DOCSLIB.ORG

The Predictable Case of Faroese a Dissertation

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Predictable Case of Faroese a Dissertation THE PREDICTABLE CASE OF FAROESE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS AND THE COMMITTEE ON GRADUATE STUDIES OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Daniel Galbraith August 2018 iv Abstract This thesis concerns case-marking phenomena in Icelandic and Faroese. I argue that the best approach to case distinguishes the levels of abstract, morphosyntactic and morphological case, and permits mis- matches between levels in some grammars (Linking Theory, Kiparsky 1997, 2001); these mismatches are best handled by an Optimality Theoretic output harmonisation on the mapping from argument structure to morphosyntax (Prince and Smolensky 1993 et seq.). Such a theory provides a cogent account of predicates with non-nominative subjects in Insular Scandinavian, which present an interesting puzzle: in Icelandic, dative-subject verbs occur with nominative objects that trigger number agreement, whereas in Faroese the object in such sentences is marked accusative and occurs with default third person singular agreement (1). (1) a. Ice. Mér líka hundar me.dat like.3pl dogs.nom.pl ‘I like dogs’ b. Far. Mær dámar hundar me.dat likes.3sg dogs.acc.pl ‘I like dogs’ To date this difference has been poorly understood, and calls for in-depth analysis. The central hypothesis explored in this thesis is that the patterns in (1) are not language-specific idiosyncrasies, but the outcome of constraint interactions of a typical kind: namely, a pressure to index a nominative argument in the clause by number agreement, and a pressure to express structural accusative case on the object. I argue that similar constraint conflicts are responsible for the loss of lexical case in phenomena such as nominative substitution and case non-preservation, and correctly predict the availability of the passive in dative-subject predicates. I include a substantial amount of new data from surveys conducted on the Faroe Islands and Iceland, which are consistent with my hypothesis, and shed new light on the case systems of these languages beyond simple monotransitives. Moreover, I propose a Competing Grammars Model of intra-linguistic variation (cf. Kroch 1989 et seq.), which finds empirical support in corpora, and offers a plausible framework for explaining the diachronic trajectory of these languages. Finally, the model of grammar proposed here is also cross-linguistically tractable, generating realistic typologies of case-related phenomena, and can easily be extended to other language families. v Acknowledgments It goes without saying that this dissertation work would have been impossible without the considerable help, advice and support provided by so many. First, I am extremely grateful to my advisor Paul Kiparsky. I know of no other successor to P¯an. ini with such a mastery of the field and genius calibre insight into such a typologically diverse range of languages. I am sincerely going to miss our discussions of such fascinating topics as Saussure’s longstanding analysis of Lithuanian pitch accent, morphosyntactic variation in the Scandinavian dialect continuum, Gerard Manley Hopkins and over-reaving, why the Sjúrðarkvæði is essentially a kind of dol’nik, obscure varieties of Swiss German, what Wangkumara and Nepali have to do with Faroese, Finnish sentences involving shooting bears, and so many others. Paljon kiitoksia! Secondly, I would like to acknowledge my committee of Vera Gribanova, Boris Harizanov and Annie Zaenen. Opportunities for lively debate, combined with their constructive, detailed and helpful commen- tary have made my thesis so much better than it would otherwise have been. It was a privilege to have accomplished Slavicist syntacticians and the first author of “ZMÞ” available and willing to provide their insights. I would also like to thank Beth Levin for guiding and advising me through the entire PhD process from start to finish: it is hard to think “Stanford Linguistics” without immediately thinking of Beth. Thirdly, I am thankful for the Faroese and Icelandic linguists who were such a wealth of knowledge and advice during fieldwork and in thinking about the data: for Faroese, Hjalmar P. Petersen who taught me the language at the Faroese Summer Institute and served as a supremely reliable consultant and advisor, in addition to Jógvan í Lon Jacobsen, Eivind Weyhe, Zakaris Hansen, Dániel Jákup Jørgensen and Niels á Velbastað. For Icelandic, thanks are due to Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson and Einar Freyr Sigurðsson, who were not only willing to provide linguistic advice and distribute surveys, but also to walk with me around Reykjavík in the rain. I am also grateful for all the other academic linguists who I corresponded with, who contributed to dis- cussions on various phenomena, and from whom I have learnt so much about language: I think especially of Arto Anttila, Mark Baker, Lev Blumenfeld, Penny Eckert, Caroline Heycock, Chris Manning, Rob Podesva, Chris Potts, Omer Preminger, John Rickford, Sten Vikner and Tom Wasow. I extend particular gratitude to Judith Degen and Rob Mina, whose guidance in statistical methods was invaluable. I thank my Cambridge supervisors Ian Roberts, Theresa Biberauer and Michelle Sheehan for the training in GB/Minimalism that has proven so useful. I am also thankful to my original cohort of Olek Główka, Sunwoo Jeong, Sara Kessler, Kate Lynn Lindsey, Prerna Nadathur and Simon Todd, as well as the other Linguistics PhD students at vi Stanford — especially my office-mate, fellow syntactician and Open House host Bonnie Krejci. I also thank my linguist friends from other universities, in particular Deborah Wong at UCLA and fellow Cambridge MPhils. I must also express deep gratitude to all the Faroese people who accommodated me, fed me, kept me company and functioned as my family while on fieldwork trips in this “home away from home”. In partic- ular I am thankful to Bogi and Súsanna Vinther and family, who opened their home and their hearts to me as if I were an extra son visiting from afar. They were so kind to me and were willing to provide plenty of food and accommodate my multiple visiting friends, even when this involved driving up to Sornfelli for the fourth time in a couple of weeks, or rushing me back to the Nólsoy ferry five minutes before it departed. I thank Beinir and Leslie Johannessen, in their friendship and willingness to accommodate us in both the Faroes and Denmark, and Beinir’s help in general throughout my time on the Faroes (especially given what happened to his car). I also am thankful to Oddmar and Anna Maria Færø and family, who likewise pro- vided lodging for me, Sunday dinners and fascinating conversations in a constant code-switching between Aberdeen English and Faroese. I am grateful to Rólant í Skorini and Richard Schwartson, both of whom welcomed me so well in my brief 2015 trip. I thank Pætur Gerðalíð for his kindness to me and my Ameri- can friends, particularly when that involved driving out of his way to rescue us in a dark tunnel, inviting us to his band studio, and allowing Zach to borrow his motorcycle. I also thank Johann Petersen, Napoleon Smith, Øssur Andreasen, Einar Vang and everyone else at Ebenezer, who were my extended family while on the islands and who I hope to visit many times in the future. Takk fyri, øll! A most heartfelt and personally meaningful round of thanks must go to my church community at Grace Presbyterian and RUF. I thank in particular my pastors Britton Wood, David Jones and Iron Kim, as well as my church family, for whom this brief acknowledgement section falls far short of what I wish to express. I would not be the person I am today without their impact on my life. I think special gratitude is in order to Zach Sunberg, Jeff Reid and Chris Berkey, who genuinely know me, and are true brothers to me, along with all my other church friends near and far. I also thank Aleksas Mazeliauskas, Jonathan Lancaster and Mark W.F. Galbraith for their consistent friendship. I want to thank my grandmother and Fiona for their kindness and always being eager to hear my news. Finally, I thank my parents for their consistent love and support throughout my five years of doctoral work. From Dad teaching me the Greek alphabet as a 7-year-old, to Mum encouraging me to join French club as a primary school pupil, they have always supported my linguistic and academic endeavours, and for that I am extremely grateful. Soli Deo Gloria vii Abbreviations Language abbreviations Dan. Danish Dut. Dutch Far. Faroese Fin. Finnish Ger. German Hix. Hixkaryana Ice. Icelandic Kaq. Kaqchikel Kor. Korean Lav. Lavukaleve Nah. Nahuatl Swe. Swedish Yup. Central Siberian Yup’ik Glossing abbreviations abs absolutive acc accusative act active adess adessive art article coll collective number compl completive aspect cont continuative aspect dat dative def definite distpst distant past tense emph emphatic particle erg ergative viii expl expletive f feminine gen genitive imp imperative ind indicative inf infinitive interrog interrogative mood intrans intransitive m masculine n neuter nom nominative o, obj object pass passive perf, pfv perfective pl plural pres present tense prt particle pst past tense recpst recent past tense refl reflexive s, subj subject sg singular sup supine ix Contents Abstract v Acknowledgments vi Abbreviations viii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 The puzzle of Faroese . 