Role Of Language Contact Research Articles

Postnominal flagging and OV in Sinitic

Abstract Sinitic languages are known for their SVO order and mostly isolating morphology. This study addresses eleven languages of four different areas in Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, and Qinghai/Gansu provinces in China that possess SOV order and developed a postnominal flagging system. This study presents a synchronic description as well as a diachronic analysis of the flagging systems in these languages, focusing on typological properties (ergative or secundative alignment) and the role of language contact. The existence of four separate areas with limited mutual contact allows a contrastive approach and inferences on the role of different contact languages (Tibetic, Mongolic, Tujia) or different types of language contact (borrowing of flags, shared grammaticalization). The study argues against OV order and postnominal flagging as defining features of the “Amdo Sprachbund”, showing that these are universally present in all four areas and are better understood as the result of contact between two Eurasian macro areas.

Examining the impact of foreign language anxiety and language contact on oral proficiency: a study of Chinese as a second language learners

Abstract This study addresses gaps in the existing literature on foreign language anxiety (FLA) by examining its impact on the oral proficiency of Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners. Unlike previous research, this investigation includes less commonly taught languages and considers the role of language contact as a mediating variable. Using structural equation modelling (SEM), we reveal that (1) CSL learning anxiety negatively affects CSL oral complexity and fluency in a direct way, but does not influence oral accuracy; (2) language contact affects CSL oral proficiency, with verbal contact having a particular impact on oral fluency; and (3) language contact does not mediate the relationship between CSL learning anxiety and oral proficiency. This study contributes to current theories of FLA in L2 acquisition by highlighting the roles of anxiety in different oral proficiency measurements even though the mediating effect of language contact does not exist.

Spatial Locative Relativization in Three African Varieties of Portuguese: Unity in Diversity and Diversity in Unity

This paper investigates the formation of spatial locative relativization in three African varieties of Portuguese. While research on relative constructions in Portuguese has deserved considerable attention in the literature, it tends to focus on the European and Brazilian varieties, with locative relativization being only marginally addressed. Using data extracted from spoken corpora of contemporary, urban varieties of Angolan, Mozambican, and Santomean Portuguese, we aim to discuss whether there is a correlation between syntactic and semantic variables and the selection of the two main locative relative morphemes, onde ‘where’ and que ‘that’. Overall, the three varieties at stake behave similarly with respect to the analyzed syntactic variables and follow the tendency found in Portuguese varieties toward the use of pied-piping and P-chopping as the dominant relativization mechanisms, independent of the syntactic relation between the antecedent and the relative clause. Semantically, we identified some fine-grained differences between the three varieties, with Santomean Portuguese generally being the outlier or one of the outliers. Crucially, definiteness of the head noun stands out as the one variable that plays a major role in the selection of the relative morpheme: [−definite] head nouns show a proportionally higher preference for que in both AP and STP, which is particularly visible with bare nouns in the latter. This motivates the hypothesis that less specified head nouns show a preference for the un(der)specified relative morpheme que. We further show that the role of language contact is at best very limited.

Goal arguments of ir ‘to go’ and chegar ‘to arrive’ in three African varieties of Portuguese

In research on African varieties of Portuguese, especially Angolan and Mozambican Portuguese, it is often referred that Goal arguments of verbs of movement show a tendency to be headed by locative preposition em ‘in’, contrasting with the use of a ‘to’ and para ‘to, toward’ in European Portuguese. Language contact is generally considered the primary factor with respect to the use of the noncanonical pattern. Using spoken corpora of the urban varieties of Angolan, Mozambican and Santomean Portuguese, this paper develops a case-study of Goal arguments that occur with two frequently used verbs of inherently directed motion, ir ‘to go’ and chegar ‘to arrive’, to assess the contact-induced hypothesis and to explore alternative, semantic-based hypotheses. Overall, a cross-comparison of the varieties at stake and their main contact languages shows that the role of language contact is limited at best. A semantic analysis of em, on the other hand, shows promising results, since the occurrence of this preposition is favored by NPs that denote an entity with well-defined boundaries and is sensitive to the lexical semantics of the verbs, i.e., whether the verb describes a durative or non-durative change of place, and to the type of eventuality described by the predication.

