15.2772, Review: Anth Ling/Socioling: Aikhenvald (2003)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-15-2772. Mon Oct 04 2004. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 15.2772, Review: Anth Ling/Socioling: Aikhenvald (2003)                                                                                                                                                                  

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1)
Date: 03-Oct-2004
From: Peter Sercombe < peter.sercombe at unn.ac.uk >
Subject: Language Contact in Amazonia 
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 2004 17:34:52
From: Peter Sercombe < peter.sercombe at unn.ac.uk >
Subject: Language Contact in Amazonia 
 
AUTHOR: Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 
TITLE: Language Contact in Amazonia
PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press
YEAR: 2003
Announced at http://test.linguistlist.org/issues/13/13-3320.html


Peter G. Sercombe, University of Northumbria, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 
Britain.

DESCRIPTION

This monograph deals with the ways in which language contact impinges 
on the grammatical systems of languages that are not genetically 
related. It provides for a variety of linguistic interests: language 
typology, historical and comparative studies, sociolinguistics, 
language obsolescence and language maintenance. The author's hope is 
that other linguists will be inspired to undertake fieldwork on 
endangered languages, through reading about her own work.

SYNOPSIS

The book's main purpose is to offer a coherent and logical description 
of language change as a result of contact between two typologically and 
genetically unrelated language families, North Arawak and Tucano, of 
northern Amazonia. The author deals specifically with the effects of 
East Tucano on Tariana, an adjacent Arawak language. An aim of the book 
is to determine the language features that tend to be most borrowed in 
language contact situations in Amazonia. The book has 12 chapters. 

Chapter 1 provides a general background to language contact, describing 
how the book deals with the linguistic outcomes of contact in terms of 
phonology, morphology, syntax and discourse. The descriptions and 
arguments are based on recorded oral histories and language use, 
observed in situ, mainly among the Tariana people of two settlements, 
Santa Rosa and Periquitos. According to the author, the Vaupés basin, 
in Colombia and Brazil, is known for its multilingualism and language 
group exogamy, this being governed by language affiliation. 
Multilingualism is culturally normal, and all combinations of known 
languages can be heard in village contexts, with language choice in 
daily communication being based foremost on traditional language 
protocol. It is argued that convergence is common in this geographical 
area, conceding that divergence can also occur, but that the idea of a 
linguistic area is certainly fundamental to the notion of diffusion. It 
is also suggested, in general terms, that the most persistent borrowing 
normally includes categories of grammar, although lexis and grammatical 
meanings are also affected, along with lexical borrowing and, less 
commonly, grammatical forms. Aikhenvald analyses and compares: 
multilateral diffusion in Vaupés as a linguistic area; the present-day 
one-to-one language contact situation between Tariana and dominant East 
Tucano; the developing diglossic situation between Tariana and 
Portuguese (the Brazilian national language), using a large corpus of 
data from different genres. Clear terms of reference are given: 
borrowing is stated as being the 'transfer of linguistic features of 
any kind from one language to another as the result of contact', 
following Trask (2000: 44). 

Code-switching and code-mixing are together described as being 'the 
alternate use of two languages within a sentence or between sentences' 
(Clyne 1987: 740). Code-switching and code-mixing are distinguished 
through suggesting that the former is 'meaningful and appropriate' 
(Hill and Hill 1986: 348), while code-mixing exemplifies disorderly 
usage, also following Trask (ibid: 61). Distinctions are made and 
examples are provided of different types of contact-induced change: 
diffusion, system-altering changes, system-preserving changes, lexical 
accommodation and grammatical accommodation. Grammatical changes are 
grouped into those that are complete which show no synchronic variation 
and of which speakers are unaware; ongoing changes which depend on a 
speaker's competence as well as a range of sociolinguistic variables; 
and discontinuous changes described as one-off deviations. In 
connection, grammatical borrowing is described as including wholesale 
system borrowing; adding a system to one already in existence; 
borrowing of processes; and borrowing of syntactic constructions. As 
one might expect, the author disagrees with Myers-Scotton's (1993) idea 
that there has to be structural compatibility for borrowing between 
languages. 

