ACLC-UvA
Project on Language typology and Language contact
A.
Background.
Many
studies in language contact show that languages that are spoken within the same
speech community borrow lexical elements from each other, which may belong to
different parts of speech. Apart from this, a number of syntactic and
morphological properties may be borrowed, such as relative clauses,
inflectional affixes etcetera. The latter occurs if language contact takes
place over a long period, and is very intensive, with widespread bilingualism.
In an extreme case, languages may be completely ‘relexified’, as exemplified by
Media Lengua (cf. Muysken 1981).
Harris
& Campbell (1995: 122f) discuss eight principles, proposed in the relevant
literature, which would determine the possible patterns of borrowing and their
limits. They provide counterexamples to each principle and suggest that the
principles should be considered as tendencies at best. Thomason & Kaufmann
(1988: 4) go even further in claiming that there are no principled restrictions
on borrowing between any pair of languages. However, if one compares the
results of several bilingual case studies in language contact it becomes clear
that borrowing processes are not completely at random. Depending on the length
of the contact period and the nature of the interaction the borrowing process
seems to be influenced by linguistic properties of the languages concerned.
More specifically, lexical items are more easily borrowed to the extent that
they fit into the part of speech system and the syntax of the borrowing
language. A comparison of corpus counts in Hekking & Muysken (1995) and
Hekking & Bakker (1999) shows that Quechua, an Andean language from Peru
borrows considerably more adjectives from Spanish than Otomí, an Otomangue
language from Mexico. In both studies the amount of Spanish loans in the
corpora under consideration is around 20 percent of the tokens. Classical Otomí
does not have adjectives as opposed to Quechua. The opposite happens with prepositions.
Although these do not occur in Classical Otomí, they harmonize with the
V-initial syntax of this language. Quechua does have adpositions, but they
appear exclusively postnominally as to be expected in a SOV language (cf.
Greenberg 1963; Hawkins 198x). Bakker & Hekking (1999) relate these
observations to several theoretical principles of Functional Grammar (FG; Dik
1997), a linguistic theory that is firmly rooted in language typology. More
specifically these observations appear to be in harmony with the typology of
parts of speech as formulated in Hengeveld (1992), and developed in ensuing
work (cf. Hengeveld 1997; Hengeveld 2003). All the more reason to investigate
the claims made in earlier typological work about the (im)possibilities of
borrowing, and to do it against the backdrop of a well-established theoretical
framework such as FG.
B. Description of the project
1. Aim of the project. The aim of the project is to investigate the effects of intensive
language contact and bilingualism in Spanish for the lexicon and the grammar of
several typologically different Amerindian languages. More specifically, the
aim is to determine to what extent the typology of the languages concerned
predicts which lexical and grammatical changes are likely to take place and
which are not.
2. Description of the project. The project is mainly typological-descriptive and theoretical in nature and its results may be integrated into programmes of language teaching and preservation. The project consists in an in-depth comparison of borrowing phenomena stemming from several language contact pairs. In the first place this will concern lexical borrowings, but also cases of structural loans will be investigated. A global hypothesis will be that borrowing takes place in harmony with the principles of the Functional Grammar theory, and more specifically with the subtheory on parts of speech. The concrete prediction is that the typological distance between source language and target language of the borrowing process is bridged in the order predicted by the Parts-of-Speech Hierarchy as proposed in Hengeveld (1992).
In
order to be able to relate the empirical observations to each other in an
optimal fashion an attempt will be made to control several of the research
parameters. The first of these is the source language, which will be Spanish in
all cases. The second is the target language. We will seek to attain a certain
amount of historical and cultural comparability by taking three Amerindian
languages for the target languages. Typologically, however these should be as
far apart from each other as possible. Furthermore, it is important that there
are adequate descriptions of these languages, preferably more than one and
possibly also from older diachronic stages of the languages. Apart from this,
the availability of corpora with (transcriptions of) spoken and written text is
a prerequisite. If not available yet such a corpus should be relatively easy to
come by or to set up. These requirements seem to be met if the following
languages are chosen (demographic data from Grimes 1996):
1. Quechua (Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador; most widespread variety over 1.5 million speakers)
2. Otomí (Otomangue; Mexico; more than 200.000 speakers)
3. Guaraní (Equatorial-Tucanoan; national language of Paraguay; 4.5 million speakers, more in Argentina and Bolivia)
All
these languages are spoken by considerably large speech communities, the
members of which are generally bilingual with Spanish as a second language. For
all four languages there exist good grammars and other descriptions. For Otomí
and Quechua suitable corpora are available and under further development. For
Guaraní an equivalent corpus should be produced in the early stages of the
project. This seems to be very feasible, especially since there is very close
contact with specialists in these languages. Earlier research, such as Hekking
(1995) makes it clear that a corpus of between 50.000 and 100.000 tokens should
be aimed at for each of the target languages, preferably produced by 20-30
speakers in different social and age groups and of both sexes.
