Qualifications
- PhD: Linguistics
- BA: Language and the Science of Language
Universit脿 Ca鈥� Foscari Venezia,
Publications
2024
- Accepted/In press
Brasca, L., Tamburelli, M., Gruffydd, I. & Breit, F., 19 Sept 2024, (Accepted/In press) In: Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development.
Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review
2023
- Unpublished
Breit, F., Tamburelli, M., Gruffydd, I. & Brasca, L., 4 May 2023, (Unpublished).
Research output: Working paper
2021
- Published
Brasca, L., 2021, Contested Languages: The hidden multilingualism of Europe. Tamburelli, M. & Tosco, M. (eds.). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, p. 59-86 (Studies in World Language Problems; vol. 8).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding 鈥� Chapter 鈥� peer-review - Published
Coluzzi, P., Brasca, L. & Scuri, S., 21 Jan 2021, Contested Languages: The hidden multilingualism of Europe聽. Tamburelli, M. & Tosco, M. (eds.). John Benjamins Publishing Company, p. 163-182 (Studies in World Language Problems; vol. 8).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding 鈥� Chapter 鈥� peer-review
2020
- Published
Brasca, L., 2020, 螒螜螡螜螕螠螒韦螣危 螒螡螣螜螕螠螒 - Il varco della Sfinge . Trizzino, M. (ed.). Rome: LAS - Libreria Ateneo Salesiano, Vol. 14. p. 154-170 (Veterum et Coaevorum Sapientia; vol. 14).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding 鈥� Chapter
2019
- Published
Coluzzi, P., Brasca, L. & Miola, E., Jul 2019, In: Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 40, 6, p. 491-503
Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review
2018
- Published
Coluzzi, P., Brasca, L., Trizzino, M. & Scuri, S., 2018, Linguistic regionalism in Eastern Europe and beyond. Berlin: Peter Lang, Vol. 31. p. 274-298
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding 鈥� Chapter 鈥� peer-review - Published
Tamburelli, M. & Brasca, L., 1 Jun 2018, In: Digital Scholarship in the Humanities. 33, 2, p. 442-455
Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review
2011
- Published
Brasca, L., 2011, Mon莽a: Menaresta. 88 p.
Research output: Book/Report 鈥� Book
Activities
2024
Paper presented at the International Congress of Linguists 2024 in Pozna艅:
Active language policy and the fostering or maintenance of positive attitudes are fundamental
components in the prevention of language shift (e.g. Fishman, 1990). This, together with recent
methodological developments in sociolinguistics (Kircher & Zipp, 2022) calls for a more holistic approach to the measurement of language attitudes and their relationship with exposure levels. In this paper, we present three large studies investigating the relationship between early exposure, language attitudes, and different bilingual language policies in three European communities where a minority/endangered language co鈥恊xists with a sociolinguistically dominant language.
The bilingual communities under investigation are Lombard鈥怚talian in Italy, Moselle Franconian鈥怗erman in Belgium, and Welsh鈥怑nglish in Wales, exemplifying fundamentally different types of language policy as well as systematic variation in both opportunities for and amount of early exposure. The Welsh language receives full socio鈥恜olitical recognition, and there exist ample opportunities for people to be exposed to Welsh either in the family or broader community. Lombard, on the other hand, is in a situation of benign neglect, not benefitting from any active policy and with rather scarce opportunities for exposure except for those who grow up in a predominantly Lombard鈥恠peaking family. Moselle Franconian is somewhat in between: while not officially recognised, its speakers are considered a German鈥恠peaking minority. Importantly, however, due to a situation of diglossia (Ferguson, 1959), it is
Moselle鈥怓ranconian 鈥� rather than German 鈥� that is regularly spoken in daily communication, hence providing ample opportunities for early exposure.
