Contact Varieties Research Articles

The role of substrate transfer in the development of grammatical morphology in language contact varieties

This article shows how the psycholinguistic process of language transfer accounts for the many features of the grammatical morphology of language contact varieties that differ from those of their lexifiers. These include different grammatical categories, the use of contrasting morphological processes to express grammatical distinctions, lexifier grammatical morphemes with new functions, and new grammatical morphemes not found in the lexifier. After an introductory description of the general notion of language transfer, it presents five more specific types: transfer of morphological strategies, word order and grammatical categories, as well as direct morphological transfer and functional transfer. The article then gives some possible explanations for the distribution among different types of contact varieties of two kinds of functional transfer – functionalisation and refunctionalisation – and for the distribution of particular types of grammatical morphemes – i.e. free versus bound. The examples presented come from contact languages of the Australia-Pacific region: three creoles (Australian Kriol, Hawai‘i Creole and Tayo); an expanded pidgin (Melanesian Pidgin, exemplified by Vanuatu Bislama and Papua New Guinea Tok Pisin); a restricted pidgin (Nauru Pidgin); and an indigenised variety of English (Colloquial Singapore English).

An acoustic study of coarticulatory resistance in “dark” and “light” alveolar laterals

This study reports on the results of an acoustic investigation on the effects of contextual vowels on alveolar laterals in two languages, Spanish and Catalan. In particular, two contact varieties of these languages, those spoken on the island of Majorca, are compared. Catalan /l/ has been described as “dark” and Spanish /l/ as “light” or “clear,” and these characterizations have been confirmed with acoustic and articulatory data. Furthermore, it has been suggested that pharyngealization (or velarization) degree in the laterals affects their degree of coarticulatory resistance, with pharyngealized laterals being more resistant to coarticulation than non-pharyngealized ones. This is attributed to tighter articulatory control of the tongue body in pharyngealized than non-pharyngealized laterals. This study tests this hypothesis with acoustic data from 10 (Majorcan) Catalan and 10 (Majorcan) Spanish male speakers, and it shows that coarticulatory resistance is indeed modulated by the degree of pharyngealization of the laterals. Importantly, in addition to finding a difference in coarticulatory resistance between the two language varieties, the study finds that by-speaker average pharyngealization in the laterals is a significant linear predictor of by-speaker coarticulatory resistance in these sounds.

Syntactic and prosodic focus marking in contact varieties of South African English

The article presents results of an elicited-production study investigating syntactic and prosodic consequences of language contact on two varieties of multilingual Black speakers of South African English, namely Black South African English (BlSAfE) and a newly emerging variety by Black speakers (“crossing over variety”). The results indicate that contact varieties of South African English share syntactic traits of General South African English (GenSAfE) relating to focus marking. At the same time, BlSAfE also shows differences in the frequency of use of the syntactic structures. The differences cannot be accounted for solely by L1 influence. Also, in prosody, significant differences between the varieties emerge. For BlSAfE, the differences can be related to L1 influence. A language can exert its influence differently on different areas of another language’s grammar: With respect to syntax the “crossing over” variety groups with GenSAfE, with respect to prosody it is in-between GenSAfE and BlSAfE.

“Thanks from the Mountain!”: Humorous Calques in Ponglish as an Output of Language Contact and Language Creativity

Since the enlargement of the European Union beginning in 2004, there has been a huge wave of migration to the United Kingdom from Poland. The UK, unlike other EU countries, allowed full access to its labor market to nationals of eight accession countries, including Poland. The diaspora formed new communities and a new contact variety emerged among them, commonly referred to as “Ponglish.” Although Ponglish has enjoyed some attention within linguistics, the humorous, “technically incorrect” literal translations of Polish words and phrases into English, usually by Poles with a rather high proficiency in English, have remained unexamined to date. This article analyzes the phenomenon of literal translations in Ponglish in detail, based on a number of websites dedicated to the subject, and attempts a classification.

Creolization in Context: Historical and Typological Perspectives

We provide a selective overview of the state of pidgin and creole language studies, with a focus on the different ways in which the question of creole genesis—especially of European-lexifier creoles—is approached: from the perspective of the demographics and periodization of the (early) life of the colonies and from the perspective of the role of typological concepts such as analyticity/syntheticity and simplicity/complexity in the mechanisms of creolization and their linguistic outcomes. We conclude that substrate speakers are most likely to have an impact on the grammar of a creole language if they are among the first to shift to the incipient contact variety, and we find that processes of early second language acquisition and of functional transfer in creolization favor free rather than bound expression of grammatical categories.

