Project

Discipline

language variation; structural priming; dialect; language varieties; interactive alignment; visual-world paradigm (eye-tracking); social factors; Swiss German; psycholinguistics; diglossia; word recognition

Lead
Variation ist eine fundamentale Eigenschaft von Sprache, welche sowohl in der Soziolinguistik - im Hinblick auf sozial bedeutungsvolle Variation - als auch in der Psycholinguistik - im Hinblick auf individuelle kognitive Mechanismen - untersucht wird. Das Projekt verbindet diese beiden Herangehensweisen und erforscht sozial bedeutungsvolle Variation im Hinblick auf individuelle Sprachverarbeitung und -repräsentation am Beispiel von Schweizerdeutschen Dialekten.
Lay summary
Die Verarbeitung von Sprachvariation: Ein psycholinguistischer Ansatz zu Schweizerdeutschen Varietäten Le traitement de la variation du langage: Une approche psycholinguistique de variétés suisses allemandes Processing of language variation: A psycholinguistic approach to Swiss German varieties   Inhalt und Ziel des Forschungsprojekts Übergeordnetes Ziel unseres Forschungsprojekts ist es, zur Entwicklung einer Psycholinguistik der systematischen Sprachvariation am Beispiel Schweizerdeutscher Varietäten beizutragen. Im Einzelnen untersuchen wir (a) die Verarbeitung auf der Wortebene, u.a. ob Wörter verschiedener Varietäten gleichzeitig aktiviert werden und ob diese mental einzeln oder gemeinsam gespeichert sind, (b) die Verarbeitung auf der Satzebene, beispielsweise ob dialektspezifische syntaktische Informationen separat gespeichert werden oder in einer Sprache integriert sind, und (c) die Mechanismen der sprachlichen Anpassung zwischen Gesprächspartnern als variationsbedingte und Variation schaffende Grundlage von Kommunikation und Sprachwandel, insbesondere das Zusammenspiel von automatischen Aktivierungen und sozialen Faktoren. Wissenschaftlicher und gesellschaftlicher Kontext Unsere Forschungsarbeit wird Aufschluss darüber geben, inwiefern varietätenspezifische lexikalische und syntaktische Strukturen mental integriert oder separat sind. Damit trägt das Projekt dazu bei, die Lücke zwischen der sozio- und der psycholinguistischen Forschung zu schliessen und Variation berücksichtigende Sprachverarbeitungsmodelle zu entwickeln. Diese bilden eine Basis für Anwendungsfragen wie z.B. die Sprachdiagnostik.

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Last update: 03.12.2013

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The aim of this research project is to link two traditionally distinct lines of research related to the study of variation in language use, one being concerned with social factors and the other one dealing with individual cognitive mechanisms. Social factors are traditionally addressed within sociolinguistics, while cognitive mechanisms are at the heart of psycholinguistics - both of which deal with language from the perspective of the language user and can be described as the study of linguistic choices. However, the sociolinguistic approach focuses on socially meaningful variation and treats the language user as a member of a social group, while the psycholinguistic approach addresses the individual cognitive mechanisms and mental representations involved in linguistic choices and processing. In contrast, the role of systematic linguistic variability, such as language varieties, in cognitive processing is a psycholinguistic research desideratum.The envisaged research programme intends to bridge this gap and to study socially meaningful variation with respect to individual processing and representation, contributing to the development of processing models which can account for the interaction of cognitive and social factors. This research is conceived within the context of the newly founded Center for the Study of Language and Society at the University of Bern and intended to supplement its solid base in accumulated sociolinguistic experience with the incorporation of a new perspective. The main aim is to study psycholinguistic aspects of language variation, and to develop a psycholinguistics of (structured) variation, particularly dialects, using the example of Swiss German.The psycholinguistic research programme will proceed along two inter-related research lines studying Swiss German, partly in relation to Standard German. The first line of research explores language varieties in individual representation and processing with respect to lexical processing. It will address questions such as cross-varietal activation in lexical access, and lexical selection. The second line of research examines language varieties in individual representation and processing with respect to syntactic processing. It will investigate structural representations with respect to the extent of integrated vs. separate representations for the two varieties. Both lines of research will also explore the question of interactive adaptation effects, and specifically whether these are socially modulated, such as by sympathy relations or asymmetric communica-tion situations.Specifically, the following research questions will be addressed: Are lexical items from different language varieties activated simultaneously during lexical access? Are there distinct or common lexical representations, linked to variety-specific or unspecific lexical selection? Is there bivarietal structural priming suggesting single integrated syntactic representations? Is structural priming between varieties dependent on shared word order and grammatical categories? What effect does (optional) intra-variety variation have? Is the between-variety lexical boost effect comparable to the within-variety effect suggesting common lemma representation? What mechanisms contribute to interactive (lexical and syntactic) adaptation effects? What are the relative contributions of social factors and automatic-activation effects?