To investigate the relationship between these different sociolinguistic situations and the effect they may have on speakers鈥� attitudes, we collected data from 338 participants aged between 24鈥�36 years, employing three different methodologies that varied in degree of explicitness: the Attitudes towards Languages Questionnaire (Schoel et al., 2012), the Matched Guise Technique (Lambert et al., 1960), and the Implicit Association Test (Greenwald et al., 1998).
Data from each method will be investigated in relation to several indicators of early exposure
collected through a linguistic background questionnaire, as well as to extralinguistic variables 鈥� notably gender 鈥� while attitude dimensions such as status and solidarity will also be explored.
Preliminary results suggest potential links between bilingual language policy and speakers鈥�
attitudes, with possible interactions between types of exposure and some of the attitude scores. This research can provide insight into how different policies may affect language attitudes, and the role of early exposure as potential mediator.
8 Sep 2024
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)Speakers鈥� attitudes are considered a fundamental barometer for the vitality of a language (e.g., UNESCO, 2003). This, together with findings that implicit attitudes are generally stronger predictors of habitual and spontaneous behaviour (e.g., Perugini,鈥�2005), raises two core questions: (1) which types
of attitudes and thus which attitude measurements are better predictors of language usage? (2) to what extent do different language policies feed different types of speakers鈥� attitudes? We explored these questions by measuring rates of spontaneous language usage and comparing them with attitudinal results from two methods that vary in degrees of implicitness: the Matched Guise Technique (Lambert et al., 1960) and the Implicit Association Test (Greenwald, McGhee & Schwartz, 1998) across two bilingual communities whose regional/minority languages receive radically different degrees of sociopolitical recognition: Lombard鈥揑talian (Italy) and Welsh鈥揈nglish (UK). Results from 163 participants
aged between 24鈥�36 years show that usage rates correlate with MGT status scores for Lombard but not for Welsh. The reverse holds for IAT scores, correlating with usage rates for Welsh but not Lombard.
We propose that these findings can be understood in view of the different socio-political support associated with the two languages: while strong support for Welsh led to its use becoming habitual and thus able to be captured by implicit attitude measurements, the use of Lombard has been discouraged for decades, and therefore younger speakers who choose to use it are making a more deliberate, conscious decision, resulting in behaviour that corelates with the less implicit measurements of the MGT. These results have important implications for the study of language attitudes, particularly for the measurement of attitudes as a proxy for language vitality. Specifically, they suggest that the degree to which an attitudinal measurement can predict linguistic behaviour depends partly on the social and political circumstances of the language at issue.
12 Jun 2024 鈥� 16 Jun 2024
Links:
Paper presented at VALS-ASLA 2024:
Asymmetries and inequalities between major languages and regional/minority/endangered languages are often reflected in 鈥� as well as a consequence of 鈥� language policy and the linguistic attitudes held by speakers of those languages (e.g., Fishman, 1991; Trudgill, 1992; UNESCO, 2003). In this paper, we present two large studies investigating the relationship between language attitudes and different levels of socio-political recognition in three European communities where a minority/endangered language co-exists in an asymmetric relationship with a sociolinguistically dominant language.
The communities under investigation are Lombard-Italian speakers in Italy, Moselle Franconian-German speakers in Belgium, and Welsh-English speakers in Wales. These communities are markedly different in terms of their language policies and the degrees of socio-political recognition of their minority/endangered language. In Wales, the Welsh language enjoys full socio-political recognition and strong public support (e.g. Baker, 2003); in the Eifel region of Belgium, while Moselle Franconian does not enjoy direct recognition, its speakers are a recognised linguistic minority, albeit it as German speaking, with Moselle-Franconian indirectly supported as a closely-related variety of German (M枚ller, 2017); meanwhile, despite a mention in a regional law, Lombard does not feature among the languages that the Italian government deems worthy of protection, and as such does not benefit from any active policy (Coluzzi, 2007; Coluzzi et al., 2018).
