Barbara Mertins
Biographic Data
| ID | 1018793 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Barbara Mertins |
| GIVEN NAMES | Barbara |
| FAMILY NAME | Mertins |
| SIGNATURE | MERTINS B |
| AFFILIATIONS | TU Dortmund University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0271-0431 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 8 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Exploring time-telling expressions
This study explores how speakers of German, Czech, and Russian read analog clocks and which of the two distinct systems for expressing time (absolute or relative) they tend to prefer. Additionally, we investigated the reference point hypothesis in languages that have not previously been studied in this context. Our findings reveal that speakers of German, Czech, and Russian predominantly use relative expressions. Furthermore, our in-depth analyse…
Semantisches Bewusstsein bei Vorschulkindern
Metalinguistisches Bewusstsein ist eine entscheidende Voraussetzung für den Schriftspracherwerb und entwickelt sich bereits vor Schulbeginn. In der vorliegenden Studie wurde untersucht, ob Bilingualismus sich positiv auf das metasprachliche Bewusstsein auf semantischer Ebene auswirkt, indem bilinguale ( N = 17) und monolinguale ( N = 22) Vorschulkinder im Alter von 4–6 Jahren verglichen wurden. Zudem wurde der Einfluss von Faktoren wie dem sozioö…
Visual Attention and Linguistic Preferences in Time-Telling
This study investigates how speakers’ initial fixations on analog clock regions (minute vs. hour hand) align with the production of relative and absolute time expressions in German, Czech, and Russian. Building on previous research on linguistic preferences in time‐telling, we tested whether fixation patterns primarily reflect syntactic word order, language‐specific expression preferences, or the interaction of both factors. Eye‐tracking data rev…
The influence of grammatical gender on cognition
This study investigates whether and how grammatical gender influences cognition by comparing speakers of German, a language with three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neutral), and Farsi, a genderless language. Using object description tasks, we examined how grammatical gender affects the assignment of descriptive properties to objects. German monolinguals demonstrated significant effects of grammatical gender on object categorization. …
Dominant-while-speaking
Aim: This study investigates how simultaneous bilingual Norwegian–English children conceptualize goal-oriented motion events in their two languages, which have different and partly conflicting language-specific conceptualization patterns (the so-called holistic, endpoint-oriented perspective vs. a phasal perspective with focus on ongoingness). Design: The experiment combined three different methodologies to measure attention to endpoints: elicita…
Description of Locomotion Events
The present paper explores how young children, depending on the provided input, acquire language-specific perspectives in the construal of goal-oriented locomotion events. We recorded parent–child interactions using drawings depicting such events. Czech monolingual pairs (n = 25), Russian monolingual pairs (n = 25), and Russian-German bilingual pairs (n = 22) were recruited for this study. Previous findings (Mertins 2018; Stutterheim et al. 2012)…
On the interpretation of possessives in Czech
This paper presents first findings from an offline study of Czech native speakers’ use and interpretation of reflexive and non-reflexive possessive pronouns. The study is part of a larger possessive project outlined by Fabricius-Hansen et al. (2017), leaning on the comprehension experiment presented in Pitz et al. (2017). The study encompasses questionnaire data collected from 259 informants who were tested under four different conditions on two …
Defying chronology
Much of how we sequence events in speech mirrors the order of their natural occurrence. While event chains that conform to chronology may be easier to process, languages offer substantial freedom to manipulate temporal order. This article explores to what extent digressions from chronology are attributable to differences in grammatical aspect systems. We compared reverse order reports (RORs) in event descriptions elicited from native speakers of …
Defying chronology
Much of how we sequence events in speech mirrors the order of their natural occurrence. While event chains that conform to chronology may be easier to process, languages offer substantial freedom to manipulate temporal order. This article explores to what extent digressions from chronology are attributable to differences in grammatical aspect systems. We compared reverse order reports (RORs) in event descriptions elicited from native speakers of …
Defying chronology
Much of how we sequence events in speech mirrors the order of their natural occurrence. While event chains that conform to chronology may be easier to process, languages offer substantial freedom to manipulate temporal order. This article explores to what extent digressions from chronology are attributable to differences in grammatical aspect systems. We compared reverse order reports (RORs) in event descriptions elicited from native speakers of …
On the interpretation of possessives in Czech
This paper presents first findings from an offline study of Czech native speakers’ use and interpretation of reflexive and non-reflexive possessive pronouns. The study is part of a larger possessive project outlined by Fabricius-Hansen et al. (2017), leaning on the comprehension experiment presented in Pitz et al. (2017). The study encompasses questionnaire data collected from 259 informants who were tested under four different conditions on two …
Description of Locomotion Events
The present paper explores how young children, depending on the provided input, acquire language-specific perspectives in the construal of goal-oriented locomotion events. We recorded parent–child interactions using drawings depicting such events. Czech monolingual pairs (n = 25), Russian monolingual pairs (n = 25), and Russian-German bilingual pairs (n = 22) were recruited for this study. Previous findings (Mertins 2018; Stutterheim et al. 2012)…
The influence of grammatical gender on cognition
This study investigates whether and how grammatical gender influences cognition by comparing speakers of German, a language with three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neutral), and Farsi, a genderless language. Using object description tasks, we examined how grammatical gender affects the assignment of descriptive properties to objects. German monolinguals demonstrated significant effects of grammatical gender on object categorization. …
Dominant-while-speaking
Aim: This study investigates how simultaneous bilingual Norwegian–English children conceptualize goal-oriented motion events in their two languages, which have different and partly conflicting language-specific conceptualization patterns (the so-called holistic, endpoint-oriented perspective vs. a phasal perspective with focus on ongoingness). Design: The experiment combined three different methodologies to measure attention to endpoints: elicita…
Exploring time-telling expressions
This study explores how speakers of German, Czech, and Russian read analog clocks and which of the two distinct systems for expressing time (absolute or relative) they tend to prefer. Additionally, we investigated the reference point hypothesis in languages that have not previously been studied in this context. Our findings reveal that speakers of German, Czech, and Russian predominantly use relative expressions. Furthermore, our in-depth analyse…
Semantisches Bewusstsein bei Vorschulkindern
Metalinguistisches Bewusstsein ist eine entscheidende Voraussetzung für den Schriftspracherwerb und entwickelt sich bereits vor Schulbeginn. In der vorliegenden Studie wurde untersucht, ob Bilingualismus sich positiv auf das metasprachliche Bewusstsein auf semantischer Ebene auswirkt, indem bilinguale ( N = 17) und monolinguale ( N = 22) Vorschulkinder im Alter von 4–6 Jahren verglichen wurden. Zudem wurde der Einfluss von Faktoren wie dem sozioö…
Visual Attention and Linguistic Preferences in Time-Telling
This study investigates how speakers’ initial fixations on analog clock regions (minute vs. hour hand) align with the production of relative and absolute time expressions in German, Czech, and Russian. Building on previous research on linguistic preferences in time‐telling, we tested whether fixation patterns primarily reflect syntactic word order, language‐specific expression preferences, or the interaction of both factors. Eye‐tracking data rev…
Categorization, perception, and language (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · German (4 works) · Linguistics (4 works) · Czech (3 works) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (3 works) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (3 works) · Psychology (3 works) · Cognition (2 works) · Grammar (2 works)