Croatian and Slovenian:a review of studies on
the relationship between
the two languages

Prof. Vesna Požgaj Hadži, Ph. D.
Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana

Presentation overview
 aim

present studies of Croatian and Slovenianfrom 1960s to the end of the 20th ct.: contrastive studies
21st ct.: sociolinguistic and corpus themespresent the results of those studiesat university and primary school levelin Slovenian society presentation based on

theory and practice
30 years of pedagogical and scientific work

Theoretical framework (1) contrastive studies (CS)

1950s: Weinreich: contrastive analysis (CA) 1960s and ‘70s: CA peaks as error analysis
 aim:


predicting and diagnosing errors or interference what is an error?


any deviation from standard language
cause of errors: interference + other sources

Theoretical framework (2) contrastive analysis criticism
 too small or too homogenous corpuses awkwardly defined and classified errors; out of context
 basing conclusions on researchers’ linguistic sense

1980s and early 1990s
 development of corpus linguistics and language

technologies revives interest in contrastive studies ⇒corpuses give a fresh and wide view of language andlanguage use

Theoretical framework (3) results of contrastive studies


have an important role in applied linguistics,
especially in teaching related languages:

easier at early stages – immidiate communication
more difficult later because of interference which is deep,difficult to correct, and likely to remain permanent(fossilisation)

help predict and eliminate interference errors

Croatian and Slovenian incontact with foreign languages (1) Slovenia: gains popularity in 1980s
 Croatia:
1960s, Filipović and Institute of Linguistics at
University of Zagreb
 theoretical, professional and pedagogical literature collected papers offer synthesis (1985, 1990, 1991)


contrastive synchronic and diachronic studies at all levels
Zagreb school of phonetics
 systems of phonetic errors in foreign languages inrelation to Croatian

Croatian and Slovenian incontact with foreign languages (2) Croatia:
1990s: contrastive descriptions of Croatian and foreign lang.
 handbooks (a series of Concise Phraseological

Dictionaries) conclusion: CS of Croatian and foreign lang.
 from 1960s to ‘90s: contrastive analyses, languages incontact and concise phraseological dictionaries
 from 1990s on: corpus of Croatian + contrastive
grammars + other themesCroatian and Slovenian (1) Slovenia


1970s:
 contrastive studies: similarities and differences insystems + pointing to errors


mid-1980s:
 linguistic and applied level: projects at the Institute

error analysis and material design
 morphological, syntactical and lexical errors + elimination
methods
 phonetic and phonological errors + correction

Croatian and Slovenian (2) Slovenia


mid-1990s:
 unresolved issues of Croatian as a foreign language





Croatian and Slovenian contrastive issues
presenting Croatian and Slovenian culture at Slavic Studies
abroadmethodological issues of learning Croatian as a FL
scientific work of V. Kalenić ⇒ initiator of contrastive studies
of Croatian and Slovenian+errors by Croatian and Serbian native speakers learning
SlovenianSociolinguistic approach to CSof Croatian and Slovenian (1) foreign accentthe inability to be completely proficient in a foreign language,starting from the phonetic level and moving to other levels

 sociolinguistic themes included into

the project at the Institute of ScienceSlovenian language – basic, contrastive and appliedresearchbilateral projectsamong Slovenia and Croatia, BH, Serbia and Montenegro
results of monograph Between politics and realitysociolinguistic situations + relation to native and foreign languages

Sociolinguistic approach to CS
of Croatian and Slovenian (2) researched themesnative speaker tolerance toward speakers ofSlovenian and Croatian as foreign languages

stereotypes in Slovenian society
 about foreign language speakers
 about speakers of languages from former Yugolsavia

Corpus studies of Croatianand Slovenian (1) what is new in contemporary contrastive

analysis of language acquisition

methodology:THEN: two linguistic systems in contact were contrasted
NOW: native speaker language contrasted with foreign
speaker language in a particular context

corpus

THEN: language in its application (comprehension andproduction), metalinguistic attitudes, researchers’ linguistic
sense
NOW: corpus linguistics

Corpus studies of Croatianand Slovenian (2) linguistic description createdon the basis of comprehensive electronic
corpuses ⇒ linguistic element frequency ofoccurence corpus analysis provides
 information on overuse, underuse and misuse ⇒notes linguistic transfer and avoidance strategy ⇒does not lead to errors but to information on particularlinguistic element use IMPORTANT! we are not interested in what thelearner did worng, but in what the learner did rightCorpus of language acquisition (1) definition
 computer collections of authentic texts collectedaccording to specific criteria and for a specific purpose Balažic Bulc (2008) Corpus of Croatian LA 2 control corpuses by students of Slovenian andCroatian as first languages – non-professional authors
 2 specialised corpuses of linguistic scientific articles(Jezik in slovstvo and Govor) − professional authors

Corpus of language acquisition (2) results of contrasting corpuses of Croatian asa first language and Croatain as a foreign
language by non-professional authors differences in use of conjunctions in terms of underuse,overuse and misuse influence of avodiance strategy
disjunction međutim (however) in CFL compensated bydisjunction ali (but)explanatory conjunction tako (in in this way) used frequently
misuse of disjunctive pa (instead of a)Corpus of language acquisition (3) the possibilites of the corpus of language

acquisition and control corpuses
insight into linguistic style of a certain discourse
community and genre
 longitudinal monitoring of acquisition of a certaingenre text author/leaner monitors progress acces to performance feedback that is often lacking atuniversity level

Studies of Croatian andSlovenian in application (1) related languages require contrastive

approach the only way to consciously correct interference errors

at all levels
 communicative-contrastive approach linguistic activity
 contrastive tables

the results of contrastive, sociolinguistic andcorpus studies ⇒Studies of Croatian andSlovenian in application (2) university level first contrastive textbook (1990)


morhological, syntactic and lexical level
linguistic issues for Slovenian speakers stemming from first
language interference monograph Croatian and Slovenian in Contact (2002)

phonetic and phonoligical level
how do native speakers of Slovenian speak Croatian as aforeign language

 contrastive textbook Croatian language 1 (2008)
 monograph Therefore, that is, beacuse... on

conjunctions (2009)

Studies of Croatian andSlovenian in application (3) primary school level
 Croatian, Serbian and Macedonian as elective

subjects in Slovenian primary schools
 the results of CS used in

writing curricula for the electives
contrastive textbooks, workbooks, handbooks...
designing programmes for professional teacher education

Studies of Croatian andSlovenian in application (4) Croatian in Slovenian society Croatian, Serbian (and Bosnian and Montenegrin) –becoming foreign language in Slovenia
 in focus: proficiency exams in Croatian – C1 level the results of CS used

in designing exams
in designing programmes and teaching material for differentworshops
 for translators, court interpreters, etc.

Conclusion (1) contrastive analyses will have their importantrole, especially in teaching related languages
 contrastive and sociolinguistics approach +corpuses of language acquisition
the only way to predict and eliminate errors at alllevels (even text level) provide insight into learners’ discourse
competenceConclusion (2) theoretical results
 contrastive descriptions of particularlinguistic issues ⇒ basis for Croatian andSlovenian contrastive grammar

 applied results
 designing teaching material
 teaching Slovenian as a foreign language tospeakers of non-Slavic languages