16.1496, Review: Sociolinguistics: Nivens (2002)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-16-1496. Wed May 11 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.1496, Review: Sociolinguistics: Nivens (2002)

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1)
Date: 10-May-2005
From: Chas Mac Donald < chas.ad-rem at tesco.net >
Subject: Borrowing Versus Code-Switching 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 00:59:41
From: Chas Mac Donald < chas.ad-rem at tesco.net >
Subject: Borrowing Versus Code-Switching 
 

AUTHOR: Nivens, Richard J. 
TITLE: Borrowing versus Code-Switching
SERIES: Publications in Sociolinguistics 8
PUBLISHER: SIL International
YEAR: 2002
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/13/13-2953.html


Chas Mac Donald, Stirling Media Research Institute at the University of Stirling

SUMMARY

Richard J. Nivens proposes a "psycholinguistically realistic accounting 
of the longer stretches of Malay occurring in" his corpus of twenty 
hours of speech recordings on the Island of Aru and the language 
contact environment of Malay and West Tarangan there. This book 
results from a Ph.D. thesis completed at the University of Hawai'i and 
takes a refreshing look at language contact phenomenon and the 
methods by which an understanding of them is attempted.

Chapter 1 -- Introduction. This chapter opens with an overview of the 
current state of linguistics as it relates to code-switching and/or 
borrowing. Nivens presents a very lucid account of the difficulties in 
determining one from the other in Language Contact Phenomena 
(LCP) and challenges some of the movements of the field while at the 
same time offering alternative approaches to the difficulties 
encountered. Of particular value is the discussion of the difference 
between perspectives on where borrowing ends and code-switching 
picks up. Nivens achieves the tricky balance of neither equivocating 
nor resolving this dilemma. Instead he comes to the simple conclusion 
that simplicity is certainly not present in the field at this point, and that 
discussions should take place in an environment avowedly aware of 
the complexity of the individual differences between speakers and 
speeches.

Chapter 2 -- West Tarangan: An Island in a Sea of Malay. Here 
Nivens moves closer to the main task at hand with a comparison of the 
differences between the local language ecology of West Tarangan, 
linguistic use, gloss usage, linguistic support, institutional support or 
the lack of it. He also delves into the phonology, phonetics and 
morphology of West Tarangan, Dobo Malay, Standard Indonesian 
Malay, Ambonese Malay etc. He provides three maps of the area 
which show the geographic layout of Indonesia in increasing detail 
down to the Aronese group of islands within the Maluku archipelago. 
This in itself serves as a good metaphor language variety and 
complexity and he discusses the features of the languages in contact 
and their spheres of use in the islands. Particularly he subsets his 
chosen language into two (West Tarangan A / B) and ponders a 
situation where there are 'eighteen or nineteen' varieties, at village 
level, which are idiosyncratically distinctive and appropriate to the 
area for their connection with ancestry.

Chapter 3 -- Methodology and Corpus. This relatively short chapter 
describes collection methods and a little about sources and analytical 
methods. Nivens also describes his conventions for confirming 
conclusions drawn from data and his approach to participants when 
attempting to confirm their language use and instances of code-
switching. He also outlines when he accepts an apparent language 
change as a code-switch and when he rejects it as such. At all times 
he is careful to remind us that the semantic usages are not always as 
they appear to be, and that they always relate to the speaker and how 
they may be acting on different days. 

Chapter 4 -- Prerequisites to LCP Research: Evidence from the 
WT/Malay Corpus. Chapter 4 covers the vast bulk of the corpus 
content and Niven's approach to deconstructing lexical usage, the 
motivations for those usages and possible slippages that might be 
hidden therein which suggest a false account of language choice. 
Particularly in this chapter, he also addresses the concept of 
equivalence (p66), - static, dynamic, and contextual. He moves on, to 
a more detailed breakdown of the corpus lexus and then to how we 
consider cultural imports (76) in terms of the code-switching/borrowing 
debate. On page 93 he moves on to numbers and describes how the 
use of Malay numbers for money cannot simply be regarded as a 
code-switch as the concept did not exist in the West Tarangan area 
he is dealing with. Thus although some number forms are embedded 
language (EL) rather than matrix language (ML), they are not code-
switches because they are the only terms available. Modification and 
negotiation of lexical choices is the subject of the next section (p108) 
which deals with language repairs and then moves on to phonology 
and morphology of Malay items into West Tarangan.

Chapter 5 -- Code-Switching: Causes, Forms, and Modes. Nivens 
rounds the book of with a more holistic look at code-switching and 
borrowing in general, concluding that micro-analysis is primary and 
macro-analysis ought to be secondary in any attempt to understand 
language contact phenomenon rather than the more traditional 
obverse. In particular he deals with the triggering effect of some words 
and how these become embedded and perhaps prioritised in the 
lexicon of the speaker.

