ניר ברכה, פרופ’
Background
As a functionalist linguist and discourse analyst, my research projects contribute to the understanding of form-function relations in language as a tool for communication. Specifically, I explore constraints on the use of various morphological, lexical, and syntactic constructions that are reflected in different communicative contexts, and highlight the notion of proficiency (rather than competence) as a socio-cognitive phenomenon. I rely on typological, developmental, and discursive comparisons to uncover these constraints, and to illustrate the creative use speaker-writers make of grammatical devices in discourse production. Moreover, I employ and combine the theoretical and methodological tools of various frameworks, such as Construction Grammar, Cognitive Linguistics, Systemic Functional Linguistics, Corpus Linguistics, Synchronic and Historical Discourse Analysis, Dialogic Syntax, and Conversation Analysis, in order to describe, define, and explain language use.
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PhD students, past and present (by chronological order)
Dr. Daphna Sabo Mordechay
Together with Prof. Zohar Eviatar
Dr. Niveen Omar
Together with Prof. Karen Banai
Dr. Shirit Cohen-Koka
Together with Prof. Irit Meir
Dr. Raz Tenenbaum
Together with Prof. Irit Meir and Prof. Rachel Yifat
Tamara Halutzi
Together with Dr. Miriam Levinger, Sapir Academic College
The Impact of Professional and Discursive Stances of Israeli Sign Language (ISL) Simultaneous Interpreters on Interpreting
Yael Shotland
Understanding Time, Space, and Contrast: On the Relation between the Emergence of Verbs and the Conceptualization of Cognitive Constructs in Early Development
Ifat Keinan-Guy
Together with Prof. Arza Churchman, Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Design language and inclusive rehabilitation: A multidisciplinary analysis of the rehabilitation process among people with CVA
Ofra Lemberg
Together with Dr. Shiri Perlman-Avnion, Tel-Hai Academic College
The stance-taking process of children with autism: Psychodrama and reflective processes for elicitation and intervention
MA students, past and present (by chronological order)
Sheli Kol, MA
Together with Prof. Shuly Wintner
Towards a computational model of early syntactic acquisition
Yael Zack, MA
Sahar Yunes Nahas, MA
Together with Prof. Irit Meir
Characterizing the differences in maternal use of content-words in four different contexts
Liran Blechner, MA
Together with Prof. Irit Meir
The influence of elicitation tools on children’s narrative capabilities at preschool age
Oved Itshaki, MA
Together with Prof. Rachel Yifat
Jenia Koifman, MA
Together with Prof. Mila Schwartz, Oranim Academic College of Education
Acquisition of inflectional verb morphology in Hebrew by early sequential Russian-Hebrew bilinquals
Irit Abramovitch-Mayost, MA
Michal Kadmi, MA
Prepositional phrases in the language of L2 Hebrew speaking children
Rotem Rubin, MA
Lisa Shapsu, MA
Together with Prof. Irit Meir
Danit Weinberger, MA
Hagar Feinstein, MA
Together with Prof. Irit Meir
Ifat Keinan-Guy, MA
Together with Prof. Jonathan Ventura, Hadassah Academic College- Jerusalem
The Influence of design language on institutional interaction
Ofra Lemberg, MA
Together with Dr. Shiri Perlman-Avnion, Tel-Hai Academic College
Biana Davidow, MA
Together with Prof. Mikkel Hansen, Department of Psychology, University of Paris 8, France
Stav Eidelsztein, MA
Together with Prof. Tali Bitan
Sivan Shaul, MA
Rana Tanous, MA
Perceptions of Speech and Language Therapists in building communication boards
Bar Amar, in progress
Gender perceptions of young adults who identify on the autism spectrum –The view from Discourse Analysis
Soaad Darawshe, in progress
Gender agreement marking in modifying and predicating constructions in spoken Palestinian Arabic: A developmental perspective
Shlomit Katz, in progress
From Policy to Therapy: Former USSR 1.5 Generation Immigrant Parents’ Perceptions on Language and SLT
Stav Korach, in progress
The dialogic construction of affective engagement in Speech-and-Language Therapy
Kher Zuabi, in progress
Word learning among Arab pre-schoolers: Natural play compared to a digital game
Research
As a linguist who is dedicated to the training of Speech-and-Language Therapists at the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, I highlight the investigation of form-function relations in the use of grammar across development, from childhood to adulthood, and particularly in the speech and even the gestures of infants and toddlers, and of relevant features of child-directed speech. These analyses require computational tools for semi-automatic and automatic analysis of grammar, which I assisted in developing. My theoretical and methodological expertise have also allowed me to contribute to other applied domains such as psychology and education.
