35.3510, Review: Historical Linguistics, Language Acquisition; Code Copying: Operstein (2023)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-35-3510. Tue Dec 10 2024. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 35.3510, Review: Historical Linguistics, Language Acquisition; Code Copying: Operstein (2023)

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Date: 10-Dec-2024
From: Natalie Operstein [natacha at ucla.edu]
Subject: Historical Linguistics, Language Acquisition; Code Copying: Operstein (2023)


Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/34.3641

AUTHOR: Lars Johanson
TITLE: Code Copying
SUBTITLE: The Strength of Languages in Take-over and Carry-over Roles
SERIES TITLE: Brill's Studies in Language, Cognition and Culture
PUBLISHER: Brill
YEAR: 2023

REVIEWER: Natalie Operstein

SUMMARY

"Code Copying" is a concise exposition of Lars Johanson's code-copying
model, a theoretical framework for the study of contact-induced
processes which has informed much of the author's research and
writing. The book is broken into eleven chapters and is one hundred
and twenty-five pages long, not including the front matter, references
and indexes.

Ch. 1 "The Code-Copying Model" (1-17) introduces the foundational
concepts and defines the operative terms. The term code refers to any
language or language variety, and copying to "imitation of one code by
another". Code copying is imitation of the linguistic features of a
Model Code (Donor Code) in a Basic Code (Recipient Code). The
relationship between the codes in contact is understood in terms of
their sociolinguistic dominance: they are divided into dominant or
'strong' and dominated or 'weak' (14).

Depending on the nature of the codes as primary (L1) or secondary
(L2), two code-copying mechanisms are postulated, takeover and
carryover. Takeover copying describes copying from the speakers'
secondary code (L2) into their primary code (L1). Carryover copying
describes copying from the speakers' primary code (L1) into their
variety of the secondary code (L2). To put it schematically,

TAKEOVER COPYING
<Basic Code>            ←       <Model Code>
primary code (L1)                       secondary code (L2)

CARRYOVER COPYING
<Model Code>            →       <Basic Code>
primary code (L1)               secondary code (L2)

The two types of copying differ in their linguistic effects, which may
be utilized to gain insights into past contact situations. For
example, takeover lexical copying introduces into a Basic Code
culture-related vocabulary while carryover lexical copying adds to a
Basic Code's stock of common everyday words (15).

The model makes an additional distinction, one between global and
selective copying. Under global copying the "material, semantic,
combinational, and frequential properties" of Model Code units are
copied en bloc. Under selective copying, such properties are copied
selectively.

Ch. 2 "Global Copies" (18-20) and Ch. 3 "Selective Copies" (21-36)
take a closer look at global and selective copying, respectively.
Global copying mostly involves copying of lexical items, phrases and
free grammatical elements; global copying of bound morphemes is
comparatively rare. Global copies are never identical semantically or
phonologically with their originals in the Model Code. Selective
copying of material properties manifests itself as loan phonology or
foreign accent and includes copying of segmental, suprasegmental and
phonotactic patterns. Selective copying of semantic properties covers
lexical and grammatical patterns and shows up as semantic calques or
loan translations. Selective copying of combinational properties may
create new phrase, sentence, morpheme order, valency or lexical
subcategorization patterns. Frequential copying involves an increase
or decrease in the frequency of Basic Code units through the copying
of that of their perceived equivalents in the Model Code. Each subtype
of copying is defined and introduced via examples drawn primarily from
Turkic languages.

Ch. 4 "Code-Copying and Grammaticalization" (37-48) focuses on the
mechanism whereby areas of intense language contact develop shared
grammaticalization patterns. The basic procedure here is selective
semantic and combinational copying from a grammaticalized unit in the
Model Code onto a matching unit in the Basic Code (38-39). The
matching procedure presupposes an advanced degree of mastery of the
Model Code on the part of speakers of the Basic Code. The cumulative
effect of such copying processes is growing intertranslatability
between and structural isomorphism of the codes in contact. Throughout
the chapter Johanson repeatedly emphasizes that diachronic processes
are not copiable: rather than the grammaticalization process itself,
what is copied in such instances is its result (43). In other words, a
unit of the Basic Code begins to be used as a grammatical marker
immediately and without replicating the (perhaps, lengthy)
grammaticalization process that had produced the corresponding
grammatical unit of the Model Code.

Ch. 5 "Remodeling Languages" (49-53) briefly reviews some of the
structural effects of code-copying. These include subsequent
code-internal grammaticalization of selective grammatical copies,
restructuring of the Basic Code frame via successive layers of
grammatical copying, gradual convergence between genetically unrelated
codes and divergence between genetically related ones. Depending on
the degree of conventionalization of the copied material, a
distinction is drawn between "insertional copying acts" by individuals
with some knowledge of the Model Code and "conventionalized copies"
whose use does not presuppose knowledge of the Model Code.

Ch. 6 "Turkic Family-External Contacts" (54-59) illustrates takeover
and carryover copying in various Turkic languages that have been in
contact with structurally and genetically unrelated and diverse
non-Turkic languages. Ch. 7 "Code-Copying in Some Large Languages of
the World" (60-65) extends the illustration of copying processes to
include English, Chinese, Arabic and Russian.

Ch. 8 "Stability" (66-67) addresses the choice of a target variety in
language maintenance and revitalization. Johanson argues that taking a
purist attitude in such endeavors, by stigmatizing the "impure" but
actually spoken copying variety in favor of the "pure" precontact one
may demotivate the speakers from using the language and, if the latter
is threatened, endanger its survival. This theme is developed further
in the next chapter, "High-Copying Codes" (68-71), which presents
examples of high-copying Turkic languages and argues that even
minority and endangered languages may have several varieties so that
acquisition of the high-copying variety may have its use in language
retention efforts as a stepping stone toward acquisition of the
low-copying one.

