Conscious separateness, unanticipated convergence: World Englishes

克里奥尔语研究倾向于关注洋泾浜/克里奥尔语与其词汇的关系，而侧重于形态句法，而忽略了语法中的其他成分。本研究通过考察两种方言之间的关系，而不是它们与词汇的关系，并将语音/音系学纳入图景，从而扩展了克里奥尔语的研究/接触语言学。在研究接触语言变异和变化的背景下，本研究在两个比较方面具有创新性：两个共存接触变体的语言使用情况进行比较，并将较早时间段的记录数据与当前的言语模式进行比较。该项目有助于记录未被学习的英语变体。它有可能链接到世界英语及其历时发展的研究。这项研究项目发生在利比里亚。Kolokwa(口语)是土著多数人的洋泾渭化的方言；它是西非洋泾浜英语的现代后裔。利比里亚定居者英语(LSE)是另一种，它作为19世纪的非裔美国人英语传入利比里亚，这两种变体已经密切接触了近两个世纪，但说话者之间令人烦恼的、往往是敌对的关系促进了这两种变体的分离。即使在最近的政治动荡中，该国的语言意识形态基本保持不变，特别是在对Kolokwa的污蔑方面。研究人员约翰·辛格勒博士汇编了1988-1989年间利比里亚内战爆发前的社会语言学访谈的平行语料库：一个是说伦敦政治经济学院的人，另一个是说科洛克瓦语的人。就形态句法特征而言，虽然每一种变体都相互借鉴，但总的来说，来自强大群体LSE的语言特征已经蔓延到被剥夺公民权的Kolokwa语言。对于语音学/音系学来说，方向似乎是相反的。根据每个语料库的一部分进行的初步研究表明，Kolokwa有一个七元音系统，LSE已经从19世纪非裔美国人英语的12个元音系统变成了Kolokwa的七个元音系统。辛格勒博士将把这项研究扩大到包括所有说话者(24名Kolokwa，16名LSE)，并进一步研究可变尾辅音的删除。此外，由于伦敦证交所语料库来自一个非典型的定居者社区，因此将从更具代表性的定居点生成一个新的伦敦证交所语料库。进入这个伦敦证交所社区将通过与其缝纫小组的互动实现。在收集新语料库时，辛格勒博士将在媒体和公共论坛上讨论Kolokwa和LSE的关系，特别是展示这两个表面上截然不同的品种各自赋予对方特征的方式，产生独特的利比里亚结果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Work in creole studies tends to focus on the relationship of a pidgin/creole to its lexifier language and to concentrate on morphosyntax to the exclusion of other components of the grammar. The present study broadens creole studies/contact linguistics by examining the relationship of two vernaculars to each other rather than to their lexifier and by bringing phonetics/phonology into the picture. In the context of research on variation and change in contact languages, this study is innovative in its two comparisons: language use of two co-existing contact varieties are compared to each other, and recorded data from an earlier time period are compared to current speech patterns. This project contributes to the documentation of under-studied varieties of English. It has the potential to link to research on World Englishes and their diachronic development.This research project takes place in Liberia. Kolokwa ( colloquial) is the pidginized vernacular of the indigenous majority; it is a modern descendant of West African Pidgin English. Liberian Settler English (LSE) is the other; it came to Liberia as nineteenth-century African American English, The two varieties have been in close contact for almost two centuries, but the vexed, often antagonistic, relationship of the speakers has promoted the separateness of the two varieties. Even with recent political upheaval, the country's linguistic ideology has remained largely intact, particularly in its stigmatization of Kolokwa. The researcher, Dr. John Singler, compiled parallel corpora of sociolinguistic interviews in 1988-1989, just before civil war broke out in Liberia: one was with LSE speakers, the other with Kolokwa speakers. In terms of morphosyntactic features, while each variety has taken from the other, by and large features from the language of the powerful group, LSE, have spread to the language of the disenfranchised, Kolokwa. For phonetics/phonology, the direction appears to be reversed. A pilot study based on part of each corpus makes the case that Kolokwa had a seven-vowel system and that LSE has gone from the twelve-vowel system of nineteenth-century African American English to Kolokwa's seven-vowel system. Dr. Singler will expand the study to include all the speakers (24 Kolokwa, 16 LSE) and further to look at variable coda-consonant deletion. Moreover, because the LSE corpus comes from an atypical Settler community, a new LSE corpus from a more representative settlement will be generated. Entree into this LSE community will be achieved through interaction with its quilting group. While carrying out his collection of the new corpus, Dr. Singler will discuss the relationship of Kolokwa and LSE in the media and in public forums, in particular to demonstrate the ways in which the two ostensibly distinct varieties have each given features to the other, producing a distinctively Liberian result.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.