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Native vs. Borrowed Morphologies: The Case of Trojan Horse Participles in Senhaja Amazigh (Berber)

Descrizione del progetto

Come i cervelli bilingui gestiscono la grammatica presa in prestito

Come fa il cervello bilingue a gestire la grammatica di due lingue contemporaneamente? Questa domanda è al centro del progetto NABOR. Sostenuto dal programma di azioni Marie Skłodowska-Curie, il progetto esplora il modo in cui i parlanti di senhaja amazigh (berbero) e arabo in Marocco elaborano la grammatica presa in prestito. Curiosamente, la lingua senhaja ha adottato i participi arabi (comprese le radici e i marcatori di accordo), creando i «participi cavalli di Troia». Questi vengono utilizzati insieme alle forme autoctone in una struttura nota come co-morfologia, in cui i sistemi grammaticali autoctoni e stranieri operano in parallelo. NABOR studia se queste forme vengono elaborate in modo diverso dal tradizionale prestito morfologico. Attraverso l’analisi narrativa e gli esperimenti psicolinguistici, il progetto offre nuovi spunti di riflessione su un fenomeno linguistico raramente studiato sul campo.

Obiettivo

Understanding how morphologies from different languages co-exist in the bilingual brain is a central testing ground for theories of language in the brain. NABOR investigates the differences in interpretation and processing of native vs. borrowed morphologies in the context of language contact among bilingual speakers of Senhaja Amazigh (Berber) and Arabic in Morocco. Strikingly, Senhaja has borrowed a whole morphological word class, Arabic participles, used among other to express TAM (Tense, Aspect, Modality). We call them “Trojan Horse participles” as they are borrowed with lexical content (roots) and agreement inflection (morphology). To describe situations akin to this, Gardani 2021 uses the term co-morphologies. Here, two morphologies are used in parallel: one with native, and one with foreign lexicon. NABOR investigates whether co-morphologies are psycholinguistically different (in processing) from morphological borrowing, where foreign morphology spreads to the native lexicon. To what extent are identical chunks of grammar shared by two languages processed as belonging to one grammar? We will tackle this question on the basis of Senhaja TAM constructions employing participles. Such participles present an important testcase for understanding how bilingual grammar is organized. It is rare that linguists can study co-morphologies in the field. Various tests will be run to investigate the processing of co-morphologies. We will perform semantic analysis on narrative production, and psycholinguistic experiments on the processing of morphological agreement. This will provide a window into questions of grammar representation. Previous research on bilingual processing has focused on codeswitching, while the psycholinguistic status of co-morphologies has not been studied. The research questions are new, and fill a gap in our understanding of bilingual cognitive realities, while also expanding our understanding of underdocumented morphological systems.

Campo scientifico (EuroSciVoc)

Parole chiave

Programma(i)

Argomento(i)

Meccanismo di finanziamento

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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(si apre in una nuova finestra) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01

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Coordinatore

UNIVERSITETET I TROMSOE - NORGES ARKTISKE UNIVERSITET
Contributo netto dell'UE
€ 267 418,56
Costo totale
Nessun dato