Diagnosing Contact Processes from their Outcomes: The Importance of Life Stages

Abstract

This paper addresses the questions, Do bilingually induced and shift-induced change have different outcomes? If they do, can these differences assist us in reconstructing the prehistoric past, specifically the linguistic prehistory of the (smallscale neolithic) societies of Melanesia. A key to better interpreting differences in the outputs of contact-induced change is to understand how such change in smallscale societies actually occurs. I argue that it is important to know the life-stage loci of change. I suggest that language shift has two life-stage loci, one in early childhood, where evidence of shift, if any, is restricted to specialist lexicon, and one in adulthood. Adult language shift appears to have been rare in Melanesia. I also suggest that bilingually induced change, which entails the syntactic restructuring of one’s heritage language on the model of a second language, takes place among preadolescent children–a claim which is supported by various kinds of evidence. This understanding helps us in turn to interpret the outcomes of contact-induced change and to infer prehistoric events, since adult second-language learning typically leads to simplification, whilst childhood language learning may lead to an increase in complexity.

Areal pressure in grammatical evolution

“…Our model at its current stage uses only morphosyntactic data, and thus it is ill-equipped to test some of the broader claims regarding structural (e.g., phonological as well as morphosyntactic) versus lexical effects of language contact at different life stages (Ross 2013), and our lack of reliable demographic and sociopolitical information makes it difficult to engage with notions of source versus recipient language agentivity and directionality (Winford 2005), but it is hoped that future adaptations of this methodology can be brought to bear on some questions from the larger literature on correlates and limitations of contact.…”

Identifying agents of change: Simplification of possessive marking in Abui-Malay bilinguals

“…We will see that the findings from this understudied contact-setting bear theoretical implications for models of contact-induced change (Kusters 2003;Trudgill 2011;Ross 2013) and contribute to the development of hypotheses from the generative paradigm usually applied to more prototypical bilinguals, such as the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis (Prévost & White 2000b). Considering that most languages in small-scale communities, like the Abui, have only recently been investigated and lack historical records, linguists examine certain outcomes of contact and then attempt to reconstruct the processes that lead to these outcomes (Ross 2013). Ross attributes most contact-induced changes in Melanesia to either bilinguallyinduced change or shift-induced change, while also presenting a number of detailed methods to diagnose them.…”

The dispersal of Austronesian languages in Island South East Asia: Current findings and debates

“…In order for contact between speakers of language A and B to lead to the addition of features in language B, it must be long‐term, intense, and multipurpose. That is, language B should not just be used in circumscribed contexts such as trading, ritual events, or songs, but in a wide array of social domains (Trudgill, , 304, 315; Ross, ). Social situations that lead to such additive changes in language B occur when it is spoken in bi/multilingual communities by adults as well as pre‐adolescent children (cf., Ross, ).…”