2011-MIG-LEG-Emergence-Varieti
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Transfer Learning for Singlish Universal Dependencies Parsing and POS Tagging
From Genesis to Creole language: Transfer Learning for Singlish Universal Dependencies Parsing and POS Tagging HONGMIN WANG, University of California Santa Barbara, USA JIE YANG, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore YUE ZHANG, West Lake University, Institute for Advanced Study, China Singlish can be interesting to the computational linguistics community both linguistically as a major low- resource creole based on English, and computationally for information extraction and sentiment analysis of regional social media. In our conference paper, Wang et al. [2017], we investigated part-of-speech (POS) tagging and dependency parsing for Singlish by constructing a treebank under the Universal Dependencies scheme, and successfully used neural stacking models to integrate English syntactic knowledge for boosting Singlish POS tagging and dependency parsing, achieving the state-of-the-art accuracies of 89.50% and 84.47% for Singlish POS tagging and dependency respectively. In this work, we substantially extend Wang et al. [2017] by enlarging the Singlish treebank to more than triple the size and with much more diversity in topics, as well as further exploring neural multi-task models for integrating English syntactic knowledge. Results show that the enlarged treebank has achieved significant relative error reduction of 45.8% and 15.5% on the base model, 27% and 10% on the neural multi-task model, and 21% and 15% on the neural stacking model for POS tagging and dependency parsing respectively. Moreover, the state-of-the-art Singlish POS tagging and dependency parsing accuracies have been improved to 91.16% and 85.57% respectively. We make our treebanks and models available for further research. -
Portuguese Language in Angola: Luso-Creoles' Missing Link? John M
Portuguese language in Angola: luso-creoles' missing link? John M. Lipski {presented at annual meeting of the AATSP, San Diego, August 9, 1995} 0. Introduction Portuguese explorers first reached the Congo Basin in the late 15th century, beginning a linguistic and cultural presence that in some regions was to last for 500 years. In other areas of Africa, Portuguese-based creoles rapidly developed, while for several centuries pidginized Portuguese was a major lingua franca for the Atlantic slave trade, and has been implicated in the formation of many Afro- American creoles. The original Portuguese presence in southwestern Africa was confined to limited missionary activity, and to slave trading in coastal depots, but in the late 19th century, Portugal reentered the Congo-Angola region as a colonial power, committed to establishing permanent European settlements in Africa, and to Europeanizing the native African population. In the intervening centuries, Angola and the Portuguese Congo were the source of thousands of slaves sent to the Americas, whose language and culture profoundly influenced Latin American varieties of Portuguese and Spanish. Despite the key position of the Congo-Angola region for Ibero-American linguistic development, little is known of the continuing use of the Portuguese language by Africans in Congo-Angola during most of the five centuries in question. Only in recent years has some attention been directed to the Portuguese language spoken non-natively but extensively in Angola and Mozambique (Gonçalves 1983). In Angola, the urban second-language varieties of Portuguese, especially as spoken in the squatter communities of Luanda, have been referred to as Musseque Portuguese, a name derived from the KiMbundu term used to designate the shantytowns themselves. -
Capeverdean Words Derived from Portuguese Non-Infinitive Verbal Forms: a Descriptive and Comparative Study Nicolas Quint
Capeverdean words derived from Portuguese non-infinitive verbal forms: a descriptive and comparative study Nicolas Quint To cite this version: Nicolas Quint. Capeverdean words derived from Portuguese non-infinitive verbal forms: a descriptive and comparative study. Papia, 2015, 2 (25), pp.189 - 215. halshs-01482124 HAL Id: halshs-01482124 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01482124 Submitted on 8 Mar 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. PAPIA, São Paulo, 25(2), p. 189-215, Jul/Dez 2015. Capeverdean words derived from Portuguese non-infinitive verbal forms: a descriptive and comparative study Palavras do cabo-verdiano derivadas de formas verbais não-infinitivas: um estudo descritivo e comparativo Nicolas Quint1 llacan, Villejuif, France [email protected] Abstract: This article focuses on Santiaguense Capeverdean words derived from Portuguese non-infinitive verbal forms and among these, more specifically on those elements which were not recently borrowed from modern Portuguese and do not compete with Capeverdean more basilectal items. In section 1, the category of Capeverdean words under scrutiny is defined contrastively with other similar types of words. In section 2, all known members of this category are examined in turn and according to the characteristics of their respective Portuguese sources. -
