Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton April 9, 2014

How to check understanding across languages. An introduction into the Pragmatic Index of Language Distance (PILaD) usable to measure mutual understanding in receptive multilingualism, illustrated by conversations in Russian, Ukrainian and Polish

  • Jochen Rehbein

    Jochen Rehbein Akdeniz University (AU), Antalya since 2013; Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, 2006–2013; in 1999, co-founder of the Hamburg Research Centre on Multingualism. Publications and projects on: Functional Pragmatics, discourse analysis; grammar and mental processes, multilingualism; intercultural communication; Turkic linguistics; politeness; Turkish in contact, TOOLKIT, multilingual schooling in Turkey (AMuSE)

    EMAIL logo
    and Olena Romaniuk

    Olena Romaniuk born in 1987 in Ukraine, Kryvyi Rih, obtained her bachelor degree in the Japanese Language and Literature in Dnepropetrovsk National University, Ukraine. She graduated in 2008 and then took up her master studies at the Department of the English Language Teaching of the Middle East Technical University, Ankara. In 2010 she obtained her master's degree.

Abstract

The paper proposes, under the roof-concept of a method abbreviated PILaD, a combination of quantitative and qualitative procedures aiming to clarify the relationship of ``closely related languages'' (Voegelin and Harris 1951). The method is based on the functional-pragmatic theory of `Communicative Apparatus', a cross-linguistically operating interactive structure, which is modified by Lingua Receptiva communication. The data consist of 4 Russian-Ukrainian, 4 Polish-Ukrainian and 4 Polish-Russian conversations which were recorded with a digital camera and transcribed in a HIAT transcription format under the multiparty data program EXMARaLDA. Cases of `problematic understanding' defined in terms of problematic utterances are related to the total number of utterances in a discourse. The communicative success is compared across the three language constellations and refined down to every participant. Statistical analysis gives an overall picture of how receptive multilingualism works in the three language constellations. The findings reveal that receptive multilingual communication between Polish, Russian and Ukrainian interactants is generally successful, yet, not symmetric, but depends itself on the direction of intelligibility. A summary of the PILaD method and the data base are attached.

About the authors

Jochen Rehbein

Jochen Rehbein Akdeniz University (AU), Antalya since 2013; Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, 2006–2013; in 1999, co-founder of the Hamburg Research Centre on Multingualism. Publications and projects on: Functional Pragmatics, discourse analysis; grammar and mental processes, multilingualism; intercultural communication; Turkic linguistics; politeness; Turkish in contact, TOOLKIT, multilingual schooling in Turkey (AMuSE)

Olena Romaniuk

Olena Romaniuk born in 1987 in Ukraine, Kryvyi Rih, obtained her bachelor degree in the Japanese Language and Literature in Dnepropetrovsk National University, Ukraine. She graduated in 2008 and then took up her master studies at the Department of the English Language Teaching of the Middle East Technical University, Ankara. In 2010 she obtained her master's degree.

Published Online: 2014-4-9
Published in Print: 2014-4-1

©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 28.3.2024 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/applirev-2014-0007/html
Scroll to top button