Cover not available
Article published In:
Dimensions of Language Attrition
Edited by Kees de Bot, Michael Clyne and T.J.M. van Els
[ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics 83/84] 1989
► pp. 125–162

Code-Switching or Borrowing? English Elements in the Dutch of Dutch-American Immigrants

Scholarly publications about Dutch immigrant speech are practically non-existent -- excepting the work of Clyne (1967, 1972, 1985, 1987). This applies particularly to Dutch speakers who immigrated in the 19th and the early 20th Century. A 75-hour corpus of language data from Dutch immigrants to the United States is currently being investigated systematically at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences' Institute for Dialectology. The general purpose of the project is to gain more insight in the nature of Dutch language and dialect maintenance or loss and of English influence on the language of these Dutch immigrants. This paper will focus specifically on English lexical elements in the speech of the first-generation immigrants (appr. 12,000 English elements in the Dutch of 97 speakers).
First a diagnostic set of characteristics for code-switching, borrowing and nonce borrowing will be presented, based in part on discussions in the recent literature on other-language lexical elements in speech in contact situations and in part on a thorough review of the Dutch-American data. These characteristics do not only concern the formal linguistic level, but also the discourse, processing and extralin-guistic levels. They form the basis of a systematic classification of the various types of English elements found in the data. Next, a number of problem cases will be discussed -- with examples -- which defy easy classification in one of the three categories of other-language elements. Finally, an attempt will be made to formulate a more generalized model for the analysis of other-language lexical elements, consisting of a diagnostic and an analytic layer. The diagnostic layer assigns an element to one of the three categories of other-language elements. The analytic layer is specifically concerned with the analysis of code-switching, comprising not only a categorization of formal linguistic phenomena, but also a categorization of functional sociolinguistic factors determining the use of switched elements. Given the variety of linguistic as well as extralinguistic aspects which apparently determine the use of switched elements, it seems unlikely that one single set of constraints could be refined enough to fully account for linguistic as well as extralinguistic aspects of code-switching. Therefore, a case will be made for the establishment of more than one set of constraining factors on the use of switched elements. Instead of limiting constraints on code-switching to the formal linguistic -- in particular the syntactic -- level, separate constraining factors for the discourse, processing, functional, and motivational level might be formulated, in order to gain full insight in the process of code-switching.
Published online: 1 January 1989
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.83-84.09sch
References (34)
References
Appel, R. (1987) : Kodewisseling: wel of geen beperkingen? Tijdschrift voor Taal en Tekstwetenschap. 7; 3:191–199.Google Scholar
Berk-Seligson, S. (1986) : Linguistic Constraints on Intrasentential Code-Switching: A study of Spanish/Hebrew Bilingualism. Language in Society, 31: 313–348. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blom, J-P. and J. J. Gumperz (1972) : Social Meaning in Linguistic Structure: Code-Switching in Norway. In: J.J. Gumperz and D. Hymes (Eds.), Directions in Socio-linguistics: The Ethnography of Communication. New York.Google Scholar
Bloomfield, L. (1933) : Language. New York.Google Scholar
Clyne, M. (1967) : Transference and Triggering. The Hague.Google Scholar
(1972) : Perspectives on Language Contact. MelbourneGoogle Scholar
(1973) : Iets over het Nederlands in Australia. Taal en Tongval, 251:14–23.Google Scholar
(1977) : Nieuw Hollands or Double-Dutch. Dutch Studies, 31:1–20.Google Scholar
(1980) : Typology and Grammatical Convergence Among Related Languages. ITL: Review of Applied Linguistics, 49–50:23–36.Google Scholar
(1985) : Typological and Sociolinguistic Factors in Grammatical Convergence: Differences between German and Dutch in Australia. In: Michael Clyne (Ed.), Australia, Meeting Place of Languages, 151–160. Canberra.Google Scholar
(1987) : Constraints on Code Switching: How Universal Are They?. Linguistics, 251:739–764. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1988) : Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Aspects of Language Contact, Maintenance and Loss: Towards a Multifacet Theory. Paper presented at the International Conference on the Maintenance and Loss of Minority Languages. Ms.
