scholarly journals Who changes language? Bilingualism and structural change in Burma and the Reef Islands

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Åshild Næss ◽  
Mathias Jenny
Keyword(s):  
Structural Change ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
The Other ◽  
Lexical Borrowing ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Contact Language ◽  
Reef Islands ◽  
Contact Situation

AbstractIn this paper we discuss two cases of contact-induced language change where lexical and grammatical borrowing appear to have gone in opposite directions: one language has borrowed large amounts of vocabulary from another while at the same time being the source of structural borrowings into the other language. Furthermore, it appears in both cases that the structural borrowing has come about through bilingualism in L1 speakers of the source language, while L1 speakers of the language undergoing the structural change are largely monolingual. We propose that these two unusual factors are not unrelated, but that the latter is the cause of the former: Under circumstances where the numerically much smaller language in a contact situation is the contact language, the L2 speakers' variety, influenced by their L1, may spread into the monolingual community. e lexical borrowing naturally happens from the bilingual speakers' L2 into their L1, resulting in opposite directions of lexical and structural borrowing. Similar processes have been described in cases of language shift, but we show that it may take place even in situations where shift does not occur.

scholarly journals Linguistic and social factors in Turkish-Dutch contact across generations

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yesim Sevinc
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Immigrant Communities ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
Contact Situation ◽  
Structural Levels

There are certain differences between Turkish as spoken in the Netherlands (NL-Turkish) and Turkish as spoken in Turkey (TR-Turkish). These differences concern issues of linguistic variation and change in immigrant communities and seem to be closely related to social, emotional and linguistic aspects of contact situations. Considering the fact that in a contact situation the social and linguistic relationships are crucial for the outcome of language change, this paper first examines the social values that three different generations give to the language and culture of their host and home communities; then, it discusses the linguistic consequences on the lexical and structural levels of NL-Turkish. The principal conclusion is that possible language shift in the third generation leads to intensive contact with Dutch language and culture, provokes the linguistic factors and, therefore, causes the lexical and structural changes in NL-Turkish.

scholarly journals The lexical borrowing in Palestinian colloquial Arabic

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nael F. M. Hijjo
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Study ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Gaza Strip ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
The Other ◽  
Lexical Borrowing ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
The Social ◽  
Colloquial Arabic ◽  
The Gaza Strip

The paper aimed to determine the social factors responsible for the variable use of [g], [k] and the prestigious [ʔ] in the Colloquial Arabic of the Gaza Strip women. These variables are of interest because they each have one variant that coincides with al-Fussha Arabic; which is the standard /q/. Towards this end, a quantitative study was carried out to examine the frequency of each sound in the naturally occurring speech of a sample of eight female participants belonging to families, six of whom have migrated from the occupied Palestine in year of 1948 and the other two are citizens of the Gaza Strip, where [g] is socially dominant, to the Gaza city. The findings suggest that younger generation shift from [g] or [kshift to the prestigious form [ʔ] to show prestige in the society. Thus the variable use of the original sound [g] in Gaza city could be a language shift.

Code-Switching as a Reflection of Contact-Induced Change

2020 ◽  
pp. 192-214
Author(s):  
Ad Backus
Keyword(s):  
Structural Change ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
The Other ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
Language Mixing ◽  
Lexical Change ◽  
Theory Of Language

Code-switching is often studied in purely synchronic terms, as recorded speech is analyzed for patterns of language mixing. Though this has yielded numerous useful theoretical advances, it has also shielded the code-switching literature from serious engagement with the phenomenon of language change, even from the subtype of change caused by language contact. There is also the additional practice of limiting the study of code-mixing and code-switching to lexical mixing. On the other side of the fence, meanwhile, discussions of contact-induced language change tend to be limited to morphological and syntactic phenomena. This chapter breaks through this stalemate, and argues that a usage-based approach to language change actually demands integration of these perspectives. Code-switching should be seen as a reflection of lexical change. It is for this reason that a synchronic distinction between loanwords and code-switching makes no sense, since the terms refer to the diachronic and synchronic planes, respectively, of the same phenomenon. In the chapter, the author interprets the code-switching literature from this theoretical viewpoint, and explores what both the literature on code-switching and that on contact-induced change stand to gain from linking their empirical findings to a usage-based theory of language change that allocates proper attention to synchrony and diachrony, and unites lexical and structural change in the same framework.

scholarly journals The other Side of the Coin of Lexical Borrowing from Arabic into English

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ahmad Thawabteh
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
The Other ◽  
Lexical Borrowing ◽  
Cultural Transfer ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Original Meaning ◽  
Communication Situations

The present paper investigates Arabic lexical borrowings in terms of the new signifieds accrued in the receptor language (English) drawing on Venuti’s (1998) notions of ‘domestication’ and ‘foreignization’. The paper shows that SL meanings are at loggerheads with those in the receptor language. The paper argues that lexical borrowings are consequence of cultural transfer in intercultural communication situations and they can be a double-edged sword. Whilst the shift from the original meaning(s) via borrowing may be considered a gain for the receptor language, it can do injustice to the source language.

