#	Pagina
attuale pagina	/open-h2020/projects/210808/results.html

Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EMODHEBREW (The emergence of Modern Hebrew as a case-study of linguistic discontinuity)

Teaser

Summary

The Emergence of Modern Hebrew (EMODHEBREW) is a research project that documents the development of the grammar of Modern Hebrew, in particular its syntax. Hebrew presents a unique phenomenon of a language which for generations was only used for literary purposes (mostly liturgical, scholarly, and legal literature) becoming a language spoken again for everyday use. Though the dramatic historical circumstances of this revival have been described, the linguistic process itself is not yet understood. The present project is an attempt to systematically study the linguistic aspect of the process. We construct a linguistic data-base for the documentation of the novel syntactic constructions of Modern Hebrew, their sources in previous stages of Hebrew and in the languages with which Modern Hebrew was in contact at the time of the revival, and the development of these constructions since the beginning of the revival until present time.
Our aim is to construct a model of the linguistic factors which have shaped the revival of Hebrew. We expect this model to provide clues for the understanding of the process of language revival in general. For a language to be revived, a new grammar must be created by its speakers. The principal objective of the proposed project is to trace the syntactic trajectory of Modern Hebrew during its early years. The study aims to contribute to the understanding of, first, the language-internal vs. language-contact origins of the syntactic properties of Modern Hebrew at the stage where it only had speakers for which it was a second language (L2 stage), and second, the changes that these properties underwent when Modern Hebrew acquired native spkeakers for which it was a first language (L1 stage). The second issue has practically not been addressed before. And although the first issue has been hotly debated, the debate has often been based on isolated examples, mostly illustrating lexicological, phonological, and morphological characteristics of Modern Hebrew. Only few of the syntactic traits of MH have so far been studied from a historical perspective. The present research aims at studying parameters not previously discussed in the literature whose value setting at the L1 stage could explain the clustering of the innovation of particular syntactic constructions. Such findings would point to a theory of change different from the view found in the literature whereby the first generation of L1 Modern Hebrew speakers were consciously taught the historical values of the Hebrew parameters at school, or made use of general cognitive mechanisms such as analogy and back-formation to simplify the L2 grammar.
Despite the criticism of the creolization/relexification view of Modern Hebrew genesis (Wexler 1990), it has so far not been superseded by an alternative theory. This is one task undertaken in the present project. The syntactic changes within Modern Hebrew will serve as testing grounds for existing theories of linguistic contact and discontinuity. We will evaluate two recent theories in light of the changes we will document in Modern Hebrew:
I. Imperfect transmission (Kroch 2001, Meisel 2011)
II. Hybrid grammar (Aboh 2015)
Imperfect transmission characterizes processes of language shift, when a group of speakers switches en masse to a target language by learning it as a second language (L2), failing to perfectly master it (as is the case for L2 acquisition in general). According to the imperfect transmission theory, the first speakers of Modern Hebrew, adults for whom Hebrew was a second language, transferred the properties of the sytactic structures of their native languages (the contact languages) into their L2 Hebrew. The next generation, which is the first generation of first-language (L1) speakers of Modern Hebrew, underwent a process of deficient learning based solely on linguistic input produced by L2 speakers, whose knowledge is imperfect and may contain inconsistencies and disruptions which inhibit ling

Work performed

The untimely death of the PI of the project, Prof. Edit Doron on March 27 came at a period of intense activity and a surge in Prof. Doronâ€™s research output and that of the members of her team. This report is provided by Prof. Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal, who will suprervise the project in its phasing out period.
Two major outputs emanate from the general objective of the project:
â€¢ Empirical output: The construction of a linguistic data-base for the documentation of the novel syntactic constructions of Modern Hebrew, their sources in previous stages of Hebrew and in the languages with which Modern Hebrew was in contact at the time of the revival, and the development of these constructions since the beginning of the revival until present time. The data-base has recently been launched and is available on the website for other linguists to use and to contribute to.
â€¢ Broader theoretical implications: The cumulative results determined by the primary objective will enable the construction of a model of the linguistic factors, which have shaped the revival of Hebrew. This model is expected to provide clues for the understanding of the processes underlying various types of â€œlinguistic discontinuityâ€ in general, and also better inform us on processes of linguistic change. The preliminary results of the project are already pointing to the resolution of some hotly-debated issues in the literature on contact-induced change on the one hand, and the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the emergence of the grammar of Modern Hebrew on the other.

The group has been working intensively on documenting and exploring the relevant linguistic phenomena. The output can be witnessed in the multiple publications, talks at conferences, and in the launch of the data-base.
The projectâ€™s website hosts the data base containing entries tracing the historical developments of syntactic structures through their manifestation in Modern Hebrew. Trajectories of internal development and the influence of contact languages are suggested and documented.
o The website was launched last month
o It features the first 7 entries, with 23 others in various stages of development, planned to be posted upon completion in the very near future.

There are also weekly meetings in which preliminery proposals concerning the broader theoretical questions are being discussed.

Final results

The project is clearly advancing beyond the state of the art as the team is working on new syntactic material that was not analysed before and also workin on new theoretical proposal as for how Modern Hebrew could emerge.
As we are moving to the phasing out period of the project,as a result of the death of the PI, the goal in the next 12 months (1/4/2019 â€“ 31/3/2020) is to complete the current projects that are being conducted these days. More specifically, we intend to work on both aspects of the project:
â€¢ To complete entries that trace the development of syntactic features in Modern Hebrew.
â€¢ The team will work on a preliminary synthesis of the study case of Modern Hebrew and its emergent grammar. The team will hold weekly meetings to discuss the results of the studies of the individual members of the team. Such discussion will allow the team as a whole to put to the test existing theories pertaining to the emergence of grammars broadly speaking and in situations of language contact, in particular. Members of the team will write the conclusions of the research and present them at the concluding conference of the project.
â€¢ The group will organize a conference to conclude the project with the objective of analyzing the results of the research team, exploring their theoretical ramifications, and putting them in the context of current research on language change and language contact.