"Taal en letterkunde" (Linguistics and Literature)

The paper deals with the verb embracing double negation found in both Chamic and Bahnaric languages and with the question how it developed. We propose both an internal and external explanation. The former relates to what is called a ‘Jespersen Cycle’, a hypothesis about the renewal of single negation out of double negation, itself developing out of another single negation. The latter is language interference from Chamic to Bahnaric. We argue that the Jespersen Cycle hypothesis is more plausible for Chamic, thus revisiting Lee (1996), and that the language contact hypothesis makes more sense for Bahnaric, thus supporting a more general hypothesis about the direction of interference between the two families (Sidwell 2008: 261, 265).

Abstract - English
The term ‘Jespersen Cycle’ refers to the renewal of negative markers in languages. When a language is involved in a Jespersen Cycle, the original negative marker gets replaced over time by a new negative. Characteristic for the cycle is that there is a period of time in which both negatives are used. In this stage two forms are used to express a single negative meaning. The textbook example is French, in which the original preverbal negative ne became strengthened by postverbal pas, which lost its lexical meaning ‘step’ in the negative construction and was gradually felt as the real negative by the speakers of French. The preverbal ne is still used in written French and in formal spoken language, but has disappeared in informal spoken language. This development can be followed in French because the language has a long history of written language and language descriptions. A Jespersen Cycle has reached its final stage, with a single postverbal negative, in Scandinavian languages and in German, Dutch and English. Similar developments were attested in Old Egyptian, African Arabic, Berber and Bantu languages in earlier studies. Before the start of the present work, it was already known that there were several variants on the French cycle. The need for strong, emphatic, negation next to neutral negation can be the cause of starting a Jespersen Cycle. But a second element can come into use as a second negative without ever being emphatic. Also, the original negative can be copied at the other side of the verb, as emphatic or non-emphatic second negative. In all types it may be the case that the old negative does not disappear and that a third or even a fourth negative comes into play. Therefore it is more appropriate to speak of Jespersen Cycles in the plural rather than Jespersen Cycle. The goal of this work was to find out if similar cycles could be found worldwide and if so, which type or types exist in less well studied language families.
The result of this work was that all these types of the Jespersen Cycles do indeed have worldwide spread, though not in all language families and also not in all regions. Jespersen Cycles tend to cluster together, also across language families. The cycles of the Germanic languages and French turned out to continue in the dialects of northern Italy and southern Switzerland. Jespersen Cycles were abundant in South- East Asia and in the Americas. For most languages in this work historic material is scarce or inexistent, and in these cases I relied on a synchronic comparison of related and/or neighbouring languages. New were indications that the Jespersen Cycles could
ix
x
happen in a reversed direction. In earlier studies, the cycle went from left to right in the clause. Preverbal negatives are replaced by postverbal negative. However, it proved to be possible that the postverbal negative was the older of the two and that it got replaced by a new and preverbal negative. There are two possibilities. Firstly, the reversion took place after a ‘classical’ Jespersen Cycle. Secondly, because of the verb-final nature of a language, the natural position of negatives was postverbal and a Jespersen Cycle therefore started naturally from right to left.

The paper deals with the verb embracing double negation found in both Chamic and Bahnaric languages and with the question how it developed. We propose both an internal and external explanation. The former relates to what is called a 'Jespersen Cycle', a hypothesis about the renewal of single negation out of double negation, itself developing out of another single negation. The latter is language interference from Chamic to Bahnaric. We argue that the Jespersen Cycle hypothesis is more plausible for Chamic, thus revisiting Lee (1996), and that the language contact hypothesis makes more sense for Bahnaric, thus supporting a more general hypothesis about the direction of interference between the two families (Sidwell 2008: 261, 265).

