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In:Lexical Variation and Knowledge Construction across Historical, Methodological, and Cultural Ecologies
Edited by Rossella Latorraca, Rita Calabrese, Jacqueline Aiello and Dirk Geeraerts
[Terminology and Lexicography Research and Practice 25] 2026
► pp. 40–56

Contact-induced lexical variation and knowledge (re)construction

The case of early Diaspora Serbian in the USA

 | University of Belgrade
 | University of Belgrade
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
In this paper, we explore lexical variations in US Diaspora Serbian between 1900 and 1960. Our focus primarily lies on the contact-induced variation(s) where we investigate the possible pragmatic factors that motivate double, parallel and/or alternative usage, questioning semantic sameness or similarity and the extralinguistic semantics and pragmatics associated with and attributed to lexical content. The study is based on a 3000-page corpus compiled of newspaper articles, personal correspondence, and tombstone inscriptions, written in both Cyrillic and Latin script and collected from diverse sources across the USA as representative of Diaspora Serbian spoken by first and second-generation Serbian Americans at the time. Our study shows that seemingly synonymous contact-induced lexical variants may often carry culture-specific reference.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Socio-historical background of the research and Diaspora Serbian variety formation in the USA
  • 2.Methodology
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Intra-language factors
    • 3.2Interlanguage factors and processes of lexical borrowing
  • 4.Discussion and conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
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