Usage-based models of language have proposed a dynamic, organized system based on analogy, or the... more Usage-based models of language have proposed a dynamic, organized system based on analogy, or the recognition of similarity. The potential role of analogy between similar forms or constructions, however, is not often discussed. If we aim to illustrate grammaticalization and other diachronic processes not through one construction at a time — but by quantitatively assessing the relationship between constructions — we may better address the role of analogy as a mechanism of change. This quantitative, diachronic, corpus-based examination of language-internal constructional analogy is based on four forms in Spanish: altamente ‘highly’, enormemente ‘enormously’, extraordinariamente ‘extraordinarily’, and extremadamente ‘extremely’. These forms all occur in at least two basic constructions, in which they function as modifiers of verbs and as modifiers of modifiers. Analogical “transference” of paths of change between forms is proposed as a cross-linguistic language-internal process. Not only do forms compete with each other, but they also may borrow the path another has taken.
This paper examines the use of two discourse markers, English-origin so and Spanish-origin entonc... more This paper examines the use of two discourse markers, English-origin so and Spanish-origin entonces, in New Mexican bilingual speech. Both forms appear in the mixed speech and in the otherwise monolingual English and monolingual Spanish of bilingual speakers in New Mexico. Through a quantitative examination of the 413 uses of so (n=289) and entonces (n=124) in a 204,000-word corpus, it is found that both perform the same discourse functions with the same relative frequency, thus showing no evidence of specialization. It is also shown that so occurs with code-switches significantly more often than entonces, and therefore may function as a “trigger” for code-switches (cf. Clyne 1997). This switching is not preferred in certain contexts, but rather follows the same patterns as in monolingual discourse. Lastly, it is found that the use of so in monolingual Spanish and monolingual English shows no significant differences: it is used in the same way in both modes.
This paper examines the use of two discourse markers, English-origin so and Spanish-origin entonc... more This paper examines the use of two discourse markers, English-origin so and Spanish-origin entonces, in New Mexican bilingual speech. Both forms appear in the mixed speech and in the otherwise monolingual English and monolingual Spanish of bilingual speakers in New Mexico. Through a quantitative examination of the 413 uses of so (n=289) and entonces (n=124) in a 204,000-word corpus, it is found that both perform the same discourse functions with the same relative frequency, thus showing no evidence of specialization. It is also shown that so occurs with code-switches significantly more often than entonces, and therefore may function as a “trigger” for code-switches (cf. Clyne 1997). This switching is not preferred in certain contexts, but rather follows the same patterns as in monolingual discourse. Lastly, it is found that the use of so in monolingual Spanish and monolingual English shows no significant differences: it is used in the same way in both modes.
This paper offers an examination of morphosyntactic factors that are generally understood to meas... more This paper offers an examination of morphosyntactic factors that are generally understood to measure grammatical integration—and therefore used to help determine the status of other-language-origin nouns as borrowings or code-switches—through the lens of discourse, semantics, and lexical patterns. A total of 820 lone English-origin nouns surrounded by otherwise Spanish discourse are compared to Spanish and English nouns from the recorded speech of the same bilingual speakers in New Mexico. The semantic domains most open to English-origin nouns include both those traditionally expected, such as technology, and those generally thought to be unborrowable, such as kinship terms. In the case of determiner patterning, lone English-origin nouns’ propensity to occur with indefinite articles or as bare is linked to use in a nonreferential predicating function. Regarding gender, the preference for masculine assignment for lone English-origin nouns is tied to both nonreferentiality and the gen...
Page 1. Te sales: ¿puede cuantificarse la subjetivización? Jessi Elana Aarón y Rena Torres Cacoul... more Page 1. Te sales: ¿puede cuantificarse la subjetivización? Jessi Elana Aarón y Rena Torres Cacoullos University of New Mexico 1 University of New Mexico MSC03 2100 Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131 Correo electrónico: jaaron@unm.edu, rcacoull@unm.edu Page 2. ...
Usage-based models of language have proposed a dynamic, organized system based on analogy, or the... more Usage-based models of language have proposed a dynamic, organized system based on analogy, or the recognition of similarity. The potential role of analogy between similar forms or constructions, however, is not often discussed. If we aim to illustrate grammaticalization and other diachronic processes not through one construction at a time — but by quantitatively assessing the relationshipbetweenconstructions — we may better address the role of analogy as a mechanism of change. This quantitative, diachronic, corpus-based examination of language-internal constructional analogy is based on four forms in Spanish:altamente‘highly’,enormemente‘enormously’,extraordinariamente‘extraordinarily’, andextremadamente‘extremely’. These forms all occur in at least two basic constructions, in which they function as modifiers of verbs and as modifiers of modifiers. Analogical “transference” of paths of change between forms is proposed as a cross-linguistic language-internal process. Not only do form...
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 2014
The choice of future construction in Romance languages with variable expression is complex, and s... more The choice of future construction in Romance languages with variable expression is complex, and several factors have been shown or hypothesized to influence this choice (e.g. Aaron 2006, 2010 and Poplack & Malvar 2007). One factor stands out time and time again, though scholars do not always associate it with the same form: certainty. Using corpus-based quantitative methods, the role of certainty in Iberian Spanish future form variation is examined. The semantics of futurity and epistemic modality are discussed, with particular reference to the Spanish synthetic, or morphological, future. Then, the onset of non-future-reference use of the Synthetic Future as an epistemic marker is described, and viewed in light of the role of epistemicity in the possible strengthening of the semantics of “certainty” with the Spanish Periphrastic Future. Finally, diachronic evidence from distributional patterns in grammatical person, verb class and clause type is presented, which suggests that speake...
