Projects
From Chrysoloras' Latin to Erasmus' Greek: Renaissance classical bilingualism as a European phenomenon (1397-1536). KU Leuven
ERASMOS hypothesizes that in contrast to the tenet, the great age of Latin-Greek bilingualism, especially in its written form, is not to be situated in antiquity. Instead, classical bilingualism flourished in the Renaissance, a pivotal period in canonizing classics. After 1397, when M. Chrysoloras started teaching Greek in Florence, classical bilingualism developed into an authorial ideal championed by writers like Erasmus (d.1536). this ...
Unravelling the behavioural and neurophysiological correlates of cognitive control and bilingualism in adults with developmental stuttering. Ghent University
When using one language, bilingual individuals engage repeatedly their cognitive control network to resolve cross-language interference because of the parallel activation of the non-target language. In comparison to monolinguals, this possibly results in structural and functional differences responsible for improved cognitive reserve in older bilingual adults or even individuals with neurodegenerative disorders. In contrast to that improved ...
Bilingualism and aging: the case of primary progressive aphasia Vrije Universiteit Brussel
A study of Graeco-Egyptian bilingualism through Greek-demotic bilingual documents (332 BC-452 AD) KU Leuven
After the arrival of Alexander the Great in Egypt in 332 BC, Greek progressively became the lingua franca in all the Mediterranean area, and the official language of the administration in Egypt. As a consequence, Egyptian and its different writings – hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic, which was the most used cursive script at the time – were gradually reduced to private, religious and literary use. Whereas in the Ptolemaic period (332-30 BC) ...
Linguistic Justice in the Law: Bilingualism of Judges in Binational States KU Leuven
This project aims to fill a theoretical gap in linguistic justice theories. More precisely, it aims to answer the following question: Should bilingualism or multilingualism be mandatory for the judges on the highest and/or constitutional court(s) of binational or multinational states? In answering this question, this project shares common ground with the general approach of linguistic justice as developed by such philosophers as Philippe Van ...
Effects of bilingualism on cognitive functioning and development of dementia Ghent University
Recent studies demonstrated that in bi- and multilinguals the clinical manifestations of dementia occurred more than 4 years later than in monolinguals. A possible explanation for this bilingual advantage may be related to better functioning cognitive controle mechanisms. This research proposal will investigate the underlying cognitive and language processes associated with the bilingual advantages in patients with dementia.
The representation of language in bilinguals: Neural overlap as a function of modality, representational level, language proficiency and context. Ghent University
Bilinguals use their two (or more) languages in their everyday lives and may need to switch back and forth between them frequently. In order for bilinguals to flexibly use their different languages, they need clear representations (lexical, semantical, …) of each language and a language control mechanism to coordinate the continuous interactions between these representations. In this project, we focus on the neuronal representations of the ...
Organization and processing of lexical and semantic respresentaties in bilinguals: word recognition, sentence processing and computational modeling. Ghent University
Language decline and language intervention in monolinguals and bilinguals with Alzheimer's Disease Ghent University
Although Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia and every 3 seconds a person in the world develops the disease, little is still known about the exact symptoms that occur at every stage. This is also the case for language; and especially for bilinguals. Importantly, loss of language is often hard to endure for patients, as a lack of fluent speech and communication may cause social isolation. Hence, the current project ...