Languages with More Second Language Learners Tend to Lose Nominal Case
Languages with More Second Language Learners Tend to Lose Nominal Case
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DOI：
10.1163/22105832-13030105
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发表时间：
2013-01-01
影响因子：
0.7
通讯作者：
Winter, Bodo
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bentz, Christian;Winter, Bodo
在本文中，我们提供的定量证据表明，许多第二语言使用者所使用的语言往往具有相对较小的名格系统或根本没有名格。在我们的样本中，所有第二语言使用者超过 50% 的语言都没有名格。使用第二语言的人数与名格复杂性之间的负相关关系可以推广到不同的语言区域和语系。由于有许多研究证明在第二语言习得中获取形态案例的困难，这一结果支持了这样的观点，即语言适应说话者的认知限制，以及其说话社区的社会语言学利基。我们讨论了社会语言学类型学和语言利基假设以及历史语言学定性数据方面的结果。总而言之，多种证据都表明，成人学习者的高度语言接触会降低形态句法的复杂性。
In this paper, we provide quantitative evidence showing that languages spoken by many second language speakers tend to have relatively small nominal case systems or no nominal case at all. In our sample, all languages with more than 50% second language speakers had no nominal case. The negative association between the number of second language speakers and nominal case complexity generalizes to different language areas and families. As there are many studies attesting to the difficulty of acquiring morphological case in second language acquisition, this result supports the idea that languages adapt to the cognitive constraints of their speakers, as well as to the sociolinguistic niches of their speaking communities. We discuss our results with respect to sociolinguistic typology and the Linguistic Niche Hypothesis, as well as with respect to qualitative data from historical linguistics. All in all, multiple lines of evidence converge on the idea that morphosyntactic complexity is reduced by a high degree of language contact involving adult learners.