Matras, Yaron. 2000. Mixed languages: A functional-communicative approach. Bilingualism: Language & Cognition 3-2, 79-99. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Mixed languages: From core to fringe
New Perspectives on Mixed Languages, 2021
Introduction Mixed languages present an intriguing type of language contact. They arise in bilingual settings, often as markers of identity or as secret languages, and they combine parts from different language families or branches, showing unique splits that challenge theories of genetic classification and contact-induced change. Thomason and Kaufman (1988) identified mixed languages as a type of contact language in its own right, and since then, research on mixed languages has grown into a subfield of contact linguistics (Bakker and Mous 1994; Matras and Bakker 2003). So far, around forty languages from diverse backgrounds have been identified as "mixed" (Meakins 2013: 161-164). However, the status of many varieties is unclear. This volume examines the current state of the theoretical and empirical debate on mixed languages and presents new descriptive advances from a diverse set of mixed language varieties. These cover well-known mixed languages, such as Media Lengua, Michif, and Kallawaya, and varieties whose classification is still debated, such as Barranquenho, Cité Duits, Jopara, and Wutun. Split ancestry, change by deliberation, bilingualism, stability as a language and the degree of mixing have been proposed as defining factors for mixed languages. However, the debate on the existence of the category of "mixed languages" still continues today and centers around two questions (Auer 2014; Versteegh 2017). Should mixed languages be seen as a distinct category of unmixed languages with types of mixing that differ from ordinary cases of borrowing? Or are they extreme cases on a continuum where mixed languages are at one end and ordinary borrowing is at the other? The distinctiveness take on these issues sees mixed languages as a distinct category with structural mixing patterns and social contexts that differ from code-switching or ordinary borrowing (Bakker 1997, 2003: 142). The continuum view (e.g. Auer 1999, 2014; Croft 2003; Myers-Scotton 2003; Meakins 2011) posits no clear boundary between mixed languages and others or the processes involved and sees the question of distinctiveness as an issue of gradience and conventionalization of code-switching patterns. Cases where the path from code-mixing to a stable mixed language has been documented are Gurindji Kriol (McConvell and Meakins 2005) and Light Warlpiri (O'Shannessy 2011). A motivation for maintaining mixed languages as a typological category is that it captures some exceptional features of these languages, and therefore is of functional value for theories of language contact. Matras (2000, 2003) defined this exceptional character as the tendency for the new variety to acquire wholesale lexical items pertaining to a specific category (e.g. all stems, all nouns), and consequently, as the ability to borrow grammatical features otherwise highly resistant to borrowing, while Bakker (2003) places the emphasis on the quantity of borrowed items. In this introduction, we want to clarify how to classify mixed languages within their category based on sociohistorical and typological definitions. We also want to explore how established cases differ from borderline cases, and how these differences inform the debate on gradience vs. distinctiveness. To answer these questions, we will offer an integrated typology of mixed languages based on sociohistorical and structural factors and present the issues that the chapters in this volume shed further light on. These include both structural and social factors conditioning mixing and cases at the fringe of the category of mixed languages, special cases of borrowing, and the mixing of closely related varieties. 2. Classification of mixed languages: towards an integrated typology 2.1. Sociohistorical classification
Mixed Languages (Studies in Language and Language Use 13), 1994
The case studies in this book form a valuable challenge and contribution to historical linguistics. The changes are spectacular in outcome and - when recoverable- in speed. The correlation of the mixture and the social context is crucial in the understanding of the processes involved. We hope that the contributions to this book will help to make the study of mixed languages and their genesis a respectable field within historical linguistics and sociolinguistics. They show the manifest necessity in the study of these languages that historical and social factors should be linked with structural and typological properties of the languages involved. Only in this way can one try to unravel the genesis of these mixed languages. The social factors, and not linguistic ones, are responsible for the emergence of mixed languages. We further realize that languages like these (especially in their dichotomy of grammar and lexicon) challenge various assumptions made in psycholinguistic and formal linguistic theories. The comparative study of mixed languages is only just beginning. This book provides materials and analyses on individual mixed languages rather than a unified theory. Only with the availability of these materials can a serious comparative study begin.