2 1.2 Theoretical contribution . 5 1.2.1 Linking Theory . 5 1.2.2 Optimality Theory . 12 1.2.3 Competing grammars . 16 1.3 Empirical findings . 18 1.4 Structure of thesis . 20 2 Research question 22 2.1 Non-nominative subjects . 22 2.1.1 Icelandic oblique subjects . 22 2.1.2 German pre-verbal dative experiencers . 27 2.2 Faroese clause structure . 29 2.3 Faroese dative experiencers .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Germanic Standardizations: Past to Present (Impact: Studies in Language and Society)
    <DOCINFO AUTHOR ""TITLE "Germanic Standardizations: Past to Present"SUBJECT "Impact 18"KEYWORDS ""SIZE HEIGHT "220"WIDTH "150"VOFFSET "4"> Germanic Standardizations Impact: Studies in language and society impact publishes monographs, collective volumes, and text books on topics in sociolinguistics. The scope of the series is broad, with special emphasis on areas such as language planning and language policies; language conflict and language death; language standards and language change; dialectology; diglossia; discourse studies; language and social identity (gender, ethnicity, class, ideology); and history and methods of sociolinguistics. General Editor Associate Editor Annick De Houwer Elizabeth Lanza University of Antwerp University of Oslo Advisory Board Ulrich Ammon William Labov Gerhard Mercator University University of Pennsylvania Jan Blommaert Joseph Lo Bianco Ghent University The Australian National University Paul Drew Peter Nelde University of York Catholic University Brussels Anna Escobar Dennis Preston University of Illinois at Urbana Michigan State University Guus Extra Jeanine Treffers-Daller Tilburg University University of the West of England Margarita Hidalgo Vic Webb San Diego State University University of Pretoria Richard A. Hudson University College London Volume 18 Germanic Standardizations: Past to Present Edited by Ana Deumert and Wim Vandenbussche Germanic Standardizations Past to Present Edited by Ana Deumert Monash University Wim Vandenbussche Vrije Universiteit Brussel/FWO-Vlaanderen John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam/Philadelphia TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements 8 of American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Germanic standardizations : past to present / edited by Ana Deumert, Wim Vandenbussche.
    [Show full text]
  • Looking for Parametric Correlations Within Faroese Höskuldur Thráinsson University of Iceland
    Looking for parametric correlations within Faroese Höskuldur Thráinsson University of Iceland Abstract: This paper first reviews some parameters that have been suggested to account for variation within Scandinavian, focussing for concreteness on the parameters proposed by Holmberg and Platzack (1995) and Bobaljik and Thráinsson (1998). As this review shows, Faroese is not as well behaved as the parametric approach to Scandinavian syntax would lead us to expect. In addition, the variation found within Faroese syntax is often gradient and not as categorical as the conventional parametric approach to variation would predict. Yet it can be shown that some of the correlations predicted by Holmberg and Platzack’s (1995) Agr Parameter and Bobaljik and Thráinsson’s (1998) Split IP Parameter are found in Faroese syntax and they are turn out to be statistically significant. In the final section it is argued that to account for facts of this sort we need to revise our ideas about parametric variation, language acquisition and the nature of internalized grammars — and that this will be necessary regardless of what we think of the particular formulation of parameters assumed by Holmberg and Platzack on the one hand and Bobaljik and Thráinsson on the other. 1. Parametric variation in Scandinavian syntax1 1.1. The agreement parameter and the case parameter In their comparative work on Scandinavian around 1990, which culminated in their influential book On the Role of Inflection in Scandinavian Syntax (1995), Holmberg and Platzack (henceforth H&P or P&H, depending on the order of authors in the relevant publications) divide the Scandinavian languages into two main groups, i.e.