Usage-based models of language have proposed a dynamic, organized system based on analogy, or the... more Usage-based models of language have proposed a dynamic, organized system based on analogy, or the recognition of similarity. The potential role of analogy between similar forms or constructions, however, is not often discussed. If we aim to illustrate grammaticalization and other diachronic processes not through one construction at a time — but by quantitatively assessing the relationship between constructions — we may better address the role of analogy as a mechanism of change. This quantitative, diachronic, corpus-based examination of language-internal constructional analogy is based on four forms in Spanish: altamente ‘highly’, enormemente ‘enormously’, extraordinariamente ‘extraordinarily’, and extremadamente ‘extremely’. These forms all occur in at least two basic constructions, in which they function as modifiers of verbs and as modifiers of modifiers. Analogical “transference” of paths of change between forms is proposed as a cross-linguistic language-internal process. Not only do forms compete with each other, but they also may borrow the path another has taken.
This paper examines the use of two discourse markers, English-origin so and Spanish-origin entonc... more This paper examines the use of two discourse markers, English-origin so and Spanish-origin entonces, in New Mexican bilingual speech. Both forms appear in the mixed speech and in the otherwise monolingual English and monolingual Spanish of bilingual speakers in New Mexico. Through a quantitative examination of the 413 uses of so (n=289) and entonces (n=124) in a 204,000-word corpus, it is found that both perform the same discourse functions with the same relative frequency, thus showing no evidence of specialization. It is also shown that so occurs with code-switches significantly more often than entonces, and therefore may function as a “trigger” for code-switches (cf. Clyne 1997). This switching is not preferred in certain contexts, but rather follows the same patterns as in monolingual discourse. Lastly, it is found that the use of so in monolingual Spanish and monolingual English shows no significant differences: it is used in the same way in both modes.
This paper examines the use of two discourse markers, English-origin so and Spanish-origin entonc... more This paper examines the use of two discourse markers, English-origin so and Spanish-origin entonces, in New Mexican bilingual speech. Both forms appear in the mixed speech and in the otherwise monolingual English and monolingual Spanish of bilingual speakers in New Mexico. Through a quantitative examination of the 413 uses of so (n=289) and entonces (n=124) in a 204,000-word corpus, it is found that both perform the same discourse functions with the same relative frequency, thus showing no evidence of specialization. It is also shown that so occurs with code-switches significantly more often than entonces, and therefore may function as a “trigger” for code-switches (cf. Clyne 1997). This switching is not preferred in certain contexts, but rather follows the same patterns as in monolingual discourse. Lastly, it is found that the use of so in monolingual Spanish and monolingual English shows no significant differences: it is used in the same way in both modes.
This paper offers an examination of morphosyntactic factors that are generally understood to meas... more This paper offers an examination of morphosyntactic factors that are generally understood to measure grammatical integration—and therefore used to help determine the status of other-language-origin nouns as borrowings or code-switches—through the lens of discourse, semantics, and lexical patterns. A total of 820 lone English-origin nouns surrounded by otherwise Spanish discourse are compared to Spanish and English nouns from the recorded speech of the same bilingual speakers in New Mexico. The semantic domains most open to English-origin nouns include both those traditionally expected, such as technology, and those generally thought to be unborrowable, such as kinship terms. In the case of determiner patterning, lone English-origin nouns’ propensity to occur with indefinite articles or as bare is linked to use in a nonreferential predicating function. Regarding gender, the preference for masculine assignment for lone English-origin nouns is tied to both nonreferentiality and the gen...
Page 1. Te sales: ¿puede cuantificarse la subjetivización? Jessi Elana Aarón y Rena Torres Cacoul... more Page 1. Te sales: ¿puede cuantificarse la subjetivización? Jessi Elana Aarón y Rena Torres Cacoullos University of New Mexico 1 University of New Mexico MSC03 2100 Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131 Correo electrónico: jaaron@unm.edu, rcacoull@unm.edu Page 2. ...
Usage-based models of language have proposed a dynamic, organized system based on analogy, or the... more Usage-based models of language have proposed a dynamic, organized system based on analogy, or the recognition of similarity. The potential role of analogy between similar forms or constructions, however, is not often discussed. If we aim to illustrate grammaticalization and other diachronic processes not through one construction at a time — but by quantitatively assessing the relationshipbetweenconstructions — we may better address the role of analogy as a mechanism of change. This quantitative, diachronic, corpus-based examination of language-internal constructional analogy is based on four forms in Spanish:altamente‘highly’,enormemente‘enormously’,extraordinariamente‘extraordinarily’, andextremadamente‘extremely’. These forms all occur in at least two basic constructions, in which they function as modifiers of verbs and as modifiers of modifiers. Analogical “transference” of paths of change between forms is proposed as a cross-linguistic language-internal process. Not only do form...
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 2014
The choice of future construction in Romance languages with variable expression is complex, and s... more The choice of future construction in Romance languages with variable expression is complex, and several factors have been shown or hypothesized to influence this choice (e.g. Aaron 2006, 2010 and Poplack & Malvar 2007). One factor stands out time and time again, though scholars do not always associate it with the same form: certainty. Using corpus-based quantitative methods, the role of certainty in Iberian Spanish future form variation is examined. The semantics of futurity and epistemic modality are discussed, with particular reference to the Spanish synthetic, or morphological, future. Then, the onset of non-future-reference use of the Synthetic Future as an epistemic marker is described, and viewed in light of the role of epistemicity in the possible strengthening of the semantics of “certainty” with the Spanish Periphrastic Future. Finally, diachronic evidence from distributional patterns in grammatical person, verb class and clause type is presented, which suggests that speake...
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