CREOLE AND DIALECT CONTINUA -- Editorial page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Acknowledgments -- Table of contents -- Chapter 1. Introduction: Developmental Continua -- Abstract -- 1. General issues in linguistic change -- 2. Aspects of acquisi tional studies -- 2.1 Universalist explanations of acquisition -- 2.2 The acquisition of second dialects -- 2.3 Social attitudes and language/dialect acquisition -- 2.4 Linguistic bias -- 3. The linguistic an alysis of nonstandard dialects -- 3.1 Labovian sociolinguistics -- 3.2 Language in oral discourse and pragmatics -- 3.3 Theoretical framework for oral discourse -- 3.4 Units of analysis -- 4. Creoles and noncreoles -- 4.1 Two case studies -- 4.2 Outline of chapters -- Endnotes -- Chapter 2. The Belizean Speech Community and the Use of English -- Abstract -- 1. Introduction to the history of Belize -- 2. Ethnolinguistic composition and census data -- 2.1 Amerindians -- 2.2 Creoles (Europeans, Africans, Miskitos) -- 2.3 Garifuna (Black Caribs) -- 2.4 Mestizos -- 2.5 Other groups -- 3. The language situation -- 3.1 Language policy and education -- 3.2 English and the Creole continuum -- 3.2.1 Putative origins of Creole -- 3.2.2 Lectal range -- 4. Focus on the Stann Creek district -- 4.1 Placencia and Seine Bight -- 4. 2 Samples of Belizean texts -- 4.2.1 Text 1: Basilect -- 4.2.2 Text 2: Mesolect in Creole/Carib interaction -- 4.2.3 Text 3: Acrolect -- 4.3 Garifuna -- 4.3.1 Phonological features of Garifuna -- 4.3.2 Morphological features of Garifuna -- 4.3.3 Carib women's language -- 5. Conclusion -- Endnotes -- Chapter 3. Creole Acrolects as Innovations -- Abstract -- 1. Radical creoles, postcreoles, and decreolization -- 1.1 The radical creole hypothesis -- 1.2 The postcreole hypothesis -- 1.3 Problems with radical creoles and postcreoles -- 1.4 A dynamic view of lectal development.

1.5 Decreolization as acquisition -- 2. Acrolects and standard dialects: Social aspects -- 2.1 Acrolect and standard defined -- 2.2 The label "English" in Belize -- 2.3 British and American values in Belize -- 2.4 Range of linguistic choices and attitudes -- 2.4.1 Language attitudes and gender -- 2.4.2 Language attitudes and ethnicity -- 2.4.3 Acrolects as psychosocial entities -- 3. Acrolects and standards: Linguistic aspects -- 3.1 Acrolectal texts -- 3.1.1 Text 8: Local food (Peter, 40 -- Creole, Belize-City) -- 3.1.2 Text 9: Dugu (a Black Carib variant of voodoo) (Mark, 16 -- Garifuna, Punta-Gorda) -- 3.2 Linguistic strategies in acrolects -- 3.3 Linguistic features -- 3.3.1 Phonological features -- 3.3.2 Morphological features -- 3.3.3 Syntactic features -- 3.3.4 Effects of basilectal influence in acrolects -- 4. Conclusion -- Endnotes -- Chapter 4. The Interaction of Syntax and Pragmatics in Acrolects:Topic Marking -- Abstract -- 1. Syntax and discourse features -- 1.1 The theoretical interpretation of topics -- 1.2 Topic -- 1.3 Topic and focus -- 2. Types of topic strategies -- 2.1 Topic fronting -- 2.2 Topic repetition -- 2.3 Topic presentation -- 2.3.1 Cleft, pseudo-cleft, and existential structures -- 2.3.2 Presentative particles -- 2.4 Semantic change in presentative adverbs -- 3. Distribution of topic strategies -- 3.1 Definition of discourse units -- 3.2 Analysis of topic strategies in acrolects -- 3.2.1 Lectal homogeneity -- 3.2.2 Individual style variability -- 3.2.3 Acrolect distinctiveness -- 3.3 The longitudinal dimension -- 3.4 Homogeneity in discourse and second dialect acquisition -- 3.4.1 Relatives and parataxis in acrolects -- 3.4.2 SLA and second dialect acquisition in discourse -- 4. Comparison with American English -- 4.1 Casual American sample -- 5. Pragmatic aspects of syntax -- 6. Conclusion -- Endnotes.

Chapter 5. Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Chinese -- Abstract -- 1. Chinese -- 1.1 Brief notes on Chinese history -- 1.2 The warring states: political and demographic background -- 1.3, Naming as a reflection of history -- 2. Aspects of the linguistic history of China -- 2.1 Genetic classification of the languages of China -- 2.2 Aboriginal languages in South China -- 2.3 Altaic -- 2.4 Problems in genetic classification -- 3. Main subgroups of "Chinese -- 3.1 Chinese subgroups -- 3.2 Some phonological differences in Chinese -- 3.3 Evidence of early sociolinguistic factors -- 4. The reform of Mandarin: Guanhua, Guoyu, Putonghua -- 4.1 Beijing -- 4.2 Phonological outline of Beijing Putonghua -- 5. Varieties of Mandarin outside Beijing: Wuhan -- 5.1 Geographical and demographic outline of the Wuhan area -- 5.2 Wuhan language varieties -- 5.3 Wuhan data base -- 6. Wu varieties and Suzhou Wu -- 6.1 History of Jiangsu province -- 6.2 Wu -- 7. Conclusions -- Endnotes -- Chapter 6. Topic Mechanisms in Chinese: An Overview -- Abstract -- 1. Introduction -- 1. 1 Theoretical interpretation of topics in Chinese -- 1. 2 Types of topic strategies -- 2. Topic fronting -- 2.1 Topicalization: Fronting with gapping -- 2.1.1 Multiple topics -- 2.1.2 Topic position and given/new status -- 2.2 Left dislocation: Fronting with pronominal anaphora -- 2.3 Fronting without anaphoric binding -- 3. Topic repetition: Nominal anaphora with or without fronting -- 4. Topic presentation -- 4.1 Pre-topic particles: Topic introducers (TI) -- 4.1.1 The particle shì -- 4.1.2 Deictics -- 4.1.3 Advertíais -- 4.1.4 Verbal prepositions -- 4.1.5 B a -- 4.1.6 Béi -- 4.2 Post topic particles: Topic enders (TE) -- 4.3 Pre-comment particles: Adverbial particles (AP) -- 4.4 Post-comment particles: End particles (EP) -- 5. Summary of topic strategies -- Endnotes.

