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Mixed Languages: YARON MATRAS University of Manchester a Functional±Communicative Approach

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Mixed Languages: YARON MATRAS University of Manchester a Functional±Communicative Approach Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 3 (2), 2000, 79±99 # 2000 Cambridge University Press 79 Mixed languages: YARON MATRAS University of Manchester a functional±communicative approach It has been suggested that the structural composition of mixed languages and the linguistic processes through which they emerge are to some extent predictable, and that they therefore constitute a language ``type'' (e.g. Bakker and Mous, 1994b; Bakker and Muysken, 1995). This view is challenged here. Instead, it is argued that the compartmentalisation of structures observed in mixed languages (i.e. the fact that certain structural categories are derived from one ``parent'' language, others from another) is the result of the cumulative effect of different contact mechanisms. These mechanisms are de®ned in terms of the cognitive and communicative motivations that lead speakers to model certain functions of language on an alternative linguistic system; each mechanism will typically affect particular functional categories. Four relevant processes are identi®ed: lexical re-orientation, selective replication, convergence, and categorial fusion. Different combinations of processes will render different outcomes, hence the diversity of mixed languages as regards their structure, function, and development. terest for a theory of grammar is therefore in de®ning Introduction and explaining qualitative and quantitative differ- Recent collections by Bakker and Mous (1994a) and ences between the effects of contact in mixed lan- by Thomason (1997a) highlight growing interest in guages, as opposed to more conventional linguistic what have been termed ``mixed languages'' or ``bilin- systems. gual mixtures''. Examples of mixed languages that It appears however that few structural properties have received considerable attention in recent litera- are shared by a majority of the languages classi®ed as ture are Michif, the Cree±French mixture spoken by mixed in the literature. The split between lexicon and the MeÂtis, descendants of buffalo hunters in the grammar, each derived from a different source lan- Canadian Plains and North Dakota; Ma'a, a Bantu guage, is often highlighted as prototypical or even as language in Tanzania that includes material from intrinsically constitutive of mixed languages (see e.g. Cushitic languages; Copper Island Aleut, an Aleut± Bakker, 1994 and elsewhere), but such splits are Russian admixture spoken by a mixed population off rarely if ever consistent. The dif®culty in ®nding clear the coast of Kamchatka; Media Lengua, a Quechua± structural criteria for mixed languages suggests that Spanish mixture of Ecuador; Angloromani and other the contact phenomena that give rise to them are not so-called Para-Romani languages, which are uniform but varied. The question I wish to pursue Romani-derived vocabularies used by ethnic Gypsies here is whether there is any functional signi®cance to within non-standard varieties of various European the structural compartmentalisation in a given mixed languages; and others. system, one that can be accounted for in terms of the Most languages are to some extent at least motivations to create or maintain such a mixture. My ``mixed'', in the sense that they have components that suggestion is that mixed languages differ from con- can be traced back to more than one source language ventional cases of contact in the density of different as a result of a situation of contact in the language's contact phenomena and their cumulative effect on the earlier history. So when languages are referred to in overall structure of the system. the literature explicitly as ``mixed'' (as for example in The present paper is structured as follows: ®rst I Bakker and Mous, 1994b; or Bakker and Muysken, survey current de®nitions of mixed languages and 1995), it is presumably in order to highlight that they models explaining their emergence; next I identify go beyond the commonly attested patterns of four function-based mechanisms of contact. I then mixture. Mixed languages are thus understood impli- proceed to examine the discourse relevance of mixed citly at least to breach conventional constraints on utterances in non-self-contained mixed systems, I contact-induced language change. The point of in- present the Functional Turnover hypothesis that ex- Address for correspondence Department of Linguistics, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK E-mail: [email protected] http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 21 Oct 2011 IP address: 130.88.56.124 80 Yaron Matras plains selective copying of grammatical features from Media Lengua). In fact, as pointed out by Smith an ancestral language, and ®nally I discuss the cumu- (1995; cf. also Thomason, 1995), the cultural motiva- lative effect of different contact mechanisms in so- tion behind the emergence of mixed varieties can just called plain or self-contained mixed systems. In con- as well be retention, re-gaining, or re-de®nition of clusion I