The second issue of Volume 40 (autumn 2017) of the Nordic Journal of Linguistics will be a special issue devoted to receptive multilingualism. The issue will be edited by Helka Riionheimo, Annekatrin Kaivapalu and Hanna-Ilona Härmävaara.
Comprehension of a second/non-native language begins with perceiving similarities between previously learned languages and a new one. Closely related languages have the most similarities, and in a form that is the easiest to perceive. When the target language is closely related to a language already learnt, one possible route to comprehension is utilizing the similarities between the languages for the receptive use of the language.
Receptive multilingualism (RM) refers to a language contact situation where understanding of a non-native language is based on the hearer's or the reader's skills in the first or any formerly learned language. In its most interactive form, this means a situation where every conversation participant is a native speaker of a language different from anyone else's and can use their own native tongue and be understood by the others. In such a situation comprehension can be based either on the linguistic similarity between the languages or on the participants’ acquired knowledge of the languages, or on both. In the case of closely related languages, structural, lexical and semantic similarity directly aids comprehension. When the languages of interaction are more remotely related, acquiring (receptive) skills can be easy due to noticeable similarities between the languages. In the case of unrelated languages, mutual intelligibility is based primarily on the participants’ sociocultural background and previous encounters with the language(s).
Studies on receptive multilingualism have approached RM from different theoretical and methodological perspectives. The topics in RM studies range from measuring linguistic distances between related languages to studying language ideologies and policies regarding RM interaction. Receptive multilingualism studies can be divided roughly into two main types: (i) those that focus on RM interaction in different language constellations (with speakers of related or unrelated languages), and (ii) those that focus on actual or perceived mutual intelligibility or similarity between related languages. This thematic issue focuses on related languages, and more specifically on the processes of utilizing the similarities between the languages in comprehending a related language. There is yet no clear understanding of how the similarities between closely related languages are utilized in comprehension, and which factors affect that process. The aim of the present thematic issue is to offer some perspectives on the complex phenomena of receptive multilingualism.
We invite papers concerning any themes related to receptive multilingualism, for example, mutual intelligibility across related and unrelated languages, measuring distances between languages, pedagogical approaches to mutual intelligibility, social and psychological determinants of mutual intelligibility, and mutual intelligibility in language policy. We especially encourage empirical papers focusing on receptive multilingualism in the Nordic languages, including Finnish, Greenlandic and Saami.
Submissions for papers should follow the style guide of NJL available at http://journals.cambridge.org/NJL.
The deadline for submitted papers is 1 November 2016. Papers should be sent simultaneously to the following two guest editors:
The reviewing process will take place in winter 2016 – spring 2017. The final version of all accepted manuscripts will be submitted to the publisher by 20 June 2017.