In recent years, I have turned my attention to the linguistically-motivated investigation of social functions in institutional conversational interactions, and how they are served by employing and manipulating grammatical devices. These studies focus on the pragmatics of syntax, lexicon, and even morphology, and their contribution to the understanding of social notions such as agency and power. Concurrently, I continue applying methodologies of discourse analysis to written texts, most recently in the study of pre-enlightenment Hebrew, with the aim of shedding new light on what it means to be a proficient and creative user of language in these pre-modern times.
See my profile at John Benjamins:
Publications
| Cohen, O. & Nir, B. (in press). A hidden Nusach: The linguistic literacy of the Maharam Lublin. Journal of Jewish Studies. |
| Nir, B. & Dori-Hacohen, G. (in press). Should s/he stay or should s/he go: Alliances and rapport in child-caregiver-therapist SLT sessions. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders. |
| Cohen-Koka, S., Nir, B., & Meir, I. (in press). Interpretation in context – The case of Mouth Action in Israeli Sign Language discourse. Sign Language Studies. |
| Cohen-Koka, S., Nir, B., & Meir, I. (2022). Linguistic Variation, Discourse Analysis, and Deaf Education: Case Studies from ISL. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enac030 |
| Tenenbaum, R., Yifat, R., & Nir, B. (2022). Early intervention for children with developmental intellectual disability. In El-Yagon, M., & Margalit, M. (Eds.), Developmental intellectual disability: Theory, research, and practical application. Shalem foundation. [in Hebrew] |
| Khatteb-Abu Liel, A., Ibrahim, R., Nir, B. & Eviatar, Z., (2022). Reading and Writing in a Diglossic Context: A Multifaceted Perspective. In E. Saiegh-Haddad, L. Laks, C. McBride (Eds.), Handbook of Literacy in Diglossia and Dialectal Contexts – Psycholinguistic and Educational Perspectives (pp. 303-357). Springer. |
| Gleitman, M. & Nir, B. (2022): “Where did you go to?” recognizing child agency as it emerges dynamically in interaction. Mind, Culture, and Activity. https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/XFEG6MIRPF3P9ECQQPGA/full?target=10.1080/10749039.2022.2133143 |
| Sabo Mordechay, D., Eviatar, Z., & Nir, B. (2021). Emotional Engagement in Expressive Writing: Clinical and discursive perspectives. Narrative Inquiry. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.20051.sab |
| Omar, N., Banai, K., & Nir, B. (2021). Learning beyond words: Morphology and the encoding of hierarchical categories. The Mental Lexicon, 16.2-3 (2021): 397-421. https://doi.org/10.1075/ml.20030.oma |
| Omar, F., Henkin, R., & Nir, B. (2021). So what would they say in Kafr Kanna: Would be helping him or helped him? Special issue of DASH BARESHET, the Israeli journal of language, speech and Hearing disorders, 40. [in Hebrew] |
| Blechner, L., & Nir, B. (2021). The impact of elicitation method on pre-school children’s narrative productions. Special issue of DASH BARESHET, the Israeli journal of language, speech and Hearing disorders, 40. [in Hebrew] |
| Tenenbaum, R., Yifat, R., & Nir, B. (2021). What does Boom look like? Toddlers’ use of gesture in shared book-reading. Special issue of DASH BARESHET, the Israeli journal of language, speech and Hearing disorders, 40. [in Hebrew] |
| Khatteb-Abu Liel, A., Eviatar, Z., & Nir, B. (2021). Arab adolescents’ attitudes towards standard and nonstandard writing systems the case of Arabizi and Modern Standard Arabic. Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science, 5, 125–142. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41809-020-00057-2 |
| Nir B. (2020). A usage-based typology of Modern Hebrew syntax: How Semitic? In Berman, R. A. (Ed.), Usage-Based Studies in Modern Hebrew. Background, Morpho-lexicon, and Syntax (pp. 659-676). John Benjamins Publishing. |
| Banai, K., Nir, B., Moav-Scheff, R., & Bar-Ziv, N. (2020). A role for incidental auditory learning in auditory-visual word learning among kindergarten children. Journal of Vision, 20(3):4, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1167/jovi.20.3.4 |
| Nir, B. (2020). Event Representation. In Östman, J. O., Verschueren, J. (Eds.). Handbook of Pragmatics. John Benjamins Publishing. |
| Yamasaki, B., Bitan, T., Dronjic, V., Nathaniel, U., Lytle, M., Eidelsztein, S., Nir, B. & Booth, J. (2019, October 14). The role of prior knowledge in morphological learning in an artificial second language. Language Learning https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ez79s |
