16. Animacy in Bislama? Using quantitative methods to evaluate transfer of a substrate feature
-
Miriam Meyerhoff
Abstract
The source of and, hence, principal factors constraining, several variables in Bislama, an English-lexified Pacific creole, remain the subject of some dispute. This chapter uses quantitative methods to evaluate the strength of claims that variable presence/absence of arguments in Bislama is principally due to the transfer of preferences in the substrate languages. It focuses particularly on the role that the animacy of a referent plays in determining:
a. presence/absence of pronominal subject in a clause,
b. the form of 3p agreement, and
c. the presence/absence of pronominal objects (Crowley 1990, 2002).
Other research has claimed discourse salience (not a substrate feature) and/or direct possession relations (substrate feature) are more relevant (Meyerhoff 2000, 2003a). Clauses of spontaneous conversational Bislama recorded on Malo island in the 1990s and a corpus of 10 Tamambo (the Malo vernacular, Jauncey 1997) narratives or process texts are analysed for the same factors. The results show that animacy is a significant constraint on the subject pronominal variable, but it is not strong for the other two variables. The result is an empirical gain and a theoretical gain. First, claims for transfer of substrate features into Bislama are motivated in a more transparent way than they have been before. Second, we see clearly the potential that multivariate analysis offers for resolving outstanding questions and debates relating to language contact and the role of substrate transfer. This is especially true for the Pacific creoles where we continue to be able to gather, and analyse, substrate corpora.
Abstract
The source of and, hence, principal factors constraining, several variables in Bislama, an English-lexified Pacific creole, remain the subject of some dispute. This chapter uses quantitative methods to evaluate the strength of claims that variable presence/absence of arguments in Bislama is principally due to the transfer of preferences in the substrate languages. It focuses particularly on the role that the animacy of a referent plays in determining:
a. presence/absence of pronominal subject in a clause,
b. the form of 3p agreement, and
c. the presence/absence of pronominal objects (Crowley 1990, 2002).
Other research has claimed discourse salience (not a substrate feature) and/or direct possession relations (substrate feature) are more relevant (Meyerhoff 2000, 2003a). Clauses of spontaneous conversational Bislama recorded on Malo island in the 1990s and a corpus of 10 Tamambo (the Malo vernacular, Jauncey 1997) narratives or process texts are analysed for the same factors. The results show that animacy is a significant constraint on the subject pronominal variable, but it is not strong for the other two variables. The result is an empirical gain and a theoretical gain. First, claims for transfer of substrate features into Bislama are motivated in a more transparent way than they have been before. Second, we see clearly the potential that multivariate analysis offers for resolving outstanding questions and debates relating to language contact and the role of substrate transfer. This is especially true for the Pacific creoles where we continue to be able to gather, and analyse, substrate corpora.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- The lure of a distant horizon: Variation in indigenous minority languages 1
-
Part I. Variation in phonetics and phonology
- 1. The phonetic and phonological effects of obsolescence in Northern Paiute 23
- 2. Diglossia and monosyllabization in Eastern Cham: A sociolinguistic study 47
- 3. Affricates in Lleidatà: A sociophonetic case study 77
- 4. Sociolinguistic stratification and new dialect formation in a Canadian aboriginal community: Not so different after all? 109
- 5. The changing sound of the Māori language 129
- 6. Toward a study of language variation and change in Jonaz Chichimeco 153
- 7. A sociolinguistic sketch of vowel shifts in Kaqchikel: ATR-RTR parameters and redundancy markedness of syllabic nuclei in an Eastern Mayan language 173
- 8. Phonological features of attrition: The shift from Catalan to Spanish in Alicante 211
- 9. Sociophonetic variation in urban Ewe 229
- 10. Phonological variation in a Peruvian Quechua speech community 245
- 11. A tale of two diphthongs in an indigenous minority language: Yami of Taiwan 259
- 12. Phonological markedness, regional identity, and sex in Mayan: The fricativization of intervocalic /l/ 281
- 13. The pronunciation of /r/ in Frisian: A comparative study with Dutch and Town Frisian 299
-
Part II. Variation in syntax, morphology, and morphophonology
- 14. Language shift among the Mansi 321
- 15. Fine-grained morphophonological variation in Scottish Gaelic: Evidence from the Linguistic Survey of Scotland 347
- 16. Animacy in Bislama? Using quantitative methods to evaluate transfer of a substrate feature 369
- 17. The challenges of less commonly studied languages: Writing a sociogrammar of Faetar 397
- 18. Language variation and change in a North Australian indigenous community 419
- 19. Ethnicity, bilingualism and variable clitic marking in Bishnupriya Manipuri 441
- 20. Clan as a sociolinguistic variable: Three approaches to Sui clans 463
- 21. Language loss in spatial semantics: Dene Sųłiné 485
- Index 517
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- The lure of a distant horizon: Variation in indigenous minority languages 1
-
Part I. Variation in phonetics and phonology
- 1. The phonetic and phonological effects of obsolescence in Northern Paiute 23
- 2. Diglossia and monosyllabization in Eastern Cham: A sociolinguistic study 47
- 3. Affricates in Lleidatà: A sociophonetic case study 77
- 4. Sociolinguistic stratification and new dialect formation in a Canadian aboriginal community: Not so different after all? 109
- 5. The changing sound of the Māori language 129
- 6. Toward a study of language variation and change in Jonaz Chichimeco 153
- 7. A sociolinguistic sketch of vowel shifts in Kaqchikel: ATR-RTR parameters and redundancy markedness of syllabic nuclei in an Eastern Mayan language 173
- 8. Phonological features of attrition: The shift from Catalan to Spanish in Alicante 211
- 9. Sociophonetic variation in urban Ewe 229
- 10. Phonological variation in a Peruvian Quechua speech community 245
- 11. A tale of two diphthongs in an indigenous minority language: Yami of Taiwan 259
- 12. Phonological markedness, regional identity, and sex in Mayan: The fricativization of intervocalic /l/ 281
- 13. The pronunciation of /r/ in Frisian: A comparative study with Dutch and Town Frisian 299
-
Part II. Variation in syntax, morphology, and morphophonology
- 14. Language shift among the Mansi 321
- 15. Fine-grained morphophonological variation in Scottish Gaelic: Evidence from the Linguistic Survey of Scotland 347
- 16. Animacy in Bislama? Using quantitative methods to evaluate transfer of a substrate feature 369
- 17. The challenges of less commonly studied languages: Writing a sociogrammar of Faetar 397
- 18. Language variation and change in a North Australian indigenous community 419
- 19. Ethnicity, bilingualism and variable clitic marking in Bishnupriya Manipuri 441
- 20. Clan as a sociolinguistic variable: Three approaches to Sui clans 463
- 21. Language loss in spatial semantics: Dene Sųłiné 485
- Index 517