Chapter 2 looks at the areal significance of East Tucanoan languages on 
Tariana phonology and the following are discussed: the indirect 
diffusion of phonemes; the East Tucanoan influence on Tariana syllable 
structure; how indirect diffusion affects phonological processes within 
a phonological word in Tariana; and shared pitch and intonation 
patterns of East Tucano and Tariana. In addition, the results of direct 
and indirect diffusion are contrasted; as well the effect of contact 
between Retuarã (a Central Tucanoan language) and Yucuna (an Arawak 
language).   

Chapter three considers how areal dispersal from East Tucano into 
Tariana, and vice versa, help bridge differences between the morphology 
and pronoun systems of each and adds to the complexities in grammatical 
structure of the languages in contact.

Chapter four looks at the impact of areal diffusion in nominal 
categories in contact situations, including the language use of younger 
people's Tariana. What appears to take place is restructuring in the 
form of structural levelling in existing categories, as well as the 
development of new categories. East Tucano, suggests Aikhenvald, also 
appears to have caused Tariana categories, otherwise non-existent in 
Tucano, to obsolesce. 

Chapter five examines the impact of areal diffusion in verbal 
categories in contact situations from East Tucanoan languages to 
Tariana, and the ways in which Tariana categories have converged 
towards East Tucanoan patterns. East Tucanoan languages are required to 
indicate how information has been acquired by a speaker, realized 
through the use of evidential markers merged with tense. The lack of 
uniformity in verbal categories of Arawak languages, compared to 
uniformity in nominal categories, is of interest here and this has 
resulted in a greater diffusion of verb categories from East Tucano, 
with the result that verbal categories in Tariana now tend to reflect 
structural influence from neighboring languages, and verbal category 
changes seem to match the structure of verbal features with those in 
East Tucano.

Chapter six considers the impact of areal diffusion in syntax and 
discourse in contact situations. Specifically, East Tucanoan-like 
clause types in Tariana, and clause linking techniques, word and 
constituent order, discourse in Tariana, are evident as a result of 
influence from East Tucanoan languages. These have resulted in new 
clause types in Tariana. Consequently, there also seems to be 
isomorphism between East Tucano and Tariana organization of discourse, 
with the result of similar syntactic patterns and clause types, these 
also correlating with morphological innovation.

Chapter seven shifts focus slightly to look at contact between Tariana 
and Portuguese. Most speakers of Tariana are described as having a good 
grasp of Portuguese, being largely formally educated in this medium. 
The author states that the two languages are in diglossic relation to 
each other (in accordance with Ferguson's 1964 notion of diglossia), 
compared to Tariana and other indigenous languages which can be and are 
used in the same contexts. The use of Portuguese language items are 
mentioned as being situation-dependent and are considered foreign. Use 
of Portuguese is interpreted as exemplifying code-switching rather than 
borrowing. At the time of writing, Aikhenvald had observed five old 
Portuguese loans, but it is not made clear why they are necessarily 
loans or what led to them being borrowed. Nonetheless, it is certainly 
clear that there appears to have been less influence from Portuguese on 
Tariana than from East Tucanoan languages.

Chapter eight has a sociolinguistic orientation with discussion of 
code-switching and code-mixing and rules for these in different 
languages of the area, including East Tucano, Portuguese, and Baniwa 
and Tariana dialects. It is argued that multilingualism is maintained 
through a strong proscription against the language mixing. Acceptable 
instances of code-switching are observed as being intrasentential and 
considered to be mostly functionally quotative. Perhaps not 
surprisingly, English seems to be making inroads (reflecting some of 
the effects of globalization on small communities), but does not have 
the same negative associations as Portuguese does for speakers of 
Tariana. 

Chapter nine discusses language awareness among Tariana speakers and 
how this influences language change and what is considered to be 
accurate Tariana. The discussion relates to language structure, the 
author distinguishing between lexical and morphemic awareness, 
phonological awareness, morphosyntactic awareness, as well as 
generational differences and how the latter determines the standing and 
influence of individuals in the community.

Chapter ten summarizes the outcomes of direct and indirect diffusion as 
well as discussing examples of partial convergence. This includes the 
East Tucanoan languages' influences on Tariana in terms of: lexis and 
lexical semantics; independent innovations; and other examples of 
partial convergence between Tariana and East Tucano. Indirect diffusion 
seems to have led to the emergence of new categories in Tariana through 
those that already exist, as well as entirely new categories, and the 
increased use of more peripheral constructions. It is argued that 
indirect diffusion from Portuguese is limited because of the diglossic 
relationship with Tariana.

