This study deals with morphosyntactic variation in Paraná Dutch, an endangered heritage variety of Dutch spoken in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná. Its original objectives were (i) to...Show moreThis study deals with morphosyntactic variation in Paraná Dutch, an endangered heritage variety of Dutch spoken in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná. Its original objectives were (i) to describe divergences from Dutch as spoken in the Netherlands (NLD) as well as retained dialectal features (ii) to compare these variations to findings of other studies on Dutch as a heritage language (HL), and (iii) to relate the findings to extralinguistic features. Due to the situation of intergenerational language loss encountered during the fieldwork conducted for this study, it was deemed important to add a fourth objective, namely to assess the vitality of the heritage variety. No previous linguistic research on language variation in Dutch as a HL in Paraná exists, and this study will therefore extend our knowledge of morphosyntactic divergences and dialectal retentions in the Dutch heritage varieties. More than 22 hours of naturalistic speech data of 82 Dutch heritage speakers (HSs) in three communities – Arapoti, Carambeí and Castrolanda – was gathered between November 2018 and January 2019, and coded for morphosyntactic divergence from NLD or dialectal variation. The sample consisted of speakers of different ages (16-91), generations (first till fourth) and with varying levels of exposure to and usage of Dutch. Two models for language vitality assessment (UNESCO, EGIDS) were used to describe the endangerment of Paraná Dutch. According to the models, the heritage variety is definitively endangered (UNESCO), and threatened or shifting (EGIDS). Morphosyntactic divergences from NLD found in the speech of the participants include the overgeneralization of SVO word order, omission of determiners, variation in grammatical gender assignment, variation in nominal plural markers, pronoun drop, and variation in present verb inflection. Morphosyntactic divergences from the standard language that can be attributed to Dutch dialects or regional languages include the merger of the verbs kennen ‘to know’ and kunnen ‘can’, use of heb ‘to have’ for the 3SG.PRES, and the use of periphrastic doen ‘to do’. Of the morphosyntactic divergences found in the data, the six mentioned previously were used by a sizeable part of the sample (at least ten participants). Many of these divergences have also been attested in Dutch heritage varieties in Anglophone countries, Indonesia and in other parts of Brazil. The divergences from NLD are either due to interference from the majority language Portuguese, due to internal development in the HL, or due to a combination of the former two (multiple causation). Participants whose speech contained morphosyntactic divergences from NLD tend to be of the second generation or later and have a lower usage of and exposure to Dutch than the average of the sample. Although most of the dialectal features present in the speech of the first-generation participants have not been attested in the speech of later generations, some have been retained or even spread throughout the community. The three morphosyntactic features that originate from Dutch dialects or regional languages mentioned above have been retained and transmitted to speakers of the second generation or later.Show less
This study examines and compares the use of grammatical gender in ten Spanish children heritage speakers living in Amsterdam and in ten Dutch children heritage Speakers living in Palma de Mallorca....Show moreThis study examines and compares the use of grammatical gender in ten Spanish children heritage speakers living in Amsterdam and in ten Dutch children heritage Speakers living in Palma de Mallorca. The results in the Director-Matcher Task revealed an overextension of the masculine form and more problems with feminine and non-canonical nouns in the Spanish heritage speakers. However, regarding the exposition and quality of Spanish, the author did not find any specific pattern or interaction between these two extra-linguistic factors that could explain the performance of the Spanish children heritage speakers.Show less
Despite the fact that English became the second official language of Puerto Rico in 1902 (Muñiz Argüelles, 1989), the English language is still not widely spoken in Puerto Rico. In fact, according...Show moreDespite the fact that English became the second official language of Puerto Rico in 1902 (Muñiz Argüelles, 1989), the English language is still not widely spoken in Puerto Rico. In fact, according to the most recent data, 78.1% of the population claims to speak English less than very well (U.S. Census, 2016). Prior research has demonstrated that there is a connection between education, wealth and English in Puerto Rico. English has the reputation of being the language of the Puerto Rican elite (i.a. Pérez Casas, 2016; Torruellas, 1990). This is due to the high costs of private primary and secondary education and not easily accessible English language resources such as a network of English speaking friends, high speed internet and cable television (i.a. Pousada, 2000; Urciuoli, 2013). This current study builds on Bischoff (2017), who argues that the English language requirements at public universities are a barrier to economically disadvantaged students. As a result, one’s economical and educational background can serve as either a privilege or a misfortune in one’s professional aspirations as well (i.a. Barreto, 2000; Schweers and Hudders, 2000). The aim of this study was to gain insight into public university students’ perceptions of the connection between education, wealth and English in Puerto Rico. Data to address this was collected through the distribution of an online questionnaire and carrying out in-depth interviews with students from the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez (UPRM) and the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras (UPRRP). In total, 119 questionnaire responses followed by in-depth interviews with 12 UPRM students were used for analysis. The results showed that, contrary to prior research (i.a. Bischoff, 2017; Pérez Casas, 2016; Pousada, 2000), public university students deny or do not recognize a connection between wealth, education and English in Puerto Rico. Instead, they view English language acquisition as a matter of putting in effort in learning and practicing instead of wealth. Furthermore, English language skills are perceived as necessary tools for professional successes and feeling like a global citizen. Puerto Ricans who lack English skills are perceived as unmotivated, missing out on life and not wanting to feel connected to the US Mainland. Nonetheless, it appeared that the majority of public university students have attended private primary and/or secondary schools, have access to English resources and grow up in a social environment filled with English speakers. In other words, public universities serve increasingly wealthy Puerto Ricans who seem unaware of their privileges, whereas economically disadvantaged Puerto Ricans are blamed for their lack of English skills and presumably experience a misfortune while aiming to reach their academic and professional goals. Studying the perceptions of private university students in Puerto Rico in further research would create the opportunity to compare the perceptions of the current studied Puerto Rican elite students versus those of the presumably economically disadvantaged private university students.Show less
This thesis investigates mixed nominal constructions, both complex (with an adjective) and simplex. Such constructions create potential conflict sites in Spanish-English code-switching. Spanish and...Show moreThis thesis investigates mixed nominal constructions, both complex (with an adjective) and simplex. Such constructions create potential conflict sites in Spanish-English code-switching. Spanish and English differ for (1) adjective-noun order: Spanish typically has post-nominal adjectives, whereas English has pre-nominal adjectives, and (2) grammatical gender: Spanish has a binary gender system, while English does not. A multi-task method was conducted in the Spanish-English bilingual community in Puerto Rico. The tasks comprised of an elicitation task (cf. director-matcher task, Gullberg, Indefrey, and Muysken 2008) and an auditory grammaticality judgment task. The predictions from the Matrix Language Framework (MLF, Myers-Scotton 2002) and a minimalist analysis from Cantone and MacSwan (2009) are tested against the collected data. The results from both tasks tend to indicate that the Matrix Language approach provides better predictions than the minimalist approach in every respect except for adjective-noun order constructions in the judgment task. This slight preference, however, is not significant. Toy task results for gender assignment in Spanish determiners indicate that there is a preference for the assignment of default gender, i.e. masculine in Spanish, rather than gender that is analogue to the translation equivalent of the noun. This preference is confirmed by judgment task results that include simple nominal constructions, but not by judgment task results for complex nominal constructions. I assume that adjectival presence in complex nominal constructions may have to do with this. Implications of my results for the theories and the methodologies are discussed.Show less
