PRESENTATION BY:NABEELA TAIMUR ALI.

LEXICAL

BORROWING.

Speaks two different

varieties of the Luyia

language(Lumaragoli, her

L1, and also Lwidakho,

the L1

of her husband’s family).

Speaks Swahili (

formal contacts) n

English(at school)

too.

Many words are

borrowed from swahili

into two varieties of

Luyia; and into Swahili

many words are borrowed

from Arabic / English.

She can carry on a limited conversation

in Luo. a major neighboring

language totally unrelated to her own

language variety, because two of

her sisters are married to Luo men and

she sometimes visits them.

She reads English

news paper n

magazines; and

talks in a

particular

language

according to

situation. E.g.

During shopping

she speaks in

Swahili

depending on

shopkeeper.

Nifreda Mbira is a Kenyan.

When people speaking one

language are in regular

contact with other people

speaking another language,

two things are likely to

happen in the early stages

of this contact.

(1) Some speakers on

both sides will learn how

to say at least

some useful phrases in

the other group’s

language.

(2) One group will actually

take into its language some

words from the other group’s

language to refer

to objects, activities, or

concepts that the other group

has, largely for those

things that are new to the first

group.

Words from one language

appearing in another are

lexical borrowings.

Why call it borrowing? N

three unfortunate

words.

Borrowing: Inaccurate coz not truly borrowed/ not returned.

Established term…that’s why are used here. Borrowing

refers to lexical elements only (not

grammatical) ; Nouns n Verbs (content words).

Interference: Cover term.

Purposeful…Lexical borrowing is a Natural

process.

Loan: Inaccurate. Not truly loaned/ not

returned. Established term.

Motivations for change:In general, we can say that speakers (generally unconsciously) make changes in their languages under the influence of another language for two reasons:

First, those speakers fall under the influence of another language because there is something more “attractive” about that language – the attraction largely being associated with the higher prestige of the speakers of that language or its wider use in the community where both languages are spoken.

Second, certain innately based language universals push speakers in certain directions; To take a quick example that applies to this chapter – across many language pairs, most of the words that are borrowed are nouns. Doesn’t this suggest there may be a universal basis at work?

So, what is LEXICAL

BORROWING?

Donor language.Recipient language.

Incorporating words from one

language to another.

Borrowing as a one way street:

Borrowing is almost entirely one-way,

from the more prestigious language to

the less prestigious one. What counts as

prestige will vary from one era to

another.

when the Norman French

conquered England in

1066,they not only had the

political power, but their

mode of living was

considered more civilized,

more sophisticated.

About half of the words in

the English language today

were borrowed from Latin

or French. New words or

expressions in English are

called neologisms, a word

borrowed from French.

Today, the tables are turned. The

French are embracing English

words, so much so that the

French establishment complains.

This is not a new battle.

More than 30 years ago, the

French Academy barred from its

dictionary the word score in

French sports parlance,

replacing it with la marque while

reluctantly accepting set in

tennis. Overall, it seems to be a

losing battle.

Recently, an American columnist

considered the chances as slim of

stopping French people from

using English. The headline read,

“Stop the spread of English,

‘Bonne chance, mes amis’!”

The process of borrowing: English as an

example of a donor language:All over the world, languages are borrowing words from English for

two main purposes.

(1) The success of English speakers in making advancements in

science and technology, especially from the United States, means

that English becomes the source of words that persons everywhere

use to discuss the fruits of these advancements, such as any

computer-based activities and space-launchings. (2) This success

feeds the view of English as the language of modernity, the

language of cachet.

Thus, English borrowings are entering languages everywhere, and

in more domains than just science and technology.

INNOVATORS and ADOPTERS.

Borrowing can be divided into two categories

Cultural and core borrowing:

•The classical

languages as a

supply source.

•New words that

are home-grown.

•Cultural

borrowing in

reverse.

•Motivations for

borrowing core

lexical items.

