Shana Poplack

The social correlates and linguistic processes of lexical borrowing and assimilation

This paper represents a comprehensive study of English loanword usage in five diverse francophone neighborhoods in the national capital region of Canada. Twenty thousand loan tokens extracted from informal conversations with 120 speakers are analyzedfor degree oflinguistic integration into French and social assimilation by the francophone community. Attestation histories ofEnglish forms in Canadian and European French are compared with current usage frequencies and various measures of integration. We distinguish two basic patterns of borrowing nonce and established which show similar linguistic characteristics, contrasting thereby with unambiguous code-switches. We trace the differential effects ofenvironmental (majority/minority status of French in the neighborhood) , individual (degree of bilingual proficiency), and sociodemographic (occupational class, age, etc.) factors on overall borrowing rates anti patterns of use of different types of loanwords. With respect to overall rate of borrowing, social class membership is found to be a better predictor than either environmental effects or individual bilingualproficiency. In terms ofborrowing pattern, environmentalfactors are paramount, suggesting that borrowing behavior is acquired, and not merely a function of lexical need.

A formal grammar for code‐switching 1

Abstract Code‐switching in situations of language contact has been studied largely from the point of view of its social determinants. This paper will propose formal means for describing the syntax of code‐switching with examples from Puerto Rican Spanish and English.

There's No Tense Like the Present: Verbal -s Inflection in Early Black English.

This article contributes to the understanding of the origin and function of verbal -s marking in the Black English grammar by systematically examining the behaviour of this affix in two corpora on early Black English. To ascertain whether the variation observed in (early and modern Black English) -s usage has a precedent in the history of the language, or is rather an intrusion from another system, we focus particularly on the linguistic and social contexts of its occurrence, within a historical and comparative perspective. Our results show that both third person singular and nonconcord -s are subject to regular, parallel environmental conditioning. The finding that both insertion and deletion are conditioned by the same factors suggests that verbal -s marking is a unitary process, involving both concord and nonconcord contexts. Moreover, the (few) variable constraints on verbal -s usage reported throughout the history of the English language remain operative in early Black English. These results, taken in conjunction with indications that -s marking across the verbal paradigm was a prestige marker in the dialect at some earlier point in time, lead us to hypothesize that the contemporary pattern might be a synchronic reflex of the constraint ranking on -s usage in the varieties of English that provided the linguistic model for the slaves. Many of the conditioning effects we report would have been subsequently overridden by the grammaticalization of -s as the Standard English agreement marker. We conclude that present-tense marking via verbal -s formed an integral part of the early Black English grammar.

Introduction: How Languages Fit Together in Codemixing

In virtually all bilingual corpora empirically studied, mixed discourse is ovenvhelmingly constituted of lone elements, usually major-class content words, of one language embedded in the syntax of another (Berk-Seligson,l986; Nortier, 1989; Poplack, Sankoff, & Miller, 1988; Treffers-Daller, 1994; to name but a few). The status of these items is notoriously ambiguous. They may be codeswitches or borrowings or yet another type of language mixture. They are at the heart of a fundamental disagreement among rcscarcliers about data, not so much how they should be gathered (although this too is contentious), but rather how types of language mixture should be classified. Are these lone items iritegrnted into the grammatical system in which they are embedded (i.e., borrolved) or conditioned by some interaction between grammars (codeswitches)? Empirical study has confirmed early claims (e.g., Haugen, 1950) that major-class content words such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives are the most likely to be borrowed (e.g., Poplack, et al., 1988; van Hout & Muysken, 1994). The papers in this issue ofthe hirer-iinfionnl J O Z W I ~ ~ ofEilirigzinlisrii are consecrated to the study of the behavior of such items in bilingual discourse. Though other linguistic elements are also borrowed occasionally (e.g., tags, discourse markers, or grammatical function ivords), these generally are instantiations of other products of language contact (e.g., de Rooij, 1995; Poplack 1980). The conclusions of the papers assembled here thus apply only to lone other-language content lvords. Classic indications of loanword integration have had mediocre results in disambiguating the status of lone content items because different measures produce conflicting results. While these items are usually syntactically positioned according to the language in which they are embedded, they often appear to retain the phonetic properties of the donor language and sometimes appear to conserve donor-language morphology. Disagreement over the appropriate classification of lone items has resulted in a range of codeswitching theories. At one end of the spectrum, where lone items are defined as codeswitches, researchers tend to consider the relationship betiveen languages in bilingual discourse asymmetrical, with one grammar clearly predominating (e.g., Joshi, 1985;

African American English in the diaspora: Evidence from old-line Nova Scotians

In this article, we describe a new research project on African Nova Scotian English (ANSE), a variety spoken by descendants of African American slaves who immigrated to Nova Scotia in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Subsequent segregation from surrounding populations has created a situation favoring retention of the vernacular, in conjunction with Standard English. In addition to providing the first systematic linguistic documentation of ANSE, we detail the characteristics of the Canadian scenario that make it an ideal test of the creole-origins and divergence hypotheses: in particular, that, more clearly than other African American English varieties that evolved independently in the diaspora, the Canadian situation has featured no creole influence. This fact can effectively date the occurrence of any creole-like features in contemporary ANSE (and, by extension, other varieties of African American Vernacular English [AAVE]) to (at least) the late 18th century, an important time-depth characterization. We then present the results of a series of quantitative analyses of linguistically diagnostic features and compare them to those obtained for (1) another transplanted variety of African American English (Samana English) and (2) a prototype variety (the Ex-slave Recordings), and note the striking similarities among them. The results militate in favor of a genetic relationship among ANSE and its counterparts as a common precursor of contemporary varieties, thereby providing the first methodologically consistent cross-linguistic comparison of three distinct vestiges of “early” African American English, and contributing missing links in the history and development of AAVE.

