SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Correlating Transfer Patterns in the Boundaries of Borrowing: a cross-linguistic perspective

This study addresses the extent to which languages have replaced sizeable amounts of their basic lexicon through transfer or borrowing adopt other features (especially those with overt phonological exponents) from other languages. The study focuses largely on a sample of 14 languages taken from most continents, all of which have adopted at least 10% of their Swadesh list contents from other languages. The results of this survey show that certain assumptions about the degree of adoption of other features (elements of segmental and canonical phonology, items of inflectional morphology, freestanding function words, and the like) being closely correlated with the amount of transferred basic lexicon are not borne out by the facts. It is also shown that languages which are very closely related to one another and which have undergone influences from the same language for similar lengths of time may show very different outcomes. It is suggested that no single set of factors - typological chronological etc. will explain why each language borrows which kinds of features, although it is asserted that non-structural factors (especially sociolinguistic ones) are neglected at one's peril.