Tridha Chatterjee | University of Michigan (original) (raw)
Uploads
Papers by Tridha Chatterjee
Languages, 2016
This paper investigates structural changes in the use of Bengali-English bilingual verbs through ... more This paper investigates structural changes in the use of Bengali-English bilingual verbs through the exploration of Bengali film scripts from three decades: the 1970s, 1990s and post-2010. Previous research has shown that the increase in use of bilingual verbs, especially involving embedded language lexical verbs with matrix language helping verbs possibly results from increased bilingual proficiency. Over the past years, the use of English, including code-switching between Indian languages and English has increased dramatically in Indian society. Given this development, this paper explores film data to ascertain the extent to which the use of bilingual verbs, closely connected to code-switching and bilingual speech, has also changed diachronically in Bengali-English speech and if these changes occur from increased levels of bilingual proficiency. In connection with structural change, this paper also discusses the sociolinguistic factors that may be related to bilingual verb use. Results show a massive increase in bilingual verbs in the films post-2010, especially the ones involving English lexical verbs. Increased use of code-switching may have played a role in these changes and sociolinguistic factors related to the use of bilingual verbs seem to be less relevant now as compared to the earlier decades.
Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 2012
10 sections, max 25 students in each section) taught by multiple instructors. The assignment is d... more 10 sections, max 25 students in each section) taught by multiple instructors. The assignment is designed as a term project. With one or two preparatory class meetings, this twopart project (three-part including the learning) could be completed in 4-5 weeks, culminating in group presentations. The assignment would be best given toward the end of the semester as a capstone project after students have gained in-depth knowledge on mechanisms and adaptive functions of animal communication systems and the class has firmly established an environment of a learning community. In terms of the skill set, it only requires the basic research, writing, and communication skills that have been learned in lower division courses. The entire process of the project is described in the three separate documents as follows: (1) General Instructions, (2) Review Paper, and (3) Group Presentation. As such, the text below is partitioned into three sections, each of which corresponds to one of the three documents.
This dissertation examines the nature of bidirectional influences in Bengali and English in the u... more This dissertation examines the nature of bidirectional influences in Bengali and English in the understudied bi/multilingual setting of West Bengal, India. Close contact between the two languages has resulted in extensive bilingualism in a section of the population. In order to get a better understanding of language change and development in this community, the following research questions are investigated: i) What types of contact effects are observable in Bengali today? ii) Which grammatical features in bilingual Bengali-English have changed under contact and which ones result from language-internal developments? iii) How can we ascertain that new properties found in bilingual Bengali-English are contact-induced? iv) What are the grammatical differences between monolingual and bilingual Bengali? These questions are addressed from both diachronic and synchronic standpoints. Two corpora of spoken monolingual and bilingual Bengali, collected and compiled through fieldwork in India, were compared with nineteenthcentury Bengali plays for a set of linguistic features, following the methodology of Thomason (2001). Further, a corpus of English speech was collected from Bengali-English bilinguals and analyzed to evaluate what types of changes occurred in English. This investigation has also been complemented with a quantitative analysis of the distribution of linguistic features in the corpora, following a variationist methodology (Poplack & Levey 2010). The findings indicate that English influence has led to extensive code-switching, heavy lexical borrowing in Bengali, and morphosyntactic changes in the domain of bilingual Bengali-English complex verbs, formed with English nouns or verbs and the 'do' verb from Bengali. Change was also identified in Bengali equational sentences, where a new meaning and position of the hocche 'be' verb, which was unattested in the nineteenth-century Bengali plays, were argued to emerge from multiple causation. The English data reveals slight divergences in the use of articles and progressive forms, which have resulted partially from interference from Bengali, but are mostly conditioned by bilingual speakers' different proficiency levels in English. These findings provide evidence for overall stability in the grammar of both languages (specifically for the subject pool that was tested in this dissertation), despite the presence of extensive bilingualism in the community.
Languages, 2016
This paper investigates structural changes in the use of Bengali-English bilingual verbs through ... more This paper investigates structural changes in the use of Bengali-English bilingual verbs through the exploration of Bengali film scripts from three decades: the 1970s, 1990s and post-2010. Previous research has shown that the increase in use of bilingual verbs, especially involving embedded language lexical verbs with matrix language helping verbs possibly results from increased bilingual proficiency. Over the past years, the use of English, including code-switching between Indian languages and English has increased dramatically in Indian society. Given this development, this paper explores film data to ascertain the extent to which the use of bilingual verbs, closely connected to code-switching and bilingual speech, has also changed diachronically in Bengali-English speech and if these changes occur from increased levels of bilingual proficiency. In connection with structural change, this paper also discusses the sociolinguistic factors that may be related to bilingual verb use. Results show a massive increase in bilingual verbs in the films post-2010, especially the ones involving English lexical verbs. Increased use of code-switching may have played a role in these changes and sociolinguistic factors related to the use of bilingual verbs seem to be less relevant now as compared to the earlier decades.
