Language Loss and the Crisis of Cognition: Between Socio- and Psycholinguistics

320 Pages·1996·7.303 MB·

by  K. Dallas Kenny

Language Loss and the Crisis of Cognition
W
DE
G
Contributions to the Sociology of Language
73
Editor
Joshua A. Fishman
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York
Language Loss
and the Crisis of Cognition
Between Socio- and Psycholinguistics
by
K. Dallas Kenny
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York 1996
Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague)
is a Division of Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin
® Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of
the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kenny, K. Dallas, 1951 —
Language loss and the crisis of cognition ; between socio-
and psycholinguistics / by K. Dallas Kenny.
p. cm. - (Contributions to the sociology of language; 73)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 3-11-015125-1 (alk. paper)
1. Language attrition - Psychological aspects. 2. Psy-
cholinguistics. 3. Sociolinguistics. I. Title. II. Series.
P40.5.L28K46 1996
306.4 4-dc20 96-28694
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek — Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kenny, Keith Dallas:
Language loss and the crisis of cognition : between socio- and
psycholinguistics / by K. Dallas Kenny — Berlin ; New York :
Mouton de Gruyter, 1996
(Contributions to the sociology of language ; 73)
ISBN 3-11-015125-1
NE: GT
© Copyright 1996 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., D-10785 Berlin
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this
book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Printing: Ratzlow-Druck, Berlin. - Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer, Berlin. - Printed in
Germany.
For my father Basil Kenny and wife Megumi Sunako — immigrants
whose lives in America inspired me to seek truth in other cultures.
For the members of the Ramallah Club who agreed to be interviewed
and who taught me more about what it is like to be an immigrant in
America than I could learn in any classroom.

Acknowledgments
Special thanks go to Professor Ernest McCarus whose expertise in Ara-
bic structure and dialects was invaluable in helping me to keep this study
on a firm footing. Professor Gemot Windfuhr, who first sparked my
interest in interjections and hesitation phenomena, was a constant
source of encouragement and helped me to reflect on the larger meaning
of "language".
Special gratitude goes out to an expert in Arabic sociolinguistics —
who was also my Arabic teacher and advisor during those earliest, most
precarious years of language study — Professor Aleya Rouchdy.
As my guide through the challenging array of psycholinguistic implica-
tions which sprang from this study, Professor Susan Gelman played a
key role in helping me focus on the most important aspects of the hun-
dreds of pages of data and findings. The research project would, of
course have been far more difficult if it were not for many consultations
on the Ramalläwi dialect with Professor Raji Rammuny, himself an im-
migrant from a town near Ramallah.
Of the many critics who helped me to identify theoretical and meth-
odological problems in the original draft and to transform a rather un-
gainly manuscript into its current incarnation as an organized book, I
owe a debt of gratitude to Professor Joshua Fishman and his team of re-
viewers, the anonymous referees of Language for their many insightful
comments on the draft of an article excerpted from the original manu-
script, and to Professors Keith Walters and Mushira Eid for their con-
structive criticism on earlier versions of the article draft.
The thoroughness and quality of the interviews are due largely to the
untiring work and skill of Musa Khoury and Shakiib. Special thanks for
helping to coordinate the seemingly endless job of coding the speech
transcripts go to Rana Khoury. Suhair Khalil is to be congratulated for
doing a superb job on the peer evaluation interviews. My heartfelt ap-
preciation also goes to the many others who helped bring this project to
fruition with various doses of personal and technical support, including
my wife Megumi Sunako, and administrative associates Mary Ringia and
Jane Hansen. Grants from the Rackham Graduate School helped to fund
much of the field and transcription work. Any errors, omissions or other
shortcomings in this work are entirely my own responsibility.

Contents
Pidäoe xiii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Theory 3
1.0. Introduction 3
1.1. Quantifying LI competence 6
1.2. The experimental evidence 7
1.3. A non-textual, temporal model for mapping fluency 20
1.4. Hypotheses 23
Chapter 2: Methodology 25
2.1. Subjects 25
2.2. Interview procedure 29
2.3. Recording procedure 33
2.4. The interview questions 33
2.5. Transcription 34
2.6. Coding method 34
2.7. Classification system 38
2.8. Preparing the data for analysis 51
2.9. The linear regression model 52
Chapter 3: Silent Pauses (SP) 53
3.0. Introduction 53
3.1. Silent Pause frequency 54
3.2. Silent Pauses/length-of-stay 55
3.3. Silent Pauses: length-of-stay/educational level 59
3.4. Silent pauses, aging, and the Hesitation Repertoire 67
3.5. Summary 68
Chapter 4: Filled pauses (FP) 71
4.0. Introduction 71
4.1. Filled Pauses/length-of-stay 74
4.2. Specific FP categories/length-of-stay in US 83
4.3. Analysis 93
Chapter 5: Language as shield: A hierarchy of guardedness 99
5.0. Introduction 99
5.1. The Guardedness Hypothesis 99
5.2. Correlations between Silent and Filled Pauses 102
5.3. Analysis 113
χ Contents
Chapter 6: Verboseness and rate of speech 115
6.0. Introduction 115
6.1. Verboseness 115
6.2. Rate of Speech (ROS) 125
6.3. Analysis 134
Chapter 7: Summary of findings for hesitations, ROS, and verboseness 137
Chapter 8: Speech errors and repairs: the disintegration of surface structure 145
8.1. Between hesitation and linguistic code 145
8.2. Error-repair frequency 146
8.3. Analysis 155
Chapter 9: Hesitations vs. speech errors/repairs 159
9.0. Introduction 159
9.1. Silent Pauses (SP) vs. errors/repairs 159
9.2. Filled Pauses (FP) vs. errors/repairs 161
9.3. Disfluencies at.ya 'ni (Y) and code-switch 166
9.4. Summary 167
Chapter 10: Social and psychological variables 169
10.0. Introduction 169
10.1. First language skills (Arabic) 171
10.2. Second language skills (English) 179
10.3. Parents' second language ability (English) 188
10.4. Parents' reading and writing in English 190
10.5. Language contact and background 194
10.6. Contact with homeland culture 200
10.7. Loyally to homeland culture 205
10.8. Homeland longing — permanent return to homeland 209
10.9. Homeland longing — burial wish 212
10.10. Socioeconomic milieu: neighborhood 213
10.11. Socioeconomic milieu: economic 223
10.12. Analysis : 228
Chapter 11: Conclusioa 231
Appendix A: Filled Pause (FP) frequency by location 235
Appendix B: List of abbreviations 236
Appendix C: Interview questionnaire 239
Appendix D: Sample transcribed text 251
Appendix E: Sample of data base entries for hesitation codes 253
Appendix F: Errors and repairs vs. length of stay 254
Appendix G: Social variables vs. hesitations and speech errors
— "less educated" 256
Appendix H: Social variables vs. hesitations and speech errors
— "more educated" 261