New Englishes: Language Contact and Second Language Acquisition
New Englishes (4): Language Contact and Language Acquisition
Acquisition of New Englishes
Acquisition of New Englishes (NEs), a class within the (wider) field of language contact. For some scholars, there are obvious overlaps with Creoles. To be determined: the role and nature of:
- the superstrate
- the substrate languages
Possibility of ‘universals’ of language contact. On the other hand, unlike most contact varieties, New Englishes are commonly the products of educational systems. Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is relevant.
SLA
‘Interlanguage’ in SLA: the developing competence of speakers of an L2. Frequently, a system which is different from the corresponding L1 and the target language (TL) à English in our case. Not qualitatively different from L1 acquisition.
In the SLA context (i.e., non-native people learning the language in the metropolis), it is an individual competence, not a group phenomenon, therefore, not a new language (not a contact language). Outside the metropolis -> New English varieties. Interlanguages are used among groups of people in certain domains (in many cases, a language-shift process). New structural, lexical, and pragmatic norms stabilize (or ‘fossilize’ not forming part of the TL). Unlike typical Creoles, ESLs are introduced via an educational system and are mutually intelligible with the superstrate. Nevertheless, as most ESLs countries are multiethnic and multilingual, basilectal varieties may arise among people who have insufficient access to the superstrate, but who need it for communication in interethnic contacts fostered by colonialism. As a result, they show considerable overlaps with extended pidgins. Traditionally, transfer (from substrate to superstrate) was considered to be the major acquisitional strategy. A complementary view: as natural languages, New Englishes follow ordinary processes of acquisition, with transfer playing a special role, but not an exclusive or even a major role.
Several schools of linguistics have different approaches. One approach: Cognitivists -> processing the TL. Studies aiming to account for attested similarities across New Englishes in terms of production principles, i.e. a set of psycholinguistic strategies involved in learning and using an L2 under specific social conditions. Qualitatively similar to L1 acquisition: the needs and constraints of the listener and speaker determine the structure of language. A set of operating principles, with a constant competition between demands for explicitness and demands for economy in language.
- Economy of production: Early SLA and lower sociolects amongst NEs. Omission of pronouns, lack of verb and noun endings, variable deletion of the copula, of articles, etc. More economical production but more difficult processing, since it becomes reliant on contextual factors.
- Hyper-clarity (reduction of ambiguity): Taking into account the needs of the listener.
2 sub-principles:
A) Maximum transparency aim: one-to-one mapping of form and meaning/function, replacing opaque markers of meaning by more transparent ones. e.g. lexicalization of various elements of meaning. Perfective aspect in TL: have + p.p. (discontinuous, no one-to-one mapping), replaced by before, finish, already + unmarked verb.
B) Maximum salience (prominence): An increase in stress or duration of some linguistic form or the use of an extra morpheme. Redundancy absent in the TL e.g.
a) Resumptive pronouns in relative clauses: The guests who I have invited them have arrived (EAf Eng, WAf Eng)
b) Double marking of semantic relationships like contrast: Though the farmer works hard, he cannot produce enough (Ind Eng) Although you are away, but you do not forget (WAf, Eng).
Contact and Transmission
Language Contact, part of the field of Bilingualism (or Multilingualism).
Distinction:
1. Borrowing: adoption of a new word from another language. Usually, under conditions of language maintenance.
2. Substratum interference: Associated to language shift. A community adopts a TL to the detriment of its own without replicating all of the TL rules.
Vocabulary is mastered relatively early, phonology and syntax are more susceptible to interference. Prototypical contact language: a pidgin. Degrees of contact: shift with ‘normal’ vs ‘abnormal’ transmission. Normal transmission: the shifting speakers acquire the bulk of TL grammatical structures along with the TL vocabulary. Even when there are significant grammatical changes, it is recognizable as a version of the original TL (a social dialect). Abnormal transmission: shifting speakers acquire (very) few of the TL grammatical structures. A new language system has formed, a Creole.
New Englishes and Creoles
Traditionally considered as quite different. But not completely. (Counter)arguments:
1. SLA gives you a second language, creolization a first. Not all cases of creolization are one-generation phenomena. Gradualness is more typical (two generations at least). NEs may become first languages by processes of language shift. Cases of Indian South African English and at present, in Singapore some children are growing up monolingual. Not abrupt shifts, but not very gradual, either.
