Irena Bogunovic
@uniri.hr
Chair of Foreign Languages/Faculty of Maritime Studies
University of Rijeka
EDUCATION
PhD in Cognitive Science (University of Zagreb)
RESEARCH INTERESTS
language processing, bilingualism, mental lexicon, lexical access
Scopus Publications
Scopus Publications
Irena Bogunović, Bojana Ćoso, Marc Guasch, Eva Pavlinušić Vilus, Pilar Ferré, and José Antonio Hinojosa
SAGE Publications
Aims and objectives: English has become the dominant donor language for many languages, including Croatian. Perception of English loanwords has mainly been investigated through corpus-based studies or attitude questionnaires. At the same time, normative data for unadapted English loanwords are still mainly unavailable. This study aims to fill that gap by collecting affective and lexico-semantic norms for unadapted English loanwords in Croatian. Methodology: Valence, arousal, familiarity, and concreteness ratings for unadapted English loanwords and three types of Croatian equivalents were collected from 565 participants. Data and analysis: Affective and lexico-semantic norms for each word on the four variables are available in the database. In addition, the relationship between different variables was examined. Finally, the differences between English loanwords and three types of Croatian equivalents (in-context, out-of-context, and adapted forms) are reported. Findings: Valence ratings for unadapted English loanwords differed from out-of-context equivalents and adapted forms. Unadapted English loanwords were rated as more arousing than Croatian equivalents. Finally, unadapted English loanwords were less familiar and less concrete than in-context and out-of-context equivalents. The findings suggest that Croatian speakers perceive unadapted English loanwords differently on affective and lexico-semantic levels compared with Croatian equivalents. Originality: This is the first study to provide affective and lexical norms for 391 most frequent unadapted English loanwords in Croatian. Implications: The reported normative data will contribute to the existing knowledge about the processing of English loanwords by enabling experimental research on this topic.
Jasmina Jelčić Čolakovac and Irena Bogunović
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Rijeka
This study investigates the role of the learners’ L1 and L2 language in the formulaic transfer between the two languages in the case of metaphorical expressions which are either based on conceptual metaphors present in both languages (CM-motivated) or are culturally-specific (CS-motivated) to either L1 or L2 context. With the aim of investigating the direction and strength of L1-L2 and L2-L1 transfers respectively, a three-part instrument was used that included a learning profile survey, an English proficiency test, and the main questionnaire consisting of 19 Croatian idioms in English (L1-to-L2 items) and 19 English idioms in Croatian (L2-to-L1 items) respectively. Results showed both direction of transfer and underlying motivation (metaphor-related (CM) or culturally specific (CS) phrase origin) influence idiom comprehension in L2 context, with better comprehension recorded in the L1-to-L2 condition. In line with the dual route model, L2 proficiency was found to have a stronger effect under the L1-to-L2 condition. This suggests L2 learners were more successful in understanding L1 idioms in L2 context with a higher rate of accuracy recorded for the CM-motivated phrases. Accordingly, lower accuracy rates were recorded for CS-motivated idioms without L1 translational equivalents, thus adding to the evidence on L2 learners’ reliance on L1 conceptual systems.
In corpus linguistics, the negative correlation between word frequency and word length is a well–documented phenomenon referred to as Zipf ’s law. This linguistic universal observed by Zipf, which posits that the length of a word is in an inverse relation to its frequency (but not necessarily proportional to), has also been confirmed by numerous studies, and its implications can be observed in different fields such as language teaching and cognitive language processing. However, there is a gap in research data when it comes to studying this phenomenon from the perspective of loanwords. Even though it has been observed that translation equivalents in Croatian generally exist for loanwords or English words that appear 5000 times or more in the Croatian corpus (ENGRI corpus), the question still remains why speakers of Croatian resort to using English words in such cases where first language (L1) equivalents exist. This paper examines the systematicity of the language universal that shorter words are more frequent when it comes to foreign (primarily English) words in the (Croatian) language, i.e. whether the most frequent English words are shorter than their Croatian equivalents. For the purpose of this research, the Database of English words and their equivalents in Croatian was examined. Results indicate that some degree of systematicity between word length and frequency can be observed, but they also highlight the need for incorporating a semantic component into the analysis. The results contribute to the theoretical discussion on language universals, and explain why Croatian users prefer English words and whether language economy is one of the reasons for the use of English words in Croatian.
