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- Convenors:
-
Nélia Alexandre
(Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa)
Tjerk Hagemeijer (FLUL)
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- Location:
- C6.01
- Start time:
- 29 June, 2013 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
The goal of this panel is to promote the discussion on contact linguistics, focusing on the phonological, morphological, semantic and syntactic processes that led to the formation of Upper and Gulf of Guinea creoles and to the emergence of new varieties of Portuguese in Africa.
Long Abstract:
Historical and social factors explain the Portuguese linguistic dynamics in Africa that led to the emergence of new languages and new varieties of Portuguese.
In particular, language contact led to the emergence of the Upper Guinea creoles and the Gulf of Guinea creoles in the 15th and 16th century. Furthermore, especially in the 20th century new varieties of Portuguese started emerging and crystallizing in the former Portuguese colonies in Africa. Predicting and understanding the outcomes of language contact is a challenging task that raises a number of questions. What are the principles and mechanisms involved in the dynamics of language contact, what are the features of these new grammars, what consequences do the new languages and/or varieties have for the speaking communities, and what is the role of linguists?
With this panel we intend to promote the discussion on contact linguistics, focusing especially on the phonological, morphological, semantic and syntactic processes that led to the formation of Creole languages and to the emergence of new varieties of Portuguese in Africa. The panel also aims to encourage the debate on the social and political challenges that multilingualism and contact situations pose for language planning.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Nélia Alexandre (Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa) Tjerk Hagemeijer (FLUL)
Paper short abstract:
The patterns of language change found in African varieties of Portuguese (AVP) may be influence of creoles and Bantu languages in contact with Portuguese, but some of their non-standard properties are internal to grammar and in addition creoles and Bantu languages also undergo a process of attrition.
Paper long abstract:
Especially since the independence of the former Portuguese colonies in Africa, there has been a growing body of descriptive and theoretical linguistic studies on the (emerging) African varieties of Portuguese (AVP), Portuguese-related creoles (Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, S. Tomé and Príncipe) and Bantu languages (Angola, Mozambique), often in a perspective of language contact. In particular, creole and Bantu languages, which are generally at the low end of the diglossia, are often held responsible for the patterns of language change and variation found in Portuguese. This, however, is only part of the story. It will be shown that, contrary to some beliefs, the AVP more often follow the standard than not and that some non-standard properties in these varieties are also found in the European and Brazilian varieties. Moreover, since the spectrum of variation in AVP is much wider due to its combined L1 and L2 status, sociolinguistic variables, such as level of education, are considered crucial to the outcomes. Despite some claims that AVP are pidgnizing or creolizing, it should instead be concluded that Portuguese enjoys good health, which is corroborated by the steadily growing number of L1 and L2 speakers. The non-official languages, on the other hand, may undergo a process of attrition and are, in some cases, at the brink of extinction. Therefore, we belief, the definition of languages should take this changing reality into account and more measures should be adopted to correct the existing imbalance.
Perpétua Gonçalves (Universidade Eduardo Mondlane)
Paper short abstract:
In Mozambique, after a period where local languages were marginalized, more positive attitudes are currently arising. Despite this progress, Portuguese is still the prestige language, and Bantu languages show evidence of language loss and attrition.
Paper long abstract:
In Mozambique, we have witnessed important changes in the language situation over the last 30 years, which challenge some generalizations and predictions previously made by linguists. These changes concern socio-economic and socio-cultural levels, as well as the linguistic competence in local African languages and Portuguese.
After a period where local languages were marginalized, more positive attitudes are currently arising and expanding. This upgrading and legitimization of local languages can be observed in different domains: in education and cultural practices as well as in the labour market.
Despite this progress, competence in Portuguese is still an essential condition for social and economic upward mobility. As a consequence of the privileged status of Portuguese, Bantu languages are not transmitted to the next generation and/or the competence in these languages show evidence of language attrition. Therefore, although these languages are currently the mother tongues of more than 85% of the population, this percentage does not correspond to a homogeneous speech community.
