Identifying word-order convergence in the speech of Welsh-English bilinguals
This thesis presents a study of the speech of Welsh-English bilinguals to determine the extent and manner of the structural influence of English on Welsh, specifically the phenomenon of convergence, which is described as the increase in frequency of use of a construction (e.g. word order) in one language due to the prevalence of that construction in another language with which its speakers are in contact. I take two approaches to measure convergence, using Welsh-English conversational data which were specially collected for a 40 hour corpus. First, I adapt the Matrix Language Frame model (Myers-Scotton 2002), usable to identify the language from which clause morphosyntax is sourced, to identify convergence. I propose the concept of a dichotomous Matrix Language, which is where there is conflicting evidence for which language provides clause structure. In testing the model on speech from six speakers, I find that, with few exceptions, Welsh is the source of the structure in the majority of clauses analysed. I Interpret this to show that word-order convergence in these data is limited insofar as using the Matrix Language Frame model indicates. Second, I analyse the speech of 28 bilinguals for evidence of the
Davies, Peredur Glyn Cwyfan
Identifying word-order convergence in the speech of Welsh-English bilinguals. This thesis presents a study of the speech of Welsh-English bilinguals to determine the extent and manner of the structural influence of English on Welsh, specifically the phenomenon of convergence, which is described as the increase in frequency of use of a construction (e.g. word order) in one language due to the prevalence of that construction in another language with which its speakers are in contact. I take two approaches to measure convergence, using Welsh-English conversational data which were specially collected for a 40 hour corpus. First, I adapt the Matrix Language Frame model (Myers-Scotton 2002), usable to identify the language from which clause morphosyntax is sourced, to identify convergence. I propose the concept of a dichotomous Matrix Language, which is where there is conflicting evidence for which language provides clause structure. In testing the model on speech from six speakers, I find that, with few exceptions, Welsh is the source of the structure in the majority of clauses analysed. I Interpret this to show that word-order convergence in these data is limited insofar as using the Matrix Language Frame model indicates. Second, I analyse the speech of 28 bilinguals for evidence of the
identifying word_order convergence speech welsh_english bilingual present_study speech welsh_english bilingual determine_extent manner structural influence english_welsh specifically phenomenon convergence described increase frequency use construction word_order language due prevalence construction another_language speaker contact take two_approach measure convergence use welsh_english conversational data specially collect hour corpus first adapt matrix language frame model usable identify language clause morphosyntax source identify convergence propose concept dichotomous matrix language conflict evidence language provide clause_structure test model speech speaker exception welsh source structure majority clause analyse interpret show word_order convergence data limit insofar use matrix language frame model indicate second analyse speech bilingual evidence