Chapter eleven considers the ways in which language obsolescence 
affects previous traditional patterns of areal diffusion and the 
consequences of this in terms of language. The situation of Tariana in 
Santa Rosa is described as being one of gradual language death with 
women not speaking the language, but not in Periquitos where men, women 
and children can all Tariana. Another outcome seems to be a shift from 
traditional multilingualism to bilingualism. Also described in this 
chapter are some of the linguistic outcomes of language attrition. 

Chapter twelve summarizes the consideration of the three types of 
language contact between and diffusion from East Tucano to Tariana. 
It also puts different kinds of language contact into cross-linguistic 
perspective and ends with suggestions for future consideration, in 
particular, work focused on the Tariana lexicon under influence from 
East Tucanoan languages, as well as Tucano spoken as a first language 
by those not of Tucano ethnic origin.

EVALUATION

Overall, this is an impressively detailed synchronic study replete with 
careful linguistic analysis. The book is rich with supplementary 
information: there are thirty-seven tables, forty-five pages of 
appendices, providing details of the Arawak language family and 
features of particular languages: phonology, vocabulary and grammar, as 
well as evaluation of Santa Rosa Tariana speakers' proficiency. There 
are also sixteen black and white plates, eighteen pages of references, 
reflecting the author's level of background research, with regard to 
relevant literature (including a considerable list of Aikhenvald's own 
publications, either in print or in progress). Particularly appealing 
is the fact that the author has foregrounded these politically not-
very-significant ethnolinguistic groups, giving focus to their 
multilingual circumstances. This is a refreshing choice, and highlights 
the importance of studying linguistic norms in pre-industrialized 
community settings, especially when many linguistic and sociolinguistic 
ideas are based on insights from modern industrialized societies (cf. 
Rischel 1995), where minority languages are often in a binary position 
to a supraregional one, such as English. 

My concerns with presentation include the following: more maps, 
especially ones that showed the geographical distribution of individual 
languages would have been a useful addition; a full text of Tariana, 
perhaps a story or two, or a transcript of interaction between speakers 
would have been of interest. I would like to have read more about the 
social and cultural circumstances of the Tariana. I feel that while the 
linguistic description is fulsome, the sociolinguistic sections were 
given lower priority, as reflected in the amount of text devoted to 
them, since 'the basic problem is one of how culture articulates with 
language in such a way that changes in culture bring about specific 
changes in language', as succinctly articulated by Kulick (1992: 7-8). 

The book is impeccably arranged. However, while Duranti appears in the 
list of references, his name is absent from the index of authors. There 
is also a typing error in the eighth line up on page 13. However, given 
the academic breadth and depth of this text, these minor omissions and 
infelicities are really insignificant. 

I would disagree that free morphemes are necessarily borrowed before 
bound ones. Theoretically, this seems more likely but need not be the 
case in practice. I would also disagree with use of the terms 'correct 
and 'incorrect' (p. 220) and would see them as being pertinent to the 
halls of academia and non-specialists' use (of these terms), although 
one can see that they are meaningful to Tariana speakers. More 
applicable terms, regarding speech are the terms 'appropriate' and 
'inappropriate' (cf. Aitchison 1995).

Chapter ten uses frequency of occurrence as a way of distinguishing 
between borrowing and code-switching, the former occurring more often, 
and this seems slightly arbitrary to me. How often does a feature have 
to occur to be considered a borrowing? Why not ask speakers if the 
occurrence of a particular feature is considered either part of their 
language or from another one. If they are not sure, ask them if they 
know of an equivalent in their own language and whether it is still 
used as an alternative. These questions may not reveal definitive 
answers but seem to be more credible than an undefined level of 
frequency.

REFERENCES

Aitchison, J. 1995. Learn to live with change. The Guardian Weekly, 
January 29.

Kulick, D. 1992. Language shift as cultural reproduction. In Dutton, T. 
(ed.) Culture change, language change: Case studies from Melanesia. 
Pacific Linguistics, Series C-120. Canberra: Australian National 
University, pp. 7-26.

Rischel, J. (1995) Minor Mlabri: A hunter-gatherer language of Northern 
Indochina. Copenhagen: Tusculanum Press. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

The reviewer, Peter G. Sercombe, is employed at Northumbria University, 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. He worked in Borneo from 1982-2002 and, among 
other academic interests, continues to focus on language contact 
between diverse and rurally located communities in central Borneo.



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