Chapter 7. Literary and Colloquial Putonghua -- Abstract -- 1. The Putonghua corpus: Methodology -- 1.1 Problemsofanalysis: Topic units -- 1. 2 Chinese varieties examined -- 1.2.1 Literary Putonghua -- 1.2.2 Colloquial Beijing Putonghua -- 2. Literature and the cultural revolution: Two New Friends -- 2.1 Sociocultural components -- 2.2 Sample of written Putonghua: Text 1: Two New Friends -- 2.2.1 Topic strategies in text 1 -- 2.3 Complete analysis of Two New Friends -- 2.4 Topic particles and psychosocial factors -- 2.4.1 Topic introducers and their rural variants in Two New Friends -- 2.6 Summary of findings in Two New Friends -- 3. Literature after the Cultural Revolution: The Matchmaker -- 3.1 Text 2: The Matchmaker (excerpts) -- 3.2 Topic Strategies in The Matchmaker -- 3.3 Topic Particles in The Matchmaker -- 3.4 Stylistic level and dialectal features -- 3.5 Comparison of The Matchmaker and Two New Friends -- 4. Beijing colloquial Putonghua -- 4.1 Informal Putonghua: sì shì tóng táng (Beijing Saga) -- 4.2 Text 3: Sample of Beijing vernacular Putonghua -- 4.3 Analysis of A Beijing Saga -- 4.5 Se mi-casual Putonghua: zhōngxuéshëng (Learning Science) -- 4.6 Conclusions: Topic marking in spoken Putonghua -- 5. Overview of topic strategies in Beijing PH -- Endnotes -- Chapter 8. Topic Strategies in Varieties of Putonghua as Second Dialects -- Abstract -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Putonghua spoken in Wuhan -- 2.1 The Wuhan corpus -- 2.2 Text 1: Wuhan non-native Putonghua -- 2.3 Topic strategies in the Wuhan corpus -- 2.3.1 General patterns -- 2.3.2 The fronting strategy -- 2.3.3 The repetition strategy -- 2.3.4 The presentation strategy -- 2.4 The non-native status of Wuhan Putonghua -- 2.5 Wuhan Putonghua: Conclusions -- 3. Comparison of Beijing and Wuhan Putonghua -- 3.1 Topic strategies in Beijing and Wuhan -- 3.2 Comparison of topic particles.

4. Wu Chinese -- 4.1 The Suzhou oral narrative -- 4.2 Text 2: Suzhou Wu (narrative style) -- 4.3 Topic strategies in Suzhou Wu -- 4.3.1 Fronting -- 4.3.2 Repetition -- 4.3.3 Presentative strategy: Topic particles -- 4.4 Stylistic shifts -- 4.5 Suzhou Wu: Conclusions -- 5. Comparison of native and non-native varieties of Chinese -- 6. Conclusions: Toward a universal view of topic processes -- Endnotes -- Chapter 9. Conclusions: Pragmatic Universals in Second Dialect Acquisition -- Abstract -- 1. Patterns of topic marking: Summary -- 2. Topic marking in the Belizean continuum -- 2.1 Topic consistency in English-based continua -- 2.2 Topic marking in formal and written styles -- 2.3 Topic marking by listeners -- 3. Patterns of topic marking in Chinese -- 4. Dialect versus standard: Sociolinguistic universale -- 4.1 Causes of pattern consistency -- 4.2 Grammaticalization in topic marking strategies -- 4.3 The syntax of discourse -- 5. Conclusions -- 6. Postscript: Directions for education--from language to social change -- Endnotes -- Bibliography -- Index.

Although there is a substantial amount of linguistic research on standard language acquisition, little attention has been given to the mechanisms underlying second dialect acquisition. Using a combination of function-based grammar and sociolinguistic methodology to analyze topic marking strategies, the unguided acquisition of a standard by speakers of nonstandard varieties is examined in two distinct linguistic and geographical situations: in a Caribbean creole situation (Belize), with special attention to the acquisition of acrolects by native speakers of basilects, and in a noncreole situation (PRC), documenting the acquisition of standard Chinese (Putonghua) by speakers of nonstandard varieties represented in Cultural Revolution literature, Wuhan Chinese, and Suzhou Wu story-telling style. In both cases psychosocial factors, linguistic bias toward nonnative renderings of the standard varieties, the social status of their speakers, and related political and educational consequences play an important role in the development of second dialects. The broad-ranging analysis of a single feature of oral discourse leads to the formulation of cross-linguistic generalizations in acquisition studies and results in an evaluation of the putative uniqueness of creole languages. Related issues addressed include the effect of linguistic bias on the development and use of language varieties by marginalized groups; the interaction of three major language components - semantics, syntax, and pragmatics - in spontaneous communication; and the development of methods to identify discourse units. The ultimate goal underlying the comparison of specific discourse variables in Belizean and Chinese standard acquisition is to evaluate the relative merits of substratal, superstratal, and universal explanations in language development.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.