On the Indicative Imperfect and the Other Tenses in -eɾ of the Armenian Dialect of Urmia Historical and Typological Aspects of a Morphological Innovation

In the Armenian dialect of Urmia (Northern Iran), the indicative imperfect displays a very innovating inflection, based on the addition of the morpheme ‘-eɾ’ (properly the imperfect 3s of the verb ‘to beʼ) to the indicative present. This morpheme of ‘remotenessʼ creates opposition between other tenses as well, such as perfect and pluperfect, future and past future. The article deals with the reconstruction of the origin and diffusion of this innovating morpheme in the verbal system of the Armenian dialect of Urmia, focusing both on endogenous morphological dynamics and on the role of language contact with Turkic varieties as a trigger of this morphological change.

Uso de los pronombres átonos en el español en contacto con otomí

Este estudio tuvo como objetivos determinar las condiciones internas y externas que motivan la variación y posible cambio en el sistema pronominal átono de acusativo en el español en contacto con otomí, en la comunidad de Santiago Mexquititlán (México), así como analizar la función del contacto en estos procesos. Para ello, analizamos un corpus con datos de 38 informantes. Encontramos que el sistema pronominal de esta comunidad de habla sigue los patrones del sistema etimológico. Un cambio inducido por contacto fue descartado tras el análisis de las variables internas y externas, y dadas las actitudes negativas de los hablantes originarios y de los hablantes monolingües de español, las cuales han provocado la situación de desplazamiento de la lengua otomí y, consecuentemente, esto ha llevado a un contacto no intenso y a bajos niveles de bilingüismo en la población. Más bien se determinó un cambio en retracción

Alignment change in Chukotkan

AbstractThis paper examines current approaches to studying alignment change and the role of language contact in the spread of ergativity, using the Chukotkan languages as a case study. Chukotkan is exceptional in that there does not appear to be a single reanalysis pathway that can account for the development of ergative case. Rather, the system appears to be the product of several changes that operated in different domains. This paper provides an alternative to an earlier account that claims that Chukotkan ergativity developed due to Yupik substrate effects, which is not supported by the historical accounts of the contact between these groups. This explanation is consistent with a problematic tendency of treating ergativity as a special phenomenon, even though ergative alignment regularly arises via internal change. Instead, I propose that the loss of split ergative case marking occurred due to the reanalysis of a passive participle, which was motivated by the tendency to encode animacy distinctions in these languages.

Language contact in Sardinian between the Middle and the Early Modern Ages

AbstractThis paper describes the role of language contact in Sardinian lexical stratification, focusing on the Sardinian lexicon as well as on some morphological features. The major aim is to show the importance of the Sardinian lexicon for the understanding of the historical contact processes between Sardinian and other languages of the island and for the comprehension of the relationship between different varieties of Sardinian.

Language contact in Sardinian between the Middle and the Early Modern Ages

Abstract This paper describes the role of language contact in Sardinian lexical stratification, focusing on the Sardinian lexicon as well as on some morphological features. The major aim is to show the importance of the Sardinian lexicon for the understanding of the historical contact processes between Sardinian and other languages of the island and for the comprehension of the relationship between different varieties of Sardinian.

On the role of language contact in the reorganization of grammar: A case study on two Modern Greek contact-induced varieties

AbstractThis paper offers further insights on the role of language contact in the reorganization of grammar based on data from two Modern Greek contact-induced dialects: Italiot varieties in contact with both the local Romance varieties and Standard Italian, and Cappadocian, in contact with Turkish. A contrastive investigation reveals interesting correlations and particularities in the reorganization of inflection of the examined systems. Acknowledging that simplification is not triggered solely by contact, we claim that the attested phenomena can be accounted for as temporary complexifications that head toward and ultimately result in simplification within the paradigmatic relations. The amount and type of complexity diverge significantly depending on the (in)compatibility factor among the systems in contact. Furthermore, in terms of loss, addition and replacement of features, our data show that, although replacement and loss are the most prevalent strategies used at the level of morphology, addition is also very likely to occur when structural incompatibility is involved.

