Phrase-final prepositions in Quebec French: An empirical study of contact, code-switching and resistance to convergence

Abstract

In this study, we investigate whether preposition stranding, a stereotypical non-standard feature of North American French, results from convergence with English, and the role of bilingual code-switchers in its adoption and diffusion. Establishing strict criteria for the validation of contact-induced change, we make use of the comparative variationist framework, first to situate stranding with respect to the other options for preposition placement with which it coexists in the host language grammar, and then to confront the variable constraints on stranding across source and host languages, contact and pre-contact stages of the host language, mainstream and “bilingual” varieties of the source language, and copious and sparse code-switchers. Detailed comparison with a superficially similar pre-existing native language construction also enables us to assess the possibility of a language-internal model for preposition stranding. Systematic quantitative analyses turned up several lines of evidence militating against the interpretation of convergence. Most compelling are the findings that the conditions giving rise to stranding in French are the same as those operating to produce the native strategy, while none of them are operative in the presumed source. Explicit comparison of copious vs. sparse code-switchers revealed no difference between them, refuting claims that the former are agents of convergence. Results confirm that surface similarities may mask deeper differences, a crucial finding for the study of contact-induced change.

The analysis of languages in contact: A case study through a variationist lens

“…Her main focus is on the analysis of contact features such as lexical borrowings and code-switching, an agenda further developed by her and her associates, especially useful in discerning code-switching from borrowings (AARON 2014, BESSETT 2017SANKOFF;MILLER 1988, POPLACK;MEECHAN 1998, TORRES CACOULLOS;AARON 2003). In this article, however, I focus on Poplack's applications of variationist comparative sociolinguistics to the examination of morphosyntactic variance in contact dialects (see POPLACK 1997, POPLACK;LEVEY 2010, POPLACK;ZENTZ;DION 2012), which have been replicated in studies of bilingual varieties in Europe (BLAS ARROYO 2014, ZABRODSKAJA 2013, Asia (MEYERHOFF 2009a(MEYERHOFF , 2009b, South America (CARVALHO; BESSETT 2015), and North America (NAGY 2015, OTHEGUY;ZENTELLA 2012;MONTES-ALCALÁ 2014;among many others). While this analytical framework follows procedures that are similar to current standard methodology in language variation and change, some differences emerge in language-contact situations, as I briefly explore here.…”

A long way from New York City: Socially stratified contact-induced phonological convergence in Ganluo Ersu (Sichuan, China)

“…Poplack, Walker, & Malcomson, 2006;Poplack, Zentz, & Dion 2012;Torres Cacoullos & Travis, 2010, 2016?…”

I think, therefore digo yo: Variable position of the 1sg subject pronoun in New Mexican Spanish-English code-switching

“…Despite a surface pattern that appears to be converging towards the grammar of one language in a contact situation, several studies find that some apparent changes are not actually a result of contact, but rather of language internal factors, or are actually not changes at all. For example, Poplack, Zentz and Dion (2012) compared the patterns of usage of Quebecois French preposition stranding in frequent code-switchers to those of more sparse code-switchers and found no differences, further refuting the idea that frequent code-switchers are the agents of convergence. Likewise, Torres Cacoullos and Travis (2011Travis ( , 2015b have found no effect of the presence of code-switching on patterns of New Mexico Spanish subject expression among bilinguals.…”