Syntactic Transfer, Contact-Induced Change, and the Evolution of Bilingual Mixed Codes : Focus on Karelian-Russian language alternation : Studia fennica, linguistica 9

Comparative contact phenomena have excited growing interest among linguistic scholars in recent decades. Yet there have been very few detailed case studies, particularly in the area of syntactic interference. The present study approaches contact-induced syntactic change from the viewpoint of a single Russian-modeled syntactic construction which is used to express necessity in Karelian. The processes by which Russian features are entering Karelian through this construction are embedded in a broader context of codeswitching and other kinds of language mixing phenomena in bilingual speech communities in general. The study employs current theories and models of bilingual language alternation, particularly those produced by investigations concerned with syntax and grammar of codeswitched speech. The Karelian-Russian data are also discussed in relation of two recent models that have sought to explain the evolution of stable mixed languages in terms of gradual fossilisation of codeswitching patterns, namely the Matrix Language Turnover model introduced by Carol Myers-Scotton, and the 'Pragmatic codeswitching continuum' introduced by Peter Auer. Text in English. 340 pp.…