Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:04:11.228Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction: Receptive multilingualism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2017

Helka Riionheimo
Affiliation:
School of Humanities, P.O.Box 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland. [email protected]
Annekatrin Kaivapalu
Affiliation:
Finnish and Finno-Ugric Languages, University of Turku, FI-20014, University of Turku, Finland. [email protected] School of Humanities, Tallinn University, EE-10120 Tallinn, Estonia. [email protected]
Hanna-Ilona Härmävaara
Affiliation:
Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugric and Scandinavian Studies, P.O. Box 3, 00014, University of Helsinki, Finland. [email protected]
Get access

Extract

This special issue of the Nordic Journal of Linguistics is devoted to receptive multilingualism (RM), and includes papers presented in the conference Receptive Multilingualism: Multilingual Resources in the Service of Mutual Understanding, held at the University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, in 2015. RM refers to a language contact situation in which hearers’ or readers’ understanding of a non-native language is based on their skills in either their first language or languages that they have learned later in life. In such situations comprehension can be based on linguistic similarity of the languages, on acquired knowledge of the languages, or both. A particular characteristic of RM is its emphasis on receptive language skills: the hearer or the reader does not necessarily actively command the language they are able to understand. In its most interactive form RM refers to a situation in which every conversation participant can use their native language and be understood by the others.

Type
Introduction
Copyright
Copyright © Nordic Association of Linguistics 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)