12 English Dialect Input to the Caribbean
12 English dialect input to the Caribbean 1 Introduction There is no doubt that in the settlement of the Caribbean area by English speakers and in the rise of varieties of English there, the question of regional British input is of central importance (Rickford 1986; Harris 1986). But equally the two other sources of specific features in anglophone varieties there, early creolisation and independent developments, have been given continued attention by scholars. Opinions are still divided on the relative weight to be accorded to these sources. The purpose of the present chapter is not to offer a description of forms of English in the Caribbean – as this would lie outside the competence of the present author, see Holm (1994) for a resum´ e–b´ ut rather to present the arguments for regional British English input as the historical source of salient features of Caribbean formsofEnglish and consider these arguments in the light of recent research into both English in this region and historical varieties in the British Isles. This is done while explicitly acknowledging the role of West African input to forms of English in this region. This case has been argued eloquently and well, since at least Alleyne (1980) whose views are shared by many creolists, e.g. John Rickford. But the aim of the present volume, and specifically of the present chapter, is to consider overseas varieties of English in the light of possible continuity of input formsofEnglish from the British Isles. This concern does not seek to downplay West African input and general processes of creolisation, which of course need to be specified in detail,1 butrather tries to put the case for English input and so complement other views already available in the field. -
A Discrete Co-Systems Approach to Language Variation on the Panamanian Island of Bastimentos
University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics Volume 7 Issue 3 Papers from NWAV 29 Article 20 2001 A Discrete Co-Systems Approach to Language Variation on the Panamanian Island of Bastimentos Peter Snow Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl Recommended Citation Snow, Peter (2001) "A Discrete Co-Systems Approach to Language Variation on the Panamanian Island of Bastimentos," University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: Vol. 7 : Iss. 3 , Article 20. Available at: https://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol7/iss3/20 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol7/iss3/20 For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Discrete Co-Systems Approach to Language Variation on the Panamanian Island of Bastimentos This working paper is available in University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: https://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol7/iss3/20 A Discrete Co-Systems Approach to Language Variation on the Panamanian Island of Bastimentos 1 Peter Snow 1 Introduction In its ideal form, the phenomenon of the creole continuum as originally described by DeCamp (1971) and Bickerton (1973) may be understood as a result of the process of decreolization that occurs wherever a creole is in direct contact with its lexifier. This contact between creole languages and the languages that provide the majority of their lexicons leads to synchronic variation in the form of a continuum that reflects the unidirectional process of decreolization. The resulting continuum of varieties ranges from the "basilect" (most markedly creole), through intermediate "mesolectal" varie ties (less markedly creole), to the "acrolect" (least markedly creole or the lexifier language itself). -
Spanish-Based Creoles in the Caribbean
Spanish-based creoles in the Caribbean John M. Lipski The Pennsylvania State University Introduction The Caribbean Basin is home to many creole languages, lexically related to French, English, and—now only vestigially—Dutch. Surrounded by Spanish-speaking nations, and with Portuguese-speaking Brazil not far to the south, the Caribbean contains only a single creole language derived from a (highly debated) combination of Spanish and Portuguese, namely Papiamentu, spoken on the Netherlands Antilles islands of Curaçao and Aruba. If the geographical confines of the designation `Caribbean’ are pushed a bit, the creole language Palenquero, spoken in the Afro-Colombian village Palenque de San Basilio, near the port of Cartagena de Indias, also qualifies as a Spanish-related creole, again with a hotly contested Portuguese component. There are also a number of small Afro-Hispanic enclaves scattered throughout the Caribbean where ritual language, songs, and oral traditions suggest at least some partial restructuring of Spanish in small areas. Finally, there exists a controversial but compelling research paradigm which asserts that Spanish as spoken by African slaves and their immediate descendents may have creolized in the 19th century Spanish Caribbean—particularly in Cuba—and that this putative creole language may have subsequently merged with local varieties of Spanish, leaving a faint but detectable imprint on general Caribbean Spanish. A key component of the inquiry into Spanish-related contact varieties is the recurring claim that all such languages derive from earlier Portuguese-based pidgins and creoles, formed somewhere in West Africa1 and carried to the Americas by slaves transshipped from African holding stations, and by ships’ crews and slave traders. -
