19 International Symposium on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics ...

G E N E R A L S E S S I O N
Undoubtedly, all this confusion arises from the attempt first, to explain the reason why these words,
although consisting of foreign elements, exhibit a rather high degree of productivity, and second, to
clarify the idiosyncratic behaviour of their constituent elements which seem to transform continuously
within the language, acquiring a different status.
However, a great amount of this confusion could be dispensed with, if we attempted to trace the
formation of these words focusing on their inner structure and the nature of their elements. Starting off
from the analysis adopted by Baeskow (2004) which recognizes a compound structure to words that
contain non-native bound morphemes, we continue with identifying their prototypes and tracing their
formation in the language of origin, by drawing a parallel with a specific category of compounds in
Modern Greek that also involve bound stems (Ralli 2007). Our conclusion is that, contrary to what has
been commonly argued, things are not as random as they may seem, concerning the structure of
neoclassical compounds, as their formation obeys rules determined by the idiosyncratic features of
their constituent elements.
References
Baeskow, H. 2004. Lexical Properties of Selected Non-native Morphemes of English. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.
Bauer, L. <strong>19</strong>98. Is there a class of neoclassical compounds, and if so is it productive? In Linguistics 36 (3), pp.
403-422.
Ralli, A. 2007. Greek Deverbal Compounds with bound stems. In F. Coles (ed.) Southern Journal of Linguistics.
ten Hacken, P. <strong>19</strong>94. Defining Morphology: A Principled Approach to Determining the Boundaries of
Compounding, Derivation, and Inflection. Hildesheim: Olms.
Warren, B. <strong>19</strong>90. The importance of combining forms. In W. Dressler et al. (eds.) Contemporary Morphology.
Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Bidialectism, school language and its relation to reading achievement
1 Andrie Phili & 2 Andreas Papapavlou
1&2 University of Cyprus
1 enp6fa1@ucy.ac.cy & 2 andreasp@ucy.ac.cy
Primary school experience is extremely interesting for Greek Cypriot bidialectal children since their
everyday speech differs from the language they encounter in teaching material and the school setting.
Beginner Greek Cypriot readers encounter inconsistencies between oral and written representations
of phonological, morphosyntactic and lexical forms of Standard Modern Greek and the regional Greek
Cypriot Dialect. These are two linguistically-related varieties of Greek and are both used
interchangeably in Cyprus. Sociolinguistic research has shown that there is considerable variation
between the two codes and a significant difference in dialect density in the frequency with which
Greek Cypriot Dialect features are known and produced by children (Papapavlou & Pavlou, <strong>19</strong>98;
Tsiplakou, 2007). Hence, when Greek Cypriot children begin school, despite the fact that Standard
Modern Greek is strictly enforced, there is a difference in their knowledge of dialectic features (for
example, some phonological aspects of Standard Modern Greek are not obligatory in Greek Cypriot
Dialect (Yiakoumetti, 2006). Research within the linguistic community of African Americans has shown
that reading achievement has been associated with dialect differences between African American
Vernacular English and Standard American English (Charity et al., 2004).
The present study aims to investigate how exposure to two dialects of Greek is related to reading
development in bidialectal Greek Cypriot children. The level of bidialectism is expected to be a
significant predictor for reading success. Hence, it is hypothesized that children’s greater familiarity
with SMG features may result in more successful early reading acquisition while balanced bidialectal
children will be more efficient in sentence imitation including grammatical and phonological forms that
are acceptable either in Standard Modern Greek or Greek Cypriot Dialect. To test this hypothesis,
sentence imitation as well as the reading of first and second grade Greek Cypriot children will be
tested and assessed. Evaluation of students’ dialect density will take the form of an oral test. The
understanding of the relation between bidialectism and reading development is essential in education
and thus different teaching approaches to reading need to be explored. Literacy is, after all, the basis
upon which all other learning is built on.
<strong>19</strong> th ISTAL 47