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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 485

Part of Session 134: Multilingual written internet data in language contact studies (Other abstracts in this session)

Detecting conventionalisation processes: in how far are internet data useful?

Authors: Dorleijn, Margreet
Submitted by: Dorleijn, Margreet (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, The)

In general, bilingual lects of (recent) migrant communities are considered to be instable, in the sense that they allow for very much variation; internal norms and intuitions of speakers about their bilingual varieties are often considered to be either non-existant, or at best only social network-internal, and may therefore vary considerably from network to network. This is attributed to the fact that in general immigrant communities are involved in a process of rapid language shift. Nevertheless, impressionistic observation of naturalistic data (collected within the framework of the ‘Dutch roots of ethnolects- project’ www.rootsofethnolects.nl (amongst other data sets and field observations; see also some data presented in Eversteijn 2011) among the Turkish immigrant community in the Netherlands suggests that there may be an emergent set of usage patterns that exceeds local network norms. (Dorleijn, Boumans & El-Aissati 2005; Eversteijn 2011). The question is, in how far these usage patterns are in the process of conventionalising – or possibly have already conventionalised, in the sense that speakers’ allowance for variation is reduced. In other words where on the cline from Code Switching to Fused Lect (cf. Auer 1998) can the bilingual Turkish-Dutch lect be localized?

After providing some examples of possibly conventionalised items it will be discussed in how far these are reflected in internet data. Can internet data be considered a reflection of spoken data and therefore be helpful in detecting conventionalisation processes? Some qualitative examples as well as quantitative results will be presented.  The conclusion will be that the internet data can reveal tendencies better than spoken data, also because of their sheer quantity and time-depth. It will be argued however that one should treat the with caution in the sense that (semi-) written data even if they resemble spoken data in crucial ways (cf Dorleijn & Nortier 2009 and references there) are still a different mode and therefore may entail different linguistic behaviour. It will be argued that a grammaticality judgement list can be compiled on the basis of internet data which should be administered to the speakers. It will be suggested that such a three-way method of data collecting will provide reliable insight in conventionalisation processes.

Auer, P. From Code-switching via Language Mixing to Fused Lects: Toward a Dynamic Typology of Bilingual Speech. In: InLIST No. 6/Interaction and linguistic structures. Freiburg: september 1998

Dorleijn, M., L. Boumans en A. El Aissati: Language  in a Multicultural City in the Neighbourhood of Utrecht: The TCULT-project  In: Utz Maas (ed) Themenheft:  Sprache und Migration. IMIS-Beiträge 26/2005 pp.29-46.

Dorleijn, M., J. Nortier: Code Switchin and the Internet. In: (B.E. Bullock & A.J. toribio (eds.): The Cambridge Handbook of Code Switching. 2009. Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press. pp. 127-141

 Eversteijn, N. “All at once” Language choice and codeswitching by Turkish-Dutch teenagers. PhD Thesis. 2011. Tilburg.