Some
members of the scientific committee are directly involved in projects aimed at
the development of the use and of writing skills in the languages concerned. An
important goal of these activities is the preservation of at least the larger
of the Amerindian languages. The results of the current project may very well
add to our knowledge of the nature of bilingualism and language loss. As such
it may contribute to the development of better language preservation material
and strategies.
3.Modus
operandi. Hypotheses derived from the theory are tested on the basis of
three monolingual digitalized corpora of around 75.000 tokens for each of the
three target languages. Spanish loans in these corpora will be marked,
systematised and analysed. For these operations, use will be made of corpus
tools that have been developed and are under further development at the
Institute of General Linguistics.
4. Materials and
literature of study.
Apart from the general literature on language contact and contact induced
change and the relevant aspects of Functional Grammar and part-of-speech
theories, study should be made of the grammars of the languages concerned. In
some cases a language course may be followed.
5. Work Schedule:
Year 0-1: study of the relevant literature and
training.
Year 1-1½: pilot study on Quechua and Guarani;
intermediate report;
refining hypotheses.
Year 1½-2½: annotation and exploration of the four
corpora.
Year 2½-3: interpretation of results; intermediate report; outline of dissertation.
Year 3-4: writing of dissertation.
The project fits in the ACLC research programme The Language System, particularly, in the Functional Grammar theme. Also, it fits in the ACLC research programme The Language Blueprint inasmuch as it explores the relation between typological variation and language contact phenomena. Other related research programs are those carried out by Bakker and Hekking on language contact and language change with respect to Spanish and the languages of the Americas, and the research programme on lexical typology directed by Hengeveld.
C.
Project-related
publications
· Jorge Gómez Rendón, “La media lengua de Imbabura”, in Pieter Muysken & Hella Olbertz (editors), Lenguas en contacto en los Andes. Aspectos lingüísticos y sociales, Vervuert, (forthcoming; full text)
· Jorge Gómez Rendón, “Spanish lexical borrowing in Imbabura Quechua: a preliminary research in frequencies and tendencies” (in preparation; abstract )
· Jorge Gómez Rendón, “Testing the Parts-of-speech Hierarchy” (in preparation; abstract)
D. Project Materials
- First results (at 31.12.04) of analysis for context and morphology on Quichua (Word) and Guarani (Word) corpora.
- First results (at 31.12.04) of frequencies of Spanish lexical borrowing in Quichua (Word) and Guarani (Word) corpora.
E. References
Bakker, Dik
& Ewald Hekking (1999). A functional approach to linguistic change
through language contact: the case of Spanish and Otomí. Working Papers in Functional Grammar 71.
Bakker, Dik & Ewald Hekking (to appear). Problems with the
acquisition of a second language: the case of Otomí and Spanish. Proceedings of
the Intenational Conference of Americanists. Warsaw 2000.
Dik, Simon C.
(1997). The Theory of Functional Grammar.
Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Greenberg, Joseph H. (1963). Some universals of grammar with particular
reference to the order of meaningful elements. In J.H. Greenberg (ed.) Universals of Human Language 4 vols.
Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Grimes, Barbara F.
(ed) (1996). Ethnologue. Dallas: Summer
Institute of Linguistics.
Harris, Alice C. &
Lyle Campbell (1995). Historical syntax
in cross-linguistic perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hawkins, John A. (1983). Word Order Universals. New York: Academic Press.
Hekking, Ewald (1995). El Otomí de Santiago M: desplazamiento linguïstico, préstamos y cambios grammaticales. Doctoral thesis University of Amsterdam.
Hekking, Ewald & Pieter Muyskeen (1995). Otomí y Quechua: una
comparación de los elementos gramaticales prestados del español. In: Klaus Zimmermann (ed.) Lenguas en contacto en Hispanoamérica. Nuevos enfoques. Frankfurt am
Main: Vervuert/Iberoamericana, 101-118.
Hekking,
Ewald & Dik Bakker (1999). El Otomí y el Español de Santiago Maxquititlán: Dos lenguas en contacto.
Foro Hispánico 13, 45-74.
Hengeveld, Kees (1992). Non-verbal
predication. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Hengeveld, Kees (1997). Adverbs in Functional Grammar. In Gerd Wotjak (ed.), Toward a functional lexicology/Hacia una lexicología funcional, 121-136. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Hengeveld,
Kees, Jan Rijkhoff & Anna Siewierska (fc.). Parts-of-speech systems and word order.