•Reverse core

borrowing.

Cultural borrowings are words that fill gaps in the recipient language’s storeof words because they stand for objects or concepts new to the language’s culture. Most common CB’S around the world are versions of English word automobile or carbecause most cultures did not have such motorized vehicles before contact with Western cultures. E.g. words related to computers.

Cultural borrowing

The classical languages as a supply

source:

Many of the technical terms in the

fields of science, medicine, and the law

come from Latin or Greek. David

Crystal (1987: 380) points out that

“[S]cience is in fact the main

birthplace for new words in a

language: in a comprehensive English

dictionary, the vast majority of the

words would be scientific

(or technological) terms.” e.g. word

vitamin comes from Latin word vita

(life), aphasia comes from Greek word

Aphatos.

Same is the case with the field of Law.

New words that are home-grown: Some languages are less inclined to borrow a new word along with a new

object and instead make up words from their own lexical stock for

the new object.

German and Japanese do this much more than English native speakers.

E.g. when the telephone was invented, Germans called it Fernsprecher

(‘far’ +‘speaker’). But today, most Germans simply call a telephone

Telefon although they still use Ferngesprach for a ‘long-distance call’.

People of third world who are anxious to have unique identity of their

language; prefer avoiding borrowing. E.g. Sawahili in Tanzania.

Cultural borrowing in reverse:An opposite process from borrowing is to replace existing borrowings

with native words. That is, for a variety of reasons, but all having to do

with promoting a group’s unique identity, speakers have been known to

rid their languages of borrowings. A famous case is Turkey. When

Turkey became independent of the Ottoman dynasty in the 1920s and

under reforms introduced by Ataturk, Arabic script was replaced by the

Latin alphabet in 1928.

Ataturk also created the Turkish Language Society for the Purification of

the Language which replaced Arabic words with Turkish-based words.

Recent case is of Tamil, replacing sanskrit words from it.

Core Borrowings.

Core borrowings are words that duplicate elements that the recipient

language already has in its word store. They are gratuitous – by

definition, another layer on the cake, because the recipient language

always has viable equivalents.

Then, why are they borrowed? Cultural pressure…language of

prestige etc.

For example, in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, where both English

and Shona are official languages, native speakers of Shona sometimes

use the English word problem instead of the Shona counterpart,

dambudziko.

The most common core borrowings are discourse markers.

Researches on Shona language speakers have been done;

regarding discourse markers borrowings.

Motivations for borrowing core lexical items:

Two major motivations to borrow a word for which the

recipient

language already has a word.

First bilinguals who use both languages regularly; study

proves French people who regularly n roughly use

English n French, used “ so” more than other groups and

more than those groups who speak English more than

French.

Second, the sheer magnetism of the dominant culture of

the donor language seems to motivate speakers to

borrow core elements.

Reverse core borrowing:

Sometimes core borrowing goes the other way for a few

words. That is, speakers of the dominant language take up

a word or two of a language that is less prestigious in their

eyes.

Temporary residents in another culture; and one can claim

understanding of local culture.

Words from other culture have magic quality.

WHY?

LESS DIRECT BORROWING

THREE INDIRECT BORROWINGS

•Calque or loan

translation.

•Many calques consist

of more than one

word.

•Translation is loaned

not the word.

Phonological shape is

not loaned.

•E.g. English

Skyscraper… French

gratte-ciel which

literally means scratch

sky.

•Loan shifts.

•Phonological form is

borrowed but different

meaning is given from

it’s original.

•Last twenty years

French n German

borrowed English

gerunds, e.g. le

shampooing in French

is name of product not

the process.

•Loan blends n

Hybrids.

•They consist parts

from both

languages , the

donor and recipient

language.

•E.g. English

grandfather is from

French grandpere

and English.

CONCLUSION:

Lexical Borrowing plays vital role in the area of bilingualism; in fact in it’s roots, is hidden the history of bilingualism.

ANY QUESTIONS?