    [Show full text]
  • THE FUTURE of the BANTU LANGUAGES by W
    THE FUTURE OF THE BANTU LANGUAGES By W. B. LOCKWOOD T^HE Freedom Charter adopted by the Congress of the People at Kliptown, Johannesburg, contains the demand that "All people shall have equal right to use their own languages." Of latef this question of language has been very much to the fore in South Africa, where it has been discussed in the progressive press and elsewhere, and very different views have been expressed. Recently, D. T. Cole, a lecturer in Bantu languages at the Wit- watersrand University, wrote an article in Forum (Vol. 3, No. 2) dealing with the problem of the exceptional linguistic diversity in South Africa. His article is symptomatic of the confusion in the minds of many people, including well-wishers of the African, and it will not be out of place to consider his opinions. Cole envisages for the Bantu languages a policy of linguistic unifica­ tion which in the distant future might lead to the creation of two major Bantu languages. These two could then be "offered" official status which, says Cole, is out of the question for any Bantu language, at the moment. Cole is led to this view by his general conception of the Bantu languages: "It is not an economic proposition, from any point of view, to maintain our seven literary Bantu forms as separate languages, nor to offer them anything like the status of English or Afrikaans ... In addition . there are numerous lesser languages . whose small populations do not warrant (literary) development." For these patronis­ ing assumptions Cole does not, however, advance any evidence.
    [Show full text]
  • Indo-European Linguistics: an Introduction Indo-European Linguistics an Introduction
    This page intentionally left blank Indo-European Linguistics The Indo-European language family comprises several hun- dred languages and dialects, including most of those spoken in Europe, and south, south-west and central Asia. Spoken by an estimated 3 billion people, it has the largest number of native speakers in the world today. This textbook provides an accessible introduction to the study of the Indo-European proto-language. It clearly sets out the methods for relating the languages to one another, presents an engaging discussion of the current debates and controversies concerning their clas- sification, and offers sample problems and suggestions for how to solve them. Complete with a comprehensive glossary, almost 100 tables in which language data and examples are clearly laid out, suggestions for further reading, discussion points and a range of exercises, this text will be an essential toolkit for all those studying historical linguistics, language typology and the Indo-European proto-language for the first time. james clackson is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge, and is Fellow and Direc- tor of Studies, Jesus College, University of Cambridge. His previous books include The Linguistic Relationship between Armenian and Greek (1994) and Indo-European Word For- mation (co-edited with Birgit Anette Olson, 2004). CAMBRIDGE TEXTBOOKS IN LINGUISTICS General editors: p. austin, j. bresnan, b. comrie, s. crain, w. dressler, c. ewen, r. lass, d. lightfoot, k. rice, i. roberts, s. romaine, n. v. smith Indo-European Linguistics An Introduction In this series: j. allwood, l.-g. anderson and o.¨ dahl Logic in Linguistics d.
