Ad Backus

Superdiverse repertoires and the individual

The term ‘repertoire’ belongs to the core vocabulary of sociolinguistics.1 John Gumperz, in the introduction to the epochal Directions in Sociolinguistics: The Ethnography of Communication (Gumperz & Hymes 1972/1986) lists ‘linguistic repertoires’ as one of the ‘basic sociolinguistic concepts’ (Gumperz 1972/1986: 20–21) and defines it as ‘the totality of linguistic resources (i.e. including both invariant forms and variables) available to members of particular communities’ (italics added).

Codeswitching and language change: One thing leads to another?

This article introduces the topic of and the contributions to this Special Issue of the International Journal of Bilingualism. It explores the degree to which the hypothesis that codeswitching is a cause of contact-induced language change makes sense. After reviewing a number of methodological conditions that need to be met before the question can even be tackled, I provide an overview of theories proposed to account for structural change in contact situations (Croft, Johanson, Thomason), pointing out commonalities and differences. The article concludes with an attempt to classify attested contact-induced changes on the basis of these theories, and finally revisits the question to what degree codeswitching can cause change.

Convergence as a mechanism of language change

This issue of Bilingualism: Language and Cognition is about convergence, a type of language change that is contact-induced and results in greater similarity between two languages that are in contact with each other. In Backus (forthcoming), I have attempted an overview of contact-induced language change, focusing on causal factors, on mechanisms of change, and on the actual changes. In this conclusion, I will try to give convergence its rightful place in this general typology, referencing the contributions to this volume where appropriate.

Postverbal elements in immigrant Turkish: Evidence of change?

Contact between languages usually leads to linguistic changes. Both social and structural factors are claimed to influence this process. This study analyzes word order in Turkish as spoken in the Netherlands (NL-Turkish). Turkish is an OV language but also allows other word order patterns (including VO) in certain pragmatic contexts. Dutch, on the other hand, is VO in main clauses. Due to contact, Turkish may be expected to increase its use of VO. From a comparison with Turkish as spoken in Turkey (TR-Turkish), it appeared that there is no increase of VO in NL-Turkish. However, we did find some deviations in the information structure characteristics of VO structures and sometimes these seem to be due to Dutch influence. On the other hand, TR-Turkish data also contained certain types of VO structures that further caution against hasty contact conclusions. We conclude that contact situations need to be intense for sweeping syntactic change to occur, and that such change starts with changes in individual semilexical constructions.

Copyability of (bound) morphology

It has often been observed that bound morphology is difficult to borrow. This paper examines this issue, expanding it to borrowing of grammatical elements in general. The semantic and/or pragmatic specificity is at the heart of explaining the copiability of at least content words, though it may also play a role when grammatical elements and patterns are copied. Frequency, hypothesized to be a factor of importance in the Code Copying Model, also plays a role in the explanation of copiability. To a degree, mixed copying combines these tendencies, as the globally copied elements make the meaning more, and the selectively copied elements tend to involve elements with general meaning, such as basic vocabulary items, functional morphemes and grammatical templates. Mixed copies involve a combination of various phenomena typical of language contact that are normally studied in isolation, which make them a fascinating topic for further research. Keywords:content words; Copiability; globally; language contact; mixed copies; mixed copying; morphology; pragmatic specificity; semantic specificity

Linguistic Effects of Immigration: Language Choice, Codeswitching, and Change in Western European Turkish

Since the 1960s, Western Europe has been host to a large Turkish immigrant community. While many such communities shift to the majority language in the space of a few generations, language maintenance is remarkably successful in this community. This is partially because of continuing immigration, but it is also typical of a transnational identity that characterizes many bilingual communities in modern Europe. The linguistic effects of this on-going contact situation include extensive codeswitching and slowly emerging changes in the lexicon and syntax. These are contained in a range of speech styles that show that in such modern migrant communities, the way in which different subgroups utilize their multilingual repertoire varies considerably, depending on background factors such as gender, locality, age, and socio-political identity.

Adolescents Involved in the Construction of Equality in Urban Multicultural Settings

This study makes use of Brown and Levinsons (1978; 1987) theory of politeness. More specifically, it focuses on how the model they lay down as guiding language users is actually exploited in various ways by these users. Therefore, four different operationalisations of the basic hypothesis of politeness theory are proposed, ranging from the possibility that linguistic choices are totally determined by social norms to one allowing considerable freedom of choice for individual language users. The article reports on a questionnaire study carried out with adolescents in two urban multicultural areas: Rotterdam in The Netherlands and Køge in Denmark. In both cities, two groups of adolescents took part: one with a Turkish migrant background and one without a migration background. The questionnaire was based on Hill et al. (1986). Only one of the four groups, the Turkish adolescents in Rotterdam, showed an answering pattern that confirms politeness theory. The Køge adolescents with no migration background were the most extreme in not doing what the theory predicts them to do. Instead, they seem to be claiming and constructing equality. The other two groups of respondents also appear to be involved in a process of levelling; with their linguistic choices, they soften the effects of social hierarchies. All four groups of adolescents attenuate the linguistic encoding of social hierarchies, as far as they even acknowledge them, and thus cast doubt on the universality of the determinative relationship between social context and language, a relationship which has generally been assumed to be a necessary cornerstone in any theory of sociolinguistics.

Bias in dyslexia screening in a Dutch multicultural population

We set out to address the adequacy of dyslexia screening in Dutch and non-western immigrant children, using the Dutch Dyslexia Screening Test (DST-NL) and outcomes of the Dutch dyslexia protocol, both of which are susceptible to cultural bias. Using the protocol as standard, we conducted an ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristics) analysis in Dutch and immigrant third, fifth, and seventh graders, combining a cross-sectional and longitudinal design. Sensitivity and specificity increased with grade, but were non-significant for various subtests in the lowest grade, suggesting considerable non-convergence between the two measures. Effective subtests in all grades, presumably not strongly influenced by Cultural Background or Word Lexicon, were One-Minute Reading, Non-Word Reading, and Nonsense Passage Reading. In a multilevel analysis, cultural background, dyslexia diagnosis, parental education, and grade of first assessment were predictors of subtest performance. In a second analysis, Word Lexicon was added as a proxy of knowledge of the Dutch language and culture. After controlling for Word Lexicon, cultural background became significant for most subtests, suggesting the presence of cultural bias. Subtests assessing technical literacy, such as One-Minute-Reading, Non-Word-Reading, One-Minute-Writing, or Two-Minutes-Spelling, showed more convergence between the two assessments. Less-effective subtests were Naming Pictures, Backward Digit Span, and Verbal and Semantic Fluency. It is concluded that the DST-NL and the standard protocol do not show complete convergence, notably in the lower grades in the multilingual pupil group of our cohort, mainly because dyslexia and literacy difficulties are hard to disentangle.