argue that mixed languages are anything ethnic identity, defying pressure to change or assim- but a coherent or uniform language type, but that ilate. This is the case with a series of languages they offer opportunities to identify a complexity of treated as mixed in the literature, such as Para- processes of contact-induced change, and so can Romani (Boretzky and Igla, 1994), Shelta (also called de®nitely help revise our overall notion of structural Gammon, the secret language of Irish Travellers, cf. ``borrowing''. Grant, 1994), or Ma'a (Mous, 1994; cf. also Sasse, 1992). As regards the overall social context of emer- gence, an expression of cultural de®ance might there- Typologies of mixed languages fore seem a more accurate indicator. Smith (1995) has suggested a distinction between De®nitions ``plain'' mixed languages, which serve as everyday Genetic af®liation and historical reconstruction play community languages, and ``symbiotic'' varieties, a crucial role in attempts to de®ne mixed languages. which are specialised varieties of a non-mixed lan- Thomason and Kaufman (1988) consider a language guage used in the same community, typically secret as mixed if it does not offer opportunities for histor- languages. Like pidgins, secret languages are not ical reconstruction of its parent language (see also native languages and have a restricted functional Bakker and Mous, 1994b; Bakker and Muysken, scope. Like creoles, so-called ``plain'' mixed lan- 1995; Thomason, 1995, 1997b, e). Bakker (1994, 27) guages are full-¯edged native community languages puts this in more positive terms, de®ning mixed that re¯ect a newly emerged ethnic identity (cf. languages as idioms that evoke identi®cation on the Thomason, 1997e). One must, however, take into part of speakers of two separate source languages. account that the great majority of mixed languages Contrasting with pidgins and creoles, mixed lan- attested so far are spoken in communities alongside guages are assumed to be products of full bilingu- at least one of their parent or source languages, and alism (cf. Thomason, 1997b, e). This is not entirely we only rarely ®nd them in isolation. This may add unproblematic, however, if one takes into account to their controversial status as mixed registers (cf. the role of language attrition and language loss in e.g. Mous, 1994 on Ma'a) rather than full-¯edged producing mixed systems (see e.g. Sasse, 1992, on languages. As far as the ``languageness'' (Thomason, Krekonika, a Greek±Albanian mixture; and Ma'a; 1997b) is concerned, then, varieties discussed in the Boretzky and Igla, 1994, on Para-Romani). Para- literature as ``mixed'' are obviously spread along a doxically, what distinguishes mixed languages from rather wide continuum. pidgins and creoles is the fact that they show con- tinuity of signi®cant portions of the grammar from Models of emergence the grammaticiser parent language (or from both parent languages), yet it is precisely the interrupted Explanatory models of mixed languages can be transmission or non-continuity of a signi®cant grouped along three main points of focus: (1) Lan- portion of structural material that identi®es mixed guage maintenance and language shift, (2) unique languages as opposed to cases of ``normal'' language and pre-determined processes (``intertwining''), and development. (3) conventionalisation of language mixing patterns. Mixed languages have been argued to be the The ®rst approach highlights the substitution of major outcome of mixed marriages giving rise to new components of a given language ± for example entire ethno-cultural identities (Bakker, 1994, 1996, 1997; morphological paradigms or typological features ± for case studies see also Hancock, 1970, 1992; through material (alternative structures) from a dif- Golovko, 1994; de Gruiter, 1994; Thomason, 1997c). ferent source language. According to Thomason and Indeed some approaches view the emergence of a Kaufman (1988) mixed languages arise in situations new ethnic group as the chief setting for the develop- where language shift is partly resisted, and so parts of ment of a mixed language (see especially Bakker, the original language are retained while signi®cant 1997, as well as Thomason and Kaufman, 1988, and portions are replaced by the pressure-exerting lan- Thomason, 1995, 1997b, e). There are, however, guage. Sasse (1992) assumes re-lexi®cation of the cases of acculturation leading to the emergence of target language after a shift has taken place, with mixed languages in situations where no population younger speakers having only partial access to the mixture is attested (cf. Muysken's (1997), account of vocabulary of their ancestral language. Such cases http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 21 Oct 2011 IP address: 130.88.56.124 Mixed languages 81 are considered by Sasse not as re-vitalisation (as mixed languages, and Bakker (1997, 213) similarly proposed for Para-Romani by Boretzky and Igla, admits that intertwined languages are created ``more 1994; see also Boretzky, 1998), but as processes of or less consciously''. Mous (1994) assumes deliberate language renewal through which new languages creation of Ma'a as a register of Mbugu by speakers emerge.
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