The dynamic of code-copying in language encounters review
Can we predict
how a language will change? Lars Johanson gathers forces that produce
linguistic movement or change in non-monolingual speech communities. What
things can be attractive in a given contact situation? What are the most
copiable function units? What is
code-copying?
It is a normal developmental process
which occurs for example in second language acquisition, non-monolingual speech
productions, including the genesis and development of pidgin and creole, etc.
Largely depends on the environment. Code-copying is a kind of code interaction.
The main “motivation for code interaction is to say something the way it comes
most naturally or it most easily expressed”. The Code-Copying Model, developed
by Lars Johanson, has been used to describe and explain effects of language
contact in various settings. “Code-copying contributes actively to language
change.’
The code copied
from is the model code, and the copying code is the basic code. The basic can
be called primary code in other words. Johanson distinguishes between copying
in imposition (L1 > L2) and in adoption (L2 > L1),
The author
distinguishes between global and selective copying. Global copying means the
whole form and function of the unit is copied. Selective copying concerns
structural properties. This produces
loan words, loan syntax, loan semantics, etc. The model views different degrees
of copying: an item has material, semantic, combinational and frequential
properties that can be copied entirely (corresponds to lexical borrowing) or
partially (corresponds to ‘loan morphosyntax’, ‘loan semantics’, etc.).
He deals with
the dominant relations within the dynamics in language encounters. Dominant
relations produce different kinds of linguistic dynamics. For example,
borrowing or calquing, substratum influence and code shift from language A to
language B.
Lars Johanson’s
model is a very precisely detailed contribution to contact linguistics in
general.
Let me know what
you think and leave me a comment!