To investigate the potential inequalities that emerge from the different socio-political situations across the three bilingual communities, we collected data from a total of 235 participants aged between 24-36 years employing two different methodologies. This resulted in the collection of attitudinal measurements that varied in degree of explicitness: the Attitudes Towards Language Questionnaire (AToL, Schoel et al., 2013) measured explicit/overt language attitudes, while an adaptation of the Matched Guise Technique (MGT, Lambert, Gardner and Fillenbaum, 1960) measured less overt and more indirect attitudes towards the communities鈥� languages via the speaker-evaluation paradigm.
Results from the AToL suggest a link between degree of socio-political recognition and overall overt attitude, with Welsh scoring higher than both Moselle Franconian and Lombard, and Moselle-Franconian scoring higher than Lombard.
The link between degree of socio-political recognition and attitudes is further supported by the MGT results, where an interaction between community and attitude score suggests that the attitudes held towards each language type (i.e., majority language vs minority language) depend on the community, with Wales and Belgium scoring the minority/endangered language more positively than the majority language, while Lombardy shows the opposite trend.
Analyses of the solidarity and status components of the MGT show that consistent language policy (e.g., in Wales) is strongly reflected in speakers鈥� attitudes, while the type of 鈥渂enign neglect鈥� (e.g., Fishman, 2004: 115) we see in Lombardy tends to continually encourage negative attitudes towards the endangered language, perpetuating asymmetries and possibly accelerating endangerment.
12 Feb 2024 鈥� 13 Feb 2024
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)
2023
Paper presented at Linguistics Beyond and Within 2023:
Speakers鈥� attitudes are considered a fundamental barometer for the current and future vitality of a language, with recent work emphasising the importance of methodological developments (Kircher & Zipp, 2022). This, together with the growing concern surrounding the replicability of results across the social sciences, including in linguistics (Grieve, 2021), calls for urgent developments in research practices, including the adoption of more consistent and comparable implementations of method. In this paper, we present a series of studies conducted using a newly developed digital application for the collection, storage and transfer of data for research in multilingualism and language attitudes, specifically designed for research in bilingual populations who speak a majority language and a regional/minority/heritage language. This application offers the fundamental benefit of enhancing consistency and comparability within and across studies, which also improves reproducibility, for example by ensuring that presentation of stimuli for a speaker evaluation paradigm (Lambert et al., 1960) is more strictly controlled both across participants and across studies. As the source code is publicly available and version-controlled, other researchers can easily view and reconstruct tasks exactly as they were administered. The application was recently employed across three European communities whose regional/minority languages receive radically different degrees of socio-political recognition: Lombard (Italy), Moselle Franconian (Belgium), and Welsh (UK).Our results reveal fundamental differences in attitude scores depending on measurement type (questionnaire vs. speaker evaluation paradigm). Besides reinforcing the view that different measurements are likely to tap on different attitudinal constructs (e.g., Pantos, 2019), these results also suggest that different measurement methods may gather data on different attitude objects. We argue that this highlights a need for a more holistic approach to the measurement of language attitudes, where a battery of tests 鈥� as opposed to a single measure 鈥� should become the norm, as it has done in other research areas.
13 Oct 2023
Links:
Paper presented at the 4th International Conference on Multilingualism and Multilingual Education
12 Oct 2023
Links:
Paper presented at Documenting languages, Documenting Cultures 2023. The conference focuses on the topic of language documentation from the various perspectives offered by different 鈥榤inority鈥� situations (migrant languages, minority languages, dialects). Its aim is to provide an interdisciplinary look at a topic which is today the focus of renewed interest, both in epistemological and theoretical terms.
6 Oct 2023
Links:
2021
2021 鈫�
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)
2017
19 Apr 2017 鈥� 21 Apr 2017
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)
2016
5 May 2016
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)5 May 2016 鈫�
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)
2015
2015 鈫�
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)2015 鈫�
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)2015 鈫�
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)
2013
9 Sep 2013
Activity: Oral presentation (Speaker)