Ch. 10 "Cognates and Copies" (72-79) directs the lens of the
Code-Copying Model at the thorny issue of how to distinguish between
cognates and copies in bound morphology. Some general guidelines are
offered: e.g., shared morpheme alternation patterns point to common
inheritance; limited geographical distribution of shared morphemes is
indicative of copying; in Altaic, affix positions closest to the verb
are most resistant to copying (73, 78). These and related principles
are then illustrated with a discussion of the intricacies of Altaic
verb derivation.

Ch. 11 "Types of Copying in Written Languages" (80-125) uses a number
of wide-ranging examples to illustrate the types of contact phenomena
found in high-copying written languages. These arise in bilingual
settings where the two codes in contact perform different
sociolinguistic functions. The higher-ranking codes are culturally
dominant and are employed in the higher functions. The lower-ranking
codes "are often vernaculars, nonstandard varieties, local dialects,
more limited native varieties of a country or region, sometimes
nonstandard varieties of global languages" (81). The surveyed
phenomena are classified into five categories: takeover copying from a
higher-ranking Model Code, carryover copying into a higher-ranking
Basic Code, alternate use of elements of both codes in the same text,
use of a lower-ranking code to explicate texts in a higher-ranking
one, and use of a higher-ranking code to represent a lower-ranking
one.

EVALUATION

The book presents a valuable single-volume exposition of Lars
Johanson's code-copying framework spread piecemeal over a number of
previous publications (such as Johanson 2002). The concepts are
defined and illustrated with real-world linguistic data, drawn in many
cases from the author's extensive first-hand engagement with Turkic
languages. The supplied bibliographical references facilitate further
studies in the field.
In addition to its theoretical exposition, the book includes the
author's recommendations relevant to language maintenance and
revitalization. By reclaiming the value of high-copying varieties in
such efforts, the book's message is sure to strike a responsive chord
with language revitalization circles. Johanson's innovative approach
to the study of contact phenomena in written texts, similarly, extends
the book's relevance beyond its intended audience by opening new
avenues of cooperation between linguistics, philology and literary
studies.

The Code-Copying framework is designed to cope efficiently with
bilateral contact situations in which a sociolinguistically
lower-ranking code is in contact with a sociolinguistically
higher-ranking one. It would be interesting to see how/whether the
framework may be developed further to encompass contact situations
that involve multiple codes without clear ranking among them (Siegel
1985; Baker 1990).
The foundational conceptual distinctions themselves have parallels in
other theoretical frameworks and treatments (see the tables below,
based in part on the comparative overview of language contact theories
in Winford 2019).

Present Volume
takeover copying
carryover copying

Weinreich (1953)
borrowing
interference

Thomason and Kaufman (1988)
borrowing
interference through shift

Present Volume
global copying
selective copying

Matras and Sakel (2007)
MAT borrowing
PAT borrowing


Present Volume
insertional copying acts
conventionalized copies

Poplack et al. (1988)
nonce borrowings
established loanwords


Nevertheless, the framework expands the theoretical contours of
contact linguistics by refining some of the notions and by placing
others in greater relief. For example, the terms copy and copying are
chosen in preference to borrowing, transfer or other rival terms to
place greater emphasis on the fact that a copy is never identical to
its model but "is always adjusted to the receiving system", and that
copying "is both an act of imitation and a creative act" (6).
Similarly, the framework places into sharper focus frequential copying
as an important mechanism of contact-induced change. Though not a new
concept in itself (Operstein 2019: 149ff), it is overlooked or
underappreciated by rival frameworks.

In short, the book is a welcome addition to the expanding body of
literature on the theoretical foundations of contact linguistics.

REFERENCES

Baker, Philip. 1990. Off target? Journal of Pidgin and Creole
Languages 5: 107-119.

Johanson, Lars. 2002. Contact-induced change in a code-copying
framework. Language Change: The Interplay of Internal, External and
Extra-Linguistic
Factors, Mari C. Jones and Edith Esch (eds), 285-313. Berlin: De
Gruyter.

Matras, Yaron and Jeanette Sakel. 2007. Investigating the mechanisms
of pattern replication in language convergence. Studies in Language
31(4): 829-865.

Operstein, Natalie. 2019. Loanword marking as a mechanism of
structural change. Italian Journal of Linguistics 31(1): 149-192.

Poplack, Shana, David Sankoff and Christopher Miller. 1988. The social
correlates and linguistic processes of lexical borrowing and
assimilation. Linguistics 26: 47-104.

Siegel, Jeff. 1985. Koines and koineization. Language in Society 14:
357-378.

Thomason, Sarah G. and Terrence Kaufman. 1988. Language Contact,
Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics. Berkeley: University of
California Press.

Weinreich, Uriel. 1953. Languages in Contact: Findings and Problems.
The Hague: Mouton.

Winford, Donald. 2019. Theories of language contact. The Oxford
Handbook of Language Contact, Anthony P. Grant (ed), 51-74. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Natalie Operstein's research interests center on language change,
phonology and language contact. Her publications include "The Lingua
Franca: Contact-Induced Language Change in the Mediterranean" (2022),
"Consonant Structure and Prevocalization" (2010), "Zaniza Zapotec"
(2015), "Valence Changes in Zapotec", ed. with A.H. Sonnenschein
(2015) and "Language Contact and Change in Mesoamerica and Beyond",
ed. with K. Dakin and C. Parodi (2017).



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