Ariana Mohammadi€¦ · Ariana Mohammadi 2 . Lingua Franca ‘A language which is used habitually...
Transcript of Ariana Mohammadi€¦ · Ariana Mohammadi 2 . Lingua Franca ‘A language which is used habitually...
Ariana Mohammadi
Overview
Lingua Franca
Pidgins and creoles – Wardhaugh (2006)
Mixed languages – Meakins (2013)
Linguistic and educational aspects of Tok Pisin – Siegel (2009)
Origin of AAVE – Rickford (1998)
Discussion
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Lingua Franca
‘A language which is used habitually
by people whose mother tongues are
different in order to facilitate
communication between them.’
(UNESCO)
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Lingua Franca
Population migration (forced or
voluntary)
For the purpose of trade
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Lingua Franca (Samarin, 1968)
Trade language (e.g., Swahili in East Africa)
Contact language (e.g., Greek koiné in the Ancient World)
International language (e.g., English in our contemporary world)
Auxiliary language (e.g., Esperanto)
Mixed language (e.g., Michif)
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The Spread of Pidgins & Creoles
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APICS
http://apics-online.info/
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Pidgins
A pidgin is a language with no
native speakers: it is no one’s first
language.
It is a contact language: it is the
product of a multilingual situation.
It is an improvised simple
language system for
communication purposes.
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Pidginization (Winnom, 1971)
The process of pidginization
requires a situation that involves at
least three languages.
One language is clearly dominant
over the others.
If only two languages are involved,
there is likely to be a direct
struggle for dominance.
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Pidginization (Winnom, 1971)
The speakers of the two (or more)
inferior languages play a critical role
in the development of a pidgin.
They must not only speak to those
who are in the dominant position,
but they must also speak to each
other.
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Pidginization
A pidgin arises from the simplification
of a language when that language
comes to dominate groups of
speakers separated from each other
by language differences.
No group learns the native language
of any other group for social reasons
that may include lack of trust or of
close contact (Holm, 1988).
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Creole
In contrast to a pidgin, a creole is
often defined as a pidgin that has
become the first language of a
new generation of speakers.
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Creole (Aitchison,1994)
‘Creoles arise when pidgins
become mother tongues.’
A creole, therefore, is a ‘normal’
language in almost every sense.
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Creole (Holmes, 1992)
‘A creole is a pidgin which has
expanded in structure and vocabulary
to express the range of meanings and
serve the range of functions required
of a first language.’
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Pidginization vs. Creolization
Involves
simplification and
reduction in
morphology and
syntax, tolerance of
phonological
variation.
No morphophonemic
variation
Involves expansion
of the morphology
and syntax, and
regularization of the
phonology.
Morphophonemic
variations (English
plural in cats, dogs
and boxes)
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Tok Pisin
Tok Pisin exists as both pidgins
and creoles.
It has speakers who use the
language only as second
languages in an expanded form
and also speakers for whom Tok
Pisin is first languages.
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Features of Pidgins–Creoles
Fewer and less complicated sounds;
Tok Pisin makes no contrast
between it and eat, or fin and pin).
Lack of inflection in nouns,
pronouns, verbs, and adjectives is
likely. In Tok Pisin pronouns are not
distinguished by case (me is either ‘I’
or ‘me’).
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Features of Pidgins–Creoles
The vocabulary of a pidgin or a
creole has a great many
similarities to that of the standard
language with which it is
associated.
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Features of Pidgins–Creoles
The vocabulary is limited.
Phonological and morphological
simplification often leads to words
assuming somewhat different
shapes (In Tok Pisin ‘hair’ is gras
bilong het, ‘beard’ is gras bilong
fes).
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Pidgin to Creole
Not every pidgin eventually
becomes a creole, i.e., undergoes
the process of creolization.
In fact, very few do.
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Pidgin to Creole
Most pidgins are lingua francas,
existing to meet temporary local
needs.
If a pidgin is no longer needed, it
dies out.
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Pidgin to Creole
Creolization occurs only when a
pidgin for some reason becomes
the variety of language that children
must use in situations in which use
of a ‘full’ language is effectively
denied them.
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Decreolization
When a Creole comes in contact
with the standard language, it can
be influenced by the standard
language and comes to resemble
the standard language.
Shift from basilect to acrolect.
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Mixed Languages
G(rammar)-L(exicon) mixed
languages
The result of the fusion of two
identifiable source languages.