Irena Bogunović
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Abstract English loanwords in Croatian have been thoroughly investigated in terms of the degree of their adaptation, use across different styles and domains, and speakers’ attitudes. Most studies rely on selectively chosen examples or specialized corpora. To provide systematic data on a subgroup of English loanwords, those that occur in orthographically unadapted forms, new resources have been recently developed. They provide the data on the identification of unadapted English loanwords in Croatian, their meaning, native equivalents, and frequency. The aim of this paper is to bring together recent findings on unadapted English loanwords in Croatian, obtained from a set of studies in which computational-linguistic and corpus linguistic methods were used, with the purpose of providing a new insight into the phenomenon.
Irena Bogunović, Bojana Ćoso, and Dražen Domijan
SAGE Publications
Aims and Objectives: This study aims to investigate lexical access to unadapted English loanwords in Croatian speakers with different levels of English proficiency by exploring the effects of associative-semantic priming. It is expected that associative-semantic relatedness will have a facilitating effect on word recognition in all proficiency groups and in both language directions. Contrary to previous research on unadapted English loanwords, we expect that the effect of proficiency will also be significant. Methodology: To find appropriate stimuli for the main study, three preparatory studies were conducted. The main study consisted of a proficiency test, a questionnaire on language use and exposure, and two cross-language (first language [L1] and second language [L2]) priming experiments (L2–L1/L1–L2). Data and Analysis: Reaction times were analyzed by fitting linear mixed-effects model in R 3.6.1 environment for statistical computing. Findings: The results showed that associative-semantic relatedness significantly facilitates lexical access to unadapted English loanwords in both language directions and all proficiency groups. The effect of proficiency on reaction times was also significant in both experiments. Originality: Unadapted English loanwords provide a unique opportunity for the study of bilingual lexical access because of their specific nature—they occur in L1 and L2 in the same orthographic form, they often do not have adequate native equivalents, and are used by all proficiency groups. However, very little research has been done in that field. Implications: While unadapted English loanwords are common in many languages, the cognitive processing of this specific group of loanwords is still relatively understudied. Thus, the results of this study not only add to the existing knowledge on bilingual lexical access, but also provide new insight into loanword processing.
Bojana Ćoso, Marc Guasch, Irena Bogunović, Pilar Ferré, and José A. Hinojosa
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Irena Bogunović
Hrvatsko filolosko drustvo (Croatian Philological Society)
Engleski se jezik smatra prestižnim, a takav je status povezan s jezičnim posuđivanjem, jezičnim stavovima i jezičnom izloženošću. Engleski je postao dominantan jezik davalac, a zbog prestižnog statusa umanjuje se vjerojatnost da će se posuđene riječi prilagoditi jeziku primaocu. Zbog toga se mnoge riječi posuđene iz engleskoga rabe u neprilagođenom obliku. U hrvatskome se jeziku preporučuje uporaba domaćih riječi, no čini se da one još uvijek u potpunosti ne zadovoljavaju potrebe govornika. Istraživanja su pokazala da hrvatski govornici imaju pozitivan stav prema engleskim riječima u neformalnom kontekstu, ali i da je uporaba engleskih riječi povezana s boljom procjenom osobe u kategoriji socijalne poželjnosti. To se može objasniti jezičnim prestižem, ali i izloženošću engleskom jeziku, koja u novije vrijeme počinje već u predškolskoj dobi, a za mnoge je govornike svakodnevna. Izloženost jeziku pogoduje spontanom usvajanju jezika te je prepoznata kao važan čimbenik u istraživanju dvojezičnosti u širem smislu. Time se stvaraju uvjeti za istraživanje kognitivne obrade engleskih riječi u okviru dvojezične obrade jezika, a nedavno razvijeni računalno–jezikoslovni i psiholingvistički resursi za hrvatski jezik omogućuju provođenje eksperimentalnih istraživanja. Cilj ovoga rada je predstaviti interdisciplinarni pristup engleskim riječima, razmotriti dostupne resurse i eksperimentalne metode te izložiti pojavu engleskih riječi u teorijskom okviru dvojezičnosti i dvojezične obrade jezika. Ovaj istraživački pravac još nije ispitivan u drugim jezicima te predstavlja novi pristup u istraživanjima dvojezične leksičke obrade
