ERIC Number: EJ817674
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Nov
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1366-7289
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Variation in Contemporary Spanish: Linguistic Predictors of "Estar" in Four Cases of Language Contact
Geeslin, Kimberly L.; Guijarro-Fuentes, Pedro
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, v11 n3 p365-380 Nov 2008
In some contact situations between Spanish and English there is an acceleration of the process of the extension of "estar" that may be due to lack of access to the formal written standard, features of English in particular or general processes of simplification that result from the cognitive demands of bilingualism (Silva-Corvalan, 1994). In our large-scale analysis of data from a contextualized preference task collected in four areas of the lberian Peninsula where Spanish is in contact with a regional language (Basque, Catalan, Galician and Valencian) and in monolingual regions of Spain, we identify differences in the numbers of unanimous responses, and frequency and predictors of "estar" selection across populations. We show that more frequent selection of "estar" is not a characteristic of all bilingual groups, and several linguistic predictors of "estar" are common to all groups. Additionally, we find that more frequent selection of "estar" occurs in some varieties even among bilinguals with ample access to the formal standard.
Descriptors: Linguistic Borrowing, Monolingualism, Foreign Countries, Bilingualism, Language Maintenance, Spanish, Second Languages, Language Variation, Language Research, Standard Spoken Usage, Verbs
Cambridge University Press. The Edinburgh Building, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge, CB2 8RU, UK. Tel: 800-872-7423; Tel: 845-353-7500; Tel: +44-1223-326070; Fax: 845-353-4141; Fax: +44-1223-325150; e-mail: subscriptions_newyork@cambridge.org; Web site: http://www.cambridge.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Spain
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A