Arabic and contact-induced language change

该项目旨在提高我们对语言在接触时如何以及为什么会发生变化的理解，特别关注阿拉伯语及其在其1500年的书面和口头历史中影响和影响的许多语言。首先，有一个理论链，其目的是构建一个通用的认知过程模型，该模型在双语个体的头脑中起作用，导致他们将变化引入到他们的一种或两种语言中-这些变化可以通过儿童学习他们的第一语言来获得。在我以前在这一领域的工作中，我专注于语言之间的接触，这些语言对于每种语言的单语者来说都是相互无法理解的。在这个项目中，我将扩展这个模型，使它也能解释相关方言之间的接触引起的变化，我还将展示如何将这种接触引起的变化模型整合到现有的模型中，这些模型关注的是由内部因素而不是语言接触引起的语言变化。项目的第二部分涉及与项目合作伙伴Stefano Manfredi的合作（SeDyL-CNRS）和项目研究助理，编辑阿拉伯语和接触引起的语言变化手册。各章将由这一主题的主要专家撰写，提供可查阅的主题摘要，包括：接触引起的各地区阿拉伯语方言的变化，如摩洛哥、马耳他和塞浦路斯;乌干达和南苏丹所说的阿拉伯语的皮钦语/克里奥尔语变体;阿拉伯语对阿拉姆语、斯瓦希里语和索马里语等语言的影响;不同阿拉伯语方言之间的相互影响;以及阿拉伯语语法的特定领域，在这些领域中，接触引起的变化发挥了作用。这本手册将由开放获取出版商语言科学出版社出版，因此任何人都可以在网上免费阅读。项目的第三部分旨在提高人们对语言和方言接触的重要性的认识，以便在英国讲阿拉伯语的个人申请庇护时进行“LADO”（语言分析以确定原籍）。LADO是一些政府用来帮助决定庇护申请是否真实的工具。通常，以阿拉伯语对索赔人进行面谈，然后检查他们在面谈中的讲话，看其是否具有索赔人所述原籍地区方言的已知特征。但是，在庇护申请的最初阶段如何实施LADO存在一个问题。在我所看到的由英国政府签约的商业机构制作的所有此类LADO报告中，没有考虑到这样一个事实，即移民阿拉伯语者的讲话可能会受到他们每天接触的其他语言和阿拉伯方言的影响，以及他们采访者的讲话。该项目将通过收集和公布居住在伦敦的阿拉伯语居民的语言数据来解决这一问题，以期提供具体证据，证明离开原籍地区的阿拉伯语居民更有可能在其语言中表现出来自本地区以外方言的影响。LADO的第二种使用是在庇护申请的上诉阶段，在此阶段，与独立专家签订合同，由其编写一份新的LADO报告。这里的问题是，专家们实际上是在孤立地编写报告，没有共同的最佳做法标准，而律师似乎是在随意地、口口相传的基础上与潜在的专家联系。该项目将通过与阿拉伯语LADO的利益攸关方举行协商讲习班来解决这一问题，目的是建立并推广必要的最佳做法，并通过制作和维护LADO活跃的阿拉伯语语言学家的在线登记册供律师联系，从而在学术语言学和联合王国庇护制度方面产生真正的影响。

This project seeks to improve our understanding of how and why languages tend to change when they come into contact, with a particular focus on Arabic and the many languages it has influenced and been influenced by in its 1500 years of written and spoken history.The project has three strands. First, there is a theoretical strand, in which the aim is to construct a general model of the cognitive processes at work in the minds of bilingual individuals that cause them to introduce changes into one or both of their languages - changes which can then be acquired by children learning their first languages. In my previous work in this area I have focused on contact between languages that are mutually unintelligible to monolingual speakers of each. In this project I will extend the model so that it also accounts for changes that result from contact between related dialects, and I will also show how this model of contact-induced change can be integrated into existing models that focus on linguistic change that is caused by internal factors, not language contact.The second strand of the project involves collaboration with the project partner, Stefano Manfredi (SeDyL-CNRS), and the project research assistant, to edit a handbook of Arabic and contact-induced language change. Chapters will be contributed by leading experts on this subject, giving accessible summaries of topics including: contact-induced change in the Arabic dialects of various regions, such as Morocco, Malta and Cyprus; the Pidgin/Creole varieties of Arabic spoken in Uganda and South Sudan; Arabic influences on languages such as Aramaic, Swahili and Somali; the influence of different Arabic dialects on each other; and specific areas of Arabic grammar in which contact-induced change has played a role. This handbook will be published by Language Science Press, an open access publisher, so it will be freely available for anyone to read online.The third strand of the project aims at raising awareness of the importance of language and dialect contact for the practice of 'LADO' (language analysis for the determination of origin) in asylum claims by Arabic-speaking individuals in the UK. LADO is a tool used by some governments to aid in decisions on whether asylum claims are genuine. Typically, claimants are interviewed, in Arabic, and their speech in this interview is then examined to see if it exhibits the known features of the dialect of the claimant's stated region of origin. But there is a problem with how LADO is practiced in the initial stages of an asylum claim. In all such LADO reports that I have seen, produced by commercial organisations contracted by the UK government, no account is taken of the fact that the speech of emigrant Arabic speakers is likely to be influenced by the other languages and Arabic dialects they are exposed to daily, as well as by the speech of their interviewer. The project will address this problem by collecting and publishing data on the speech of Arabic speakers resident in London, with a view to providing concrete evidence that Arabic speakers who have left their region of origin are more likely than not to exhibit influence in their speech from dialects other than their own. A second use of LADO is at the appeal stage of an asylum claim, where an independent expert is contracted to produce a new LADO report. Here the problem is that experts are producing their reports in virtual isolation, without common standards of best practice, while solicitors seem to be contacting potential experts on a haphazard, word-of-mouth basis. The project will address this problem through consultative workshops with stakeholders in Arabic-based LADO that aim to establish and then promote the necessary best practices, and by producing and maintaining an online register of LADO-active Arabic linguists for solicitors to contact.The project thus intends to have a genuine impact both in academic linguistics and on the UK asylum system.