as part of Labov's (1972) "evaluation" component. These devices refer to the moments when storytellers give dramatic prominence to narratives through the incorporation of characters, such as the use of different signing perspectives (Study 2), the use of role shifting between characters and constructed dialogues (Study 3) and the use of different types of descriptions of the animal (Study 4).These studies show that AdaSL and male LGG signers use devices that reflect a greater ability to capture the audience's attention, while LaSiBo and female LGG signers tend to show similar patterns in using simpler or reduced devices.This study shows that the frequency of social interaction between deaf peers is the most crucial factor in language change over time. Show less
Oratie uitgesproken door Prof.dr. C.P.A. Tiberius bij de aanvaarding van het ambt van hoogleraar Computerlinguïstiek aan de Universiteit Leiden op maandag 26 februari 2024
This article studies a number of questions in the reconstruction of the Berber deictic system. Based on a comparative analysis informed by historical phonology, it is shown (1) that the variation... Show moreThis article studies a number of questions in the reconstruction of the Berber deictic system. Based on a comparative analysis informed by historical phonology, it is shown (1) that the variation of the form of the singular proximal deictics can be understood from a basic form a, which could be expanded by a complementary element d, and, possibly, also by an element Ɂ; (2) that the proximal system of deictics originally had a number difference, even among adnominal deictics; (3) that the Ghadames (Libya) Anaphoric series sg -e, pl -id has clear parallels in other varieties, especially in Kabyle (Algeria), and that, as a consequence, it can be reconstructed for proto-Berber. Show less
This study examines the effect of native vs. non-native prosody instruction on developing interpreter trainees’ speech comprehensibility in English as a foreign language (EFL) using a pretest... Show moreThis study examines the effect of native vs. non-native prosody instruction on developing interpreter trainees’ speech comprehensibility in English as a foreign language (EFL) using a pretest-posttest-delayed posttest design. Twenty-three groups of 28 interpreter trainees at a University in Iran (six different branches) took part in the study, all groups receiving the same amount of instruction (9 hours over 3 weeks). Three control groups listened to/viewed authentic audio recordings and movies in English, discussed their contents, and completed a variety of speaking tasks but received no specific prosody instruction. Twenty experimental groups spent part of the instruction time on theoretical explanation of, and practical exercises with, English prosody by thirteen nonnative instructors, and seven native instructors. Three experts evaluated the comprehensibility of the trainees in elicited speech samples collected during the pretest, immediate posttest and delayed posttest, and subsequently presented in random order. The findings revealed that the experimental groups gained between 1 and 2 points on the 0 to 10 comprehensibility scale, and lost little in the delayed posttest; however, hardly any changes were observed in the control groups. We conclude that native and non-native English instructors’ prosody teaching were equally effective in enhancing EFL students’ speech comprehensibility. Show less
This article presents the results of an experiment with eleven students from two universities that translated and post-edited threeliterarytextsdistributed on the first and last days of their... Show moreThis article presents the results of an experiment with eleven students from two universities that translated and post-edited threeliterarytextsdistributed on the first and last days of their translation technology modules. The source texts were marked with units of creative potential to assess creativity in the target texts (before and after training). The texts were subsequently reviewed by an independentprofessional literary translator and translation trainer. The results show that there is no quantitative evidence to conclude that the training significantly affects students’ creativity. However, after the training, a change is observed both in the quantitative data and in the reflective essays, i.e. the students are more willing to try creative shifts and they feel more confident to tackle machine translation (MT)issues, while also showing a higher number of errors. Further, we observe that students havea higher degree of creativity in human translation (HT), but significantly fewer errors in post-editing (PE)overall, especially at the start of the training, than in HT. Show less
This article presents the results of an experiment with eleven students from two universities that translated and post-edited three literary texts distributed on the first and last days of their... Show moreThis article presents the results of an experiment with eleven students from two universities that translated and post-edited three literary texts distributed on the first and last days of their translation technology modules. The source texts were marked with units of creative potential to assess creativity in the target texts (before and after training). The texts were subsequently reviewed by an independent professional literary translator and translation trainer. The results show that there is no quantitative evidence to conclude that the training significantly affects students’ creativity. However, after the training, a change is observed both in the quantitative data and in the reflective essays, i.e. the students are more willing to try creative shifts and they feel more confident to tackle machine translation (MT) issues, while also showing a higher number of errors. Further, we observe that students have a higher degree of creativity in human translation (HT), but significantly fewer errors in post-editing (PE) overall, especially at the start of the training, than in HT. Show less