    [Show full text]
  • Self-Determination and Sub-Sovereign Statehood in the EU with Particular Reference to Scotland and Passing Reference to the Faroe Islands L
    Alasdair Geater and Scott Crosbyt Self-determination and Sub-sovereign Statehood in the EU with particular reference to Scotland and passing reference to the Faroe Islands l. Points of Departure II. Fear of Freedom III. Self-Determination as a Fundamental Human Right IV. Arguments of Dissuasion and their Rebuttal On the perceived dangers of nationafis m On the perceived risk of economic isolation On the fe ar of fragmentation IV. The Exercise of the Right of Self-determination under EU Law VI. The Importance of History VII. The Particular Case of Scotland Historical Constitutional Consequences of Scottish Statehood The Process The benefits of statehood ? 1 Partners respectively in Geater and Co and Stanbrook & Hooper, Brussels and faunding partners of Geater & Crosby, a joint venture devoted to Scots constitutional law, also based in Brussels. The seeds for this discourse were sown in a leeture in 1975 by Professor Neil MacCormick, then ayoung Dean of the Faculty of Law at Edinburgh University, which the younger of the co­ authors attended (and remembered). Føroyskt L6gar Rit (Faroese Law Review) vol. 1 no. 1 - 2001 "In a united Europe every small country can find its place alongside the former great powers" 2 Føroyskt Urtak Heiti: Sjalvsavgeroarrættur og at vera statur f ES viiJ partvisum fullveldi, vio serligum atliti til Skotlands, men eisini vio atliti til Føroya. Greinin vioger [ heimspekiligum og politiskum høpi tjdningin av, at tj6oir, sum nu eru i felagskapi viiJ aorar i ES, faa fullveldi og egnan ES-limaskap. Høvundarnir halda uppa, at tao er 6missandi rættur f fullum samsvari vio ES-Sattmalan hja hesum tj6oum at faa egnan ES-limaskap.
    [Show full text]
  • The Position of Frisian in the Germanic Language Area Charlotte
    The Position of Frisian in the Germanic Language Area Charlotte Gooskens and Wilbert Heeringa 1. Introduction Among the Germanic varieties the Frisian varieties in the Dutch province of Friesland have their own position. The Frisians are proud of their language and more than 350,000 inhabitants of the province of Friesland speak Frisian every day. Heeringa (2004) shows that among the dialects in the Dutch language area the Frisian varieties are most distant with respect to standard Dutch. This may justify the fact that Frisian is recognized as a second official language in the Netherlands. In addition to Frisian, in some towns and on some islands a mixed variety is used which is an intermediate form between Frisian and Dutch. The variety spoken in the Frisian towns is known as Town Frisian1. The Frisian language has existed for more than 2000 years. Genetically the Frisian dialects are most closely related to the English language. However, historical events have caused the English and the Frisian language to diverge, while Dutch and Frisian have converged. The linguistic distance to the other Germanic languages has also altered in the course of history due to different degrees of linguistic contact. As a result traditional genetic trees do not give an up-to-date representation of the distance between the modern Germanic languages. In the present investigation we measured linguistic distances between Frisian and the other Germanic languages in order to get an impression of the effect of genetic relationship and language contact for the position of the modern Frisian language on the Germanic language map.
    [Show full text]
  • What Can Faroese Pseudocoordination Tell Us About English Inflection?
    What can Faroese pseudocoordination tell us about English inflection? Daniel Ross University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1 Introduction English, with its relatively impoverished morphology within Germanic, offers no evidence for determining whether a given verb form is inflected identically to the lexical root or not inflected at all. Furthermore, it is unclear whether all such identical forms are accidentally homophonous or are indications of systematic syncretism that is part of the mechanics of the morphosyntax of the language. This article addresses a particular morphosyntactic phenomenon for which this distinction has greater implications for the grammar. Does the grammar allow for specific requirements of uninflected verbal forms in certain constructions? Are uninflected present-tense forms of the verb systematically equivalent to the infinitive in a way that is operational in the grammar? Specifically, the ban on inflection found in English try and pseudocoordination is investigated in detail. As shown in (1), the construction is permitted if and only if both verbs happen to be in their uninflected forms.1 (1) a. Try and win the race! [Then even if you do not succeed, you tried.] b. I will try and win the race [but I am tired and might not be able to win]. c. I try and win the race every time [even though I rarely succeed]. d. *He tries and win(s) the race every time [but he rarely succeeds]. e. He did try and win the race [but his injury made it impossible]. f. *He tried and win/won the race [but his injury made it impossible].
