Uncertainty in Deliberate Lexical Interventions Lexical in Deliberate Uncertainty Maradan
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SPRACHWISSENSCHAFT Language managers in their di erent forms (language planners, terminologists, professional neologists …) have long tried to inter- vene in the lexical usage of speakers, with various degrees of success: Some of their lexical items (partly) penetrate language use, others do not. Based on electronic networks of practice of the Esperanto speech community, Mélanie Maradan establishes the foundation for a new method to extract speakers’ opinions on lexical items from text corpora. e method is intended as a tool for language managers to detect and explore in context the reasons why speakers might accept or reject lexical items. Mélanie Maradan holds a master’s degree in translation and termino- Uncertainty in deliberate logy from the University of Geneva/Switzerland as well as a joint doctoral degree in multilingual information processing and philosophy (Dr. phil.) from the universities of Geneva and Hildesheim/Germany. lexical interventions Her research interests include planned languages (Esperanto studies) as well as neology and corpus linguistics. She works as a professional Exploring Esperanto speaers’ opinions translator and terminologist in Switzerland. through corpora Mélanie Maradan Maradan Uncertainty in deliberate lexical interventions lexical in deliberate Uncertainty Maradan www.frank-timme.de Mélanie Maradan Uncertainty in deliberate lexical interventions Sprachwissenschaft, Band 48 Mélanie Maradan Uncertainty in deliberate lexical interventions Exploring Esperanto speakers’ opinions through corpora Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Umschlagabbildung unter Verwendung der bearbeiteten Fotografie: Esperanto, Marcela McGreal (CC-BY-Lizenz, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) peer reviewed content Publiziert mit Unterstützung des Schweizerischen Nationalfonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung. CC-BY-NC-ND ISBN 978-3-7329-9237-9 ISSN 1862-6149 DOI 10.26530/20.500.12657/43200 © Frank & Timme GmbH Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur Berlin 2021. Herstellung durch Frank & Timme GmbH, Wittelsbacherstraße 27a, 10707 Berlin. Printed in Germany. Gedruckt auf säurefreiem, alterungsbeständigem Papier. www.frank-timme.de Zugleich Cotutelle-Dissertation Université de Genève und Universität Hildesheim 2019, Hil2 Welche von den Vorschlägen sich einbürgern, darüber entscheidet letzten Endes stets die Gesamtheit der Sprachbenutzer. Eugen Wüster Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank the late Detlev Blanke, who sparked my curiosity and encouraged me to pursue a PhD related to Esperanto. Unfortu- nately, he left us too soon to see the result of my work, but I will never forget how much he helped me find relevant research material and how he systematically challenged me to think critically. Both of my thesis advisors guided me through my years of research. I would have never started my PhD adventure without Klaus Schubert, who also guided me through the process of writing this work. Aurélie Picton supported me and pro- vided constructive criticism, and I would not have survived the preparation of this PhD project without her. I would also like to express special appreciation to those who are generally forgot- ten: from the invisible workers cleaning my office before I even arrived at work to the helpful secretaries sparing me much administrative hassle. I believe all work is noble and that my research would not have been possible, especially without the help of librarians who always obtained a copy of the papers and books I wanted, even in libraries on other continents and in languages they did not necessarily speak. Dozens of people taught and helped me every step of the way, from professors who, despite their heavy workload, made time to read my PhD project in detail and offered me their honest opinion and advice, to the colleagues and other PhD candidates who put up with my ups and downs, mindset, sarcasm, and com- plaints, and who provided emotional support in situations I could not have han- dled on my own. Also, thank you to all the entertaining colleagues with whom I lunched and laughed. Many thanks to Carlos Rodríguez Penagos, who kindly provided all program- matic components of the Metalinguistic operation processor (MOP) he devel- opped (2004b). 7 Another thank you goes to the late Toon Witkam for making his ESPSOF Espe- ranto software packages (morphological tagging) freely available on the Web. I would like to thank the Esperanto speakers who agreed to take part in my re- search, as well as all individuals who provided valuable information for my research. Special thanks to Bart Demeyere for sharing data of the ViVo interface. I would also like to thank the Swiss National Science Foundation for the grant that allowed me to travel back and forth between the University of Hildesheim and the University of Geneva, as well as to spend two semesters at the former university. The joint degree could not have been possible without this financial support. Thank you to my English reviewers for grammar editing and proofreading for spelling and punctuation errors, and to the German translator and my German thesis advisor for writing my German abstract. All errors remain mine. Thank you to professors Sabine Fiedler, François Grin, Alexander Künzli, Nathalie Mälzer, and Jean Quirion for accepting to serve as examination board members. Last but not least, I would like to thank my family, friends, acquaintances, and work partners for being patient and understanding when I made this research project the utmost priority. 8 Table of contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................. 7 Terms and definitions ........................................................................... 15 List of figures ........................................................................................ 17 List of tables .......................................................................................... 20 Introduction ......................................................................................... 23 1 Context, objectives and structure of the investigation ........................... 23 1.1 Background ....................................................................................... 23 1.1.1 Constant development of the lexicon across borders .......... 23 1.1.2 The desire to control lexical development ........................... 24 1.1.3 Deliberate lexical interventions: Successes and challenges ....................................................... 25 1.2 Motivation and objectives ................................................................ 26 1.2.1 Lexical knowledge: Exploring lexical environments ............ 28 1.2.2 Lexical opinion: Gathering naturally occurring data ........... 31 1.3 Context .............................................................................................. 33 1.4 Overall methodology and research questions .................................. 35 1.5 Thesis structure ................................................................................. 38 9 PART 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ...................................................... 41 2 Deliberate lexical interventions and their effectiveness ......................... 43 2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................... 43 2.2 Why: Goals of an extralinguistic nature ........................................... 46 2.3 What: Goals of a linguistic nature in the speech community .......... 47 2.3.1 Filling a lexical gap … ........................................................... 48 2.3.2 … or modifying the existing lexicon .................................... 50 2.4 How: The route from aim to achievement for language managers ... 53 2.4.1 From in vitro to in vivo lexical items ................................... 53 2.4.2 The actualization issue .......................................................... 56 2.4.3 Speakers as the source of lexical change ............................... 58 2.5 Outcomes and effectiveness of deliberate lexical interventions ...... 68 2.5.1 Possible and desired outcomes of deliberate lexical interventions......................................... 68 2.5.2 The effectiveness of deliberate lexical interventions ............ 70 3 Intervening on speakers’ lexicon under conditions of uncertainty ........ 73 3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................... 73 3.2 Problem statement ............................................................................ 73 3.2.1 Language as a complex adaptive system ............................... 73 3.2.2 Introduction of a new lexical item and marketing ............... 77 3.2.3 Deliberate lexical intervention as a cocreation process ....... 80 3.3 Evaluating deliberate lexical intervention effectiveness in the speech community .................................................................. 83 3.3.1 Previous studies on lexical knowledge ................................. 84 3.3.2 Previous studies on lexical opinion ...................................... 96 3.3.3 Previous studies on lexical replication ............................... 104 10 3.4 Proposals for language managers ................................................... 105 3.4.1 Exploring speakers’ lexical environment............................ 106 3.4.2 Exploring speakers’ lexical opinions in context ................. 111 PART 2 ESPERANTO FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ...........................................