Learner characteristics have been at the center of second language acquisition and foreign language education research in response to the puzzling questions: Why are there often large differences in second language (L2) learning achievement and why do many learners, though proficient first language speakers, not succeed in learning a L2? The papers in this book explore and challenge the three key factors in individual difference research: language aptitude, language learning strategies and motivation.

The volume contains a collection of studies on how the analysis of corpus and psycholinguistic data reveal how linguistic knowledge is affected by the frequency of linguistic elements/stimuli. The studies explore a wide range of phenomena , from phonological reduction processes and palatalization to morphological productivity, diachronic change, adjective preposition constructions, auxiliary omission, and multi-word units. The languages studied are Spanish and artificial languages, Russian, Dutch, and English. The sister volume focuses on language representation.

Documenting endangered languages has become a major goal in the linguistic sciences. This volume showcases recent developments in methodology, technology and analysis, drawing on experience gained in a global range of documentation projects. It illustrates the significance of documentary linguistics not only as a set of documentary practices, but as a scientific discipline in its own right.

The need of the national language Setswana to participate actively in society, politics and democratisation as both national language and lingua franca of Botswana, has caused language domination and suffocation on the part of the 25 or so minority languages. As a result, these languages are now going through a process of language shift and death. Consequently, their cultures, too, suffer great losses in order to keep pace with the mainstream society.
The aim of the book is threefold: (a) to inform the large public, both local and international, about the sociolinguistic and related issues regarding the minority languages of Botswana, (b) to provide facts about the state and future trends of the minority languages in order to sensitise the public and the relevant authorities about the issues involved, and (c) to present ideas and insights in order to stimulate academic debates on the minority languages.
Linguists from Botswana as well as from Europe and U.S.A. present their latest field research findings to shed light on the present situation of the minority languages.
 

As a culture area, the Arab world has had different ecological structures - nomadic (bedouin) and sedentary (rural and urban) - with parallel linguistic systems. Throughout the long history of the Arabic language, the development of transitional stages has generated linguistic correlates in Arabic dialects. The notion "ecolinguistics", combined and reinforced with the concepts of "compatibility" and "lexical diffusion", is introduced in this study to identify such a sociolinguistic change. The domain of change for this ecolinguistic variation is the extended family wherein the middle generation develops new lexical items by the application of ecolinguistic rules. Cadora describes these rules, which speakers generate as they gradually acquire an awareness of the social parameters for their use. The theoretical framework and the putative results of this study are offered to stimulate further research in the causation and implementation of linguistic change, especially in terms of quantitative analyses of ecolinguistic variation and lexical diffusion in the Arabic language.

Jasperrek azalduko du nola jarri zen Elkartea berekin harremanetan eta, aldi berean, tinko jardungo du bere misioan: droga trafikoan dabilen banpiroen sare bat desegin behar du. Horretarako, aztien talde bati egin beharko dio aurre; ahalik eta jende gehien hiltzeko prest dagoen deabrua gurtzen dute azti horiek. Jasperrek, aztien dohainak baititu, deabrua mendean hartzea eta atzera infernura bidaltzea lortuko du, baita banpiroak garaitzea ere.
Girotzea: Paris, gaur egun
 

Zizili andreak ez du ezer ikusten, 207 dioptria dauzka begi bakoitzean. Mundu betaurreko guztiak probatuta dauzka, baina alferrik. Hala ere, esan diote Londresen badela jostun bat, apurtutako artaziekin betaurreko berezi batzuk egiten dituena, eta hara joatea erabaki du Zizilik, Anbrosio bere mamu txikia lagun hartuta. Bidean, ordea, mila abentura eta xelebrekeria gertatuko zaizkie, zein baino zein zoroagoa, baita lagun mordoa ezagutu ere, umorez eta fantasiaz beteriko historia honetan.

Iratik hamabi urte ditu eta oso argi ditu bere nahiak eta helburuak. Amak, ordea, oso bestelako ideiak ditu gauza askotan; espezial samarra da, xelebrea ez esateagatik. Bateko artista izan nahi du, besteko naturista, eta beste batean bidaiatzeko grina sartzen zaio. Estutasun bat baino gehiago pasa behar izaten dute aitak eta alabak, amaren burutazioekin. Iratik bere etxeko hamaika pasadizo barregarri jaso ditu orrialde hauetan.

Martarentzat sekulako lasaitasuna izan zen gehiago ez entzun behar izatea jendearen galderak, aholkuak, amaren negarrak. Baina, batez ere, guztiz lasaigarria izan zen ez jan behar izatea edo, familiaren aurrean disimulatzeko, jaten zuelako itxurak egitea, ezta botaka egitea ere.
Martak, 17 urteko neska batek, bere bizitzako azken hilabeteak gogoratzen ditu ispilu baten aurrean.
 

18 urte dituela, gurasoak galtzen ditu Dorak, istripu baten erruz, eta bat-batean helduen munduan ikusten du bere burua, horrek dakarren askatasun guztiarekin eta baita erantzukizun guztiarekin ere: ez dio inori baimenik eskatu behar, baina ez du inor bere gabezien errua leporatzeko ere.
Ikasketak, lana, maitasuna… hainbat arlotan egingo du aurrera Dorak; lagun onak egingo ditu, baita muturreko batzuk hartu ere, baina bizitza ederra dela deskubrituko du, eta ez du bere altxor bakar hori galduko.