19 2. Overall framework of contact phenomena were also observed in lexical semantics and, as Thomason assumes, syntactic alternations also took place (2003: 698). Pa s s i v e F a m i l i a r i t y – is another type of change induced by contacts among different language users. It refers to a situation when a speaker understands a language to a certain degree without speaking it actively (Bisang 2006: 90). According to Thomason, in the phenomenon of passive familiarity “[…] a speaker may borrow a feature from a dialect or language that he or she does not speak actively at all” (2003: 699). A speaker who is frequently exposed to a language borrows and transfers features from the source language. Thomason notices that often such transfers take place when languages are similar or when these are dialects of the same language (ibidem). N e g o t i a t i o n – is a mechanism that leads to changes in language which in turn consists of two other mechanisms, i.e. code alternation and L2 acquisition (Thomason 2003: 700). Negotiation occurs when “[…] a speaker of language A makes assumption of his or her interlocutors’ language B and then tries to approximate B structures in his or her speech” (Bisang 2006: 90). The speakers as if accommodate their A language to fit language B. The speakers’ bilingualism makes it easier for them to adjust language A to B, and the occurring change may make A similar to B (Thomason 2003: 700). An example of the negotiation phenomenon is Kadiwéu – the language of Brazil – which has five-word orders: OVS, VOS, SOV, VSO and SVO. It was observed that when bilingual speakers translate sentences from Portuguese, they usually use the SVO word order, which makes the sentences more similar to Portuguese (ibidem). The mechanism of negotiation may take place in the initial phase of pidgin creation, when “[t]he speakers then make guesses of how their interlocutors may express a certain concept when they address them” (Bisang 2006: 90). Those guesses that turn out to be right may later become a part of pidgin grammar; wrong guesses, on the other hand, are rejected.7 B i l i n g u a l i s m / B i l i n g u a l F i r s t L a n g u a g e A c q u i s i t i o n – the area of research on children learning two languages as their first languages at the same time has not been thoroughly explored, as Thomason (2003: 701) indicated. For this reason, it is impossible to note and register any changes dictated by such contact. S e c o n d L a n g u a g e A c q u i s i t i o n – second-language learners tend to implement strategies to ease communication, which may contribute to 7 For further discussion, see (Thomason 2001, 2003).
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE5NDY5MQ==