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A variationist perspective on discourse-pragmatic change in a contact setting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2013

Stephen Levey ,
Karine Groulx  and
Joseph Roy
Stephen Levey
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa
Karine Groulx
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa
Joseph Roy
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa
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Abstract

The emergence of être comme as a quotative verb in Canadian French is easily construed as a case of contact-induced change by virtue of its superficial similarity to the rapidly diffusing be like quotative (Tagliamonte & D'Arcy, 2007). We pursue the inference of contact-induced change by undertaking a quantitative analysis of French and English quotatives recorded from speakers in the bilingual city of Ottawa between 2008 and 2010. A series of real-time cross sections enables the longitudinal development of the quotative system of each language to be tracked. Analysis of the data confirms that être comme is a change in progress, but not a wholesale replication of its English counterpart. Although the results do not refute the role of external causation in the emergence of être comme, the available evidence suggests that an external source is neither the sole, nor even the preferred, motivation for the emergence of this innovation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , July 2013 , pp. 225 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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