PROCESSES OF LANGUAGE CONTACT: STUDIES FROM AUSTRALIA AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC. Jeff Siegel (Ed.). Saint-Laurent, Canada: Fides, 2000. Pp. xvi + 320. $34.95 paper.

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 461-462
Author(s):  
J. Clancy Clements
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Solomon Islands ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Australian Aboriginal ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Transitive Verbs ◽  
Kinship Terminology ◽  
Substrate Influence

The present volume highlights studies of languages created by contact-induced language change in Australia and the Pacific. Editor Jeff Siegel identifies six processes involved in the formation of pidgins, creoles, and other such language contact varieties: reanalysis, simplification, leveling, diffusion, language shift, and depidginization/decreolization. The process of reanalysis is the focus of four chapters: “The Role of Australian Aboriginal Language in the Formation of Australian Pidgin Grammar: Transitive Verbs and Adjectives” by Koch; “‘Predicate Marking' in Bislama” by Crowley; “Predicting Substrate Influence: Tense-Modality-Aspect Marking in Tayo” by Siegel, Sandeman, and Corne; “My Nephew Is My Aunt: Features and Transformation of Kinship Terminology in Solomon Islands Pijin” by Jourdan; and “Na pa kekan, na person: The Evolution of Tayo Negatives” by Corne.

The role of contact and language shift in the spread of Austronesian languages across Island Southeast Asia

2020 ◽  
pp. 167-194
Author(s):  
Mark Donohue ◽  
Tim Denham
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Marine Environment ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Language Family ◽  
Austronesian Languages ◽  
Island Southeast Asia ◽  
South West ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
European Colonization

The spread of modern humans into and across Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific represents the earliest confirmed dispersal of humans across a marine environment, and involved numerous associated technologies that indicate sophisticated societies on the move. The later spread of ‘Austronesian’ over the region shows language replacement on a scale that is reminiscent of the period of state-sponsored European colonization, and yet the Austronesian languages present a typological profile that is more diverse than any other large language family. These facts require investigation. This chapter examines the separate, but intertwined, histories of the region. It shows that the dispersal of Austronesian languages, originating in Taiwan, should not be portrayed as a technological and demographic steamroller. This involves discussion of the nature of pre-Austronesian society and language in the south-west Pacific, and the degree to which it has and has not changed following ‘Austronesianization’.

Language contact through translation

Target ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 420-455
Author(s):  
Shuangzi Pang ◽  
Kefei Wang
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Parallel Corpus ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Sample Points ◽  
Chinese Texts

Abstract This article investigates the role of translations from English in language change in Chinese. It employs a new corpus, the Chinese Diachronic Composite Corpus (CDCC), which incorporates a parallel corpus and comparable corpus in three sampling periods in the twentieth century, and a refe­rence corpus as a starting point in the timeframe. We examine whether explicitness in English–Chinese translations has exerted an impact on the target language, focusing on adversative conjunctions as a measure of explicitness. The results of the study demonstrate that: (1) translated Chinese texts have changed in step with original Chinese texts in the frequency of adversative conjunctions; (2) translated Chinese texts and original Chinese texts are interrelated throughout the three periods, but the correlation between them has changed perceptibly over the three sample points; and (3) source language interference found in translated Chinese texts increases over the three periods.

From Language Contact to Language Variation

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Cerruti
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Italian Region ◽  
The North ◽  
North Western ◽  
Insight Into

This paper falls within the line of research dealing with the role of intralinguistic variation in contact-induced language change. Two constructions are compared in terms of their respective degrees of grammaticalization: the progressive periphrasis ese lì c/a+Verb, which is widespread in some Northern Italo-Romance dialects, and the corresponding Italian construction essere lì che/a+Verb. The study focuses on the presence of such constructions in Turin, the capital of the north-western Italian region of Piedmont, in which the former periphrasis is less grammaticalized than the latter. It contends that the grammaticalization process of essere lì che/a+Verb was triggered by the contact between Piedmontese dialect and Italian, whereas the pace of grammaticalization of this periphrasis is affected by the contact between different varieties of Italian. The paper points out that the case study may provide insight into more general issues concerning not only the interplay of contact and variation in language change but also the role of sociolinguistic factors in shaping contact-induced grammaticalization phenomena.

Language shift and apparent standardisation in Early Modern English

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remco Knooihuizen
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
English Education ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Dialect Contact ◽  
Isle Of Man ◽  
Modern Period

AbstractIt has been observed that language-shift varieties of English tend to be relatively close to Standard English (Trudgill and Chambers 1991: 2–3). An often-used explanation for this is that Standard English was acquired in schools by the shifting population (Filppula 2006: 516). In this paper, I discuss three cases of language shift in the Early Modern period: in Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Shetland. I offer evidence that the role of Standard English education was, in fact, fairly limited, and suggest that the standard-likeness of Cornish English, Manx English and Shetland Scots is most likely due to the particular sociolinguistic circumstances of language shift, where not only language contact, but also dialect contact contributed to a loss of non-standard-like features and the acquisition of a standard-like target variety. This atelic and non-hierarchical process is termed apparent standardisation.

scholarly journals Status, Maintenance of Security, and Militarized Foreign Policy

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Filip Viskupic
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
National Security ◽  
Solomon Islands ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Regional Order