The fact that the number of native speakers of Portuguese has increased from 1.2% (1980) to 10.7% (2007) also represents a new challenge for linguists, who must now study the competence in Portuguese of a new generation, whose parents are typically L2 speakers of this language.
In this paper, after reviewing studies on the language situation in Mozambique, I present arguments and statistical data on the issues addressed above.
Ana Maria Brito (FLUP)
Paper short abstract:
The ambiguity of a in Portuguese is one of the reasons for the changes that are occurring in non-European varieties and also in Portuguese based creoles in the expression of dative / indirect objects; being a defective and ambiguous preposition, there is a tendency for its absence / replacement.
Paper long abstract:
In EP there is diversity of expression of the Indirect Object / dative (IO) constructions. The preposition a is able to express not only the IO but also the DO and it may appear in clitic accusative doubling (Gonçalves 2002). In EP there is also a homophone full preposition a, an oblique case assigner to locative nouns, which is used with motion verbs. The preposition a is then a case maker and an ambiguous/defective preposition (Gonçalves 2004). In MP the main feature of this variety is the use of the Double Object Construction, which Gonçalves explains as the reflex of the incorporation of a null preposition in the verb, which gives rise to a double objective case assignment. For Gonçalves (2002: 336) "(...) the input triggers the possibility of preposition incorporation by the verbs, where P is invisible because it is incorporated (...)". Although this explanation is in the right direction for MP, it does not explain either the fact that in Creoles, in particular the CVC, the DOC is also present or the direction that AP is taking. In AP it is common the preposition em introducing the IO, the same preposition that introduces the complement of motion verbs. In Medieval Portuguese a already expressed both locative goal and beneficiary en, em meant a locative or goal /direction and para / pera goal (Mattos e Silva 1989). The ambiguity of a in Portuguese is then one of the reasons for the changes that are occurring in non-European varieties and also in Portuguese based creoles.
Inês Machungo (Universidade Eduardo Mondlane) José Pedro Ferreira (ILTEC - Instituto de Linguística Teórica e Computacional)
Paper short abstract:
Ongoing normalization efforts for Mozambican Portuguese, foreseeably cementing its status as an emerging national standard, pose hard policy choices for linguists. The needed legitimization of words of Bantu origin demands technical spelling options which will shape much more than mere orthography.
Paper long abstract:
Over recent decades, numerous studies have shown there is a steady national variety of Portuguese in Mozambique (MP) which increasingly acts as the de facto spoken standard in the country. This reality is unmatched at the language planning and linguistic policy realms, though, where European Portuguese retains its status as the educational, political and social media variety of preference.
Several factors contribute to this: the inertia of the sociolinguistic perceptions of varieties' asymmetrical prestige by political actors, the lack of endogenous publishing and linguistic normalization resources, and an ever-lasting debate over the legitimacy of assuming Portuguese as an endogenous language of Mozambique, even if today it is most widely spoken throughout the country. One of the first barrier for such policy changes to take place, though, lies in the non-existence of a writing tradition, leading to a perceived lack of legitimacy of the variety's numerous lexical borrowings from the Bantu languages with which PM is in contact.
This presentation will contextualize and describe ongoing efforts towards the creation of linguistic normalization resources for MP, focusing on the current discussion over the definition of spelling rules for lexical borrowings resulting from language contact with other Mozambican languages. It will discuss whether and how such words should be adapted to Portuguese spelling and the perceived result of such a policy in the multilingual and contact-ridden linguistic landscape of Mozambique. Different perspectives (Bantu language speakers, linguists and society at large) will be weighed, assessing the technical normalization issues resulting from the choices taking place.
Isabel Galhano-Rodrigues (Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto)
Paper short abstract:
Deictic elements and the correlated pointing gestures will be described. Cultural aspects regarding conceptualizations of various domains - such as space, time and interpersonal relations will be pointed out.
Paper long abstract:
Understanding that speech and gesture are underlined by the same process, this paper aims at describing linguistic elements and correlated pointing gestures in the Portuguese spoken by a tonga in STP. Pointing gestures have been explored in various gesture typologies. Although pointing at some element in the interactional context may seem a simple and even universal act, recent studies of culturally specific forms of pointing, interactional practices, cognitive processes, forms of pointing in gestual languages and in the semiotic and pragmatic processes reveal a high degree of complexity.
