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Hispanic Contact Linguistics: Theoretical, methodological and empirical perspectives
Edited by Luis A. Ortiz López, Rosa E. Guzzardo Tamargo and Melvin González-Rivera
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 22] 2020
► pp. 179–212

Chapter 8
Transfer and convergence between Catalan and Spanish in a bilingual setting

| Universitat de les Illes Balears
| University of Michigan
| Universitat de les Illes Balears

We present results from a production study of forty-five bilingual Catalan-Spanish speakers (26 women and 19 men, aged 16 to 65 years old), to determine whether there is transfer or convergence between the two languages in a bilingual setting. The participants are residents of the capital and several villages of Majorca (Spain).

We provide evidence that the production of third-person clitics in Majorcan Catalan is clearly affected by bilingualism with Spanish. First, there is a pattern of partial transfer in the use of the neutral clitic ho in Majorcan Catalan, which shows a semantic extension matching Spanish lo. Second, the bilinguals show a pattern of syllabic (CV(C)) forms of pronominal clitics, favored by a similarity with Spanish forms. This provides evidence of both morphophonological and semantic transfer in the knowledge and production of bilinguals who acquired both languages in childhood.

Keywords: pronominal clitics, bilingualism, language contact and change, Majorca, social variables
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Language contact in Majorca: Majorcan Catalan and Spanish
  • 3.Spanish and Catalan pronominal clitics
    • 3.1Third-person clitics in Catalan
    • 3.2Third-person clitics in Spanish
  • 4.Previous studies
  • 5.Research questions and hypotheses
  • 6.Methodology
    • 6.1Participant’s selection
    • 6.2Data collection
  • 7.Analysis and results
    • 7.1Clitic production in Majorcan Catalan
    • 7.2Clitic production in Majorcan Spanish
  • 8.Analysis across extra-linguistic variables
    • 8.1Social (extra-linguistic) variables in Majorcan Catalan
    • 8.2Social variables in Majorcan Spanish
    • 8.3Analysis across linguistic preferences
  • 9.Final remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 14 February 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.22.08jim
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