How does status affect foreign policy outcomes? Scholars have long argued that status is a salient foreign policy driver and that states even fight for status, but there is no consensus on how to think about this relationship. I propose that unpacking the link between status and role in international relations can help scholars analyze how status shapes national security outcomes. I illustrate the usefulness of this framework on the processes leading to Australia’s intervention in the Solomon Islands. An analysis of speeches by Australia’s leaders reveals that concern for maintaining Australia’s status as the leader of the Pacific and the role of maintainer of regional order and security affected the decision to dispatch an intervention.

scholarly journals Using the variationist comparative method to examine the role of language contact in synthetic and periphrastic verbs in Spanish

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 394-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Dumont ◽  
Damián Vergara Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Convergence Hypothesis ◽  
Verbal System ◽  
New Mexican ◽  
Linguistic Constraints

Language contact and linguistic change are thought to go hand in hand (e.g. Silva-Corvalán 1994), however there are methodological obstacles, such as collecting data at different points in time or the availability of monolingual data for comparison, that make claims about language change tenuous. The present study draws on two different corpora of spoken Spanish — bilingual New Mexican Spanish and monolingual Ecuadorian Spanish — in order to quantitatively assess the convergence hypothesis in which contact with English has produced a change to the Spanish verbal system, as reflected in an extension of the Present and Past Progressive forms at the expense of the synthetic Simple Present and Imperfect forms. The data do not show that the Spanish spoken by the bilinguals is changing to more closely resemble the analogous English progressive constructions, but instead suggest potential weakening of linguistic constraints on the conditioning of the variation between periphrastic and synthetic forms.

New Dialect Formation Through Language Contact

2020 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip M. Carter ◽  
Lydda López Valdez ◽  
Nandi Sims
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
Variability Index ◽  
Casual Speech ◽  
Immigrant Language ◽  
Past Half ◽  
Rare Opportunity ◽  
Substrate Influence

The situation of sustained contact between Spanish and English in Miami during the past half century provides a rare opportunity to study contact-induced language change in an ecological context in which speakers of the immigrant language (i.e., Spanish) have become the numerical majority. The study reported here is designed to track the phonetic and prosodic influences of Spanish on the variety of English emerging among second-generation Miami-born Latinx speakers of various national origin backgrounds by examining a suite of variables shown in prior studies to exhibit Spanish substrate influence in other regional contexts. We examine two kinds of phonetic variables in the English spoken by 20 second-generation Latinx and 5 Anglo white speakers: (1) prosodic rhythm and (2) vowel quality. Prosodic rhythm was quantified using Low and Grabe’s Pairwise Variability Index (nPVI); results show that Miami-born Latinx speakers are significantly more syllable-timed in casual speech than Miami-born Anglo white speakers. Significant vocalic differences were also observed, with Latinx speakers producing lower and more backed tokens of [æ] in prenasal and nonprenasal positions and more backed tokens of [u].

The Impact of church affiliation on language use in Kwara'ae (Solomon Islands)

1991 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 533-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Ann Watson-Gegeo ◽  
David Welchman Gegeo
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Solomon Islands ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Church Affiliation ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTChristian churches are central to modern social and political organization in the Pacific islands, yet little research has been conducted on their role in intrasocietal diversity in language attitudes and use. We examine church affiliation and its impact on language use, identity, and change among Kwara'ae speakers in the Solomon Islands, where intense competition for converts and the association of particular churches with modernization and development is having a significant impact on language choice and change. We show that members of different sects signal their separate identities not only through linguistic code but also through discourse patterns and nonverbal aspects of communication. The characteristics we identify are illustrated in transcripts from four speakers, and the social outcomes of these characteristics is discussed. (Ethnography of speaking, discourse analysis, nonverbal communication, language change, language attitudes, Melanesia, Solomon Islands)

Expressing displacement in heritage Cantonese: Cross-linguistic influence and structural vulnerability

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 603-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziyin Mai ◽  
Chung-yin Kwan ◽  
Virginia Yip
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Structural Vulnerability ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Incomplete Acquisition

Aims and objectives: Heritage languages spoken by speakers in overseas communities can diverge significantly from the language spoken in the home country. Recent investigations have suggested that some grammatical structures or features are more vulnerable than others. This paper investigates the role of cross-linguistic influence, incomplete acquisition and attrition in heritage Cantonese in contact with English, focusing on the grammar of the pretransitive zoeng-construction in displacement contexts. Methodology: An elicited oral production task modelled on the fruit cart experiment was used to elicit displacement instructions in Cantonese. Fourteen heritage speakers and thirteen émigré speakers participated. All had acquired Cantonese as their first language but experienced a shift of language dominance to English due to immigration and education. Seventeen native speakers of Cantonese in Hong Kong served as the baseline. Data and analysis: The utterances were manually transcribed and coded. Production and error rates were calculated. Statistical results revealed quantitative differences among the three groups of Cantonese speakers. The baseline speakers preferred the zoeng-construction in displacement contexts, whereas the heritage and émigré speakers made greater use of canonical and topicalization structures. Nevertheless, the zoeng-sentences produced by the heritage and émigré speakers were all grammatical and felicitous. Findings: The basic structure of the zoeng-construction is kept intact in less than half of the heritage and émigré speakers’ Cantonese grammar. The zoeng-construction is thus vulnerable to intergenerational language change induced by language contact and individual differences, which is partially attributable to cross-linguistic influence from English. Originality: This is the first experimental study to investigate the grammar of heritage Cantonese. Significance: The study provides new empirical evidence of structural vulnerability and variability of heritage grammar and sheds light on the role of incomplete acquisition, cross-linguistic influence and attrition in such vulnerability.

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