    [Show full text]
  • Gender Across Languages: the Linguistic Representation of Women and Men
    <DOCINFO AUTHOR "" TITLE "Gender Across Languages: The linguistic representation of women and men. Volume II" SUBJECT "Impact 10" KEYWORDS "" SIZE HEIGHT "220" WIDTH "150" VOFFSET "4"> Gender Across Languages Impact: Studies in language and society impact publishes monographs, collective volumes, and text books on topics in sociolinguistics. The scope of the series is broad, with special emphasis on areas such as language planning and language policies; language conflict and language death; language standards and language change; dialectology; diglossia; discourse studies; language and social identity (gender, ethnicity, class, ideology); and history and methods of sociolinguistics. General editor Annick De Houwer University of Antwerp Advisory board Ulrich Ammon William Labov Gerhard Mercator University University of Pennsylvania Laurie Bauer Elizabeth Lanza Victoria University of Wellington University of Oslo Jan Blommaert Joseph Lo Bianco Ghent University The Australian National University Paul Drew Peter Nelde University of York Catholic University Brussels Anna Escobar Dennis Preston University of Illinois at Urbana Michigan State University Guus Extra Jeanine Treffers-Daller Tilburg University University of the West of England Margarita Hidalgo Vic Webb San Diego State University University of Pretoria Richard A. Hudson University College London Volume 10 Gender Across Languages: The linguistic representation of women and men Volume II Edited by Marlis Hellinger and Hadumod Bußmann Gender Across Languages The linguistic representation of women and men volume 2 Edited by Marlis Hellinger University of Frankfurt am Main Hadumod Bußmann University of Munich John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam/Philadelphia TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American 8 National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
    [Show full text]
  • The Case System of the Vilamovicean Adjective – from Description to Explanation
    Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics, Vol. 42, 2013, 37-54 doi: 10.5774/42-0-139 The case system of the Vilamovicean adjective – from description to explanation Alexander Andrason University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, 7602 Matieland, South Africa Email: [email protected] Abstract The present paper offers a detailed description and analysis of the adjectival declensional patterns in the Modern Vilamovicean language. Modern Vilamovicean possesses six declensional patterns, restricted to distinct environments, that, from a morphological perspective, form a continuum ranging from a strong declension (classes 1, 2 and 3) to a weak one (class 6), through intermediate mixed paradigms (classes 4 and 5). Nowadays, only the mixed and weak classes are productive and common. If compared with Classical Vilamovicean, the adjectival declension has suffered a process of syncretism and decay, evolving towards a two-case marking: nominative vs. accusative-dative in the masculine singular and nominative- accusative vs. dative elsewhere. Thus, the adjectival morphological case marking is more effective than in the nominal system (where no case distinction is usually made), but less successful than in the pronominal system (where a three-case distinction predominates). Within a typological-grammaticalisation framework, the inflectional organisation of Vilamovicean adjectives can be defined as an advanced case system. Keywords: Germanic linguistics, endangered languages, case system, adjective, language change 1. Introduction Vilamovicean is a Germanic language that is spoken in Wilamowice, a small town located in Western Galicia in Poland. Nowadays, the vernacular is understood by circa two hundred persons, although actively employed by no more than forty native speakers. All the users of the Vilamovicean idiom, who may be viewed as fully competent and proficient, were born before the Second World War.
    [Show full text]
  • The Distribution of Definiteness Markers and the Growth of Syntactic Structure from Old Norse to Modern Faroese
    The Distribution of Definiteness Markers and the Growth of Syntactic Structure from Old Norse to Modern Faroese. A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2014 Pauline Harries School of Arts, Languages and Cultures List of Contents 1. Introduction 10 1.1 Aims and scope of the thesis 10 1.2 Background to Faroese 11 1.3 Introduction to the Insular Scandinavian 12 1.3.1 Ancestry and development 12 1.3.2 Faroese as an Insular Scandinavian language 14 1.3.3 The Noun Phrase in Faroese 18 1.4 Introduction to LFG 20 2. Definiteness Marking in Old Norse 23 2.1 Introduction 23 2.2 Previous literature on Old Norse 24 2.2.1 Descriptive literature 24 2.2.2 Theoretical literature 28 2.2.3 Origins of hinn 32 2.3 Presentation of Data 33 2.3.1 Zero definite marking 33 2.3.2 The hinn paradigm 37 2.3.2.1 The bound definite marker 37 2.3.2.2 The free definite marker 39 2.3.2.3 The other hinn 43 2.3.3 Demonstratives 44 2.3.3.1 Relative Clauses 48 2.3.4 Adjectival marking of definiteness 49 2.3.4.1 Definite adjectives in Indo-European 50 2.3.4.2 Definite adjectives in Old Norse 53 2.3.4.3 The meaning of weak versus strong 56 2.3.5 Summary of Findings 57 2.4 Summary and discussion of Old Norse NP 58 2.4.1 Overview of previous literature 59 2.4.2 Feature Distribution and NP structure 60 2.5 Summary of Chapter 66 3.