‘Up dere la’: Final Particle la in a Queensland Aboriginal Vernacular

This paper presents an analysis of the discourse particle la as it is used in an English-based Aboriginal vernacular language spoken in an ex-government reserve in Queensland. Using unelicited conversational data recorded in primary school classrooms, we present an analysis of the formal and functional properties of la. In terms of formal properties, we classify la as a final particle and observe that it frequently collocates with the deictic demonstratives ere (here) and dere (dere) and the visual perception verbs look and see. In our functional analysis we show that la is employed when the speaker is directing an interlocutor to jointly attend with the speaker to a specific object or action within the here-and-now environment—a function that is rare among discourse particles. We also discuss the possible origins of this particle in terms of substrate influences from traditional Australian languages or borrowing from other contact varieties. Our analysis of the particle la thus contributes both to our understanding of Queensland Aboriginal vernaculars and of discourse particles as linguistic objects that illustrate the inherently intersubjective nature of language.

Systematisch onderzoek naar Nederlandse contactvariëteiten

AbstractSystematic research into contact varieties of DutchThe purpose of this article is to show that the compilation of a corpus of Dutch contact varieties, CoVaCo, will offer new and interesting possibilities for research. Paragraph 2 gives an overview of Dutch contact varieties and the texts available in these varieties, digitally or in printed form. This proves that building CoVaCo is feasible. Paragraph 3 presents a number of limited case studies to show the research potential of CoVaCo. Finally, in paragraph 4, I ask researchers for practical support in building CoVaCo.

Time and reminiscence in contact

The question of how and why change occurs is a persistent theme in research on language contact and sociolinguistics. In this article, I investigate the role of social context in producing change and maintenance in a contact variety of Andean Spanish. Two generations of speakers in a Quechua-Spanish contact zone in central Bolivia interpret stress shift on the first person imperfect past tense as a marker of the “reminiscent past.” An emergent but unstable grammatical distinction is entwined with lived experience and speakers’ positioning as social actors. Both stability and change are produced by speakers through practice and are closely related to the iconization of contact features as symbols of social orientation and experience.

Notes on the History and Morphosyntactic Characteristics of Spanish in Northern Belize

The current descriptive analysis provides a sociohistorical overview of Northern Belizean Spanish (NBS), and it elaborates on salient morphosyntactic features of this understudied contact variety, as evidenced in the naturalistic discourse of bilinguals/trilinguals from Orange Walk, Belize. In particular, we focus on ‘determiner + uno’ constructions, bilingual compound verbs and gender assignment and agreement in NBS.

Linguistic Analysis of Saudi Pidginized Arabic as Produced by Asian Foreign Expatriates

This study aims at describing the system of SPA (Saudi pidginized Arabic) as produced by AFEs (Asian foreign expatriates) working in Saudi Arabia with specific reference to universal characteristics of reduction and simplification in the system of morpho-syntactic structure of Saudi Arabic. The study is based on data collected through a semi-structured interview technique probing into the features of SPA system. Thirty informants were randomly selected from among expatriates working in Saudi Arabia and belonging to different linguistic backgrounds – Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Tagalog, Indonesian, and Malayalam- as representatives of AFEs. The study showed that the AFEs tend to use simplified and reduced system of SA in order to communicate with its native speakers. This was reflected in producing variations of sentence word order that are not compatible with the sentence word order of SA, reduced inflectional verb forms and simplified noun phrase lacking agreement within its structure. The study concluded with the following implications: 1) SPA could be considered as an emerging contact variety among Asian expatriates in Saudi Arabic; 2) it has universal characteristics of reduction and simplification as shown in its structural system; 3) substrate languages play an essential role in the formation of the SPA.

Conventionalized code-switching: Entrenched semantic-pragmatic patterns of a bilingual Basque–Spanish speech style

