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

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-382
Author(s):  
CAROL A. KLEE
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Linguistic Patterns ◽  
Differences Of Opinion ◽  
Ser And Estar

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.

Constraints on Contact-Induced Linguistic Change

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Heine ◽  
Tania Kuteva
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Linguistic Constraints

AbstractIn a recent paper on "Social and Linguistic Factors as Predictors of Contact-Induced Change" Thomason (2007) reiterates the claim made earlier by Thomason & Kaufman (1988) and others (e.g., Harris & Campbell 1995; Curnow 2001) that there are no linguistic constraints on interference in language contact, in that any linguistic feature can be transferred to any language, and any change can occur as a direct or indirect result of language contact, and she is satisfied to observe that all the specific constraints on contact-induced change that have been proposed have been counterexemplified.The present paper takes issue with this stance, arguing that it might be in need of reconsideration, in that there are in fact some constraints on contact-induced linguistic change. These constraints relate to grammatical replication, as it has been described in Heine & Kuteva (2003; 2005; 2006), thus lending further support to the generalizations on language contact proposed there.

scholarly journals Usage-Based Contact Linguistics: Effects of Frequency and Similarity in Language Contact

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-481
Author(s):  
Nikolay Hakimov ◽  
Ad Backus
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Usage Frequency ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
Individual Contributions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Linguistic Behavior

Abstract The influence of usage frequency, and particularly of linguistic similarity on human linguistic behavior and linguistic change in situations of language contact are well documented in contact linguistics literature. However, a theoretical framework capable of unifying the various explanations, which are usually couched in either structuralist, sociolinguistic, or psycholinguistic parlance, is still lacking. In this introductory article we argue that a usage-based approach to language organization and linguistic behavior suits this purpose well and that the study of language contact phenomena will benefit from the adoption of this theoretical perspective. The article sketches an outline of usage-based linguistics, proposes ways to analyze language contact phenomena in this framework, and summarizes the major findings of the individual contributions to the special issue, which not only demonstrate that contact phenomena are usefully studied from the usage-based perspective, but document that taking a usage-based approach reveals new aspects of old phenomena.

Psychoanalysis: neglected ally in an emerging “critical healthcare management studies” (CHMS)?

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-180
Author(s):  
Nathan Gerard
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Healthcare Management ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Organizational Dynamics ◽  
Healthcare Organizations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Critical Scholarship ◽  
The Social ◽  
Differences Of Opinion

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the relevance of psychoanalysis to an emerging sub-field known as “critical healthcare management studies” (CHMS).Design/methodology/approachBuilding upon a wave of critical scholarship in the broader field of management, scholars and practitioners of healthcare management have begun to forge a critical scholarly movement of their own. CHMS, short for “critical healthcare management studies,” formally denotes a new subfield of inquiry dedicated to challenging entrenched assumptions, exposing power relations, and cultivating critical praxis, all the while serving as a vital counterpoint to mainstream scholarship. This paper seeks to augment the CHMS movement with psychoanalysis, and particularly the critical vein of organizational psychoanalysis already well-established in critical management studies.FindingsThe argument is made that a greater engagement with psychoanalysis offers novel avenues for critical theorizing and practice in healthcare management. Specifically three areas are considered: 1) the exploitative role of guilt in the caring professions, 2) the resurgence of authoritarianism and its implications for unconscious organizational dynamics, and 3) the potential for a psychoanalytically informed critical healthcare praxis.Originality/valueWhile there remain wide differences of opinion about the utility of psychoanalysis outside of the clinical arena, this paper reveals just how psychoanalysis can inform today's healthcare organizations, and more broadly the social and political organization of health in society.

The Development of Metropolitan Languages in Post-Colonial Contexts: Language Contact and Language Change and the Case of Portuguese in Maputo

1996 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-213
Author(s):  
Christopher Stroud
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
The Social

This article explores briefly some phenomena of potential indigenization of the Portuguese spoken in Mozambique. Data for the study has been taken from work that is currently underway in Maputo, Mozambique, that was originally initiated to investigate contact varieties of Portuguese and to probe their educational implications. Speech samples comprise formal interviews and non-formal encounters from a socio-demographically representative sample of informants. The article first provides an inventory of some non-standard European Portuguese variants that are found in this data, and subsequently focusses upon a discussion of what contribution different linguistic processes make to indigenization, specifically the role played by processes of second language acquisition in a context of massive and diffuse language contact and change. Special attention is also paid to the social contexts in which different manifestations of language contact are found, and the importance of linguistic ideology for the form that language contact takes in particular cases is explored. The article concludes with the suggestion that the salient characteristics of types of non-native speech community such as Maputo require a reconceptualization of models and methods of contact linguistics and second language acquisition, and that this in turn carries implications for the terms of reference and analysis to which indigenization need be related.

