Project description
How our multilingual brains drive language change
Languages change through time. However, how does this happen? The answer is not clear. Linguists have long debated whether internal grammar dynamics or external influences, such as language contact, are the main trigger. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the ValCon project investigates whether the main source of change through contact is priming; this is the brain’s tendency to repeat recently used structures. Could this mental process explain how change spreads across languages? Focusing on Italy’s multilingual regions, where local dialects interact daily with standard Italian, ValCon merges psycholinguistics and historical linguistics to test this idea. The goal is to understand if our brains, juggling multiple languages, may be key to how languages change over time.
Objective
All languages change at variable rates through time. Several language internal and external factors have been considered as underlying mechanisms for such change. Language internal factors have been successful in modelling chains of changes within the system, but their relevance as initial triggers remain controversial. In this respect, language external factors are frequently invoked, among which language contact holds a prominent role. Languages are not in contact per se, however, people are: languages are in contact because people acquiring them as grammatical systems store them both in their brain and use them both alternatively. The question is what drives potential interferences between the systems (crosslinguistic influence) and if it can trigger diachronic change. This project proposes a new, replicable methodology for testing hypotheses on the mechanisms underlying diachronic change and verifies it by testing the hypothesis that such mechanism corresponds to priming, intended as the facilitative effects of an encounter with a stimulus on subsequent processing of the same or a related stimulus. Priming has been shown to be active both within and, crucially for our objectives, across languages (multilingual & L2 populations): in multilingual settings, the frequent activation of a linguistic structure of Grammar A could lead to produce said structure in the system of Grammar B, sparking the process of language change. I test this hypothesis by exploiting the fact that different phenomena show consistently different rates of change and checking if there is a significant correlation between such rate of change and the strength of priming affecting a given phenomenon. The Italian area, where a wide range of well-studied varieties coexist with Italian as a majority language in a comparable sociolinguistic environment, offers the perfect testing ground for this methodology, paving the way for the psycholinguistic study of crosslinguistic microvariation.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
35122 PADOVA
Italy
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.