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In:Constraints on Language Variation and Change in Complex Multilingual Contact Settings
Edited by Bertus van Rooy and Haidee Kotze
[Contact Language Library 60] 2024
► pp. 58–86

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Chapter 3
Language contact and change through translation in Afrikaans and South African English

A diachronic corpus-based study of genitive variation

 | North-West University
Published online: 20 June 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/coll.60.03red
Abstract
Languages are constantly changing, and language contact has been identified as an important factor that contributes to language change. Even though translation is a form of language contact, it has hardly been considered as a factor in contact-induced language change. Against this background, this chapter investigates the potential role of translation in language change in Afrikaans and South African English using a bidirectional comparable and parallel corpus with synchronic and diachronic components. The investigation focuses on genitive variation – a linguistic feature that has been shown to be undergoing change in the two languages as a consequence of language contact. The results show that translation works in tandem with other factors to conventionalise change in terms of genitive preferences.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Factors conditioning (change in) genitive use in Afrikaans and South African English
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Corpus design
    • 3.2Time frames, registers and word counts
    • 3.3Data extraction and annotation
    • 3.4Linguistic variables
      • 3.4.1Animacy of the possessor and the possessum
      • 3.4.2The principle of end weight
      • 3.4.3Final sibilance
    • 3.5Statistical analysis: Modelling variable importance and variable interactions
      • 3.5.1Random forest analysis
      • 3.5.2Conditional inference tree
      • 3.5.3Logistic regression modelling
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Random forests analysis
    • 4.2Conditional inference tree analysis
    • 4.3Logistic regression analysis
    • 4.4Interpretation of results
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
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