Browsing by Subject "Language contact"
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Item Definiteness marking in Moroccan Arabic : contact, divergence, and semantic change(2013-08) Turner, Michael Lee; Brustad, KristenThe aim of the present study is to cast new light on the nature of definiteness marking in Moroccan Arabic (MA). Previous work on the dialect group has described its definiteness system as similar to that of other Arabic varieties, where indefinite entities are unmarked and a "definite article" /l-/ modifies nouns to convey a definite meaning. Such descriptions, however, do not fully account for the behavior of MA nouns in spontaneous natural speech, as found in the small self-collected corpus that informs the study: on one hand, /l-/ can and regularly does co-occur with indefinite meanings; on the other, a number of nouns can exhibit definiteness even in the absence of /l-/. In response to these challenges, the study puts forth an alternate synchronic description the system, arguing that the historical definite article */l-/ has in fact lost its association with definiteness and has instead become lexicalized into an unmarked form of the noun that can appear in any number of semantic contexts. Relatedly, the study argues that the historically indefinite form *Ø has come under heavy syntactic constraints and can best be described as derived from the new unmarked form via a process of phonologically conditioned disfixation, represented {- /l/}. At the same time, MA has also apparently retained an older particle ši and developed an article waħəd, both of which can be used to express different types of indefinite meanings. To support the plausibility of this new description, the study turns to the linguistic history of definiteness in MA, describing how a combination of internal and external impetuses for change likely pushed the dialect toward article loss, a development upon which semantic reanalysis and syntactic restructuring of other forms then followed. If the claim that MA no longer overtly marks definiteness is indeed correct, the study could have a significant impact on work that used previous MA descriptions to make grammaticality judgments, as well as be of value to future work on processes of grammaticalization and language contact.Item The impact of social factors on the use of Arabic-French code-switching in speech and IM in Morocco(2015-05) Post, Rebekah Elizabeth; Bullock, Barbara E.; Blyth, Carl; Wettlaufer, Alexandra K; Brustad, Kristen; Toribio, Almeida JacquelineThe use of French in code-switching (CS) with Moroccan Colloquial Arabic (MCA) has been explored qualitatively in a number of studies, but quantitative methods have rarely been applied to CS in this language pair. Research on CS patterns as a function of extra-linguistic factors has similarly received little attention, despite the implication in many studies that these factors are significant in the use of CS. This dissertation seeks to address these gaps in the literature by quantitatively examining the use of Arabic-French CS by young adult speakers of MCA in spoken and written information communication. This study examines three extra-linguistic factors in speech and Instant Messaging (IM): Sex, French Proficiency, and Language Attitude. The analysis reveals that male speakers are significantly more French in written IM. Positive attitude toward French and MCA-French CS has a highly significant impact on the rate of French employed in spoken conversation. Meaningful results are also found for the French constituents employed in CS with regard to each of the extra-linguistic factors. Notable differences are found between sexes in the types of French constituents used in both communication modes, as well as for speakers of different French proficiency levels. The categorization of French-origin nouns as instances of CS or borrowing is also explored by considering multiple aspects of use of these lexical items. A number of French-origin nouns, absent from dictionaries of MCA, are proposed to now be borrowed into the dialect. The analysis also reveals a number of French-origin words that are used by a number of speakers, but remain instances of CS. The results of this investigation highlight the importance of quantification in studies of CS and provide data for comparison with other corpora from this and other language pairs. The differences identified in CS by communication mode indicate that there is a need for a model of written CS that accounts for the unique characteristics of this mode. Finally, little work has been published on the relationship between extra-linguistic factors and structural patterns in CS, but the current results suggest that the impact of social factors should not be ignored when considering structural aspects of CS.Item Language, culture and ethnicity : interplay of ideologies within a Japanese community in Brazil(2011-05) Sakuma, Tomoko; Hancock, Ian F.; Epps, Patience L.; King, Robert D.; Nishida, Chiyo; Traphagan, John W.This dissertation is a sociolinguistic study of the ideologies about language, culture and ethnicity among Japanese immigrants and descendants in Brazil (hereafter, Nikkeis) who gather at a local Japanese cultural association, searching for what it means to be “Japanese” in Brazil. This study focuses on how linguistic behaviors are ideologically understood and associated with cultural activities and ethnic identities. Using the language ideologies framework, it seeks to describe the ways in which Nikkeis negotiate and create social meanings of language in both local and transnational contexts. Nikkeis are an overwhelmingly celebrated minority group in Brazil. In this context, the cultural association serves as a site where symbolic cultural differences are constructed by those Nikkeis who strive to identify themselves as a prestigious minority. This study demonstrates that the Japanese language is one of the important resources in performing the Nikkei identity. At the same time, due to an on-going language shift, Portuguese as a means of communication is becoming increasingly more important for cultural transmission. Thus, the members of the association, which include both Japanese monolinguals and Portuguese monolinguals, are in constant negotiation, trying to strike a balance between symbolic values of Japanese, pragmatic values of Portuguese, as well as their own language competencies. The goal of this project is to answer the following three research questions: 1) What social meanings do Nikkeis assign to Japanese and Portuguese, and how does this perception affect Nikkeis’ identity formation? 2) What are the characteristics of linguistic practices in the association and how do the speakers use available linguistic resources to construct identities? 