This article examines the impact of the sociodemographic profile (including age, gender, and educational track) of Flemish adolescents (aged 13-20) on lexical aspects of their informal online discourse. The focus on lexical and more "traditional," print-based aspects of literacy is meant to complement previous research on sociolinguistic…

This study investigated the relation between lexical development and the production of prosodic prominence in disyllabic babble and words. Monthly recordings from nine typically developing Belgian-Dutch-speaking infants were analyzed from the onset of babbling until a cumulative vocabulary of 200 words was reached. The differentiation between the…

It is often said that bilinguals are not the sum of two monolinguals but that bilingual systems represent a third pattern. This study explores the exact nature of this pattern. We ask whether there is evidence of a merged system when one language makes an obligatory distinction that the other one does not, namely in the case of placement verbs in…

Much has been said about children's strategies for mapping elements of meaning to words in toddlerhood. However, children continue to refine word meanings and patterns of word use into middle childhood and beyond, even for common words appearing in early vocabulary. We address where children past toddlerhood diverge from adults and where they more…

This semi-longitudinal study examined the development of narrative writing quality of young Turkish second language learners in mainstream Dutch-only education, and the impact of student-level and classroom-level predictors of narrative writing quality, using hierarchical linear modelling. Writing samples of 106 third graders and 111 fourth…

Experimental evidence suggests that pictorial elucidation helps learners comprehend and remember the meaning of second language (L2) idioms. In this article we address the question whether it also helps retention of the form of idioms, i.e. their precise lexical composition. In a small-scale experiment, the meaning of English idioms was clarified…

Tests hypotheses from the model for contact-induced language change as formulated in Thomason and Kaufman (1998) and Thomason (1998). The model correctly predicts the asymmetries between the mutual influences of the Germanic and Romance varieties in Brussels, Belgium and Strasbourg, France, making it a very powerful tool for describing the…

Summarizes a keynote address that tested hypotheses from the model for contact-induced language change as formulated in Thomason and Kaufman (1998) and Thomason (1998). The model correctly predicts the asymmetries between the mutual influences of the Germanic and Romance varieties in Brussels, Belgium and Strasbourg, France, making it a very…

Seven peer commentaries are provided in response to a paper that tested hypotheses from a model for contact-induced language change as formulated in Thomason and Kaufman (1998) and Thomason (1998). The model correctly predicts asymmetries between mutual influences of Germanic and Romance varieties in Brussels, Belgium and Strasbourg, France,…

Responds to peer commentaries written in response to a paper examining the model for contact-induced language change as formulated in Thomason and Kaufman (1998) and Thomason (1998). The model correctly predicts asymmetries between mutual influences of Germanic and Romance varieties in Brussels, Belgium and Strasbourg, France, making it a very…

This article discusses structural factors responsible for a number of subtle differences in the outcome of language contact in Brussels (Belgium) and Strasbourg (France), and suggest that sociolinguistic factors have little explanatory power in this area. Differences between the rules for past participle formation in Dutch as spoken in Brussels…

The atlas offers a cartography of language functions, quantitatively measured in vitality rates, for Western Europe. The atlas has three parts: vitality by language; vitality by domain; and vitality by country. Eighty-three minority languages are covered. Domains considered include: global; religion; schools; mass media; administration; courts;…

An examination of language use in 19th century Brussels seeks to explain how and why a link between language and social class came into operation. Hypotheses relating the social characteristics (material circumstances and consciousness) of social classes and segments of social classes to various resulting language patterns are proposed. This…

Discusses the consequences of "language shift through erosion" on the basis of an analysis of the gradual disappearance of Dutch as a native language in French Flanders. Sketches the theoretical language-in-contact framework, breaking down the chronological evolution into diglossic, bilingual and (almost) monolingual phases. (37…