Languages, 2016
This paper investigates structural changes in the use of Bengali-English bilingual verbs through ... more This paper investigates structural changes in the use of Bengali-English bilingual verbs through the exploration of Bengali film scripts from three decades: the 1970s, 1990s and post-2010. Previous research has shown that the increase in use of bilingual verbs, especially involving embedded language lexical verbs with matrix language helping verbs possibly results from increased bilingual proficiency. Over the past years, the use of English, including code-switching between Indian languages and English has increased dramatically in Indian society. Given this development, this paper explores film data to ascertain the extent to which the use of bilingual verbs, closely connected to code-switching and bilingual speech, has also changed diachronically in Bengali-English speech and if these changes occur from increased levels of bilingual proficiency. In connection with structural change, this paper also discusses the sociolinguistic factors that may be related to bilingual verb use. Results show a massive increase in bilingual verbs in the films post-2010, especially the ones involving English lexical verbs. Increased use of code-switching may have played a role in these changes and sociolinguistic factors related to the use of bilingual verbs seem to be less relevant now as compared to the earlier decades.
Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 2012
10 sections, max 25 students in each section) taught by multiple instructors. The assignment is d... more 10 sections, max 25 students in each section) taught by multiple instructors. The assignment is designed as a term project. With one or two preparatory class meetings, this twopart project (three-part including the learning) could be completed in 4-5 weeks, culminating in group presentations. The assignment would be best given toward the end of the semester as a capstone project after students have gained in-depth knowledge on mechanisms and adaptive functions of animal communication systems and the class has firmly established an environment of a learning community. In terms of the skill set, it only requires the basic research, writing, and communication skills that have been learned in lower division courses. The entire process of the project is described in the three separate documents as follows: (1) General Instructions, (2) Review Paper, and (3) Group Presentation. As such, the text below is partitioned into three sections, each of which corresponds to one of the three documents.
This dissertation examines the nature of bidirectional influences in Bengali and English in the u... more This dissertation examines the nature of bidirectional influences in Bengali and English in the understudied bi/multilingual setting of West Bengal, India. Close contact between the two languages has resulted in extensive bilingualism in a section of the population. In order to get a better understanding of language change and development in this community, the following research questions are investigated: i) What types of contact effects are observable in Bengali today? ii) Which grammatical features in bilingual Bengali-English have changed under contact and which ones result from language-internal developments? iii) How can we ascertain that new properties found in bilingual Bengali-English are contact-induced? iv) What are the grammatical differences between monolingual and bilingual Bengali? These questions are addressed from both diachronic and synchronic standpoints. Two corpora of spoken monolingual and bilingual Bengali, collected and compiled through fieldwork in India, were compared with nineteenthcentury Bengali plays for a set of linguistic features, following the methodology of Thomason (2001). Further, a corpus of English speech was collected from Bengali-English bilinguals and analyzed to evaluate what types of changes occurred in English. This investigation has also been complemented with a quantitative analysis of the distribution of linguistic features in the corpora, following a variationist methodology (Poplack & Levey 2010). The findings indicate that English influence has led to extensive code-switching, heavy lexical borrowing in Bengali, and morphosyntactic changes in the domain of bilingual Bengali-English complex verbs, formed with English nouns or verbs and the 'do' verb from Bengali. Change was also identified in Bengali equational sentences, where a new meaning and position of the hocche 'be' verb, which was unattested in the nineteenth-century Bengali plays, were argued to emerge from multiple causation. The English data reveals slight divergences in the use of articles and progressive forms, which have resulted partially from interference from Bengali, but are mostly conditioned by bilingual speakers' different proficiency levels in English. These findings provide evidence for overall stability in the grammar of both languages (specifically for the subject pool that was tested in this dissertation), despite the presence of extensive bilingualism in the community.
Languages, 2016
This paper investigates structural changes in the use of Bengali-English bilingual verbs through ... more This paper investigates structural changes in the use of Bengali-English bilingual verbs through the exploration of Bengali film scripts from three decades: the 1970s, 1990s and post-2010. Previous research has shown that the increase in use of bilingual verbs, especially involving embedded language lexical verbs with matrix language helping verbs possibly results from increased bilingual proficiency. Over the past years, the use of English, including code-switching between Indian languages and English has increased dramatically in Indian society. Given this development, this paper explores film data to ascertain the extent to which the use of bilingual verbs, closely connected to code-switching and bilingual speech, has also changed diachronically in Bengali-English speech and if these changes occur from increased levels of bilingual proficiency. In connection with structural change, this paper also discusses the sociolinguistic factors that may be related to bilingual verb use. Results show a massive increase in bilingual verbs in the films post-2010, especially the ones involving English lexical verbs. Increased use of code-switching may have played a role in these changes and sociolinguistic factors related to the use of bilingual verbs seem to be less relevant now as compared to the earlier decades.