Grammars In Contact: a cross-linguistic typology (original) (raw)

2007, Oxford University Press eBooks

This glossary summarizes the terminological conventions adopted throughout this volume. This is done in order to avoid temllnoiogical and conceptual confusion. When appropriate, we provide the number of a section of Chapter 1 where a particular point is discussed in detail. or a major reference on the subject. References are at the end of Chapter L balanced language contact occurs in a long-standing linguistic area with no significant dominance relationships (or with stable, traditional hierarchical relations) among languages. There is no pressure to shift languages, and the net result is increase of linguistic complexity and typological diversity (§4.2.3 of Chapter 1). borrowing implies transfer of linguistic fea tures of any kind from one language to another as the result of contact. (Borrowing of forms is known as direct diffusion, and borrowing of patterns as indirect diffusion: Heath 1978; Aikhen vald 2002.) code mixing and code switching refer to the alternative use of two languages either within a sentence or across sentence boundaries. We distinguish between • code switch ing which follows established conventions and practices and has certain functions (e.g. used to quote someone; to indicate one's authority, or allegiance: see Clyne 1987: 740) and • spontaneous code mixing which does not obey such pragmati c rules (see Hill and Hill 1986: 348). Borrowings and code switches are extremes on a continuum potentially distinguished by • frequency of occurrence (code switches are often one-off occurrences); • phonological integration; • morpho-syntactic integration; and • lexical criteria: ((I) does an equivalent exist in the other language? (b) if so, is it in use in the community? (c) is the equivalent known to the speaker? (d) to which language does the individual regard the word as belonging? (e) is it in use by monolingual speakers? Glossary of Terms See Bernsten and Myers-Scotton ('993: 145), on the absence of a watertight difference between borrowing and code switching; and a summary in Heath (1989: 40-1). convergence is a process whereby languages in contact gradually become more like each other in terms of grammatical categories and constructions (§4.3 of Chapter .). diffusion is the spread of a linguistic feature within a geographical area or between languages. Diffusion can be unilateral (wbere A affects B) or multilateral (where A affects B in some ways and B affects A in others). displacive language contact occurs when one group aggressively imposes its language on another group. It promotes language displacement. loss of the language's own feat'lles, and, ultimately, language sbift (§4.2.3 of Chapter 1). grammatical accommodation involves a change in meaning of a morphological marker or a syntactic construction based on superficial segmentaJ similarity with a marker or a construction in a different language. (§3.3 of Chapter 1; Haugen 1969 uses the tenn 'homophonous extensions', while Campbell ('987) calls these 'shifts due to phonetic similarity'. grammaticalization is the process whereby an item with lexical status changes into an item with granunatical status (§3.3 of Chapter I, Heine and Kuteva 2005). A typical example of grammaticalization is the verb 'Knish' becoming a marker for 'completed' aspect. Grammaticalization necessarily involves reanalysis (see Harris and Campbell'995: 92). language engineering refers to conscious human effort to effectuate language change (§4.2.2 of Chapter .). layered languages are languages with a significant proportion of forms and patterns recognizable as resulting fro m diffusion from other language(s) which makes them atypicaJ representatives of language families or subgroups they belong to. The core lexicon and morphology allow liS to unequivocally trace a layered language to one proto-language (§ §2.1, 2.4 of Chapter .). vocabulary), phonological, morphological, and syntactic features. Superstratum, or superstrate, refers to the influence exercised by a language spoken by a dominant group over that of a subordinate group. Adstratum, or adstrate, refers to one language influencing another, without dominating it. This term is occasionally employed as superordinate for substratum , adstratum, and superstratum. The dangers of overusing the id ea of substratum in explaining language change are outlined by Trask (2000: 328-9) and Thurston (1987) .