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Download article from Penn Working Papers in Linguistics 17.2
Naomi Nagy, Nina
Aghdasi, Derek Denis and Alexandra Motut
University of Toronto
Abstract
This
paper presents an overview of the first variable examined in the Heritage Language
Variation and Change in Toronto project (Nagy 2009), which strives to apply
consistent methodology across multiple language-contact contexts and variables
to advance our understanding of contact-induced change. It is principally
comprised of sociolinguistic interviews conducted in Toronto with 40 speakers
from each of six heritage languages (Cantonese, Faetar, Italian, Korean,
Russian and Ukrainian). Participants are also asked about their ethnic
identification, language use, and linguistic attitudes (Keefe & Padilla
1987, Hoffman & Walker 2010). Responses are translated into index scores to
quantify each speakers' orientation toward their heritage language/culture and
their English/"Canadian" culture.
Here
we examine the effects of a constellation of factors (linguistic, typological,
demographic, social) on a single linguistic variable: (pro-drop). Our
Cantonese, Italian and Russian data, ~6,000 tokens, is contrasted with a sample
from the Toronto English Archive (Tagliamonte & Denis 2010). For comparability
with previous studies of pro-drop, we examine the effects of continuity of
reference (Cameron 1995), contextual/formal ambiguity of the subject's referent
(Paredes Silva 1993), clause type (Harvie 1998), priming by the preceding
subject (Torres Cacoullos & Travis 2010), person and number of the subject,
and tense of the following verb. Pro-drop rates and constraint hierarchies in
each HL show no relationship to any indices of generation since immigration,
ethnic identity or language use, suggesting that this variable is not used to
construct ethnic identity and is not undergoing change as the heritage
varieties of each language develop in Toronto.
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