| Nir, B., Abramovich-Mayost, I., & Dori-Hacohen, G. (2019). Balancing institutional authority and children’s agency: The Hebrew verb lircot [to want] in Speech Language Therapy sessions. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 10(2), 153–178. https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.20365 |
| Nir, B. (2019). Morpho-syntax and language development: diacrony, synchrony and evolution. In Berman, R.A. (Ed.), Language change and language variation (pp. 187-205). The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. [in Hebrew] |
| Khatteb-Abu Liel, A. Eviatar, Z., & Nir, B. (2019). Writing between languages: the case of Arabizi. Writing Systems Research, 11(2), 226-238. https://doi.org/10.1080/17586801.2020.1814482 |
| Sabo Mordechay, D., Nir, B. & Eviatar, Z. (2019). Expressive writing-Who is it good for? Individual differences in the improvement of mental health resulting from expressive writing. Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, 37, 115-121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2019.101064 |
| Nir, B. (2017). Resonance as a resource for stance-taking in narratives. Functions of Language, 24(1), 94-120. https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.24.1.05nir |
| Nir, B. & Zima, E. (2017). The power of engagement: Stance-taking, dialogic resonance and the construction of intersubjectivity. Functions of Language, 24(1), 3-15. https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.24.1.01nir |
| Nir, B. (2016). Development of Intra- and Inter-Clausal Dependency in Hebrew. In Berman, R. A. (Ed.), Acquisition and Development of Hebrew: From infancy to adolescence (pp. 259-294). John Benjamins Publishing. |
| Nir, B. (2016). Clause combining across grammars: A contrastive analysis of L1 and L2 construal of discourse organization. In Hilpert, M., & Östman, J-O. (Eds.), Constructions across Grammars (pp. 97-130). John Benjamins Publishing. |
| Nir, B., & Katzenberger, I. (2016). Categories of referential content in expository discussions of conflict. In Perera, J., Aparici, M., Rosado, E., & Salas, N. (Eds.), Written and Spoken Language Development Across the Lifespan: Essays in Honour of Liliana Tolchinsky (pp. 271-285). Springer. |
| Nir, B. (2015). Frames for clause combining. Constructions and Frames, 7(2), 348-379. https://doi.org/10.1075/cf.7.2.07nir |
| Nir, B. (2014). Clause combining across grammars: A contrastive analysis of L1 and L2 construal of discourse organization. Constructions and Frames, 6(2), 232-265. https://doi.org/10.1075/cf.6.2.05nir |
| Nir, B., Dori-Hacohen, G., & Maschler, Y. (2014). Formulations on Israeli political talk radio: From actions and sequences to stance via dialogic resonance. Discourse Studies, https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445613519525 |
| Kol, S., Nir, B., & Wintner, S. (2014). Computational evaluation of the Traceback method. Journal of Child Language, 41, 176-199. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000912000694 |
| Maschler, Y. & Nir, B. (2014). Complementation in linear and dialogic syntax: The case of Hebrew divergently aligned discourse. Cognitive Linguistics, 25(3), 523-557. [Special issue on Dialogic Syntax, edited by John Du Bois and Rachel Giora] https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2014-0029 |
| Schwarz, M., Nir, B., M. Leikin, R. Levie, & Ravid, D. (2014). Acquisition of noun plurals among early sequential Russian-Hebrew speaking bilinguals: A longitudinal multiple case study. Heritage Language Journal, 11(2), 151-185. https://brill.com/view/journals/hlj/11/2/article-p151_3.xml |
| Tribushinina, E., van den Bergh, H., Ravid, D., Aksu-Koç, A., Kilani-Schoch, M., Korecky-Kröll, K., Leibovitch-Cohen, I., Laaha, S. Nir, B., Dressler, W.U., & Gillis, S. (2014). Development of adjective frequencies across semantic classes: A growth curve analysis of child speech and child-directed speech. Language, Interaction and Acquisition/Langage, Interaction et Acquisition, 5(2), 185-226. https://doi.org/10.1075/lia.5.2.02tri |
| Albert, A., MacWhinney, B., Nir, B. & Wintner, S. (2013). The Hebrew CHILDES Corpus Transcription and Morphological Analysis. Language Resources and Evaluation. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10579-012-9214-z |
| Gretz, S., Itai, A., MacWhinney, B., Nir, B., Wintner, S. (2013). Parsing Hebrew CHILDES Transcripts. Language Resources and Evaluation. https: //doi.org/10.1007/s10579-013-9256-x |