In order to give account to some of these aspects, multimodal deixis in a case study of European Portuguese has been explored (Galhano-Rodrigues, no prelo). In the present paper linguistic deictic elements and the correlated pointing gestures will be described according to the deictic elements used and to gesture configuration. The formal aspects which may reveal cultural differences regarding conceptualizations of various domains, such as time, space and interpersonal relations will be pointed out.
Galhano-Rodrigues, I. (no prelo) "Vou buscar ali, ali acima!" a multimodalidade da deixis na interacção face a face". In: Linguística: Revista de Estudos Linguísticos da Universidade do Porto, vol.7, 2012.
Rita Gonçalves (Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa)
Paper short abstract:
This talk focuses on the strategies employed in Santomean Portuguese to deal with standard object clitics, which are almost absent from this variety, and further addresses the role of sociolinguistic variables with respect to the observed variation.
Paper long abstract:
Santomean Portuguese (STP) is the dominant L1 in São Tomé and Príncipe, as a result of L2 varieties in contact with L1 varieties of Creole and Bantu languages, with a major role for Santome, the dominant local Portuguese-related Creole.
Previous studies have shown that STP exhibits significant variation in many domains. This talk focuses on object clitics, using data from a spoken corpus of STP (240.000 words). It will be shown that STP exhibits forms that are homophonous with nominative (ele/ela; eles/elas) and dative (lhe/lhes) pronouns in accusative contexts (cf. (1-2)), together with a tendency toward the loss of third person accusative pronouns (o/a, os/as). This pattern has also been observed in Brazilian and Mozambican Portuguese. STP further exhibits the pronoun 'se' instead of direct and indirect object clitics (cf. (3-4)). This property hasn't been described for any of the African varieties of Portuguese.
We will further discuss the role of sociolinguistic variables with respect to the variation described above.
(1)Se você não atacar ela, ela não ataca você.
'If you don't attack her, she won't attack you'.
(2)Eu auxiliei-lhe a recolher elementos para tal [investigação].
'I helped him to gather elements for that [research].
(3)Levou-os para uma zona, atacou-lhe e matou-se. Matou o indivíduo.
'He took them to a place, attacked him and killed him. He killed the guy'.
(4)Em casa chamavam-se Maria.
'At home they called her Maria'.
Christina Maerzhaeuser (LMU Munich)
Paper short abstract:
Peixoto’s 1741 "Obra nova da língua geral de mina" is a rare document about Ewe-Fon in 18th century Brazil. Our analysis of semantic aspects in word formation and metaphorical expressions can serve both creolistics, research on substrate influence in BP and contact studies on Portuguese and Ewe-Fon.
Paper long abstract:
Antônio da Costa Peixoto's "Obra nova da língua geral de Mina" (1741) documents the presence of Ewe-Fon in 18th century Brazil. It lists 899 lexical items and expressions and their equivalents in Portuguese.
Re-edited in 1944 in Lisbon through the Agência Geral das Colônias, further research on the subject include comments by Lopes (1945), Rodrigues (2003) and more recently, by Yeda Pessoa de Castro (2002), as well as research by Margarida Petter (ongoing).
Rodrigues (2003) started to annotate "as formas correspondentens aos itens lexicais da "Obra Nova" registradas no grande dicionário de Westermann" in 1957 (Rodrigues 2003: 93), and returned to annotating corresponding Fon words in the 1980ies with the help of a native speaker from Benin, Lucien Akabassi. We recently started working on a new digitalized version of Peixoto's glossary, including multi-lingual equivalents from both European languages (to make the document more easily accessible to a non-lusophone public) and from Ewe (Togo varieties), a task possible thanks to the native speaker competence of D. Samla.
In our paper, we will analyze some semantic aspects such as new word formations and metaphorical expressions.
We think that Peixoto is an extremely valuable resource for both creolistics, research on African substrate influence in Brazilian Portuguese and diachronic studies on Ewe-Fon.