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Part of
Language Contact in the Territory of the Former Soviet Union
Edited by Diana Forker and Lenore A. Grenoble
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 50] 2021
► pp. 345–368

The choice of forms in contact varieties

Linguistic vs. social motivation (on the base of language contact in the Russian-Chinese border area)

| Tallinn University

The article addresses the issue of language choice in contact situations on the basis of linguistic intersection in the Russian-Chinese border area. It aims to analyze morphological forms found in Russian-Chinese communication, both in the past (in data on Russian-Chinese pidgin) and in the present, and to reveal the nature of the motivations that determine speakers’ choice of forms. The analysis of three sets of data – (1) historical data on Russian-Chinese Pidgin; (2) modern data on actual interethnic communication; (3) metalinguistic data obtained from consultants without reference to a particular ethnic group (Chinese) – find more similarities between the first two sets. It shows therefore that choice of morphological forms can depend on social settings and linguistic stereotypes rather than linguistic structure per se.

Keywords: pidgin grammar formation, language contacts, Russian-Chinese border, interethnic communication, foreigner talk, Russian-Chinese Pidgin, Russian, Chinese
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Language contact in the Russian-Chinese border area
  • 3.Data and method
  • 4.Choice of morphological forms in Russian-Chinese Pidgin data
  • 5.Choice of morphological forms in experimental data
  • 6.Choice of morphological forms in modern data on interethnic communication in the Russian-Chinese border area
  • 7.Results: Comparing three sets of data
  • 8.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • List of abbreviations / glosses
  • References
Published online: 18 June 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.50.12fed
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