In:Urban Panamanian English
Catherine Laliberté
[Varieties of English Around the World G70] 2023
► pp. v–vii
Published online: 21 August 2023
https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g70.toc
https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g70.toc
Table of contents
Acknowledgments
ix
Chapter 1.Introduction
1
Chapter 2.West Indians in urban Panama
6
2.1Historical background
7
2.1.1The construction era
7
2.1.2In the Canal Zone and Panama, 1914-1999
16
2.1.3Present-day West Indian Panamanian identities
20
2.2Sociolinguistic situation
23
2.2.1Demographics, race and language
23
2.2.2Recent language policies
30
2.2.3The French Antillean legacy
31
2.3Previous research on Panamanian varieties
33
2.3.1Bocas del Toro and Puerto Armuelles
34
2.3.2Panama City and Colón
40
2.4Towards a description of urban Panamanian English
50
Chapter 3.Language choices
54
3.1Language shift: Theoretical considerations
55
3.2Questionnaire design
62
3.3Data collection and demographics
65
3.4Language selection among bilinguals
68
3.4.1Dominant language and daily use
68
3.4.2Language habits in the intimate circle
70
3.4.3Religion
75
3.4.4School, work, neighbors, entertainment and shopping
78
3.4.5Two case studies
80
3.4.6Language choices in the United States
86
3.5Conclusion: A portrait of transitional bilingualism
87
Chapter 4.Interview data
89
4.1Defining the speech community
89
4.2Participants
91
4.3Researcher position
101
4.4Interview structure and settings
104
4.5Linguistic makeup
110
4.6Transcription and corpus
113
Chapter 5.The Panamanian English verb phrase
115
5.1be
116
5.1.1Zero copula be
116
5.1.2Present tense be leveling
119
5.1.3Was/were variation
120
5.2do
121
5.2.1Preverbal marker did
122
5.2.2Habitual does
123
5.3have
123
5.3.1Existential they have
124
5.3.2have and time elapsed
125
5.4Modal expressions
126
5.4.1was to
126
5.4.2able to
128
5.5The expression of time reference
130
5.5.3Past time reference
130
5.5.2Present-tense agreement marking
132
5.6Summary: The kinships of Panamanian English
134
Chapter 6.Verbal -s and verbal zero
137
6.1The stories of verbal -s
138
6.1.1Historical, sociolinguistic and pragmatic accounts
138
6.1.2Non-past contexts in the Panamanian data
141
6.2Coding
146
6.2.1External factors
147
6.2.2Language-internal factors
149
6.2.3A note on Spanish [s]
155
6.3Overview of the data and statistical tools
156
6.3.1Frequencies for verbal -s
157
6.3.2Frequencies for verbal zero
160
6.3.3Random Forests
164
6.4Results: -s with all persons and numbers
165
6.4.1The 3rd singular
166
6.4.2The 3rd plural
171
6.4.3Other persons/numbers
178
6.4.4Summary
181
6.5Results: Zero in 3rd singular contexts
182
6.6Discussion and conclusion: More than agreement
188
Chapter 7.Conclusion
193
References
195
Appendix
209
Language choice questionnaire
209
English version
209
Spanish version
215
Consent form
221
Index
223