Eva Pavlinušić Vilus, Jasmina Jelčić Čolakovac, Irena Bogunović, and Bojana Ćoso
University of Ljubljana
New concepts are constantly being borrowed across languages. The influence of one language on another can occur on all linguistic levels, with lexis being the most sensitive. Croatian has become most receptive to borrowing from English, and the influence of English on Croatian has been documented in different functional styles. The prestigious status of English, which reduces the likelihood that a borrowed element will adapt to the rules of the recipient language, is one of the reasons why English has become an inexhaustible source of new words for Croatian learners. The aim of the present study is to investigate the use of adapted forms of English loanwords in Croatian, with particular attention to the type and degree of their adaptation. Due to the differences between the phonemic systems of the two languages, it was expected that the Croatian learners would show diversity in their responses regarding loanword adaptation. A translation task with the 392 most frequently used unadapted English loanwords in Croatian was given to 116 undergraduate students at the Faculty of Maritime Studies. The data showed that the participants preferred the unadapted forms to the adapted forms of English. They were also more inclined to orthographically adapt a loanword, than to adapt it both orthographically and morphologically. The differences observed in orthographic adaptation reflect the underlying differences in the phonemic systems of the two languages. Overall, the results suggest that the unadapted forms of English words have become established in Croatian and are a preferred lexical choice among younger L1 speakers of Croatian.
Mirjana Borucinsky and Irena Bogunović
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Rijeka
Kao globalni jezik modernoga doba engleski je postao dominantan jezik davatelj. Danas se smatra da hrvatski jezik najviše posuđuje upravo iz engleskoga. Utjecaj engleskoga jezika na hrvatski vidljiv je u različitim funkcionalnim stilovima te na gotovo svim jezičnim razinama, no najizraženiji je na leksičkoj razini. U novije vrijeme, posebice u medijima i na društvenim mrežama, sve se češće javljaju neprilagođene engleske riječi, tj. riječi koje su zadržale izvorni oblik, a kojima se po potrebi dodaju hrvatski afiksi. Za sada još uvijek ne postoje konkretni podaci o takvim riječima u hrvatskome jeziku. U cilju pronalaženja engleskih riječi, u drugim su se jezicima koristile različite metode, od ručnih klasifikacija i korištenja postojećih jezičnih resursa do razvoja novih alata i/ili resursa. Međutim, jezične tehnologije za hrvatski jezik još uvijek su nedostatno razvijene. Stoga je cilj ovoga rada ispitati mogućnosti nekih od postojećih alata i resursa za crpljenje engleskih riječi i stvaranje baze engleskih riječi. U tu svrhu pretraživan je mrežni hrvatskog jezika hrWaC pomoću platforme Sketch Engine. Ovom metodom dobiven je popis od 1217 engleskih riječi. Rezultati su pokazali da se pomoću dostupnih alata i resursa za hrvatski jezik može izraditi popis engleskih riječi i njihovih frekvencija, ali i da postoje brojni problemi zbog kojih se rezultati ne mogu smatrati u potpunosti pouzdanima. Isto tako, sam se postupak i dalje mora kombinirati s ručnim metodama i klasifikacijama. Zaključujemo da je za izradu cjelovite baze engleskih riječi u hrvatskome potrebno razviti nove alate i resurse koji bi omogućili automatsko crpljenje engleskih riječi iz korpusa hrvatskoga jezika.