Saramaka Maroons on the Brazilian Frontier Richard Price College Of
Saramaka Maroons on the Brazilian Frontier Richard Price College of William and Mary, Virginia, USA, and Anse Chaudière, Martinique Maroons in the Americas have always been champions at seizing the moment, whether in battles against their colonial enemies or in carving out imaginative economic niches in more recent times. This essay focuses on Maroon men from central Suriname who, in the second half of the nineteenth century, migrated to French Guiana where they monopolized the river transport system that supplied thousands of non-Maroon goldminers in that colony and, in the process, created a new of way of life for themselves and their descendants. The Oyapok region of French Guiana, which borders the Brazilian state of Amapá, might best be considered the distant frontier of a distant frontier B many thousands of kilometers from the metropolitan political center of Paris, many hundreds through the forest from the colonial capital of Cayenne, and, from the perspective of the Saramaka Maroons of central Suriname, at the farthest edge of the known geographical universe. In 1900, the mayor of the Commune de l=Oyapok gave the total population as 304. (He did not include members of the Aindigenous tribes of autochthonous or African origin living in the region@ which, according to a 1901 document, lived there Aunder the administrative protection of the customs service.@) Despite plans on the drawing board in 2002 for a bridge between St.- Georges-de-l'Oyapok and the Brazilian town of Oiapoque and for a road between St.- Georges-de-l'Oyapok and Cayenne (which would in theory permit direct road travel between, say, Macapá and Cayenne) the region has long remained a backwater B in 1971, for example, the largest town in the region, St-Georges-de-l'Oyapok, boasted only two cars.1 By 1900, when Saramaka Maroon migrants from Suriname (the main Atribe . -
The Study of Pidgin and Creole Languages
r The study of pidgin and creole lenguages PiererMuysken and Norval Smith r.r Introduction This book is concernedwith pidgin and creolelanguages. This statementmight well give the impressionthat we know preciselywhat is meant by theseterms. In fact they arethe subjectofmuch debate.Creolists agree neither about the precisedefinition ofthe terms pidgin and creole,nor abour the statuso[a number oflanguagesthat havebeen claimed to be pidginsor creoles,Mixed languages,introduced in chapter4, havegenerally not been mentionedat all. To turn first to pidgin languages,it is generallyagreed that in essencethese represent speech-formswhichdo nothavenative speakers, and are therefore primarily usedas a means of communication among pcoplewho do not sharea common language.The degreeof developmentand sophisticationattained by sucha pidgin dependson the qpe and intensiry of communicativeinteraction among the i$ users.Miihlhiusler (r986) makesthree basic distinctionsamongst speech-forms that crcolistshave referred to aspidgins - (ratherun- stable)jargons, stablepidgins, and expandedpidgins (seefurther chapter3). To turn to creolelalguages (or just creoles),one vital differencefrom pidgins is that pidginsdo not havenativespeakers, while creolesdo. This is not alwaysan easydistinction to make,as one aspectof theworldwideincrease in linguisticconformiry and the concomi- tanrreducdon in linguisticdiversity, is that extendedpidgins are beginning to acquirenative speakers.This has happenedfor instancewith Tok Pisin, Nigerian Pidgin English, and Sango(Central -
The Status of Dutch in Post-Colonial Suriname
Manuscript of: Diepeveen, Janneke & Matthias Hüning (2016): The status of Dutch in post-colonial Suriname. In: Daniel Schmidt-Brücken, Susanne Schuster & Marina Wienberg (Hrsg.), Aspects of (post)colonial linguistics. Current perspectives and new approaches, 131-155. (Koloniale und Postkoloniale Linguistik / Colonial and Postcolonial Linguistics - KPL/CPL 9). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. [DOI: 10.1515/9783110436907-007] Janneke Diepeveen & Matthias Hüning The status of Dutch in post-colonial Suriname Abstract: Dutch is an official language not only in the Netherlands and Bel- gium, but also in Suriname, a country in South-America. Before its independ- ence, Suriname was a colony of the Netherlands, starting as early as 1667. After its independence in 1975, the multilingual Republic of Suriname main- tained Dutch as its official language, the language of education and public life. In this paper, we shall address two seemingly conflicting developments which take place in this former Dutch colony: on the one hand, the growing use of the creole language Sranantongo as a lingua franca across Suriname and on the other hand, the persistence of Dutch. We shall argue that the linguistic developments in Suriname must be understood against the background of a young nation which is constructing its own post-colonial national identity. Keywords: Suriname, Dutch, Sranantongo, diglossia, standardization, post- colonialism Janneke Diepeveen & Matthias Hüning Institut für Deutsche und Niederländische Philologie Freie Universität Berlin Habelschwerdter Allee 45 14195 Berlin (Germany) [email protected] | [email protected] The status of Dutch in post-colonial Suriname 3 1 Introduction: Suriname and the Dutch 1 language area Dutch is a West-Germanic language and the mother tongue of about 23 mil- lion people. -