2. SLA is done alone, creolization in groups. Even SLA is a cohesive process, involving a community.
3. SLA is done by adults, creolization by children. The instantaneous view (‘from pidgin of adults to Creole of children’) is rejected today. Tok Pisin’s evolution into a Creole is a gradual one and it involves the participation of children and adults.
4. SLA involves a ‘normal’ linguistic background, unlike creolization. Not an abrupt process with minimal contacts with superstrate speakers. Recent research: some African languages did survive in the Americas; moreover, not all Creoles were preceded by a pidgin.
5. SLA has a target, creolization does not. Generally true. Slaves in the colonial plantation era were more concerned with communication than mastery of a TL. But the fact is that most of the vocabulary of the Creoles tends to be from the superstrate colonial languages. Both early SLA and early pidgins rely on similar strategies (lexical rather than syntactic means)
Some NEs are socially complex, involving a multilingual population. Singapore: varieties of Chinese, Malay and Tamil (movement of labor under British colonization). IndSAf Eng: dialects belonging to two language families, Indic and Dravidian (not mutually intelligible). While NEs and Creoles are prototypically different in their social circumstances and linguistic forms, in cases showing special social and multilingual conditions, an approach relating SLA and Creolistics may be fruitful by establishing similarities in structural characteristics. They may be related to universal strategies in the evolution of these varieties.
Historical Retentions in NEs
Commonly, there is a tendency to compare many NEs with Standard British English as superstrate. But from the historical point of view we have to bear in mind:
A) Standard English of the period of exploration, trade, and colonization was slightly different from English in the 20th and 21st centuries.
B) Standard English was not the only input in the formation of NEs
The superstrate was also shaped by sailors, soldiers, missionaries, adventurers, settlers, plantation owners, schoolteachers, etc. With such a varied input, the notion of a TL is an idealization.
Archaic Standard English
Early Modern Standard English (16th to 18th c.). Structures:
1. unstressed do: … the King did anoint the General with rich ointment.
2. for … to infinitives: A Billet is a piece of … Wood for to Burn.
3. dative of advantage: I got me a servant.
4. you was for singular, you were for plural (18th c.)
Some of these structures may have stabilized in one or other WE.
Regional English of Settlers
At the time of colonization, people leaving Britain were largely from the working class. Commonly unfamiliar with the practice of writing.
Features:
1. Omissions in grammar:
- determiners: this was Ø matter of fact
- prepositions after verbs: He promised him leave…
- possessive ‘s: on hearing of your Lordship design…
- -s in 3s verbs: your Memorialist hope your Excellency…
2. Variable non-standard morphosyntactic forms:
- double negation
- is, was with plural subjects, sg. you was
- -s in verbs with a plural subject
- plural endings for non-count nouns: progresses, hopes
3. Constructions lost in Settler English but retained in a NE. Dative of advantage (or ethical dative)
… your memorialist then built him a house…
Sailors
A sociolect. Many of the sailors and some captains were illiterate.
- present tense marking, forms of be, past tense form for weak and strong verbs, a- prefixing with participles.
Missionaries
Introducers of Western education. Assumption: they were speakers of standard English. Not always. Cases of Cape Colony (South Africa). Missionary and army activity preceding the arrival of the British civilian element. Perhaps to a lesser extent, also the case in India and West Africa. For some missionaries, this work was a source of employment in their search for a better life overseas. A surprising number of them were continental Europeans with little knowledge of English, or working-class L1 English speakers with little familiarity with conventions of literacy and Standard English.
Soldiers
Their role in the dissemination of English is to be studied. In some cases, discharged soldiers were employed as teachers (East Africa). In the Indian Army, battalions consisting of Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims from various regions and involved in the initial conquests that led to the colonization of adjacent Asian territories. Their role in spreading a local South Asian variety of British English is to be studied.
Teachers
Indian English as an important intermediary of the superstrate. India often supplied English teachers when new Asian colonies were established: Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore. Present day: Indian teachers in the Middle East and north-east Africa. Indian South African English with features likely to have come from India, e.g. alphabets (‘letters of the alphabet’), further studies (‘higher education’)