The acquisition of variation: Arab Migrants' acquisition of (ING)

279 Pages·2017·2.32 MB·English

The acquisition of variation: Arab Migrants’ acquisition of (ING) and
Coronal Stop Deletion in Wellington

by
Rania Ali Zarour

A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington
in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies
Victoria University of Wellington
(2018)
Zarour 2018

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Dedication
To my wonderful parents, loving Husband, amazing children and coffee table.

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Acknowledgements
First of all, I would like to offer my greatest gratitude for my father who has always
been there for me, believed in me, and who has always been willing to encourage my
academic endeavours.
I would also like to acknowledge the contribution made by various people who have
been involved in this project over the last few years. Firstly, I would like to thank my
supervisors: Miriam Meyerhoff and Janet Holmes, whose knowledge and advice on all
matters has been invaluable. I would also like to acknowledge the help provided by Paul
Warren, who gave me access to the New Zealand Spoken English Database, Daniel Ezra
Johnson, who has been kind enough to help me with statistics-related matters as well as
invaluable knowledge and insights for the use of R and Rbrul, and Lisa Woods who has also
helped me with my statistical endeavours.
Secondly, I would also like to thank the administrative staff at the school of
Linguistics, and Applied Language studies especially Janet Attrill for all the help and advice
she has provided over the years, always having a spare key for me to get to the office.
Finally, I would like to offer my gratitude to all the participants who took part in the
study, who, without exception, were generous with their time, hospitality, and willingness to
help. Thank you.
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Abbreviations and Acronyms
1. CSD: Coronal stop deletion
2. (ING): Coronal and velar alterations
3. NS: Native speakers
4. NNS: Non-native speakers
5. NZE: New Zealand English
6. NZSED: New Zealand Spoken English Database
7. AM: Arab migrants
8. L1: First language
9. L2: Second language

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Abstract
This dissertation investigates the patterns of acquisition found among Arab migrants
to Wellington for two stable variables: coronal stop deletion (CSD) and (ING). CSD is the
alternation between retained and deleted final consonant clusters, i.e. /wɛst/ vs. /wɛs/ and
(ING) is the realisation of the final nasal in unstressed word-final syllables i.e. /dɹaivɪŋ/ vs.
/dɹaivɪn/. CSD is a phonological variable that is mainly conditioned by articulatory
constraints while (ING) is a morpho-phonemic variable with syntactic conditioning as well.
An emerging trend in variationist sociolinguistics is to study variation in non-native
varieties by analysing how far non-native speaker (NNS) patterns of variation replicate
constraints on variation found among native speakers (NS) of a target variety.
This study applies variationist methods to investigate the following questions: 1. What
are the linguistic and the non-linguistic constraints that condition variation in the production
of (ING) and CSD among NS in the New Zealand Spoken English Database (NZSED) in
Wellington? 2. What are the linguistic and the non-linguistic constraints that condition
variation in the production of (ING) and CSD among Arab migrants in Wellington (AM)? 3.
Based on the results for (1) and (2), is there any evidence for “transformation under transfer”
(Meyerhoff, 2009a)
Interpretation of the results is done in line with the so-called “three lines of evidence”,
and considers significant and non-significant constraints, constraint hierarchies and rank
ordering of constraints (Tagliamonte & Temple, 2005).
I consider the proposition that AMs, of all ages, are prone to transformation under
transfer of NS constraints on the variables CSD and (ING), mainly illustrating strong and
weak transfer. It is expected that old and middle-aged AMs will have patterns different from
those found among young AMs .
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I also consider the possibility that articulatory constraints may be more readily
transformed by AMs into ethnolectal marking, whereas grammatical constraints may be more
likely to be strongly transferred by AMs. Old and middle-aged AMs seem to be more likely
to display strong transfer of NS constraints, but they do not seem to be using variation in the
L2 stylistically. By contrast, young AMs stylistically use articulatory constraints to convey
important social indexicalities.
The results suggest that oold and middle-aged AMs with developing grammars are
like NS children acquiring variation of their L1, in the sense that old and middle-aged AMs
are sensitive, in both CSD and (ING), to dialect-specific constraints on variation as they
display strong transfer of the highest ranked NS constraint, be it articulatory or grammatical
in nature; they also seem to perceive NS frequencies of occurrence of variables.
Old and middle-aged AMs have an advantage over NS-children in their cognitive
abilities that enable them to apply global constraints on variation by filtering their previous
exposure to English, to replicate grammatical constraints of the L2 variables. Old and middle-
aged AMs also seem to replicate the articulatory constraints that are perceptually salient, or
that can host L1 transfer. They sometimes innovate articulatory constraints that are
meaningful to them probably because of the influence of their L1.
Young AM, who have arrived in New Zealand at an age of six years or younger,
would be expected to illustrate strong transfer for stable variables like CSD and (ING). The
results, nevertheless, illustrate that although young AMs share the same significant
constraints found among NS of NZSED, they have different rank orderings, internal
hierarchies and frequency of variants. Young AM, unexpectedly, diverge from NS norms and
exhibit weak transfer of NS articulatory constraints on CSD, while they show strong transfer
of NS grammatical constraints for the variable (ING). I suggest that young AMs seem to be
using articulatory constraints in the L2 stylistically, to convey important social indexicalities.
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In addition, young AMs seem to hold an intermediate status between NS of NZSED
and first-generation AM. Like old and middle-aged AMs, they replicate global-grammatical
constraints on (ING) with an internal hierarchy that follows the Labovian nominal-verbal
continuum, rather than the local, internal hierarchy. This suggests that (ING), as a
morphophonemic variable with syntactic interfaces, has less room for the stylistic use of
variation patterns as a reflection of identity marking. Articulatory constraints may be more
subject to L1 transfer and these may become a marker of ethnicity among a Second-
generation of migrants.