Tdeology and Facts on African American Englishi
Pragmatics2:2.141 - 166 InternationalPragmatics Association TDEOLOGYAND FACTS ON AFRICAN AMERICAN ENGLISHI SalikokoS. Mufivene 1. Introduction The term "African American English" (AAE) is used in this essayto refer to the ver- nacularspoken by African Americans particularly in urban ghettoesand rural areas of the USA" with of course the exception of some coastalisolates of South Carolina and Georgia,where Gullah is spoken (seealso labov 7972a). The featuresdiscussed below applyespecially to its basilect,that variety that is the most different from middle-class varietiesof American English. The term "ideology," suggestedby Spears (in press), is used here in a slightly different way related to the Kuhnian senseof "paradigm," i.e., a particular body of working assumptionsadopted by a school of researchers.These assumptions"color" their analysesof data to some extent,determine someof their justifications for rejecting alternativeviews, and account for the orientation of their subsequentresearch on the subjectmatter. In the case of AAE, one of the factors most relevant to this paper is the positionsof various linguists on its genetic status. The question is three-fold: L) Has AAE always been different from Gullah and its Caribbean kin but closer to white Americannonstandard English (WANSE) varietieswith a grammar that can be traced back mostly to nonstandard varieties of British English and/or to sixteenth-to- eighteenth-centurymaritime English? 2) Did AAE start as a Gullah-like creole and subsequentlylose some, or several,of the latter's features -
Language Practices and Linguistic Ideologies in Suriname: Results from a School Survey Isabelle Léglise, Bettina Migge
Language Practices and Linguistic Ideologies in Suriname: Results from a School Survey Isabelle Léglise, Bettina Migge To cite this version: Isabelle Léglise, Bettina Migge. Language Practices and Linguistic Ideologies in Suriname: Re- sults from a School Survey. In and Out of Suriname. Language, mobility, Identity., Brill, 2015, 9789004280113. hal-01134998 HAL Id: hal-01134998 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01134998 Submitted on 24 Mar 2015 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. In and Out of Suriname Language, Mobility and Identity Edited by Eithne B. Carlin, Isabelle Léglise, Bettina Migge, and Paul B. Tjon Sie Fat LEIDEN | BOSTON Contents Acknowledgments vii List of Tables and Figures viii List of Contributors x 1 Looking at Language, Identity, and Mobility in Suriname 1 Eithne B. Carlin, Isabelle Léglise, Bettina Migge and Paul B. Tjon Sie Fat 2 Language Practices and Linguistic Ideologies in Suriname: Results from a School Survey 13 Isabelle Léglise and Bettina Migge 3 Small-scale Gold Mining and Trans-frontier Commerce on the Lawa River 58 Marjo de Theije 4 Movement through Time in the Southern Guianas: Deconstructing the Amerindian Kaleidoscope 76 Eithne B. -
Variation Theory: a View from Creole Continua
Variation Theory: a View from Creole Continua DONALD WINFORD Department of Linguistics The Ohio State Uiiiversity 1712 Neil Avenue. Colunibus OH 432 10. USA [email protected] ABSTRACT P~.ac.tictioner.s of tlie CI~~LI(?f 1ingui.stic ini.e,stieation ~.<ferredto as 'quantirarii~e' 01. 'in~.iarionist'sociolinguisric~.~ gener~lll? sec. tlleir objrctii,e ea heing to rrncoivr mid rrt.c.owit.fii/. tlze q3.srrriiatici~~cndet.l?ing \m-iation in speecll bellaiior. To rlzis end. rliq 1ioi.e emply,ed ci i,rlrieg c?frriotlioclsas it'e11 c1.s ancrlytic 17zodel.v aitried at incorporating i~erricrhiliginto 1ingui.rtic descriprion. Among rlze approaches o/-e Lahoi,'s 'vririahle rule' ~nodel.and Bickerton S 'inll>lic.ariond'~~ioclel. Tlie ]>re.senrpclper e~xarninesthe rrlei~arrc~c!f rllese rriode1.s of ibclrirltiotl ro Crlrihhccnl E~rglislzcreole conrinicci clnd roncludes rlzur neirlin. i.r itlrll suited to proiiding a ~clrisjkrro~]~accounr ?fthe sociolingui.sric hererogeneih. clinrcicreri.stic of s~rcllsirlrariori.~. Like orller ,s]>eec.licommunirie.~, C~irihhean ci-eole continua tncirijfest prlrrerns of sociul and .sgli.stic di'erentiation of linguistic clioices. But, urilike t\pical dialecr siruations, [he? disj~l~slzarp irltenial drfferences in linguistic repertoire.~cind relarionsliil>sivhicli e-onnor he .suh.sumed under a .single giuitimar. T~c,f¿iiluw of ~arirrrionisrrheot?. ro adequorel~.~lescrihe ílze order-1). hetrrogeiieir\. of such continuo 110s to (lo jifi,.sr, irlith the crrchitecture qTrlze proposed models, cnid .sec,orld. ivith its tendenr? fo ft-eclt .sociolinguistic plienor7lenri (1,s rliougll tlle!, c,ould hr tmlslared directly into gra/n/nri,ir.