Commentary: The role of language contact in creating correlations between humidity and tone

Everett et al. (2015) find a that complex tonal languages tend to be found in humid environments a correlation that holds up within different families and parts of the world. Despite the impressive statistical and experimental support for this causal claim, evidence is needed from natural language use, such as Chinese speakers changing their use of tone depending on humidity, before the claim can be considered well supported. There is otherwise a risk that this correlation could be an artifact of history of language families and language contact. To illustrate this, I show in a series of simulations that random selection of languages followed by language contact can create a positive global correlation between tone and humidity with as much as a 83 per cent probability, and a 47 per cent probability of holding within at least two different macro-areas. Language contact is additionally responsible for these correlations holding up when controlling for language relatedness, as I show that when using the random independent samples test employed by Everett et al., their result is still expected by chance as much as 60 per cent to 80 per cent of the time. I further show how contact can create correlations within families by a phylogenetic analysis of the evolution of tone in Niger-Congo and Sino-Tibetan. The number of tones that languages use correlates with humidity within five different global areas (Africa, Eurasia, South America, North America, and the Pacific), and within four different language families (Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic, Afro-Asiatic, and Niger-Congo). This is better statistical support than even for word order universals, which despite having some support when sampling from different macro-areas (Dryer 1992) do not seem to hold consistently within large language families (Dunn et al. 2011). In addition, the experimental evidence that they cite showing that dry air has …

European analytic causatives as a comparative concept: Evidence from a parallel corpus of film subtitles

AbstractThis study investigates formal and functional variation in analytic causatives (ACs) in eighteen European languages from the Indo-European and Uralic language families. Employing the comparative concept approach, the paper presents a probabilistic semantic map of the main functions of ACs on the basis of a multilingual parallel corpus of film subtitles. This method enables us to detect common dimensions of semantic variation in ACs and to pinpoint cross-linguistic commonalities in the form–meaning mapping. The paper also presents three case studies, which test previous hypotheses about the grammaticalization clines in Romance and Germanic and facts of language contact between German and Slavic languages. The role of language contact is further explored in quantitative analyses that compare how the languages “carve up” the semantic space of causation. The results of this comparison suggest that frequently occurring semantically vague ACs may be regarded as a feature of Standard Average European.

The role of language contact in semantic change:Serandestar– a response to Geeslin and Guijarro-Fuentes

The role of language contact in linguistic change remains a polemic issue in the field of contact linguistics. Many researchers (Weinreich, 1953; Lefebvre, 1985; Prince, 1988; Silva-Corvalán, 1994; King, 2000; Sankoff, 2002; Labov, 2007) believe that there are limits on the types of linguistic patterns that can be transmitted across languages, while others (Thomason and Kaufman, 1988, p. 14) deem that “any linguistic feature can be transferred from any language to any other language”. Regardless of the differences of opinion on this issue, there is widespread recognition that the social context, including such features as the size and characteristics of the bilingual groups, the attitudes toward the languages spoken, and the intensity and duration of language contact, play an important role in determining the linguistic outcomes of language contact.

The Use of Non-Prepositional Case in the Old Russian NP: Structure and Changes by Hanne Martine Eckhoff (review)