| Albert, A., Nir, B., MacWhinney, B., and Wintner, S. (2012). A morphologically annotated Hebrew CHILDES corpus. In proceedings of the EACL-2012 Workshop on Computational Models of Language Acquisition and Loss. https://aclanthology.org/W12-0904.pdf |
| Nir, B. (2012). Complementizers in Hebrew. In G. Khan (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics. Brill Academic Publishers. |
| Nir, B. (2012). Hebrew Text Linguistics. In G. Khan (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics. Brill Academic Publishers. |
| Berman R. A. & Nir, B. (2011). Adverbs in Modern Hebrew: Text-based perspective. In R. Burstain (Ed.), Festschrift in honor of Prof. Hava Bat-Zeev Shyldkrot. [Special issue of Chelkat Lashon, in Hebrew]. |
| Nir, B. (2011). Hebrew adverbs: A Construction Grammar approach. In proceedings of The 26th Annual Meeting of the Israeli Linguistic Society. [in Hebrew] |
| Berman R. A. & Nir, B. (2011). Spoken language / Written language across adolescence. In Ofra Korat & D. Aram (Eds.), Literacy and language: Interactions, bilingualism and difficulties; Festschrift in Honor of Iris Levin, Volume I (pp. 211-229). Magnes Press. |
| Nir, B. & Berman, R. A. (2010). Parts of speech as constructions: the case of Hebrew ‘adverbs’. Grammar and interaction. New directions in constructional research. Constructions and Frames, 2(2), 242-274. [Special issue in honor of Charles J. Fillmore, edited by Kiki Nikiforidou and Kyoko Ohara] https://doi.org/10.1075/cf.2.2.05nir |
| Nir, B. & Berman, R. A. (2010). Complex syntax as a window on contrastive rhetoric. Journal of Pragmatics, 42, 744–765, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2009.07.006 |
| Berman, R. A. & Nir, B. (2010). The lexicon in speech-writing differentiation: Developmental perspectives. Written Language & Literacy, 13(2), 183-205 https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.13.2.01ber |
| Nir, B., MacWhinney, B. & Wintner, S. (2010). A morphologically-analyzed CHILDES corpus of Hebrew. In proceedings of LREC-2010. http://lrec.elra.info/proceedings/lrec2010/pdf/172_Paper.pdf |
| Berman, R. A. & Nir-Sagiv, B. (2009). Clause-packaging in narratives: A crosslinguistic developmental study. In Jiansheng Guo, Elena Lieven, Suzan Ervin-Tripp, Nancy Budwig, Seyda Özçalişkan, Kei Nakamura (eds.), Crosslinguistic approaches to the psychology of language: Research in the tradition of Dan I. Slobin (pp. 149-162). Taylor & Francis. |
| Segall, O., Nir-Sagiv, B., Kishon-Rabin, L. & Ravid, D. (2009). Prosodic patterns in Hebrew child directed speech. Journal of Child Language, 36(3), 629-656. https://doi.org/10.1017/S030500090800915X |
| Berman, R. A. & Nir-Sagiv, B. (2009). “The language of expository texts”. In Marilyn A. Nippold & Cheryl M. Scott (eds.), Expository discourse in children, adolescents, and adults: Development and disorders (pp. 101-123). Psychology Press/Taylor and Francis. |
| Berman, R. A. & Nir-Sagiv, B. (2009). “Cognitive and linguistic factors in evaluating text quality: Global versus local?” In Vyv Evans & Stéphanie Pourcel (eds.), New directions in Cognitive Linguistics (pp. 421-440). John Benjamins Publishing. |
| Ravid, D., Dressler, W.U., Nir-Sagiv, B., Korecky-Kröll, K., Souman, A., Rehfeldt, K., Laaha, S., Bertl, J., Basbøll, H. & Gillis, S. (2008). Core morphology in child directed speech: Crosslinguistic corpus analyses of noun plurals. In Heike Behrens (ed.) TILAR Series No 6. Trends in Corpus Research (pp. 25-60). John Benjamins Publishing. |
| Nir-Sagiv, B., Shternau, M., Berman, R. A. & Ravid, D. (2008). Development of linguistic register in the school-age as a distinguishing factor across modality (writing / speech) and genre (expository / narrative). Literacy and Language, 1, 71-103. [In Hebrew] |
| Nir-Sagiv, B., Bar Ilan, L. & Berman, R. A. (2008). Vocabulary development across adolescence: Text-based analy¬ses. In Anat Stavans & Irit Kupferberg (eds.), Studies in language and language education: Essays in honor of Elite Olshtain [New Vistas in Education and Society Series, NCJW Research Institute for Innovation in Education] (pp. 47-74). Magnes Press. |
| Berman, R. A., Lustigman, L. & Nir-Sagiv, B. (2008). Discourse analysis as a window on later language development. Israel Studies in Language and Society, 1, 10-47. [in Hebrew] |
| Berman, R. A. & Nir-Sagiv, B. (2007). Comparing narrative and expository text construction across adolescence: Developmental paradoxes”. Discourse Processes, 43(2), 79-120. |
Berman, R. A. & Nir-Sagiv, B. (2004). Linguistic indicators of inter-genre differentiation in later language development. Journal of Child Language, 31, 339-380. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000904006038 |