From language mixing to fused lects: The process and its outcomes
International Journal of Bilingualism, 2021
Objectives: In this introductory article, we advance a unified framework for analysis and interpretation of transfer of overt linguistic structure in language contact situations. Our goal is to demonstrate that fusion, a process whereby results of bilingual practices become grammaticized and conventionalized (see Auer 1999, 2014), is a gradient phenomenon, which applies to a large spectrum of language contact phenomena. Our additional objective is to situate the contributions to this special issue in the context of this approach. Design: The article defines fusion as a central concept underlying the proposed framework, identifies the basic dimensions of fusion and showcases its various outcomes by reviewing extensive contact linguistics literature and the contributions to this special issue. Data and Analysis: In our analysis of contact linguistic phenomena, we draw on available linguistic descriptions of pertinent contact varieties and bilingual practices. We examine these phenomena in terms of fusion and in relation to its three basic dimensions. Findings: This article shows that fusion, being a gradient multifaceted phenomenon, should be analyzed along the following dimensions: (a) the amount of structure affecting the receiving language , (b) the degree of sedimentation of bilingual patterns, (c) the degree of fusional compartmentalization. Significance: The present article identifies and describes manifold outcomes of fusion in terms of three basis dimensions. These dimensions enable one to distinguish fused lects from language mixing and other bilingual phenomena and need therefore be incorporated in future linguistic descriptions and analyses of fused lects.
In S. Mufwene & A. M. Escobar (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of language contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mixed languages are a category of contact language, which emerges in bilingual contexts where a common language is already present but drastic social change is underway. In this respect, they do not serve a communicative function, but rather as markers of an in-group identity. Mixed languages combine the vocabulary and grammar of both languages to different degrees, but to such an extent that the new language cannot be classified as belonging to either family. Beyond this very general definition, mixed languages show considerable diversity in structure, social function and historical origins, with little obvious predictive power, i.e. different socio-historical circumstances result in typologically similar mixed languages, and different structural and lexical mixes arise from similar contact situations. Nonetheless the unusually intimate level of mixing means that these languages afford the linguist a unique opportunity to study the extremes of language contact across the entire language from phonology to morpho-syntax to discourse.
Languages as categories: Reframing the “one language or two” question in early bilingual development
Language Learning
One of the most enduring questions in the field of bilingualism is whether bilingual infants and children initially have “one language system or two”. Research with adults indicates that while bilinguals do not represent their languages in two fully encapsulated language systems, they are able to functionally differentiate their languages. This paper proposes that bilinguals differentiate their languages insofar as they can treat elements of their languages as belonging to different categories. Several lines of research with bilingual adults and children are considered in the context of perceptual and conceptual language categories. The paper ends with a discussion of how language categories might emerge over the course of early bilingual development, and outlines directions for future research.
Languages in Contact and Applied Linguistics – ‘Intruded’ Bilingualism
TSETWM-18,CAAES-18,LLHSS-18,LEBDM-18 Oct. 2-4, 2018 Budapest (Hungary), 2018
The intrusion of a role of a language in noncompulsory manner from reasons known and unknown to everyone is a phenomenon that is present and upcoming in the lives of everyone. The purpose of this paper is to present how similar languages i.e. the languages in contact originating from same group of languages such as Serbian vs. Macedonian and English vs. Macedonian unintentionally but in some instance intrudingly influence one another as a result of many known reasons. Thus it leads to an occurrence of bilingualism in an intruded mode. It is depicted regarding its implementation not only professionally-wise but for the everyday usage as well. The comparative method is used towards 2 target groups selected by age, education and profession for both language groups, Serbian vs. Macedonian and English vs. Macedonian expressed statistically in charts.
Annual International Symposium on Bilingualism, …, 2003
Over the past several years we have been examining a series of apparent tendencies and descriptive generalizations from our work with bilingual school-age children in Mexico that evoke concepts discussed in research in other bilingual contexts. The idea that runs through this research that seems to hold a key to understanding a whole range of observations is that bilingual proficiency is internally differentiated in a number of interesting ways. Observations from our own descriptions of children's performance on school-related tasks prompted a study of other bilingual research projects focused specifically on: language separation, cross-linguistic interactions as in borrowing and codeswitching, the relationship between grammatical competence and literacy-related discourse abilities, and how lexical knowledge in two languages is related to other domains of linguistic knowledge in bilingual children. These aspects of bilingual proficiency have come to the foreground in our own attempts at describing children's development in Spanish and one or another indigenous language spoken in Mexico.