Dr. Marika Butskhrikidze (University FAMA, Prishtinë, Kosovë)
The presentation focuses on the particular importance of two linguistic domains in the linguistic analysis: phonetics and lexicon in determining an applicant’s place of socialization.
Concerning phonetic domain, two aspects: pronunciation and intonation are discussed. Both are essential cues for revealing native/non native status of an applicant’s language and dialectal nuances of the applicant’s speech. An essential observation concerning these two aspects is that: while characteristics of pronunciation can be established even on the basis of short interviews, establishing characteristics of intonation sometimes needs longer period of time. Based on my experience it is at least 30 minutes. It is well known that an interview is a stressful event for an applicant and natural/spontaneous speech from the applicant’s side is usually achieved only towards the end of interview. Content of interview questions seem also to affect revealing native intonation characteristics. There exists strong evidence to argue that native patterns of intonation are often shown up when the applicant is asked about traditional food, or local customs, etc. Discussion is supported by illustrative material from Georgian and Russian.
Concerning the lexical domain, importance of sociolinguistic aspects and language contact are outlined. The discussion is based on languages/dialects spoken within the territory of Georgia. The main suggestion among others for experts is to keep updated with current developments of language in question and instead of focusing on characteristics of standard language, to pay more attention to features of spoken language.
Dernière modification 11.11.2009