Studies show that measuring the size of learners’ receptive and productive vocabulary has to be an integral part of any needs analysis. However, this kind of study has never been conducted in Azerbaijan. To fill this gap, a quantitative study administering two vocabulary tests was carried out with 159 first-year English majors at the Azerbaijan University of Languages. The results show that the students’ vocabulary size does not attain the minimum standard as proposed by Laufer and Ravenhorst-Kalovski (2010), which is defined as 4,000–5,000 word families. Their receptive vocabulary size was found to be less than 50 per cent of the minimum standard for word families, while their productive vocabulary size falls considerably below the acceptable level of word families. It is argued, consequently, that English majors in this group of Azerbaijani students need strong support in their acquisition of high-frequency words and academic vocabulary in order to be adequately and suitably prepared for their academic studies.

This article reports on the results of two studies on receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge of first-year English majors in an English-medium degree programme. The aim of the study is to answer these research questions: (1) to what extent do the receptive and productive vocabulary sizes of English majors increase after a year of instruction;

This article reports on the results of two studies on receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge of first-year English majors in an English-medium degree programme. The aim of the study is to answer these research questions: (1) to what extent do the receptive and productive vocabulary sizes of English majors increase after a year of instruction; (2) what is the ratio between the increases in receptive and productive knowledge; (3) do English majors achieve the expected threshold vocabulary size of 4.000-5.000 word families, after a year of instruction, that will enable them to follow lectures in English? In order to gauge students' receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge, participants in this study-159 first-year English majors-were given two vocabulary tests at the beginning of their first and second years of study: the Vocabulary Levels Test and the Productive Vocabulary Levels Test. The results indicate that: (1) learners' receptive vocabulary did not expand, whereas their productive vocabulary increased by 21 per cent; (2) their overall receptive vocabulary knowledge was larger than their productive knowledge and the gap between the two narrows after one year; (3) despite having received instruction, after a year, learners still lack the vocabulary threshold to meet their academic needs. Based on these results, the study reflects on the relationship between the content of the teaching materials used in class and the students' vocabulary knowledge. Recommendations aimed at informing teachers about the appropriate steps to take to approach language proficiency teaching are also discussed.

h i g h l i g h t s • The study examines eleven subject-specific university textbooks for English majors. • 2000 high-frequency word families are highly representative in the corpus. • Academic words constitute a small coverage of the words in the corpus. • Students need a vocabulary size of 9000 word families to get 98% text coverage. • A university word list should be developed to meet students' vocabulary needs.

Studies show that measuring the size of learners' receptive and productive vocabulary has to be an integral part of any needs analysis. However, this kind of study has never been conducted in Azerbaijan. To fill this gap, a quantitative study administering two vocabulary tests was carried out with 159 first-year English majors at the Azerbaijan University of Languages. The results show that the students' vocabulary size does not attain the minimum standard as proposed by Laufer and Ravenhorst-Kalovski (2010), which is defined as 4,000-5,000 word families. Their receptive vocabulary size was found to be less than 50 per cent of the minimum standard for word families, while their productive vocabulary size falls considerably below the acceptable level of word families. It is argued, consequently, that English majors in this group of Azerbaijani students need strong support in their acquisition of high-frequency words and academic vocabulary in order to be adequately and suitably prepared for their academic studies.

This paper concerns the academic vocabulary needs of undergraduate English majors in a tertiary context in Azerbaijan. Based on the results of the previous studies, it is suggested that developing an appropriate course material to meet the specific learning needs of these students will be beneficial for them. Thus, this study aims to identify the percentage of the running words and high-frequency word families beyond the 2,000 most-frequent words in the university textbook corpus to help the students to attain 98% lexical coverage. To address English majors’ scant academic vocabulary knowledge, a University Vocabulary List has been created. First, a university textbook corpus comprising the words used in 11 subject-specific course textbooks across subject areas taught at Azerbaijan University of Languages was compiled. Next, the range and frequency distribution of the words beyond the British National Corpus scale 2,000-word families was examined. Finally, the 396 most frequently oc...