Crama, R. and H. van Gelderen (1984) : Structural Constraints on Code-Mixing. Doctoraalscriptie Instituut voor Algemene Taalwetenschap. Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Daan, J. (1987) : Ik Was te Bissie... Nederlanders en hun Taal in de Verenigde Staten. Zutphen.Google Scholar
(1988) : Problems of Code-Switching. In: T.J. Broos (Ed.), Papers from the Third Interdisciplinary Conference on Netherlandic Studies. Lanham, MD.Google Scholar
Dabène, L. and J. Biliez (1986) : Code-Switching in the Speech of Adolescents Born of Immigrant Parents. Studiesin Second Language Acquisition, 8,3:309–325. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
DiSciullo, A.M., P. Muysken and R. Singh (1986) : Government and Code-Mixing. Journal of Linguistics, 221:1–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haugen, E. (1950) : The Analysis of Linguistic Borrowing. Language, 261:210–232. Also in: Haugen, E., 1972. The Ecology of Language: Essays selected by Anwar S. Dil. Stanford.Google Scholar
Haugen. E. (1956) : Bilingualism in the Americas. Alabama.Google Scholar
Hymes, D. (1970) : The Ethnography of Speaking. In: J.A. Fishman (Ed.), Readings in the Sociology of Language. The Hague.Google Scholar
(1974) : Foundations in Sociolinguistics. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Van Marie, J. and C. Smits (1988) : Generalization Strategies in Language Loss. In: W. U. Dressler et al.(Eds.), Discussion Papers for the Sixth International Phonology Meeting and Third International Morphology Meeting: Beiheft 8 of the Wiener Linguistische Gazette. Vienna.Google Scholar
Pfaff, C. (1979) : Constraints on Language Mixing: Intra-Sentential Code-Switching and Borrowing in Spanish-English. Language, 551, 1979: 291–318. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Poplack, S. (1980) : Sometimes I'll Start a Sentence in Spanish y Termino en Espanol: Toward a Typology of Code-Switching. Linguistics, 181:581–618. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1987) : Contrasting Patterns of Code-Switching in Two Communities. In: Erlang Wande e.a. (Eds.), Aspects of Multilingualism. Uppsala.Google Scholar
Poplack, S. and D. Sankoff (1988) : A Variationist Approach to Languages in Contact. Unpublished Ms. [Updated Version of 'Code Switching']. In: U. Amnion, N. Dittmar, and K. Mattheier, (Eds.), 1988. Sociolinguistics. An International Handbook of the Science of Language and Society. Berlin.Google Scholar
Schatz, H.F. (1987) : De Taal van Emigranten in de Verenigde Staten. Taal en Tongval, 391: 97–108.Google Scholar
(1988) : The Language of Dutch Immigrants: Dialect Museum or Laboratory for Dialect Loss. In: T.J. Broos (Ed.), Papers from the Third Interdiscip-linary Conference on Netherlandic Studies. Lanham, MD.Google Scholar
(in press) : Analyzing English Lexical Elements in the Language of Dutch Immigrants in the United States. York.
Smits, C. (1988) : Taalverlies in de U.S.A.: Generalisaties in Werkwoordsvervoegingen bij Nederlandse Immigranten in Amerika. Unpublished Ms.Google Scholar
Weinreich, U. (1953) : Languages in Contact. New York.Google Scholar
Willams, E. (1981) : On the Notion 'Lexically Related' and 'Head of a Word'. Linguistic Inquiry, 12, 2: 245–274.Google Scholar
Woolford, E. (1983) : Bilingual Code-Switching and Syntactic Theory. Linguistic Inquiry, 14, 1: 5–26.Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Clyne, Michael
2003. Dynamics of Language Contact, DOI logo
Boumans, Louis
2001. Searching for syntactic explanations of code switching. Review of Government and Codeswitching. Explaining American Finnish, by Helena Halmari. Linguistics 39:2 DOI logo
KAMWANGAMALU, NKONKO M.
1992. ‘Mixers’ and ‘mixing’: English across cultures. World Englishes 11:2-3 ► pp. 173 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.