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Language and thought in a multilingual context: The case of isiXhosa*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

EMANUEL BYLUND  and
PANOS ATHANASOPOULOS
EMANUEL BYLUND*
Affiliation:
Stockholm University, Sweden & Stellenbosch University, South Africa
PANOS ATHANASOPOULOS
Affiliation:
University of Reading, UK
*
Address for correspondence: Emanuel Bylund, Centre for Research on Bilingualism, Department of Swedish and Multilingualism, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Swedenmanne.bylund@biling.su.se
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Abstract

Situated within the grammatical aspect approach to motion event cognition, this study takes a first step in investigating language and thought in functional multilinguals by studying L1 isiXhosa speakers living in South Africa. IsiXhosa being a non-aspect language, the study investigates how the knowledge and use of additional languages with grammatical aspect influence cognition of endpoint-oriented motion events among L1 isiXhosa speakers. Results from a triads-matching task show that participants who often used aspect languages and had greater exposure to English in primary education were less prone to rely on endpoints when categorising motion events.

Keywords

linguistic relativitymotion eventsgrammatical aspectmultilingualismisiXhosa
Type
Research Note
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 431 - 441
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

*

This research was funded through the SANPAD project Community Development through Early Literacy. We are grateful to the three anonymous BLC reviewers and editor Carmen Silva-Corvalán for their insightful comments on a previous version of this manuscript. We also wish to express our gratitude to Christiane von Stutterheim and Barbara Schmiedtová at Heidelberg University for making their video clips available to us, and to Petar Simonovic for proof-reading the paper. All remaining errors are entirely our own.

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