Bilingual intonation patterns: Evidence of language change from Turkish-German bilingual children

2001 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin M. Queen
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Contact Fusion ◽  
Turkish German

This article discusses Turkish-German bilingual children's intonation patterns as they relate to processes of contact-induced language change. Bilingual speakers use two distinct rises in both Turkish and German. One rise (L*HH%) resembles a characteristic German rise, while the other (L%H%) resembles a characteristic Turkish rise. The rises pattern pragmatically in ways that are non-normative for both Turkish and German. Although this pattern is not clearly attributable to language interference (either borrowing or shift-induced language change), it is certainly the result of language contact. Fusion is proposed to account for the two-way influence between the two languages.

scholarly journals Special issue on mechanisms of French contact influence in Middle English: diffusion and maintenance

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-205
Author(s):  
OLGA TIMOFEEVA ◽  
RICHARD INGHAM
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The World ◽  
Contact Language ◽  
History Of

Recent years have seen a spate of publications that attempt to recontextualise the history of English in contact-linguistic (Miller 2012; Lutz 2013; Durkin 2014) and sociolinguistic terms (Millar 2012), and conversely to confront previous descriptions of contact phenomena with new data and theoretical insights available from situations of language shift and substratum influence (Filppula, Klemola & Paulasto 2008; Vennemann 2011), extensive bilingualism (Schendl & Wright 2011), language acquisition (Ingham 2012) and contact-induced grammaticalisation (Timofeeva 2010). Coupled with advances in our understanding of contact- and acquisition-induced language change (Heine & Kuteva 2005; Jarvis & Pavlenko 2008), and of the role of contact in the varieties of English around the world (Schreier & Hundt 2013), there is a clear need in this area of historical research for scholars to reinvestigate earlier stages of English as a contact language.

scholarly journals THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marissa M. Furaha ◽  
Eunice Nyamasyo ◽  
Joyce I. Wangia
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
The Other ◽  
African Language ◽  
Language Death ◽  
Cultural Contact ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
Resultant Effect

When languages come into contact, there is some degree of cultural contact, however limited. As a result, there is bound to be some negative as well as positive language change. Borrowing, bilingualism, code switching, code mixing, pidgins, creoles, language shift and language death are some of the products of language contact. The focus of this paper is linguistic borrowing as a result of contact between two languages: Lubukusu, an African language spoken by the Babukusu, a sub-tribe of the Luhya ethnic group of Bungoma County, Kenya and English, a foreign language in Kenya, first introduced through European explorers, Christian missionaries, traders and the British colonialist and its resultant effect on the borrowing language.

Talking about MOTION in Middle English

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Huber
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Old English ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The Other ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Text Type ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
Contact Situation ◽  
Analysis Of Motion

Chapter 6 begins with an overview of the language contact situation with (Anglo-) French and Latin, resulting in large-scale borrowing in the Middle English period. The analysis of 465 Middle English verbs used to express intransitive motion shows that there are far more French/Latin loans in the path verbs than in the other motion verbs. The range of (new) manner of motion verbs testifies to the manner salience of Middle English: caused motion verbs are also found in intransitive motion meanings, as are French loans which do not have motion uses in continental French. Their motion uses in Anglo-Norman are discussed in terms of contact influence of Middle English. The analysis of motion expression in different texts yields a picture similar to the situation in Old English, with path typically expressed in satellites, and neutral as well as manner of motion verbs being most frequent, depending on text type.

Isoglosses and language change: Evidence of the rise and loss of isoglosses from a comparison of early Greek and early English

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-575
Author(s):  
Nikolaos Lavidas
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
The Other ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Considerable Distance ◽  
Causative Constructions ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Structural Ambiguity ◽  
Early English ◽  
Aspectual Verbs

Abstract We analyze the rise and loss of isoglosses in two Indo-European languages, early Greek and early English, which, however, show considerable distance between their structures in many other domains. We follow Keidan’s approach (2013), that has drawn the attention on the fact that the study of isoglosses (i.e., linguistic features common to two or more languages) is connected with common innovations of particular languages after the split into sub-groups of Indo-European: this type of approach aims at collecting isoglosses that appear across the branches of Indo-European. We examine the rise of the isogloss of labile verbs and the loss of the isogloss of the two classes of aspectual verbs in early Greek and early English. Our study shows that the rise of labile verbs in both languages is related to the innovative use of intransitives in causative constructions. On the other hand, the innovations in voice morphology follow different directions in Greek and English and are unrelated to the rise of labile verbs. In contrast to labile verbs, which are still predominant for causative-anticausative constructions in both languages, the two classes of aspectual verbs are lost in the later stages of Greek but are predominant even in Present-day English. Again, a “prerequisite” change for the isogloss can be easily located in a structural ambiguity that is relevant for aspectual verbs in early Greek and early English. However, another independent development, the changes in verbal complementation (the development of infinitival and participial complements) in Greek and English, determined the loss of this isogloss.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document