Encoding Transfer Events in Surinamese Javanese

Villerius, S.; Moro, F.R.; Klamer, Marian (2020)

Article / Letter to editor

This paper examines the influence of language contact and multilingualism on the encoding of transfer events in the heritage variety of Javanese spoken in Suriname. Alongside Javanese, this community also speaks Sranantongo and Dutch, of which Sranantongo had the longest contact history with Javanese. It is shown that this long period of contact had a structural influence on the expression of transfer events in Surinamese Javanese: Surinamese speakers use double object constructions and two-predicate constructions more frequently than homeland Javanese speakers, a change which we argue to be due to contact with Sranantongo. In addition, Surinamese Javanese speakers overgeneralize one of the two applicative suffixes found in transfer constructions, a phenomenon that results from simplification processes.

• All authors: Villerius, S.; Moro, F.R.; Klamer, Marian
• Date: 2020-01-28
• Journal: Journal of Language Contact
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 784 - 822
• DOI: doi:10.1163/19552629-01203007
• Original authors: Klamer
• Original title: Reconstructing the past through languages of the present
• Sponsorship: NWO
• Grant number: Vici grant, project number 277-70-012