Türken Çağlar, Çiğdem Sağın-Şimşek, Elena Antonova-Ünlü

Turkic Languages, Jahrgang 26 (2022), Ausgabe 2, Seite 123 - 139

The study examines use of evidentiality in the Turkish language, which requires the activation of the morphology-pragmatics interface, by Russian L1 immigrants, who are advanced L2 users of Turkish. The data were collected via using a narrative, discourse completion and grammaticality judgement task. Quantitative and qualitative inter-group analyses were conducted. The findings have revealed that the use of Turkish evidential markers of the Russian immigrant group shows differences in their use and grammaticality judgement of evidentiality in Turkish when they are compared with native Turkish speakers. Our findings suggest that evidentiality in Turkish is challenging even for advanced L2 users.

Mehmet Akkuş, Çiğdem Sağın-Şimşek

Turkic Languages, Jahrgang 25 (2021), Ausgabe 2, Seite 191 - 209

In multilingual contexts, mutual intelligibility can be achieved using a variety of communication modes, one of which is Receptive Multilingualism. This study aims to examine the forms and functions of interjections that are utilized by Turkish and Azeri participants to ensure mutual intelligibility in receptive multilingual communication. The data used in this study was collected via a language background questionnaire, a word-guessing card game played by speakers of Azeri and speakers of Turkish, and stimulated recall interviews. The data was transcribed using the data transcription software EXMARaLDA. A functional analysis was conducted to identify the forms and the functions of the interjections that signal the participants’ stages of understanding in a number of extracts that demonstrated the speakers’ (non-)understanding. The findings revealed that the Turkish and Azeri interlocutors utilized interjections as communicative tools signaling mutual intelligibility in their receptive multilingual communication. The findings also revealed that while the interlocutors used cross-linguistically identical interjections to signal similar functions, some interjections were used for multiple functions.