תחילת דף אינטרנט, לחץ אנטר כדי לעבור לאזור תוכן מרכזי

Dr. Bracha Nir (PhD)

Senior Lecturer

bnir@univ.haifa.ac.il

Office: 808, Eshcol building

Reception hours: By appointment

Communication Sciences and Disorders

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.

 

 

 

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:

https://benjamins.com/catalog/persons/845054327

 

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

PhD students, past and present (by chronological order)

Dr. Daphna Sabo Mordechay

Together with Prof. Zohar Eviatar

Expressive Writing: When and with whom does it work? What in the writing itself can be associated with improvements of well-being?

Dr. Niveen Omar

Together with Prof. Karen Banai

Eyes, ears, and minds: perceptual, conceptual, and linguistic factors in word learning in speakers of Semitic languages

Dr. Shirit Cohen-Koka

Together with Prof. Irit Meir

Linguistic Variation Linguistic Variability from a Comparative Perspective: Quantitative and Qualitative Insights from Discourse Analysis in Israeli Sign Language

Dr. Raz Tenenbaum

Together with Prof. Irit Meir and Prof. Rachel Yifat

The development of gestures as a means to express communication acts by toddlers with typical development and toddlers with cerebral palsy

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

Investigating the script of storybook sharing by comparing the use of a traditional and a tableted-book : a developmental perspective

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

Morphological and discursive skills of bilingual Russian-Hebrew speaking children : perspective of lexical repetitions analysis in extended discourse

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

Patterns in the openings of institutional interactions: negotiating therapy and authority in the discourse of speech and language therapists with children

Michal Kadmi, MA

Prepositional phrases in the language of L2 Hebrew speaking children

Rotem Rubin, MA

The use of the clarification request among speech language therapists within the context of child treatment

Lisa Shapsu, MA

Together with Prof. Irit Meir

Argument structure in simple clauses in Adyghe (Circassian) : a linguistic and developmental examination

Danit Weinberger, MA

The linguistic expression of engagement and intersubjectivity in socio-dramatic play : A Dialogic Syntax perspective

Hagar Feinstein, MA

Together with Prof. Irit Meir

The linguistic register as a distinguishing factor between genres in written discourse of deaf adults : narrative texts versus expository texts

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

The multidimensional stance taking process in personal experience narratives elicited through psychodramatic scenes

Biana Davidow, MA

Together with Prof. Mikkel Hansen, Department of Psychology, University of Paris 8, France

Construing Contrast: A discourse-based account of how Hebrew-speaking pre-school children verbalize contrastive distinctions as a function of various syntactic constructions

Stav Eidelsztein, MA

Together with Prof. Tali Bitan

Decomposition in the early stages of word learning of an artificial morpho-lexicon: The impact of morphological structure

Sivan Shaul, MA

Out of the mouth of toddlers: A psycholinguistic experimental perspective on interpreting child speech

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