Eva Pavlinušić Vilus, Irena Bogunović, and Bojana Ćoso
Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics
English has become the dominant donor language for many languages, including Croatian. Its prestigious status reduces the likelihood of borrowed words to adapt to a recipient language. As a result, some English loanwords occur in an unadapted form. Recent computational linguistic resources have given the necessary corpus-based data on the frequency and use of English loanwords in Croatian. This paper investigates the strategies employed by 116 students of the Faculty of Maritime Studies, University of Rijeka when asked to translate 392 most frequent, corpus-derived English loanwords into Croatian. The results were then compared with the available corpus-based data. The results show that single-word Croatian equivalents were preferred over adapted forms of English loanwords and multi-word expressions. When no such equivalent was available, unadapted English forms were used more frequently compared to adapted forms and multi-word expressions. The co-existence of loanwords and their native equivalents is reflected in responses to loanwords that have and those that do not have single-word equivalents. The results highlight the need for creating semantically precise single-word native equivalents, at the same time illustrating the resistance to accept novel native words.
Bojana Ćoso and Irena Bogunović
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Rijeka
Negacija se može naći u svim svjetskim jezicima, a njezina je pojavnost u lingvistici dobro istražena. Psiholingvistička su istraživanja pokušala otkriti mehanizme kognitivne obrade negacije. Većina je eksperimentalnih istraživanja za ispitivanje koristila bihevioralne mjere te zadatak slaganja rečenice i slike u raznim oblicima. Prva istraživanja provedena sedamdesetih godina prošlog stoljeća otkrila su kako se jesna rečenica bolje pamti te brže i točnije obrađuje u odnosu na negaciju. Početkom novog stoljeća druga linija istraživanja pokušala je odgonetnuti koji se kognitivni procesi nalaze u podlozi takvih razlika te je predstavljeno nekoliko modela obrade negacije. Novija istraživanja, koja uspoređuju obradu različitih vrsta negacije, upućuju na potrebu za doradom/dopunom postojećih modela. Tu pretpostavku potvrdila su i nedavna istraživanja u hrvatskome jeziku, koja su pokazala da postoje razlike u obradi negacije ovisno o jezičnim ključevima, poput broja i vrste negacijskih elemenata u rečenici. S obzirom na specifičnosti hrvatskoga jezika koji dopušta dvostruku negaciju i niječni slijed, čini se važnim nastaviti istraživanje negacije u hrvatskome jeziku. Nove metode iz područja kognitivne neuroznanosti uvelike bi doprinijele postojećem znanju o neurološkoj podlozi obrade negacije, što bi potencijalno predstavljalo i značajan doprinos daljnjem razvoju postojećih modela. Stoga je cilj ovoga rada prikazati rezultate dosadašnjih eksperimentalnih istraživanja negacije u hrvatskome i drugim jezicima, sagledati i usporediti osnovne modele kognitivne obrade negacije, razmotriti prikladnost eksperimentalnih zadataka kojima se ispituje negacija te predložiti smjernice za daljnja istraživanja negacije u hrvatskome jeziku.
Bojana Ćoso and Irena Bogunović
SAGE Publications
Aims and objectives: A vast body of research has dealt with negation processing. There are many differences between negations across languages, which could influence negation processing in bilingual speakers. However, bilingual negation processing has rarely been experimentally investigated. This study aims at exploring whether highly proficient Croatian-English bilinguals are able to adequately adopt English negations, and whether linguistic cues from both languages have similar effect on negation processing. Methodology: A sentence–picture verification task was used to investigate the processing of affirmative sentences, sentential and constituent negations, Croatian negative concord and English sentences with negated subject. Data and analysis: 2 (language) × 4 (sentence type) × 2 (congruency) ANOVA with repeated measures was used to analyze the data. Findings: The results showed that the effect of language was not significant, except in the case of constituent negations which were processed faster in English. There was a significant difference between the processing of affirmative and negative sentences, as affirmatives were processed faster than negatives in both languages. Constituent negations in both languages were processed slower compared with other types of negations. Originality: The results suggest that strong linguistic cues, such as word order and quantifiers, influence negation processing in both languages, resulting in differences between different types of negations. The results are discussed in the light of two existing models of negation and sentence processing. A new model, as a combination of these two models, is proposed. Implications: The fact that there was no significant difference in negation processing between the bilinguals’ two languages supports the view that highly proficient successive bilinguals are able to adequately adopt negations in both their languages.
