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Fuller Medina Thesis September 2016

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Fuller Medina Thesis September 2016 Language Mixing in Northern and Western Belize: A Comparative Variationist Approach Nicté Fuller Medina A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD degree in linguistics. Department of Linguistics Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Nicté Fuller Medina, Ottawa, Canada 2016 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the bilingual discourse of a cohort of Belizean Spanish speakers who engage in robust language mixing between Spanish, English and to a lesser extent Belize Kriol, an English- lexified creole. The speakers selected for the current study have been identified as the “highest language mixers” in a corpus of 51 interviews conducted in northern and western Belize, areas which have been classified as two distinct dialect regions (Cardona Ramírez 2010; Hagerty 1979). While an abundance of research exists on Spanish-English bilingualism in the U.S. (e.g. Torres Cacoullos and Travis 2014; Silva Corvalán 1994; Roca and Lipksi 1993) there is less research on non-U.S. varieties of Spanish in contact with English, in particular, Belizean varieties of Spanish. Thus, by appealing to the comparative variationist framework (Poplack and Tagliamonte 2001), the major aims of the study are: (i) to describe the major patterns of use among those speakers of Belizean varieties of Spanish who engage in language mixing and, (ii) to determine the status of the single and multiword English-origin fragments which comprise the majority of non-native material in Spanish discourse. In determining the status of the English-origin material with regard to borrowing and code-switching, not only are the specific linguistic mechanisms used by these speakers elucidated, but insights are gained as to whether code-switching and borrowing are distinct linguistic phenomena. Diagnostics of subject position and gender and number agreement on English-origin nouns and verbal morphology and variable clitic placement for English-origin verbs revealed both these categories to pattern with Spanish suggesting that they are borrowings. The remaining one-third of the data, comprised of multiword fragments, consisted primarily of intrasentential and intersentential code-switching and a large category of multiword fragments which initially appeared to be neither code-switches nor borrowings. A comparative quantitative analysis revealed these items to be integrated into Spanish suggesting that they may be treated as single units of meaning. Results, for the most part, are consonant with the literature on bilingual speech. Data consists mainly of lexical borrowing (Thomason 2001; Pfaff 1979; Berk-Seligson 1986), specifically nouns, the most borrowed category cross-linguistically (Muysken 2000; Poplack et al. 1988). Speakers engage in “skilled” or equivalence intrasentential code-switching consistent with other Spanish-English data (Poplack 1980). In addition, only those speakers who reported being equally dominant in the respective languages exhibited robust intrasentential code-switching, thus, concurring with the prevailing assertion that code-switching is the domain of fluent bilinguals (Bullock and Toribio 2012; Lipski 1985; Poplack 1980). Some distinctive features of the language mixing employed by these speakers include the frequent and productive use of bilingual compound verbs (BCV) and a near categorical preference for BCVs as the mechanism for borrowing English-origin verbs. With regard to Spanish determiner marking on English-origin nouns, the masculine default is used almost exclusively, unlike the variability reported elsewhere (Dubord 2004; Smead 2000). By analyzing data from both dialect regions of Belize, this study provides insight both into the global picture of language mixing practices in Belize as well as regional patterns insofar as they are instantiated by the cohort analyzed. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I want to thank all the participants who agreed to be interviewed, without them, this thesis would not have been possible. While much of the stories shared in interviews have been converted to bits of linguistic data, they all shaped my view of Belize, language and research. I will carry them close. The Houses of Culture were an integral part of data collection. I would like to especially thank Nalleli Trujillo and Cindy Rivero. Mis respetos. Your work is indispensable and I am indebted to you for your support. In Belize, I would also like to thank: Mrs. Jane Bennett at the University of the West Indies, Belize Open Campus for the support as host institution, also Nigel Encalada for his assistance and interest in my research over the past few years and for the inspiring work that he and his team do at the Institute of Social and Cultural Research. Thanks also go out to Mito Paz, Mr. Angel Nuñez, Patty Arceo, Felipe Paz, Yasmin Keith Figueroa, Mr. Rico, Miss Elma and Miss Perrera†. Special thanks to Suzette Zayden for her friendship