Day 3 - November 9

The health and diversity of the world’s languages is eroding, with the imminent loss of almost one-third of languages (Lee & Van Way, 2016). The best way to stem language loss is to identify the initial stages of obsolescence. Language vitality is typically assessed using one of several scales (e.g., Lewis & Simons’ 2010 EGIDS, the UNESCO Framework, etc.), all of which identify IGT as the pivotal indicator of language vitality. However, despite the singular importance of IGT, no RIGOROUS AND REPRODUCIBLE METHOD exists for assessing IGT, and none of the existing scales have been statistically validated. In this talk, I present results from a seven-year project on the development of TITA: The Tool for Intergenerational Transmission Assessment, which provides field-workers/researchers a six-instrument suite that assesses intergenerational transmission (IGT) of a language suspected of losing vitality. TITA is easily implementable and based upon recognized techniques within the field of language acquisition. I present the results from two field studies (Study 1: Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia; Study 2: Isaan, Northeastern Thailand) showing that in Kosrae, TITA assuages community concerns about language loss, while in Isaan, TITA discovers alarming loss of IGT.

Two major obstacles to revitalising the indigenous languages of Taiwan are the lacks of an effective measure of language strength and learning approaches for these languages given the social, political, and linguistic context. From the psycholinguistic point of view and using Truku Seediq (‘Truku’, henceforth) as an example, the purposes of this study are to (i) assess Truku strength (vs. Mandarin) across age groups, (ii) establish baseline data as a starting point for developing conservation programs in Truku community, and (iii) explore the effectiveness of a problem-solving approach to indigenous language learning in elementary Truku classes.

On one hand, as a psycholinguistic tool of language assessment of language shift, the body-part naming task being developed as part of the Hawai‘i Assessment of Language Access (HALA) project is employed to exploit the fact that the speed with which bilingual speakers access lexical items in their two languages offers a sensitive measure of relative language strength. It also allows the evaluation of label accuracy, another indicator of language strength. A total of sixty-eight Truku participants in four age cohorts were tested. As predicted, Truku produced longer response times and lower accuracy than Mandarin across all speakers suggesting a cross-generational decline of Truku.

On the other hand, psycholinguistic approaches view language learning as a cognitive individual process occurring within the individual and move to the social dimension. Based on videorecorded data of eight weeks of one-on-one classes, this study assesses two learners’ language development quantitatively (using mean length of utterance) and qualitatively (using teacher reflections and the researcher’s class observations via video). The results suggest that this psycholinguistic approach has unique advantages for indigenous language learning in the multilingual context of Taiwan.

In this talk, I will introduce the "Master-Apprentice" method as an approach to the preservation and transmission of endangered languages, with a focus on its application to the Ryukyu-Okinoerabu language, one of Japan's endangered languages. Originally introduced by Hinton in 1994, the "Master-Apprentice" method fosters a one-on-one partnership between a Master (fluent speaker) and an Apprentice (learner). Together, they engage exclusively in the target language during daily activities, such as shopping or farming, with the aim of achieving language proficiency. Since July 2024, thirteen learners on Okinoerabu Island have participated in this program, striving to enhance their language skills. This presentation will explore the outcomes and challenges encountered in this initiative. 

Linguistic diversity has long been central to comparative linguistic analysis, enriching representational descriptions and theoretical frameworks. In psycho/neuro-linguistics, diverse languages have been investigated by researchers as well, yet the importance of systematic cross-linguistic comparison still needs to be further emphasized. I will discuss the advantages of examining typologically different languages—especially on similar linguistic issues—from the perspective of psycho/neuro-linguistics. Such cross-linguistic investigation reveals shared neurocognitive mechanisms across languages along with subtle differences linked to language-specific features. This informs not only the representational architecture of human language but also the cognitive computation and neural implementation of realtime language processing.

In this context, I will probe Taiwan Southern Min (TSM), a language that remains underexplored in experimental research, and discuss its potential contributions to theories of language processing. TSM exhibits intriguing properties that differ from Taiwan Mandarin, including unique features in phonetics-phonology (e.g., tone sandhi pattern, dialectal variation), morphosyntax (e.g., verbal/adjectival reduplication, serial verb construction, causatives, passives), and semantics (e.g., aspectual markers, conceptual structure in middle constructions, gradable predicates). Examining TSM in these dimensions through experimental methods and cross-linguistic comparisons will advance our understanding of language processing mechanisms. Further investigation into bilingual processing and acquisition of TSM may provide valuable insight in addition. 

Bilinguals often exhibit cross-language morphological transfer, where knowledge from their first language (L1) aids in processing their second language (L2). However, the novel aspect of this study lies in its exploration of whether such transfer occurs between different language modalities, such as Taiwanese Sign Language (TSL) and Mandarin. This study investigates whether deaf signers access TSL morphological characteristics during Mandarin word recognition and TSL translation tasks, aiming to understand the interaction between visual-manual and spoken language modalities in bilingual processing. The study involved 25 deaf signers proficient in TSL and Mandarin and 25 hearing non-signers. Participants completed two tasks: a Mandarin word recognition task and a TSL translation task, designed to assess the impact of TSL morphological processing implicitly and explicitly, respectively. The tasks compared two groups of TSL signs: a "simple" morphological group, where handshape transitions between morphemes are fluid (e.g., "AGREEMENT" and "PRESIDENT"), and a "complex" morphological group, where transitions involve distinct pauses or segmentations (e.g., "SPECIALTY/SPECIAL PRODUCT" and "LAWYER"). Reaction times and accuracy were measured for both tasks. Results indicated that deaf signers had significantly longer reaction times for the complex morphological group than the simple morphological group. These findings suggest that TSL morphological representations are automatically activated during Mandarin word recognition and translation, demonstrating that morphological representations can coexist across different linguistic modalities without interfering with comprehension. This study enhances our understanding of bilingual processing across distinct language modalities, highlighting the automatic activation of sign language morphological representations during word recognition. These findings offer profound insights into the cognitive mechanisms underlying cross-modal bilingualism, enlightening us about the complex interplay of linguistic modalities in bilingual processing. 

The indexical meaning of speech is one of the core concepts in variationist sociolinguistics. It refers to the social information that language users perceive when encountering a linguistic variant, including insights into the speaker’s social background and the situational characteristics of the speech, such as formality. Traditionally, since Labov’s foundational work, sociolinguistic studies have examined indexical meaning as a community pattern. However, in recent years, scholars have increasingly highlighted individual differences in the perception of indexical meanings.

Drawing on my research over the past years on linguistic variation among Mandarin-speaking deaf adults in Taiwan, I will discuss why it is essential to explore the indexical meanings of speech variants from an individual perspective. Furthermore, I will examine how sociolinguistic interviews can be utilized to investigate such individual variability.