    [Show full text]
  • Language Planning Newsletter, November 1981, Vol. 7, No
    language" except courses in foreign languages. A Kumision I Fino' Chamorro Chamorro Bicultural Bilingual Program in (Guam) elementary schools, however, aims at revitalizing the Chamorro language and 'old ways,' but is as yet in an Martin Combs and Bjdrn H. Jernudd* experimental stage only. Also, Guam has been the beneficiary of the U.S. Bilingual Education Act of 1968 The Micronesian islands are currently being through which support is given for teacher training reorganized into self-governing and semi-independent and materials development. There is, however, some states. One of these islands is Guam which for the time opposition from other ethnic groups to the use of being remains a self-governing territory of the United Chamorro in school. states. It is the southernmost island in the Mariana Very much like in other Micronesian indigenous Islands group, with a total population in 1980 of communities, there is dissatisfaction among the approximately 105,800 people: 48% are Chamorro, 20% Chamorro elders with language standards and degree of are of Philippine descent and 24% are Caucasian. Most usage of the indigenous language by younger of the latter are transient military personnel and their generations. The Chairman of the Governor's dependents. Also, there are Chinese, Korean, Japanese Commission on the Chamorro Language of the and other-Micronesian residents. Guam's northern Government of Guam - Kumision i Fino' Chamorro neighbor, the Commonwealth of the Northern - writes that "Chamorro is in poor condition with Mariana Islands, is predominantly Chamorro. There young people (18 years and less) usually possessing are also Chamorro communities in California and only receptive level skills (listening) in Chamorro." Hawaii.
    [Show full text]
  • Research Directions in the Study of Language Standardization
    Research directions in the study of language standardization Ana Deumert and Wim Vandenbussche Monash University, Australia Vrije Universiteit Brussel/FWO-Vlaanderen, Belgium In the introduction we have commented on a number of themes or leitmotifs of standardization which can be observed across the individual case studies collected in this volume. The existence of persistent historical commonalities between standard languages has been a central motivation for the construction of cross-linguistic models and the general interest in a comparative, synthetic approach to the study of language standardization. In this concluding section we would like to outline some broad directions for further research in the ªeld of “comparative standardology”. Language standardization as creation and convergence In the popular imagination the history of standard languages is intricately con- nected to the activities of individuals and institutions. Indeed, the popular linguis- tic pantheon is ªlled with the names of the “standardizers” who set out to regulate and codify their native language, and standardization is — at least in part — seen as the direct consequence and result of the rational, goal-oriented actions carried out by these individual and collective social actors.1 Not only is it necessary (as already noted in the introduction) to carefully consider the various and sometimes con- ¶icting motivations of these actors (e.g. cultural aspirations, administrative uniªca- tion, economic advantage, political strategy, etc.), but their complex and manifold national and also trans-national interactions and collaborations deserve further attention. In this context it is worth mentioning the approach of De Groof (e.g. 2002b) which attempts — with regard to Belgian language history — a systematic cross-tabulation of the goals and motivations of a large number of social actors, as well as Watts’ (1999) more ethnographically inspired reconstruction of the “dis- course communities” of eighteenth century English grammarians.
    [Show full text]