Muysken, Pieter (1981).
Halfway between Quechua and Spanish: the case for Relexification. In: Arnold
Highfield & Albert Valdman (eds) Historicity
and variation in creole studies. Ann Arbor: Karoma, 52-78.
Thomason, Sarah Gray & Terrence Kaufman (1988). Language contact, Creolization and Genetic
Linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press.
F. Related bibliography on language contact and change
Arends, Jaques (ed.) (1995), The Early Stages of Creolization, Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Arends, Jaques, Muysken, Pieter and Smith Norval (eds.) (1995), Pidgins and Creoles, An Introduction, Amsterdam Benjamins
Backus, Ad (1992), Patterns of language mixing: A Study of Turkish-Dutch Bilingualism. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Bakker, Peter, and Mous, Maarten (eds.)
(1994), Mixed languages: 15 Case Studies in Language Intertwining, Amsterdam:
IFOTT
Bakker, Peter, and Muysken, Pieter (1995),
“Mixed languages and Language Intertwining”, in Arends, Muysken and Smith
(1995), 41-52
Body, Sally (1997), “Patterns of
Incorporation of Lexemes in Language Contact: Language Typology or
Sociolinguistics?”, in Gregory Guy, Crawford Feagin, Deborah Schriffrin, and
John Baugh (eds.), Towards a Social Science of Language, vol. II, 259-83,
Amsterdam: Benjamins.
`von`Goebl, Hans, Nelde, Peter, Stary
Zdenek, and Wölk, Wolfgang (eds.) (1996), Kontaktlinguistik: Ein
internationales Handbuch zeitgenössischer Forschung, Berlin: Walter de Gryuter.
Gross, Steven (200”b), “When two becom
one: crating a composite grammar in creole formation”, International Journal of
Bilingualism, 4/1: 59-80.
Haugen, Einar (1992), “Borrowing: an
Overview”, in William Bright (ed.), International Encyclopoedia of Linguistics,
197-200. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Hill, Jane, and Hill, Kenneth (1977),
“Language death and relexification in Tlaxcalan Nahuatl”, International Journal
of the Sociology of Language, 12:55-69
Jake, Janice, and Myers-Scotton, Carol
(1997a), “Codeswitching and Compromise Strategies: implications for lexical
structure”, International Jounral of Bilingualism, 1: 25-39.
Lefebvre, Claire (2001), “The Interplay of
Relexification and Leveling in Creole Genersis and Development”, Linguistics,
39: 371-408.
Lumsden, John (1999b), “The Role of
Relexification in Creole Genesis”, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 14:
225-58.
MacSqan, Jeff (1999) A minimalist approach
to intrasentential code switching: Spanish-Nahuatl Bilingualism in Central
Mexico. New York: Garland.
Mous, Maarten (forthcoming), “The
linguistic properties of lexical manipulation and its relevance for Ma’a and
for Mixed Languages in General: to appear in Peter Bakker and Yaron Matras
(eds.), The Mixed Languages Debate. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter
Muysken, Pieter (1981), “Halfway between
Quechua and Spanish: The case for Relexification”, in ArnoldHighfield and
Albert Valdman (eds.), Historicity and Variation in Creole Studies, 52-78. Ann
Arbor: Karoma.
Muysken Pieter (1995), “Code-switching and
grammatical theory”, in Lesley Milroy and Pieter Muysken (eds.), One Speaker,
Two Languages, 177-198. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Muysken Pieter (1997), “Code-switching processes: an alternation, insertion, congruent lexicalization”, in Martin Pütz (ed.), Language Choices, Conditions, Constraints and Consequences, 361-80. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Talmy Leonard (1985), “Lexicalization
patterns:semantic structure in lexical forms@,in Timothy Shopen (ed.),
LanguageTypology and Syntactic Description, 57-149, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Thomason, Sarah (1997a), Contact
Languages: a wider perspective. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
G. Related links
· For a comprehensive description of the Languague Blueprint Program of the Amsterdam Center of Language and Communication in whose theoretical frame the project is developed, click here
· For a useful website on Quechua language and culture, including a dictionary, a basic grammar, a basic bibliography, and links to the best Quechua sites on the web, visit Quechua
· For a useful website on Guarani language, an online Guarani-Spanish dictionary, and many other interesting related information, visit Wolf Lustig’s Guarani Ñanduti Rogue
· For the Ethnologue report on Otomanguean and Otomian languages, click here