Reviews Eckhoff,Hanne Martine. 7The Use ofNfon-Prepositional Casein theOldRussianNP. Structure and Changes.Meddelelser, 85. Slavisk-BaltiskAvdeling, Universitetet i Oslo, Oslo, 200I. I48 pp. Tables. Notes. References. Index. Price unknown. THE aims of this work, the author tells us, are: to provide a synchronic descriptionof the syntaxof the Old Russian noun phrase (NP) at three stages of development; to undertakea diachronic analysis of the role of case in the Old Russian NP; to explore the roots and progress of change. The texts surveyed are a varied and valid sample from I000-I200 (the Kiev period), I 200- I400 (periodof decay duringthe Mongolian invasions),and I400- I630 (period of unification under Moscow). Genres represented include legal, hagiographic,homiletic and narrativetexts. Eckhoff's analysis of the material employs a model devised by M. A. K. Halliday as part of a total syntactic frameworkcalled functional grammar. The noun phrase is treated as having a simple logical structure,consisting of head and modifier; its experiental structure, we are told, is linear, and is divided into six different types of elements: Deictic, Numerative, Epithet, Classifier,Thing and Qualifier,with the Thing as the semanticcore of the NP. These are notional categories with no perceptible grounding in phonology or morphology, which the traditional philologist may suspect of doubtful analyticalvalidityand dubiousinferentialvalue. The subtlety required in applying the system is illustrated by 'materne mleko' (example no. 2.17), 'mother's milk', where the adjective is to be classifiedas Deictic if referringto an identifiablemother but Classifierif used in a general sense; the answer depends on the researcher's reading of the context. Each numbered example is given the same three-line layout: phrase quoted, explanatoryparsing,editorialinterpretation.The latteris exemplified by 'sosudy zelejnyja' (3.I 25), rendered by the functional 'vessels with gunpowder', in preference to the literal 'gunpowder vessels' or the free idiomatic 'powder barrels'.To justify classificationas metaphoricallypossessiveDeictic , the phrase 'gnevnyjtvojplamen"isrenderedas 'theflameof your wrath'(2.9); without re-readingIlarion'sSermon onLaw andGrace,one feelsthat 'thy wrathful flame' would be an adequate, if not preferable alternative. However, function must overrideother considerationsin thiswork. One is grateful to the author for the collation and classification of this material, with its strikingrevelation of the multiple semantic functions of the denominal adjective: 'zertvena krov' (2. I), 'zavist' Ijudejska'(2. I), 'gnevnyj plamen" (2.9), 'svjascenniceskijcin' (2.20), and its competition with genitive and dative constructions. Many of the examples have, in form and content, the flavourof Church Slavonic devotional literature.Whether these are to be regarded as authentic representativesof the Old Russian state of affairsis a difficultproblem, beyond the reasonable scope of this work. Eckhoffadmits the possible role of language contact, in particularof Greek and Old Church Slavonic, but also of Uralic. It will be interesting to see the results of any furtherresearchshe undertakesin thisfield. REVIEWS 303 Most of the material used has come from fairly recent twentieth-century editions. Among the few nineteenth-century sources cited is Archimandrit Leonid, Povest'o Cargrade(jegoosnovanii i vzjatiiTurkami v 1453 godu),Saint Petersburg, i886. This is the source of a quotation referring to Mefodij Patoromskj (2.28) here rendered as 'Methodius of Patorom'. Sreznevskij, Gudzijand othershave the more orthodox formPatarskij, denoting the fourthcentury bishop Methodius of Patara in Lycia, who wrote a work called The Banquet, modelled on Plato's Symposium, extolling Christian virginity. Archimandrite Leonid or his informant may have deformed the surname by the ingestion of an alien morpheme, namely the genitive plural inflection-on in GreekPataron. London H. LEEMING Smyth, Sarah and Crosbie, Elena V. RUS'. A Comprehensive Course in Russian. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002. xvii + 697 pp. Figures. Tables. Illustrations.Indexes. ?95.oo; ?34.95. Accompanying cassette, ? i6.95. IT is a truism of foreign language teaching that there is no such thing as the perfect textbook. Teachers of all languages are accustomed to skip or adapt the contents of their course manuals and supplement them with their own materials. For a less commonly taught language such as Russian where the choice of textbooks is comparatively limited, these practices are routine, especially for the university language tutor, for whom materials aimed at GCSE learners or business travellersare not suitable. It is surelywith this in mind that Sarah Smyth and...