Competing influences on gender assignment: Variable process, stable outcome

Abstract In languages which have a nominal classification system such as grammatical gender, it is often problematic why a given word is assigned one gender rather than another. Factors which may act in concern or compete in influencing assignment include the phonological shape of the word, sex of the (animate) referent, and placement of the word within a semantic class. Evidence from loanwords can help evaluate these and other influences on gender assignment. In contrast with the previous literature, we analyze here the simultaneous contributions of a series of quantitative constraints on the assignment of gender to English nouns borrowed into Puerto Rican Spanish, constraints which may all be active at the time of introduction of the loanword. We also examine intergenerational and interlinguistic patterns by (1) comparing the behavior of adults with that of their children, and (2) comparing Puerto Rican patterns with Montreal French, a language which is typologically similar to Spanish and which has coexisted with English even longer than Puerto Rican Spanish. We show that, although the gender of loanwords once assigned is not variable, it is the factors involved in its initial assignment which are. A variationist approach to gender assignment further reveals that constraints on this process are not universal, but language-specific.

Does the Futur have a future in (Canadian) French

The hospitality of the future temporal reference sector to multiple exponents is well exemplified by French, where the inflected future currently competes with both periphrastic future and futurate present forms. Most scholars contend that the variant expressions are selected according to distinctions in the way the Speaker envisions the future eventuality and/or the semantic and/or pragmatic import s/he wishes to convey. Curiously, however, there is little agreement äs to what that import is nor which of the variants is capable of expressing it. Making use of a variationist approach, in this paper we return to the question of the function and meaning of the major exponents offuturity in spoken French through systematic analysis ofthousands of contexts of future temporal reference in natural speech. We show that although the variant forms continue to divide up the work of expressing posteriority, they are rarely selected by Speakers in accordance with the values commonly attributed to them in either the descriptive or prescriptive literature. This is because basically all reference to future states or events is made by periphrastic future, which has ousted \nflected future from virtuaüy all contexts ofproductive usage but one, while futurate present has made only incipient incursions into another. We suggest thatfailure to attain consensus on the sei of meanings orfunctions distinguishing the variants is the product of an epistemologicalproblem stemmingfrom difficulty in reconciling the form-function polyvalence characteristic ofinherent variability with the (distnbutional) linguistic enterprise ofascribing a unique function to everyform. 1. The research reported here forms part of a larger project investigating the effects of contact with English on the granunar of French, generously funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grants to Poplack. We are grateful to Paul Hirschbühler, Jacques Moeschler, David Sankoff, Pierrette Thibault, Co Vet, Doug Walker and the audience at LSRL 27 for helpful suggestions and discussion, äs well äs to Dawn Harvie and James Walker for aid in preparing the manuscript. The usual disclaimers apply. Probus 11 (1999), 133-164 0921-4771/99/011-0133 ©Walter de Gruyter 134 S. Poplack and D. Turpin

The grammaticization of going to in (African American) English

Focusing on the process of grammaticization, whereby items with lexical meaning evolve into grammatical markers, this article examines the future temporal reference sectors of three diaspora varieties of African American English which have evolved in linguistic isolates and compares them with those of British-origin rural and mainstream varieties of English. With one exception, the same constraint hierarchies condition the selection of going to across the board, indicating that their future temporal reference systems are descended from a common source. All other distinctions among the varieties result from their differential positioning on the cline of ongoing grammaticization of going to as a future marker. Operationalization of constraints representing different stages of the development of going to and comparison of their probability values across communities confirm that the enclave and the rural varieties retain conservative traits, visible here in the form of variable conditioning, in contrast to mainstream English, which is innovating. We suggest that the major determinant of variability in the expression of the future is the fact that the speech of isolated speakers, whether of African or British origin, instantiates constraints that were operative at an earlier stage of the English language and that are now receding from mainstream varieties.

Elucidating the transition period in linguistic change: The expression of the future in Brazilian Portuguese 1

Abstract This paper examines the trajectory of a spectacular change in the development of future temporal reference in Brazilian Portuguese over five centuries. Focusing on four competing exponents of futurity, we show how the incoming form gradually expropriates the preferred contexts of the older variants, prior to ousting them from the sector. These results confirm that the transition period in linguistic change is not abrupt, but proceeds as a series of small adjustments, as incoming and outgoing variants jockey for position in the system. As a variant recedes, constraints on its selection do not remain constant, though the distinctions it conveyed may be transferred to another exponent. These findings challenge some widely-held assumptions (i.e., that change affects all contexts simultaneously, or that the grammar remains invariant during the course of change).

A real-time window on 19th-century vernacular French: The Récits du français québécois d'autrefois

This article describes the construction of a corpus of spoken French with a timedepthofacenturyandahalf,theRecitsdufrancaisquebecoisd’autrefois (RFQ). The folktales, local legends, and interviews constituting the RFQ were produced by speakers born between 1846 and 1895. They spoke the French of 19th-century rural Quebec, a variety shown to be replete with the vernacular structures and inherent variability of contemporary dialects. The authors review the advantages and drawbacks associated with this type of diachronic material, and argue that, exploited judiciously, it effectively represents an earlier stage of spoken French. They show how systematic comparison of the RFQ with contemporary vernaculars can help pinpoint the existence,date,anddirectionoflanguagechange.(Apparent-timeconstruct, CanadianFrench,corpusconstruction,diachronicdata,languagechange,linguistic variability, ne deletion, real time analysis, vernacular)*