Aims and objectives: This article examines a grey area on the code-switching–borrowing continuum in a Basque–Spanish language contact situation. It is argued that the notion of conventionalized code-switching is needed to explain the clear semantic-pragmatic patterns that emerge under these specific sociolinguistic circumstances. A key aspect of conventionalized code-switching is its predictability: items that pertain to certain semantic-pragmatic categories are switched as default. Approach: The approach follows the principles of usage-based grammar: cognitive organization of linguistic material can be deduced from the usage. Conventionalized code-switching informs us about the bilingual informants’ mental representation of the contact varieties. Data and analysis: Two types of data were examined for this research: (1) 22 hours of naturally occurring speech data with 22 informants from the Greater Bilbao area, and (2) eight hours of metalinguistic conversations about code-switching with 33 informants. Findings and conclusions: The informants seem to use Spanish pragmatic markers, swear words and colloquialisms throughout the data as default expressions for these semantic-pragmatic domains. Their Basque equivalents are almost absent from the data. Even though frequently used, the conventionalized expressions still retain their Spanishness and have not become established borrowings for the informants. Originality: The discussion about code-switching and borrowing has concerned mainly single items. In this article, the focus is on patterns. The paper also connects the study of synchronic code-switching with loanword layers studied in historical contact linguistics. Significance: The article paints a comprehensive picture of ongoing lexical language change. Yet, conventionalized code-switching is fundamentally a synchronic phenomenon and does not always turn into diachronic establishment of these elements. Limitations: The code-switching of aforementioned semantic-pragmatic categories has been conventionalized in the bilingual community, but there is great variation of entrenched items in the individual repertoires. This individual variation is worth further study.

O Voice Onset Time das plosivas do português brasileiro em contato com o Hunsrückisch e seu desvozeamento variável

The study is about the Voice Onset Time (VOT) of devoiced plosives in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) spoken by descendants of German immigrants in Gloria, a rural community in Estrela city, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. In Gloria, BP is in contact with Hunsruckisch, a German dialect. The study aims at (a) showing some acoustic characteristics of BP plosives in the contact variety in order to confirm the variable devoicing perceived by hearing in a sociolinguistic study (LARA, 2013); and (b) verifying whether the VOT values of the plosives conform to the Hunsruckisch VOT pattern or are unique to the contact language (MOHANAN e MOHANAN, 2003). Acoustic analysis of plosives is carried out with the computer program PRAAT (BOERSMA; WEENINK, 2013). Data from an adult informant of Lara (2013) are used. The acoustic analysis confirms the devoicing perceived by hearing. It shows that VOT values of devoiced plosives in the contact language are different from the Hunsruckisch VOT pattern and close to the BP VOT pattern, but are peculiar to the contact language.

Morphosyntactic variation and gender agreement in three Afro-Andean dialects

This paper presents an analysis of gender agreement in three little studied Afro-Andean dialects: Chinchano Spanish (Perú), Yungueño Spanish (Bolivia) and Chota Valley Spanish (Ecuador). Data is presented showing a variety of DP gender agreement configurations significantly divergent from standard Spanish. A unified account for these phenomena is proposed combining quantitatitative methodology and several forms of data collection with a Minimalist approach to data explanation and interpretation. The provided analysis charts evolution and variation of gender agreement, arguing that the parallel development of gender agreement in these three Afro-Hispanic contact varieties can be explained by an approach in which change takes place along paths set by universal properties of grammar (feature valuation, locality of agreement, gradience of fitness in grammatical development, etc.).

I think, therefore digo yo: Variable position of the 1sg subject pronoun in New Mexican Spanish-English code-switching

Using the New Mexico Spanish-English Bilingual Corpus, the present paper examines the variable position of the 1sg Spanish subject pronoun yo—pre- versus post-verbal—to consider the effect that code-switching may have on structural change. In an analysis of close to 700 tokens of yo, a rate of 16% post-positioning is found, which is within the range of post-position in non-contact varieties and thus contraindicative of the convergence hypothesis, in accordance with which the almost exclusive use of preverbal subject pronouns in English would predict lower rates of post-verbal yo in a converged contact variety. Moreover, by testing factors hypothesized to account for choice of post-posing yo using multivariate analysis, it is shown that bilinguals display similar constraints on yo post-positioning in New Mexican Spanish as monolingual speakers of Spanish, providing stronger support for an anti-convergence account. Results are discussed in terms of bilingual parallel activation, syntactic priming, and construction grammar.

Singlish as defined by young educated Chinese Singaporeans

Colloquial Singapore English, or Singlish, exists in an environment characterised by strong language planning aimed at demoting it in favour of Standard English, as well as in a linguistic ecology featuring a number of languages that have had an impact on its current form. An actual definition of Singlish, beyond scholarly linguistic analyses, is less than straightforward, and this article sets out to address this. Chinese Singaporeans were asked to define Singlish, and elements of Hokkien (one of the major substrate languages involved in the emergence of the contact variety) in conjunction with Singlish were subjected to attitudinal ratings. The results call for a redefinition of Singlish not in terms of a clear set of features that set it apart from other varieties, but rather as a combination of linguistic resources that combine to create a stylistic repertoire appropriate for the expression of, among other stances, local identity.

