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- Title
Myths and facts about loanword development.
- Authors
Poplack, Shana; Dion, Nathalie
- Abstract
This study traces the diachronic trajectory and synchronic behavior of English-origin items in Quebec French over a real-time period of 61 years. We test three standard assumptions about such foreign incorporations: (1) they increase in frequency; (2) they originate as code-switches and are gradually integrated into recipient-language grammar; and (3) the processes underlying code-switching and borrowing are the same. Results do not support the assumptions. Few other-language items persist, let alone increase. Linguistic integration is abrupt, not gradual. Speakers consistently distinguish lone other-language items from multiword fragments on each of five linguistic diagnostics tested. They borrow the former, and code-switch the latter. Code-switches are not converted into borrowings; instead the decision to code-switch or borrow is made at the moment the other-language item is accessed. We explore the implications of these findings for understanding the processes by which other-language incorporations achieve the status of native items and their consequences for theories of code-switching and borrowing.
- Subjects
FRANCE; LOANWORDS; LANGUAGE acquisition; VARIATION in language; GRAMMAR; CODE switching (Linguistics); SYNCHRONIC linguistics; FREQUENCY (Linguistics); ENGLISH language
- Publication
Language Variation & Change, 2012, Vol 24, Issue 3, p279
- ISSN
0954-3945
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S095439451200018X