3) How can this study inform us about the transforming reality of the Japanese Brazilian community in this global age? Contributions of this study include furthering of the sociolinguistic research on language ideologies, linguistic practices and identity construction in an immigrant community. It also contributes to the study of language shift, by underscoring the role of language ideologies in rationalizing language choices. This project is also significant for the study of Japanese diaspora in Latin America, providing the first sociolinguistic investigation of a Japanese cultural association in Brazil.Item Linguistic inheritance, social difference, and the last two thousand years of contact among Lowland Mayan languages(2011-05) Law, Daniel Aaron; Stross, Brian; England, Nora C.; Epps, Patience; Stuart, David; Hanks, William; Woodbury, AnthonyThe analysis of language contact phenomena, as with many types of linguistic analysis, starts from the similarity and difference of linguistic systems. This dissertation will examine the consequences of linguistic similarity and the social construction of difference in the ‘Lowland Mayan linguistic area’, a region spanning parts of Guatemala, Southern Mexico, Belize and Honduras, in which related languages, all belonging to the Mayan language family, have been in intensive contact with each other over at least the past two millennia. The linguistic outcomes of this contact are described in detail in the dissertation. They include contact-induced changes in the phonology, morphology, and syntax of the languages involved of a type and degree that seems to contravene otherwise robust cross-linguistic tendencies. I propose that these cross-linguistically unusual outcomes of language contact in the Maya Lowlands result, in part, from an awareness of the inherited similarities between these languages, and in part from the role that linguistic features, but not languages as whole systems, appear to have played in the formation of community or other identities. This dissertation investigates two complementary questions about language contact phenomena that can be ideally explored through the study of languages with a high level of inherited similarity in contact with one another. The first is how historically specific, dynamic strategies and processes of constructing and asserting group identity and difference, as well as the role that language plays in these, can condition the outcomes of language contact. The second is more language internal: what role does (formal, structural) inherited similarity play in conditioning the outcome of language contact between related languages? These two questions are connected in the following hypothesis: that inherited linguistic similarity can itself be an important resource in the construction of identity and difference in particular social settings, and that the awareness of similarity between languages (mediated, as it is, by these processes of identity construction) facilitates contact-induced changes that are unlikely, or even unavailable without that perception of sameness. This proposal carries with it a call for more research on contact between related languages as related languages, and not as utterly separate systems.Item Null objects in Basque Spanish and the issue of language dominance(2010-12) Zinkunegi Uzkudun, Iera; Toribio, Almeida Jacqueline, 1963-; Nishida, ChiyoReferential null objects are attested in several varieties of Spanish that are in contact with other languages. Some of them coexist with languages with rich agreement system, e.g., Spanish in contact with Quechua and Basque (cf., e.g., Landa 1995; Franco 1993; Sánchez 1998). The availability of such null objects is thought to be due to some type of transfer from the contact language. As such, bilingualism and language dominance are relevant in determining whether or not a speaker drops objects. One objective of this work is to examine the Spanish language forms of Basque-Spanish speakers of disparate levels of Spanish and Basque abilities, with the aim of determining the role of dominance in the occurrence of null objects. Results obtained from naturalistic data contradict previous claims on dominance. Statistical analysis concludes that dominance is not a factor that determines the occurrence of null objects. Furthermore, closer analysis of the data suggests that these findings challenge previous hypotheses regarding the semantic nature that licenses null objects. Data conflicts with claims on animacy being the feature that allows object drop demonstrating that the picture is less clear than suggested in earlier proposals.Item A re-examination of the origins of Romani(2013-12) John, Vijay George; Hancock, Ian F.Romani Studies as an academic discipline emerged in the 18th century with scholars such as Rüdiger (1782) and Grellmann (1783). At that time, two main hypotheses regarding the origin of the Roma formed that, in some variation, still have their adherents today. Rüdiger argued that the Roma’s ancestors left India because of invading armies, whereas Grellmann argued that they were social outcasts. This thesis argues in support of a military origin of the Roma and a koïné origin of the Romani language by bringing together linguistic, sociohistorical, and genetic evidence.Item Texas Alsatian : Henri Castro's legacy(2009-12) Roesch, Karen A.; Boas, Hans Christian, 1971-; Pierce, Marc; King, Robert D; Epps, Patience; Hinrichs, LarsThis study constitutes the first in-depth description and analysis of Texas Alsatian as spoken in Medina County, Texas, in the twenty-first century. The Alsatian dialect was transported to Texas in 1842, when the entrepreneur Henri Castro recruited colonists from the Alsace to fulfill the Texas Republic’s stipulations for populating his land grant located to the west of San Antonio. Texas Alsatian (TxAls)is a dialect distinct from other varieties of Texas German (Gilbert 1972: 1, Salmons 1983: 191) and is mainly spoken in Eastern Medina County in and around the city of Castroville. With a small and aging speaker population, it has not been transmitted to the next generation and will likely survive for only another two to three decades. Despite this endangered status, TxAls is a language undergoing death with minimal change. This study provides both a descriptive account of TxAls and discussions on extralinguistic factors linked to ethnic identity and language loyalty, which have enabled the maintenance of this distinctive Texas German dialect for 150 years. To investigate the extent of the maintenance of lexical, phonological, and morphological features, this study identifies the main donor dialect(s), Upper Rhine Alsatian, and compares its linguistic features to those presently maintained in the community, based on current data collected between 2007 and 2009 and Gilbert’s (1972) data collected in the 1960s. This discussion of TxAls is three-fold: (1) an analysis of social, historical, political, and economic factors affecting the maintenance and decline of TxAls, (2) a detailed structural analysis of the grammatical features of TxAls, supported by a description of its European donor dialect and substantiated by Gilbert’s (1972) data, and (3) a discussion of the participants’ attitudes toward their ancestral language, which have either contributed to the maintenance of TxAls, or are now accelerating its decline, based on responses to a survey developed for the TxAls community, the Alsatian Questionnaire.