This study traces the diachronic trajectory and synchronic behavior of English-origin items in Quebec French over a real-time period of 61 years. We test three standard assumptions about such foreign incorporations: (1) they increase in frequency; (2) they originate as code-switches and are gradually integrated into recipient-language grammar; and (3) the processes underlying code-switching and borrowing are the same. Results do not support the assumptions. Few other-language items persist, let alone increase. Linguistic integration is abrupt, not gradual. Speakers consistently distinguish lone other-language items from multiword fragments on each of five linguistic diagnostics tested. They borrow the former, and code-switch the latter. Code-switches are not converted into borrowings; instead the decision to code-switch or borrow is made at the moment the other-language item is accessed. We explore the implications of these findings for understanding the processes by which other-language incorporations achieve the status of native items and their consequences for theories of code-switching and borrowing.

It has been argued speakers' knowledge of the probabilities of certain phones, words, and syntactic structures affects language production (Bell, Brenier, Gregory, Girand, & Jurafsky, 2009; Tily, Gahl, Arnon, Snider, Kothari, & Bresnan, 2009). This study provides evidence for effects of grammatical relation probabilities by identifying significant effects on verb morphology in the Spanish presentative [haber ‘there (be)’+ NP] construction stemming from nouns with varying proportion of use in subject function. In addition to this novel type of probability (grammatical relation), we present calculations that are not context-dependent but cumulative, reflecting speakers' overall experience with these nouns in the grammar. We conduct variationist analyses on corpora of spoken Puerto Rican Spanish. Our results reveal that nouns with a high probability of subject function promote the analogical leveling of haber by increasing the likelihood of reanalysis of the object as subject of the construction. We interpret these results as suggesting speakers possess lexicalized knowledge of grammatical relation usage patterns.

Much recent work on English direct quotation assumes that the system is undergoing rapid and large-scale change via the emergence of “innovative” forms such as be like. This view is supported by synchronic evidence, but the dearth of diachronic evidence forces reconsideration of this assumption. Drawing on data representing the full history of New Zealand English, this paper presents a variationist analysis of the quotative system, providing a continuous link between present-day quotation and that of the late 19th century. It reveals a longitudinal and multifaceted trajectory of change, resulting in a highly constrained variable grammar in which language-internal contextual factors have evolved and specialized, the effects of which reverberate throughout the sector.

This paper presents information on the regional characteristics of two of South Africa's five major varieties of English: viz. those of its Coloured and Indian communities in five cities: Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Kimberley. It proposes that as far as the variable (t) is concerned, and by extension (d), these two “interior” social groupings show regional variation of a more robust kind than that of the Black majority and formerly politically dominant White group (the “exterior” groups). The paper describes the relationship between the two interior groups, showing considerable similarities between them for the variable (t), which has two main stop variants, an alveolar and a more fronted (or dental) one. Parallel developments are outlined for (th) (or /θ/ in IPA terms) by a study of word list style, showing similarities between the two groups in four of the cities. These linguistic features are assessed against outsiders' and local speakers' attitudes to and beliefs about their varieties. Finally, the paper considers the origins of the fronted variant, assessing whether it is a spontaneous development or a contact feature associated with Afrikaans-English bilinguals of varied backgrounds. It concludes that while multiple substrate influences are at work, the most likely source is from 17th- and 18th-century Malay and related languages, showing a double substratum, first into Afrikaans, then into English, without a significant period of Malay-English bilingualism.

Formal and usage-based approaches to phonology make competing predictions that can be tested with variationist methodology. This paper investigates formal, functional, and frequency effects on (t/d)-deletion in Canadian English. Although initial results suggest a correlation between lexical frequency and deletion, once interaction and lexical effects are taken into account, only phonological and morphological factor groups are significant. Previous reports of frequency effects may result from different measurements of frequency and the contribution of overlapping factor groups. These results suggest that frequency does not operate monotonically but interacts dynamically with the lexicon.