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Documented Examples
Angloromani
Ma'à
Bilinguial Navajo
Media Lengua
Old Helsinki Slang
Michif
Light Warlpiri
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Degrees and Types of Mixing
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Features of Mixed Languages
Emerge as expression of identity
rather than as a result of
communicative needs.
They have only two clear and often
equal parents.
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Origin of Mixed Languages
Unidirectional approaches
- Borrowing
- Code-switching (insertional)
- Relexification
- Paralexification
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Origin of Mixed Languages
Fusion
- Intertwining theory
- Language competition
- Center of gravity Hypothesis
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Insertional CS Matrix Language Turnover Hypothesis
classic code-switching
composite code-switching: The participating languages begin to converge (Matrix Language loses its undisputed role and the weaker language gains strength).
The convergence results in a mixed language stage.
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Relexification
All the present European-language-
based pidgins and creoles derive
from a single source (Sabir)
In the 15th and 16th centuries the
Portuguese relexified this language
(introduced their own vocabulary into
its grammatical structure)
A Portuguese-based pidgin was used
as the widespread trade language.
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Relexification
Later, this pidgin was in turn
relexified into pidginized French,
English, and Spanish.
In each case the underlying
grammatical structure remained
largely unaffected, but a massive
shift occurred in vocabulary.
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Paralexification
The existence of two lexicon in
parallel.
One language is entirely intact in its
grammar and lexicon.
The other language provides a
substantial reservoir of lexical material
to be inserted in the dominant
language’s grammatical frame.
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Intertwining Theory
Combination rather than replacement is
the central process.
A new language is created in the
intertwining of structure and vocabulary.
Free lexical morphemes come from one
language and the bound grammatical
morphemes from the other.
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Language Competition
Internally and externally motivated
language change.
The new language is a replication
resulted from the competition
between features in the source
languages.
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Center of Gravity
Concerned with NP-VP splits rather
than grammar-lexicon mixes.
The typology of the ancestry language
affects the nature of the split, and the
way in which this ancestry language
shifts to an introduced language via a
period of code-switching.
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Was AAVE Once a Creole?
Copula Absence
1. Socio-historical conditions
(suitable for pidginization and/or
creolization)
2. Historical attestations (literary
texts; ex-slave narratives and
recordings)
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Was AAVE Once a Creole?
3. Diaspora recordings (Samaná,
Liberian Settler, African Nova
Scotian English)
4. Creole similarities (between AAVE
and Caribbean creoles, Gullah,
Hawaiian, etc.)
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Was AAVE Once a Creole?
5. African language similarities
(between AAVE and West African
varieties)
6. English dialect differences
(between AAVE and British/White
American dialects)
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Was AAVE Once a Creole?
7. Age group comparisons (across
different generations of AAVE
speakers)
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Results
A significant number of the Africans
who came to the United States
between the seventeenth and
nineteenth centuries went through
processes of pidginization,
creolization and (maybe)
decreolization in acquiring English.
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Criticism
Dialectologists position:
The Africans who came to the United States learned the English of British and other immigrants fairly rapidly and directly, without an intervening pidgin or creole stage (Johnson,1930; Brooks,1935; McDavid,1965; Davis,1969, 1970; Poplack and Sankoff,1987).
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Was AAVE Once a Creole?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvu
WSJI87r8&list=PL38B25AE3ADF2D7E
B
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If someone told you that pidginized
varieties of a language are ‘corrupt’
and ‘ungrammatical,’ and indicated that
their speakers are either ‘lazy’ or
‘inferior’, how might you try to show
that person how wrong he or she is?
What kinds of evidence would you
use?
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Discussion
Are mixed languages autonomous
language systems? i.e. Do they
have the ability to function as a
stand alone linguistic entity?
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Selected References
Meakins, F. (2013). Mixed languages. In Peter Bakker and Yaron Matras (Ed.), Contact languages: a comprehensive guide (pp. 159-228) Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter Mouton.
Rickford, J. R. (1997). The creole origins of African American Vernacular English: Evidence from copula absence. London, UK: Routledge.
Siegel, J. (2011). Linguistic and educational aspect of Tok Pisin. In Nikolas Coupland and Adam Jaworski (Eds.), The New Sociolinguistics Reader. UK: Palgrave.
Wardhaugh, R. (2006). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
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