Viewpoint from Sociolinguistics and Contact Linguistics: On the Role of Dialectology in Modern Linguistics

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-210
Author(s):  
Anna María Escobar
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Complex Field ◽  
Contact Linguistics ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
The Social ◽  
Traditional Sense

Abstract In the latter decades of the 20th century, historical, typological, dialectological, and sociolinguistic research all contributed to demonstrating the limitations of focusing exclusively on language-internal synchronic data, and these and other disciplines that share a bottom-up perspective acquired respectability as participants in theorybuilding. In the 21st century, there is a renewed appreciation of the potential for such research to address questions that are central to linguistic theory. Dialectology is today a field in which the social changes occurring in human societies are naturally taken into consideration, and includes not only the study of dialects in the traditional sense but also the study of social dialects and second-language varieties. Dialectology has thus evolved into a rich and complex field which is ideally positioned to make important contributions to the process of building theories of language that are firmly based on empirical data.

Introduction: Convergence as an emergent property in bilingual speech

2004 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
BARBARA E. BULLOCK ◽  
ALMEIDA JACQUELINE TORIBIO
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Emergent Property ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Technical Term ◽  
Linguistic Feature ◽  
Language And Cognition ◽  
Contact Situation ◽  
Definition Of

In introducing this special issue of Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, we feel it is critical to clarify what we understand ‘linguistic convergence’ to mean in the context of bilingualism, since ‘convergence’ is a technical term more readily associated with the field of language contact than with the field of bilingualism (for recent discussions of the role of convergence in contact see Thomason and Kaufman, 1988; Thomason, 2001; Myers-Scotton, 2002; Clyne, 2003; Winford, 2003). Within the language contact literature, the term invites a variety of uses. Some researchers adopt a definition of convergence that requires that all languages in a contact situation change, sometimes to the extent that the source of a given linguistic feature cannot be determined (see April McMahon's commentary in this issue). For others, convergence may be more broadly defined to also apply to situations in which one language has undergone structural incursions of various sorts from contact with another.

Indigenous Tewa language regimes across time: Persistence and transformation

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (246) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul V. Kroskrity
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Spanish Colonial ◽  
The Social ◽  
Spanish Colonization ◽  
Colonial Oppression ◽  
The Village

AbstractThis article attempts to trace and understand the historical development and transformation of the regimes of language Indigenous to the Village of Tewa (northeastern Arizona). It examines the social institutions and cultural practices that first cultivated a particular set of language ideologies and linguistic practices in the precolonial period. It also tracks more recent transformations involving contemporary Tewa adaptations to inclusion in the federally recognized Hopi Tribe and to the hegemony of the larger nation-state. Critical to my argument is the role of theocratic institutions and Indigenous social organization (e.g., clans and moieties) in providing a foundation for ideological production and elaboration. This account provides a better analysis of Tewa linguistic resistance to Spanish colonization than that of Edward Dozier, who attributed language contact outcomes to the historical circumstances of Spanish colonial oppression rather than to the expression of Indigenous language ideologies, including their regimes of temporalization and the crossing of temporal borders in subjective history.

scholarly journals ON SOME SOCIO-PRAGMATIC DIMENSIONS OF BORROWING FROM ENGLISH INTO SERBIAN

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (48) ◽  
pp. 133-150
Author(s):  
Biljana Mišić Ilić ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Pragmatic Markers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Functional Shift ◽  
Pragmatic Turn ◽  
Pragmatic Aspects ◽  
Social Behaviours

The recent pragmatic turn in the research on language contact and linguistic borrowing emphasizes the role of discourse, the speakers’ motivations and the social context, along with the structural, semantic and pragmatic aspects. Following the theoretical framework postulated in Andersen (2014), Andersen et al. (2017), Peterson (2017), Peterson, Beers Fagersten (2018), and focusing on the borrowing of pragmatic markers from English into Serbian, this article discusses several, often interrelated phenomena, which have been identified as associated with pragmatic borrowing. They are the functional shift (in particular, the weakening of the illocutionary force and the narrowing of the scope of use of the borrowed pragmatic items), semantic bleaching, indexing of particular social identities, and licensing of certain linguistic and social behaviours, possibly unsuitable with the use of native Serbian pragmatic markers. The article provides numerous illustrative contextualized examples of English pragmatic markers borrowed into Serbian, extracted from various electronic sources of written Serbian. They include the politeness markers pliz and sori, the expletives shit, fuck and the related forms such as who/what the fuck, wtf, and the abbreviations omg and rip, which are examined in their pragmatic, semantic, and social aspects.

scholarly journals TOUCHINESS AND CRITICISM. ON THE ROLE OF PHILOSOPHICAL CRITICISM IN CULTURE AND EDUCATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (S1) ◽  
pp. 207-228
Author(s):  
Robert Piłat
Keyword(s):  
Social Practices ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Dense Network ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Structural Problems ◽  
The Social ◽  
Differences Of Opinion ◽  
Philosophical Criticism

In this article, I am discussing the social phenomenon of touchiness (excessive sensitivity to differences of opinion and lifestyle) as a result of the polarization of discourse in contemporary Western culture. This polarization and the resulting touchiness are partly an effect of media, but the later also reflects structural problems of cultures and social practices. The problems arise from the dense network of potentially conflicting values. I am discussing some diagnoses of this phenomenon and some purported philosophical remedies including departure from the language of values and abandoning the idea of a strong subject of action and beliefs. I am criticizing these solutions and I am proposing the idea of radical criticism instead. I am presenting the idea about established theories of philosophical criticism, including those by Horkheimer, Spaemann, Habermas. I am also presenting a practical application of the idea of radical criticism in education: promoting philosophical inquiry in the classroom.

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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document