Yenkimaleki and van Heuven (2021) studied the effects of teaching either segmental or suprasegmental (prosodic) aspects of English, in combination with either perception or production-focused... Show moreYenkimaleki and van Heuven (2021) studied the effects of teaching either segmental or suprasegmental (prosodic) aspects of English, in combination with either perception or production-focused practice (four combinations in all) on the speech intelligibility and comprehensibility of Persian L1 learners of English as a foreign language. Generally, production-focused exercises were more effective but there was no overall effect of teaching segmentals versus prosody. However, the specific combination of emphasis on prosody and production-oriented exercises was most beneficial. We summarize the results of the study and present, more systematically and in more detail than in the original article, the materials and teaching methods used. Show less
Little is known about the requirements of a comprehensibly written paragraph. This makes it difficult for Dutch secondary school teachers to teach their pupils how to write a paragraph. This... Show moreLittle is known about the requirements of a comprehensibly written paragraph. This makes it difficult for Dutch secondary school teachers to teach their pupils how to write a paragraph. This dissertation presents a rationale that shows which aspects of language are important when writing paragraphs. It is a didactic design study in which declarative knowledge, skills and self-efficacy beliefs were brought together in toolboxes. An important implication of this study is that the paragraph can play a role in the teaching of formulation skills in secondary education. Show less
The Indo-European u-stem nouns merged almost completely with the o-stems in all Slavic languages. In every Slavic language, their combined paradigm shows traces of both original sets of endings.... Show moreThe Indo-European u-stem nouns merged almost completely with the o-stems in all Slavic languages. In every Slavic language, their combined paradigm shows traces of both original sets of endings. The merger of the two paradigms began before the earliest attestations of Slavic, but the attested evidence allows us to determine that the paradigms must have been distinct in late Common Slavic. The original distribution between u- and o-stems was blurred when they started to merge. The endings were redistributed on the basis of phonological and semantic criteria. In this paper it is argued that a similar process took place in the accentuation of masculine o- and u-stems in Slavic. The accentual phenomena discussed here have alternatively been explained as reflexes of a Proto-Slavic accentual pattern referred to as accent paradigm d. Show less
Spiers, C.; Lubotsky, A.; Griffiths, A.; Silk, J.A. 2024
This paper combines experimental, theoretical and quantitative approaches to syntactic microvariation. The empirical goal is to clarify the situation with respect to wh-doubling (also: wh-copying... Show moreThis paper combines experimental, theoretical and quantitative approaches to syntactic microvariation. The empirical goal is to clarify the situation with respect to wh-doubling (also: wh-copying) in varieties of German and Dutch. With a large-scale survey in the German and Dutch language areas we sought to establish which speakers allow wh-doubling, which speakers allow right-complexity, i.e., configurations in which the lower copy of the wh-dependency is more complex that the higher one, and which speakers allow left-complexity, i.e., the reverse, with a more complex higher copy. We also wanted to know whether there are associations between these properties, to identify groups of speakers and dialects. We found three types of grammars: (i) a grammar that allows both wh-doubling and right- and left-complexity; (ii) a grammar that allows wh-doubling and has a strong preference for right-complexity over left-complexity; and (iii) a grammar that does not allow any wh-doubling configuration. This shows that there is a clear limit to variation in this domain. Grammars with a preference for left-complexity do not exist. We then point out the consequences of these findings for the copy theory of movement, and for analyses that enrich this theory with the option of partial deletion. Show less
This database contains the complete text of the R̥gveda, aligned with two translations, a German one by Karl Friedrich Geldner (Der Rig-Veda aus dem Sanskrit ins Deutsche übersetzt und mit einem... Show moreThis database contains the complete text of the R̥gveda, aligned with two translations, a German one by Karl Friedrich Geldner (Der Rig-Veda aus dem Sanskrit ins Deutsche übersetzt und mit einem laufenden Kommentar versehen, Cambridge (Mass.), 1951-1957) and an English one by Ralph T. H. Griffith (The hymns of the Rigveda, translated with a popular commentary, Benares, 1889-1891).The text represents the 1877 edition by Th. Aufrecht (Die Hymnen des Ṛigveda, Bonn), but with one major difference: it is divided into pādas and the sandhi at the pāda boundary has been removed if the context were otherwise unclear. For instance, a -ḥ is added which was lost in sandhi, the contracted vowels are divided, etc. Wherever the original text was altered, I have introduced a dash at the end of the pāda. If the beginning was changed too, I have added yet another dash at the beginning of the pāda. Show less
For every word form of the R̥gveda (RV), this concordance provides its frequency and the text of all pādas in which it occurs. The concordance is primarily a tool for studying R̥gvedic metrical... Show moreFor every word form of the R̥gveda (RV), this concordance provides its frequency and the text of all pādas in which it occurs. The concordance is primarily a tool for studying R̥gvedic metrical phenomena and R̥gvedic formulae. It can also be used for investigating syntax and semantics of the RV, but the context of one pāda is often too limited for that purpose and does not always contain sufficient syntactic and semantic information. Therefore, every pāda of the concordance provides a link to the text of the whole R̥gvedic stanza with two translations, a German one by Geldner and an English one by Griffith. Show less
