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Language Contact Situations
Language Contact Situations
Situations
Monolingual, Bilingual,
Multilingual
Language Contact
It occurs when speakers of different
languages interact and their
languages influence each other
The study of Language contact is
called contact Linguistics
Language Contact
A situation that arises when
two or more languages are spoken in the same or
adjoining regions
And
when there is a high degree of communication
between the people speaking them
Can result in
Language loss or even language death
Borrowing
Bi- / multilingualism
Language change
Situations of language
contact
Monolingualism
David Crystal defines a monolingual
is a person/community with only one
language, is also called unilingual
a person who has an active
knowledge of only one language,
though perhaps a passive knowledge
of others
Bilingualism
(Multilingualism)
The ability of societies or individuals to
engage on regular basis with more than one
language in their day to day lives
Individual Bilingualism the use of two (or
more) languages by an individual
E.g., an individual who speaks both English and
Spanish
Societal Bilingualism the use of two (or more)
languages within a given community
E.g., the bilingual setting in India, Canada,
Switzerland, Malaysia, etc.
Bilinguals may be
Balanced bilinguals- Individuals fully
competent in both languages
Dominant bilinguals-Individuals who
are dominant in one language.
Less dominant language = subordinate.
Dominance does not apply to all
domains.
Multilingual
The ability of an individual speaker or
a community of speakers to use
multiple languages. Contrast with
monolingualism, the ability to use
only one language.
A person who can speak multiple
languages is known as a polyglot or a
multilingual.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
Degrees of Multilingualism
If a person has native like command
in all the languages he knows, then
it is known as
Ambilingualism.
if a person has equal degree of
competence in the languages he
uses, is known as Equilingualism.
Interference
The term interference refers to the influence
of one language (or variety) on another in the
speech of bilinguals who use both languages.
"Those instances of deviation from the norms
of either language which occur in the speech
of bilinguals as a result of their familiarity with
more than one language, i.e. as a result of
language contact, will be referred to as
INTERFERENCE phenomena." (Weinreich
1953:1)
Phonological
interference
Phonological interference is a common type of interference, its
most prominent manifestation being a foreign accent.
Incorrect learner English: Finger (*/f/ )
Correct R.P.: Finger (/fg/ )
Words including the combination ng may be pronounced
incorrectly in English, since they are realized as [] in Dutch.
In that case, the [] pronounced by a native speaker of Dutch
would be transferred to the learner language English, where
[] would be the correct pronunciation. Therefore, the
realization of ng as [] in the native language would
interfere with the pronunciation of the learner language, e.g.
the ng-combination in Finger: Dutch: [] vs. Received
Pronunciation: [] .
Syntactic interference
Lexical interference
Code
A code is a system that is used by people to
communicate with each other. When people want
to talk each other they have to choose a particular
code to express their feeling
According to Stock Well a code is a symbol of
nationalism that is used by people to speak or
communicate in a particular language, dialect or
register or accent or style in different occasions
and for different purpose
the code is a form of the language variation that is
used by a society make communication with other
people
Code Mixing
Code mixing refers to any admixture of linguistic elements
of two or more language systems in the same utterance at
various levels:
phonological, lexical, grammatical and orthographical.
Code-mixing is the change of one language to another
within the same utterance or in the same oral/ written text.
It is a common phenomenon in societies in which two or
more languages are used. Studies of code-mixing enhance
our understanding of the nature, processes and constraints
of language and of the relationship between language use
and individual values, communicative strategies, language
attitudes and functions within particular socio-cultural
contexts.
Code mixing
1. Speakers use more than one
language in a discourse unit ( a
sentence, a paragraph).
2. Code mixing suggests that the
speaker is mixing up codes
indiscriminately, perhaps because of
incompetence, whereas code
switching refers to a more active
manipulation of the symbolic and
social meanings of a language choice.
Code switching
Switching may be :
Inter-sentential switching: is switching outside the sentence or clause level,
for example at sentence or clause boundaries.
Example, He came here because n vilccu. [He came because I called
him ]
Intra-sentential switching : is switching within a sentence or clause.
Example, Listen dayavaayi call him [dayavaayi is please in malayalam)
Tag-switching : is switching a tag phrase or word from language B into
language A. (This is a common intra-sentential switch.)
Example, He will came alle? (alle isnt it)
Intra-word switching is switching within a word itself, such as at
a morpheme boundary. Example, God is imirimious [imirimi in Igbo means
mysterious, deep or complex but the suffix ous is English and helps in
giving the word imirimi an English status
Codeswitching
Code switching: The juxtaposition within
the same speech exchange of passages
belonging to two different grammatical
systems or subsystems (Gumperz 1982)
Lexical borrowing: Words from one
system adapted phonologically and
morph-syntactically and used regularly
in another system and