DISCUSSION 

 It is always encouraging to read a book which begins with a concept 
of 'squishiness'. The book as a whole is an excellent study of 
language contact phenomena and the manner in which languages in 
contact are accommodated to each other by their speakers. Nivens' 
insistence that the psycholinguistic must be taken into account when 
considering the use of EL items in ML discourse and that a very deep 
understanding of the motivations of lexical choice as a consequence 
of the entire context -- personal, discursive, and societal -- is central 
to the whole text. As he says himself, his "goal is not to propose the 
most efficient and simple model of language possible, but the most 
efficient and simple model which actually represents the way human 
beings process language."

He presents a number of categories as tools for decoding language 
use including "... different kinds of equivalence led me to propose a 
continuum of Malay items from necessary to preferred to dispreferred 
to gratuitous, the first two being considered default and the latter two 
non-default.." (130-131). Much of the book is a (non-dismissive) 
argument against the beliefs of Myers-Scotton., On page 204 he 
departs from her proposal "that a matrix language is nearly always 
identifiable". He does "allow for the possibility that ML turnover may 
occur gradually" which will at times, and especially in abstracted 
contexts make the identification of the ML difficult possibly erroneous. 
He goes on to take Auer's Pattern III code alternation and propose 
a "subdivision of alternation into CLOSED ALTERNATION and OPEN-
ENDED ALTERNATION, depending on whether the speaker is bound 
to return to the original matrix language or not". (p204) On page 208 
he concludes: 
a) "All single non-default Malay items are insertions of Malay into WT mode; 
b) All instances of major CS are instances of Malay mode; more 
specifically, they are EL-mode insertion (unless some evidence is 
found for analyzing direct quotes as closed alternation); 
c) When an instance of subclausal CS displays Malay syntax, and 
contains only gratuitous Malay lexical items, it is a clear instance of 
Malay mode (EL-mode insertion) ... and; 
d) Triggered sequences and collocation sequences are brief 
instances of Malay mode as well; perhaps they should be called 
asymmetric Malay mode, since the language choice of one lexical item 
clearly depends on that of another."

There is, however, still a difficulty with the book which raises its head 
later on, and one which Nivens seems to have been at pains to avoid 
in the main body of the text. This is on p198: "The answer to the 
question, "Is Malay syntax sufficient evidence of Malay mode?" 
depends upon whether speakers create syntactic structures first and 
then insert lexemes, or choose lexemes first and then let the lexemes 
themselves construct the sentences. In other words, do syntactic 
structures have an independent existence in the mind, or is syntax 
created before EL words are inserted. If syntactic structures are 
created before EL words are inserted,  then Malay order is a sufficient 
condition for identifying Malay mode. However, if lexemes project the 
syntactic structures, them Malay order is a necessary, but not 
sufficient, condition for identifying Malay mode." (198) Linguistics, 
sociolinguistics, and especially language activism, has for too long 
suffered under the illusion that language is or can be an independent 
agent within the brain, causing things to happen. It is perfectly 
acceptable to take consequence as a phenomenon, but cause -- or 
actual independent agency -- is simple totemism and has no place in 
the discussion. Nivens appeared to be forcefully behind that approach 
and it is not clear whether the passage quoted is a mere slippage or 
something more fundamental. Lexemes cannot construct sentences, 
the mind does that, however unconsciously and with whatever level of 
complexity. The notion of triggering is a far more acceptable and 
realistic approach.

On the following page he says, "some analysts might use [a cited] 
example as evidence that WT structures are created first, after which 
Malay lexemes replace WT lexemes. But since this is the only such 
example in the WT/Malay corpus, it may be best to consider this is a 
performance error as well -- that is, for such instances it might be 
assumed that a speaker changed his mind about a lexical choice at 
the last moment, after his first lexical choice had already created the 
syntactic structure." (199) Given that we ought to substitute 'triggered 
for 'created' in this passage there is still the implication that the 
construction process is linear where a fixed morphological pathway 
with a somewhat finite set of entry points for alteration exists. This is 
clearly not the case, as the process of construction not only continues 
up to the point of utterance, but also through it (as evidenced by stalls 
and changes) and then afterwards (as evidenced by repairs and 
emphases). In fact the lexical and structural choice may undergo any 
number of changes as the weight of the proposed utterance - as it 
relates to its concept - combines with perceived weight of previous 
utterances and hearings, projected utterances and hearings, and the 
possible interactions of interlocutors or the rest of society.

That aside, Code-Switching versus Borrowing is an excellent book 
and fully deserving of an audience open to the possibility that 
language can be understood only when viewed through an extremely 
complex kaleidoscope, and even then will remain a distinct step away 
from full transparency. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Chas Mac Donald is a Ph.D. student at the Stirling Media Research 
Institute at the University of Stirling in Scotland. He is currently 
undertaking research on the use of language in the media of the 
Celtic countries and works for or with a variety of local and national 
organisations working for the Gàidhlig language in Scotland.





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