and support with my research! It has meant so much. Mil gracias to the Quiñones-Martínez family for welcoming me so warmly. I must also mention and thank Sir Colville Young whose work first propelled me into linguistics. Fieldwork could not have taken place without funding from the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (FGPS). My sincerest thanks to Ross Hastings† for permitting me to compete for the Student Mobility Bursary. I am deeply grateful as well for his fair-minded approach to student concerns. I would also like to thank Marc Brunelle and Marie-Hélène Côté for supporting my efforts to obtain funding. Additional funding for fieldwork was provided through the Student Travel Fund, Faculty of Arts. Other funding during the PhD program came in the form of a generous SSHRC CGS Doctoral Fellowship (#767-2007-0686) and the Dana Mullen Bursary. Transcription work was funded through the SFUO and SASS and transcribers deserve special mention. Many, many thanks to Leo Isac Tonaco, the main transcriber, who on more than one occasion saved the day! I also benefitted greatly from Evelyn Shen’s thoroughness and initiative. My thanks as well to Paulina Ramírez for a job well done. Similarly, I am indebted to Belén Briz Paredes and Almudena Basanta Romero Valdespino for volunteering their time to assist with transcription in the early stages of the project. My thanks also to Almudena for her friendship and for cheering me on. The writing of the thesis could not have been done without the co-supervisors’ diligent readings of multiple drafts of chapters. I was fortunate to have the perspectives of two different approaches and I believe that my work is stronger for it. My training in the variationist method took place for the most part in courses with Stephen Levey, for this and for his reading of several drafts of the thesis, I am grateful. I am also very grateful to Juana Muñoz-Liceras for agreeing to co-supervise. Her feedback helped me, among other things, to see (and hopefully present) the variationist method more clearly. Her expertise, enthusiasm, and no-nonsense approach have been essential to me. I had a wonderful examination committee. I am especially grateful to the interim Dean of the FGPS, Claire Turenne-Sjolander, for chairing the examination committee and for kind feedback at the defence. I also wish to express my gratitude for the value and consideration given to student concerns. Sincere thanks to John Lipksi for generously agreeing to be the external examiner and iii for his meticulous reading of the thesis. His comments have helped me see my research more clearly and have given me much to work with as I move forward. Thanks to Nikolay Slavkov for helpful conversations on multilingualism and feedback on early drafts of parts of the thesis. I owe much gratitude to Andrés Salanova for making time for me and for the discussions that started out as hallway conversations in my first years in the PhD. The ones on bilingual compound verbs helped me clarify much of my analysis on BCVs and have fed my own curiosity about language. To Ana Arregui, for the incredibly helpful and enjoyable conversations on lexical aspect, verbs and genericity and for the insightful questions and comments on the thesis. I also owe her my thanks for knowing how to find simple solutions to some of the bumps in the road while she was chair of the graduate program. Other faculty I would like to thank are Robert Truswell, Jeff Mielke, and Paul Hirschbühler. Éric Mathieu and Stephen Levey provided bursaries which made it possible for me to attend the LSA summer institute in Ann Arbor from which I benefitted immensely. My thanks also to Maurice Bélanger, our department Technical Officer, for assistance with all the technical aspects of fieldwork and for always responding to my emails when my computer misbehaved. To the administrative staff who keep things running smoothly and who were always helpful when I had questions: Danielle O’Connor, Donna Desbiens, Jeanne D’Arc Turpin, and Suzanne Dalrymple. This long academic road felt a little less daunting because of friends and colleagues: Christie Brien in whom I have found a kindred spirit. Yukiko Yoshizumi for her wonderful sense of humor and great conversations about our work. Joseph Roy for the many brunch discussions about all things linguistic which led to important spaces for support and research collaboration. And, of course, for his quirky sense of humor. Also to Mélissa Chiasson-Léger, Lyra Magloughlin, Saleh Al-Qahtani, thanks for your support! Carmen LeBlanc, with whom I have so enjoyed interesting conversations over numerous meals and look forward to more. Special thanks to Keren Tonciulescu for her eagle eyes, her encouragement and for taking the time to chat with me. Norman Cook for listening and for sharing his experiences with me over lattes. Sonja Lanehart has been both friend and mentor for which I am grateful. I would also like to thank Gerard Van Herk for taking the time to talk with me, for sharing his expertise and for reading parts of my work.
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