Irena Bogunović and Jasmina Jelčić Čolakovac
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Rijeka
U Hrvatskoj se engleski uči kao strani jezik, a osim u formalnom obrazovanju, prisutan je i u svakodnevnom životu od najranije dobi. Dnevna izloženost engleskome jeziku mjeri se u satima, a istraživanja su pokazala da mnoge neformalne aktivnosti omogućuju nenamjerno usvajanje jezika. Cilj ovog rada je utvrditi u kojim aktivnostima studentska populacija u Hrvatskoj provodi najviše vremena služeći se engleskim jezikom, te postoji li povezanost između izloženosti engleskome jeziku i njegove uporabe s jezičnim znanjem. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo 93 ispitanika, studenata Filozofskog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Rijeci. Za utvrđivanje razine jezičnog znanja korišten je Oxford Placement Test, a na temelju rezultata ispitanici su podijeljeni u tri grupe. Izloženost engleskome jeziku i njegova uporaba ispitani su upitnikom u kojemu su ispitanici procjenjivali koliko vremena provode u ponuđenim aktivnostima služeći se engleskim jezikom. Rezultati su pokazali da ispitanici najviše vremena provode na internetu, a najmanje u usmenoj komunikaciji. Razlike između grupa s najvišom i najnižom razinom znanja bile su značajne u svim kategorijama osim čitanja za zabavu, pisane i usmene komunikacije. Rezultati istraživanja upućuju na povezanost između uporabe jezika i jezičnog znanja, kao i na činjenicu da se status engleskog kao stranoga jezika mijenja.
Irena Bogunović and Bojana Ćoso
Hrvatsko filolosko drustvo (Croatian Philological Society)
Bojana Ćoso and Irena Bogunović
Elsevier BV
Research on language attitudes has shown that speech style plays an important role in social evaluation. In Croatia, English words commonly occur in everyday communication, which could affect the way we perceive other people. This study aims to investigate the relation between English words and person perception. 200 Croatian elementary school students, adolescents and young adults were given one of the three versions of the same text, varying in the frequency of English words, and a questionnaire to evaluate personal characteristics of the author of the text. The results showed that frequent use of English words was related to higher estimations of social attractiveness, indicating that the use of English words has become an important cue in person perception.
Bojana Ćoso and Irena Bogunović
Uniwersytet Lodzki (University of Lodz)
Studies from English and German have found differences in the processing of affirmative and negative sentences. However, little attention has been given to quantifiers that form negations. A picture-sentence verification task was used to investigate the processing of different types of quantifiers in Croatian: universal quantifiers in affirmative sentences (e.g. all), non-universal quantifiers in compositional negations (e.g. not all), null quantifiers in negative concord (e.g. none) and relative disproportionate quantifiers in both affirmative and negative sentences (e.g. some). The results showed that non-universal and null quantifiers, as well as negations were processed significantly slower compared to affirmative sentences, which is in line with previous findings supporting the two-step model. The results also confirmed that more complex tasks require a longer reaction time. A significant difference in the processing of same-polarity sentences with first-order quantifiers was observed: sentences with null quantifiers were processed faster and more accurately than sentences with disproportional and non-universal quantifiers. A difference in reaction time was also found in affirmatives with different quantifiers: sentences with universal quantifiers were processed significantly faster and more accurately compared to sentences with relative disproportionate quantifiers. These findings indicate that the processing of quantifiers follows after the processing of affirmative information. In the context of the two-step model, the processing of quantifiers occurs in the second step, along with negations.