Dynamics of Language Contact in China: Ethnolinguistic Diversity and Variation in Yunnan.

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2017

Proceedings of the fifth International Conference on Asian Geolinguistics

This volume contains papers presented at the fifth International Conference on Asian Geolinguistics (ICAG) held at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU, Ha Noi, Vietnam, from 4 to 5 May, 2023

Language Contact as Bilingual Contrast among Bai Language Users in Jianchuan County, China.

This dissertation explores Bái language use in Jiànchuān County, China. On the basis of interviews with 42 language users, transcripts of spontaneous conversation and elicited narratives, excerpts from Bái texts in an alphabetic orthography and Chinese characters, and six months of participant observation, I demonstrate how language users’ perceptions of Bái and Chinese as distinct languages emerge as the result of interactional and representational strategies that alternatively foreground and background bilingual contrast. I argue that these micro-level strategies exist in a dialectical relationship with macro-level governmental, academic, and lay discourses that represent the Bái and the Hàn as essentially different, ethnicity as isomorphic with language, and, consequently, diverse Bái linguistic practices as a distinct minority nationality language. By demonstrating that borders of communities cannot be relied upon to describe consensus about linguistic structure, use, or ideologies, this dissertation contributes to more realistic descriptions of language; relatedly, by showing that language users’ perceptions of the elements in their repertoire as “Bái “ or “Chinese” vary not only across language users, but also situations of use, it challenges synchronic theories of language contact that invoke community consensus to distinguish between “borrowing” and “code switching.” More fundamentally, both lines of analysis entail that language users’ interactional and representational strategies do not merely reproduce pre-existing contrast between languages, but also actively produce and transform it.Ph.D.LinguisticsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86339/1/hefright_1.pd

Lexical tones and morphotonology

Yongning Na, also known as Mosuo, is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Southwest China. This book provides a description and analysis of its tone system, progressing from lexical tones towards morphotonology. Tonal changes permeate numerous aspects of the morphosyntax of Yongning Na. They are not the product of a small set of phonological rules, but of a host of rules that are restricted to specific morphosyntactic contexts. Rich morphotonological systems have been reported in this area of Sino-Tibetan, but book-length descriptions remain few. This study of an endangered language contributes to a better understanding of the diversity of prosodic systems in East Asia. The analysis is based on original fieldwork data (made available online), collected over the course of ten years, commencing in 2006

Methods in Contemporary Linguistics

The present volume is a broad overview of methods and methodologies in linguistics, illustrated with examples from concrete research. It collects insights gained from a broad range of linguistic sub-disciplines, ranging from core disciplines to topics in cross-linguistic and language-internal diversity or to contributions towards language, space and society. Given its critical and innovative nature, the volume is a valuable source for students and researchers of a broad range of linguistic interests

“How many lap choles have you done?” A linguistic-ethnographic take on counting surgical experience.

In this paper we explore a site of work and learning that is rarely investigated ethnographically and to which few applied linguists have gained access: the operating theatre. Taking up the 2011 BAAL Annual Meeting’s theme, ‘The Impact of Applied Linguistics’, we argue that linguistic ethnography, through detailed analysis of situated, embodied interaction (Maybin & Tusting 2011), can and should make an important contribution to research on and improvement of the quality and safety of health care

A Study of Lexical Variation, Comprehension and Language Attitudes in Deaf Users of Chinese Sign Language (CSL) from Beijing and Shanghai

Regional variation between the Beijing and Shanghai varieties, particularly at the lexical level, has been observed by sign language researchers in China (Fischer & Gong, 2010; Shen, 2008; Yau, 1977). However, few investigations into the variation in Chinese Sign Language (CSL) from a sociolinguistic perspective have previously been undertaken. The current study is the first to systematically study sociolinguistic variation in CSL signers’ production and comprehension of lexical signs as well as their language attitudes. This thesis consists of three studies. The first study investigates the lexical variation between Beijing and Shanghai varieties. Results of analyses show that age, region and semantic category are the factors influencing lexical variation in Beijing and Shanghai signs. To further explore the findings of lexical variation, a lexical recognition task was undertaken with Beijing and Shanghai signers in a second study looking at mutual comprehension of lexical signs used in Beijing and Shanghai varieties. The results demonstrate that Beijing participants were able to understand more Shanghai signs than Shanghai participants could understand Beijing signs. Historical contact is proposed in the study as a possible major cause for the asymmetrical intelligibility between the two varieties. The third study investigated signers’ attitudes towards regional varieties of CSL and Signed Chinese via a questionnaire. The findings demonstrate that older signers tended to have a conservative attitude towards their comprehension of regional signs of CSL, and that participants of both regions tended to ascribe high solidarity to their own varieties and high social status to Signed Chinese. This study has expanded our knowledge of sociolinguistic variation in Beijing and Shanghai signing varieties, and lays the groundwork for a future comprehensive study of the regional varieties in CSL. This study may also serve as a useful reference for official sign language planning in China including such issues as promoting a standardised lexicon across China and offering qualifications for CSL learners and interpreters

Methods in Contemporary Linguistics

The present volume is a broad overview of methods and methodologies in linguistics, illustrated with examples from concrete research. It collects insights gained from a broad range of linguistic sub-disciplines, ranging from core disciplines to topics in cross-linguistic and language-internal diversity or to contributions towards language, space and society. Given its critical and innovative nature, the volume is a valuable source for students and researchers of a broad range of linguistic interests