Fenómenos de transferencia entre lenguas: evidencialidad en el español en contacto con el guaraní y el quechua

El presente trabajo describe, compara y analiza distintos valores evidenciales que adopta el pretérito pluscuamperfecto en dos variedades de contacto en la Argentina y Paraguay: el español en contacto con el que-chua y con el guaraní. A partir de una descripción detallada de las gramáticas involucradas en el contacto determinamos, por un lado, si las construcciones consideradas se deben a procesos de transferencia. Por otro lado, especificamos el tipo de elemento gramatical transferido, dentro del marco teórico de la Gramática Generativa (Chomsky, 1981 y trabajos posteriores) y, especialmente, desde la propuesta de la Morfología Distribuida (Halle y Marantz, 1993, 1994, entre otros). Finalmente, evaluamos el alcance de este análisis para la sistematización de la variación lingüística dentro del modelo considerado.

Tracking reference with null subjects

Null-subject languages are said to track reference and discourse-pragmatic information exploiting the array of specialized forms provided by their grammar. This argument is normally used as the baseline against which language acquisition and contact varieties (L1, 2L1, L2, L1-attrition) are evaluated. However, recent studies on Italian question the empirical validity of this pattern and call for an analysis of these issues from an empirical perspective. This paper presents the results of a study on mechanisms for introduction and tracking of reference in narratives (Frog Stories) in Italian L1/Dutch L2, Dutch L1/Italian L2, Italian/Dutch bilinguals and age-matched monolingual Italian controls. All utterances were scrutinized for form, antecedent, and discourse-pragmatic function. The results so far show an overextended use of null subjects, also in contexts of topic-shift, where overt subjects would be expected. These constructions are not ambiguous, as speakers make use of alternative devices for anaphora interpretation that exploit contextual cues.

A vajdasági magyar ingázók nyelvi identitása és ideológiái

A tanulmány alapjául szolgáló kutatás célja a vajdasági magyar ingázók nyelvi identitásának és ideológiáinak behatóbb megismerése. A Szerbia és Magyarország között rendszeresen utazó, leginkább munkavállalási vagy tanulási célú ingázók a határ egyik és másik oldalán eltérő nyelvi közösségek, normák és elvárások hálójába kerülnek, melyhez sajátos módon próbálnak alkalmazkodni. A tanulmány arra keresi a választ, hogy vajon hogyan reagálnak a kutatás alanyai az eltérő nyelvi helyzetekre és azok kihívásaira, továbbá hogyan azonosulnak anyanyelvükkel (illetve annak mely változatával), végül pedig arra, hogy mindezeket a jelenségeket mely nyelvi ideológiák befolyásolják.

How much input is enough? Correlating comprehension and child language input in an endangered language

In situations of language endangerment, the ability to understand a language tends to persevere longer than the ability to speak it. As a result, the possibility of language revival remains high even when few speakers remain. Nonetheless, this potential requires that those with high levels of comprehension received sufficient input as children for the activation of speech to occur in later life. In many areas of Australia, input to children of traditional Aboriginal languages is rarely monolingual, but rather often mixed with a contact variety of English. Thus, it is not clear whether children receive enough input to later become active speakers of the traditional languages. This paper reports on a study which tested the relationship between language comprehension and child language input. A vocabulary test of 40 items was administered to 52 Gurindji participants in five age groups. Participants were asked to listen to a Gurindji word and choose a corresponding picture. The test items were graded as high, medium or low frequency on the basis of their use in a corpus of Gurindji child-input speech. We found that age and frequency of use in child-directed speech significantly altered the chance of a correct response.

Quiero para mi novio

There is an extensive bibliography on the meanings of the Spanish preposition para but very little has been done to address the different traits that this form acquires in contact varieties of Spanish. Paraguayan Spanish exhibits a high incidence of an innovative use of the preposition para that has been attributed to contact with Guaraní: the ‘anticipated possession’ construction, which has similar characteristics to the Guaraní marker of prospective aspect -rã. Comparative data confirm the existence of a close correspondence between this innovative extension of para and the uses of -rã. We propose a process of grammatical replication (Heine & Kuteva 2005) by which para has acquired an aspectual function not evident in Standard Spanish. We show that the semantic and grammatical shift is motivated by specific intersecting semantic components of para and its Guaraní counterpart. We trace the path of grammaticalization from minor incipient uses to systemic contact-induced change, whereby para discards its prepositive function in favor of an overt representation of an aspectual role.