• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese SUBJECT EXPRESSION IN MINORCAN SPANISH: CONSEQUENCES OF CONTACT WITH CATALAN A Dissertation in Spanish by Ana de Prada Pérez © 2009 Ana de Prada Pérez Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2009 The dissertation of Ana de Prada Pérez was reviewed and approved* by the following: Almeida Jacqueline Toribio Professor of Spanish and Linguistics Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee John M. Lipski Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Spanish and Linguistics Nuria Sagarra Assistant Professor of Spanish Linguistics and Applied Linguistics Barbara E. Bullock Professor of French and Linguistics J. Marc Authier Associate Professor of French and Linguistics Special Signatory Henry J. Gerfen Associate Professor of Spanish and Linguistics Head of the Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School ii ABSTRACT This dissertation project examines bilingual speech, specifically subject expression in Catalan-Spanish bilinguals in Minorca, Spain. Antecedent research has mostly focused on bilingual speech in situations where one of the languages enjoys official status and the other is employed in restricted domains or where only one of the languages is spoken by the society at large. Minorca offers a different landscape, one in which Catalan and Spanish are used in public and private milieus. This linguistic situation, it is argued here, enhances the emergence of contact-induced linguistic patterns. Of particular interest are the rates and patterns of subject expression and omission in bilingual varieties of Spanish and Catalan. Subject expression in Spanish has received much attention from linguists in diverse sub-disciplines, employing diverse theoretical frameworks and methodological tools. This variation has been most convincingly examined by applying variable rule analysis to naturalistic data collected via sociolinguistic interviews. Variationist studies have revealed that the expression and omission of subjects in Spanish is determined by numerous factors, among these information structure, Tense/Mood/Aspect, person, and genre. For instance, overt subjects are favored in contexts of topic shift, with first person, and when there is a lack of continuity. More notably, variation has been attested across varieties of Spanish; in particular, contrasts in rates and patterns of subject expression are reported between Caribbean Spanish and other varieties of Spanish (Otheguy et al. 2007). Syntactic-theoretical treatments of subject expression abound, most concerned with the formal features that license null subjects. Thus, cross-linguistic differences between null subject languages and non-null subject languages have been attributed to the features of functional projections such as Agr and Tns. While null subjects are licensed by properties of the ‘core’ or narrow syntax of null subject languages, the appearance of overt subjects in such languages is constrained by the informational context. Thus, in contrast to null subjects, the expression of overt subjects in null subject languages is regulated by properties of the ‘peripheral’ grammar, specifically, the area where the syntax interfaces with the discourse/ pragmatics. This generalization has been widely exploited in the literature on child bilingualism, adult second language acquisition, and first language attrition, for the most part by reference to data obtained via experimental research designs. The works of Antonella Sorace and her colleagues indicate that while the iii core syntax remains unchanged in language contact situations, the peripheral grammars (i.e., the syntax interfaces with other modules) are susceptible to inter-lingual effects. For instance, while Spanish-English bilinguals accept null subjects in Spanish (and reject them in English), they demonstrate the emergence of pragmatically-infelicitous overt pronominal subjects in Spanish. The use of pragmatically-infelicitous overt pronominal subjects in Spanish has been interpreted in two manners: one view identifies this pattern with a simplification process or strategy of cognitive economy attendant to bilingual speech (Sorace 2004); the second view describes it as a convergent outcome, rendering the contact languages more alike (Bullock & Toribio 2004, Toribio 2004). These two approaches make distinct predictions for outcomes in situations of contact between two null subject languages. The simplification approach predicts an increase in overt subjects, as a consequence of a universal process that allows for bilinguals to compensate for the increased processing load of articulating different types of information (syntactic and discursive). In contrast, a convergence account would predict an intermediate rate of overt subjects between the rates observed in the two languages in contact. This dissertation project expands on previous research by examining Spanish in contact with Catalan in Minorca. The project examines variation between null subject languages, by reference to data from two very closely related languages, and it explores bilingual outcomes, by comparing monolingual and bilingual Spanish data. The aim is to examine the role of language-internal and language-external factors in the emergence of contact-induced forms. To that end, naturalistic Spanish language samples were collected from twelve monolingual Spanish speakers, eleven Spanish L1 bilinguals, and twelve Catalan L1 bilinguals, who were recorded in Spanish; in addition, naturalistic Catalan data were gathered from twelve Catalan-dominant speakers (as there are no monolingual Catalan speakers). All language samples were recorded during an interview in which participants reported on their language history, participated in an ethnolinguistic survey, and responded to questions on language attitudes and ideologies. The recordings ranged from 49.40 minutes (4,369 words) to 99.70 minutes (11,399 words). Data were transcribed and the first 300 relevant tokens produced by each participant were coded and submitted to statistical analysis using Goldvarb X (Sankoff, Tagliamonte & Smith 2006). Apart from the overall rate of subject expression, eleven language-internal variables were considered in the distribution of null, overt pronominal, and overt lexical iv subjects: person and number, discourse function, distance from previous mention, focus, co-referentiality, clause type, animacy, semantic and syntactic verb type, tense continuity, and verb form ambiguity. In addition, seven language-external variables were considered: age, gender, place of residence, first language, second language proficiency, and first and second language use. Results indicate that overall rates of overt pronominal subjects are not significantly different in Spanish and Catalan (10.6% and 11.9%). The bilinguals rates in overt pronominal subjects are not significantly different from those in monolingual Spanish (12.8% in the Spanish L1 and 12.6% in the Catalan L1 bilinguals), as predicted by Bullock & Toribio (2004) and Toribio (2004). However, multivariate regressional analyses reveal differences in constraint ranking between Spanish and Catalan. Interestingly, the bilinguals mostly display intermediate positions, i.e., convergent outcomes. Evidence of a bilingual continuum, where the Catalan L1 bilinguals are closer to the Catalan data than the Spanish L1 bilinguals, is also present in the patterns of subject expression, instantiated in constraint ranking differences. Apart from the effect found for L1, proficiency was also returned as significant. Catalan L1 speakers with higher proficiency in Spanish and Spanish L1 speakers with higher proficiency in Catalan display more monolingual-like patterns than those who exhibit more disparate proficiencies across their two languages. This project contributes to various fields. The examination of two sister languages, and monolingual and bilingual varieties of the same language, further enlightens our knowledge of linguistic variation in subject expression, and how to better establish systematic comparisons between typologically similar varieties. The analysis of the speech of bilinguals of two null subject languages argues for the emergence of converged outcomes in their speech. The lack of an increase in the overall rate of overt pronominal subjects indicates a convergent outcome, and patterns in between those in Spanish and those in Catalan indicate convergence. Finally, the examination of a linguistic community displaying extensive and established bilingualism furthers our understanding of the effect of social prestige and other external variables that cannot be explored in other communities. Keywords: Subject expression, variation, microvariation, bilingualism, convergence, simplification, Spanish, Catalan, Minorca v Table of Contents List of Tables............................................................................................ xv Acknowledgments................................................................................ xviii Chapter 1 Introduction: Bilingualism and language contact...................... 1 1. Justification, goals, and contributions of the research project.................................................... 1 1.1. Sociolinguistics and bilingualism in Minorca...................................................................... 2 1.2. Contact linguistics and bilingualism in Minorca.................................................................

Load more

  270

Copy Link