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Table of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................... - 1 -
1.1 Variationist Sociolinguistics ...................................................................................................... - 1 -
1.2 Thesis structure ......................................................................................................................... - 9 -
1.3 The social profile of Arabs in New Zealand ............................................................................. - 10 -
Chapter 2: Literature review ......................................................................................... - 13 -
2.1 The Complexity of the acquisition of variation by NNS .......................................................... - 13 -
2.2 The acquisition of variation in migration contexts ................................................................. - 20 -
2.2.1 The acquisition of variation in multilingual metropolises ............................................... - 22 -
2.2.2 The acquisition of variation in low-linguistically-diverse contact settings ...................... - 25 -
2.2.3 Reallocation, rejection and creation of constraints among NNS acquiring variation in an L2
(weak transfer and created constraints) ................................................................................... - 33 -
2.3 The variables of this study ...................................................................................................... - 36 -
2.3.1 Coronal stop deletion in English (CSD) ............................................................................. - 38 -
2.3.2 Coronal and velar nasal alternation in (ING) ................................................................... - 44 -
2.4 Summary and Objectives of the study .................................................................................... - 51 -
Chapter 3: Methodology ............................................................................................... - 53 -
3.1 Data collection ........................................................................................................................ - 55 -
3.1.1 New Zealand Speaking English database (NZSED): Native Speaker corpus ..................... - 55 -
3.1.2 Non-native speakers: AM corpus ..................................................................................... - 58 -
3.2.2 The sociolinguistic interview ............................................................................................ - 67 -
3.3 Transcription and coding ........................................................................................................ - 69 -
3.3.1 Coding coronal stop deletion (CSD) ................................................................................. - 71 -
3.3.2 Coding (ING) ..................................................................................................................... - 79 -
3.4 Number of tokens per speaker, Type-token ratio and excluded tokens ................................ - 83 -
3.5 Preparing the data for analysis - data cleaning....................................................................... - 84 -
3.6 Statistical tools: R and Rbrul ................................................................................................... - 85 -
3.6.1 Regression analysis and mixed-models ........................................................................... - 88 -
3.6.2 Identifying the best models ............................................................................................. - 92 -
3.6.3 Correlation and interaction among constraints ............................................................... - 94 -
3.6.4 Initial modelling ............................................................................................................... - 98 -
3.7 Chapter summary.................................................................................................................. - 100 -
Chapter 4: Results ....................................................................................................... - 101 -
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4.1 Results for CSD among NS of NZSED ..................................................................................... - 103 -
4.1.1 Results for non-parametric regression for CSD among NS of the NZSED ...................... - 103 -
4.1.2 Results for parametric regression for CSD among NS of NZSED .................................... - 108 -
4.1.3 Competing hypotheses and multiple models ................................................................ - 115 -
4.2 Results for CSD among AMs .................................................................................................. - 118 -
4.2.1 Results for non-parametric regression for CSD among AMs: all age groups ................. - 119 -
4.2.2 Results for parametric regression for CSD among AMs: all age groups ........................ - 120 -
4.3 Results for CSD among separate age-groups of AMs ........................................................... - 124 -
4.3.1 Results for non-parametric regression for CSD among old and middle-aged AMs ....... - 124 -
4.3.2 Results for non-parametric regression for CSD among young AMs ............................. - 126 -
4.3.3 Results for parametric regression for CSD among old and middle-aged AMs .............. - 128 -
4.3.4 Results for parametric regression for CSD among young AMs ...................................... - 131 -
4.4 Summary: CSD findings among NS of NZSED and AMs ......................................................... - 134 -
4.5 Results for (ING) among NS of NZSED ................................................................................... - 136 -
4.5.1 Results for non-parametric regression for (ING) among NS of NZSED .......................... - 136 -
4.5.2 Results for parametric regression for (ING) among NS of NZSED .................................. - 139 -
4.6 Results for (ING) among separate age-groups of AMs ......................................................... - 142 -
4.6.1 Results for non-parametric regression for (ING) among AMs: all age groups ............... - 142 -
4.6.2 Results for parametric regression for (ING) among AMs: all age groups ...................... - 143 -
4.6.3 Results for parametric regression among old and middle-aged AMs ........................... - 146 -
4.6.4 Results for parametric regression for (ING) among young AMs .................................... - 147 -
4.7 Summary: (ING) findings among NS of NZSED and AMs ....................................................... - 150 -
4.8 Chapter summary.................................................................................................................. - 152 -
Chapter 5: Discussion ................................................................................................. - 153 -
5.1 Discussion of the patterns of variation for the variable CSD among NS of NZSED ............... - 154 -
5.1.1 The three lines of evidence outlined for CSD among NS of NZSED ............................... - 154 -
5.2 Summary of the discussion of results for CSD among NS of NZSED ..................................... - 172 -
5.3 Discussion of the patterns of variation for the variable CSD among old and middle-aged AMs .. -
173 -
5.3.1 The three lines of evidence outlined for CSD among old and middle-aged AMs .......... - 175 -
5.4 Conclusions for CSD among old and middle-aged AMs ........................................................ - 184 -
5.5 Placing old and middle-aged AMs in the context of other first-generation migrants acquiring
variation in contact settings ........................................................................................................ - 186 -
5.6 Discussion of the patterns of variation for the variable CSD among young AMs ................ - 192 -
5.6.1 The three lines of evidence outlined for CSD among young AMs ................................. - 193 -
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