Transfer of Linguistic Intonation in Contact Situations

Informations projet

T-LICS

N° de convention de subvention: 840842

DOI

10.3030/840842

Projet clôturé

Date de signature de la CE 20 Mars 2019

Date de début 1 Octobre 2019

Date de fin 30 Septembre 2022

Financé au titre de

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Coût total

€ 172 932,48

Contribution de l’UE

€ 172 932,48

Coordonné par

UNIVERSIDAD DEL PAIS VASCO/ EUSKAL HERRIKO UNIBERTSITATEA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - T-LICS (Transfer of Linguistic Intonation in Contact Situations)

Période du rapport: 2019-10-01 au 2021-09-30

Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet

Languages often come into contact, as witnessed by the wide spread of bilingualism across the world. Whenever language contact takes place, there emerges the possibility of features from one language being transferred to the other one. This transfer is often illustrated by loanwords, but it can involve any aspect of a language, like syntactic or phonological patterns; a visible, though often ignored, aspect of language transfer involves changes in linguistic intonation. This melodic aspect of language is employed by speakers to convey sentence-level meanings, such as differences between an affirmative statement and a question.
The project, hence, devotes its empirical core to a notable case of intonation contact, where a previously-homogeneous sub-dialect of Basque is coming into increasing contact with two Romance languages: French and Spanish. I conduct fieldwork and analyse how the intonation system of younger (vs older) speakers is diverging at each side of the political border. These kinds of ongoing linguistic change are a direct reflection of changes in society, ways of life, and ways of interaction. Hence, an apparently minor aspect of our daily lives, the kind of tune we use to ask a yes/no question, is a perfect illustration of current social transformations.

Travail effectué depuis le début du projet jusqu’à la fin de la période considérée dans le rapport et principaux résultats atteints jusqu’à présent

The central part of the project has focused on documenting the linguistic intonation of a variety of Basque in contact with two Romance languages (French and Spanish), as spoken by speakers from a variety of backgrounds. Beyond the purely linguistic/phonological contribution, significant attention has been given to methodology. Indeed, the main results of the action have been (1) an innovative methodology to elicit naturalistic conversations with both declarative and interrogative sentences, and (2) a robust pipeline which efficiently processes raw field-data and converts it into a searchable database usable for intonation-research purposes. These results have been disseminated in two conferences, a Summer school, and a written article.

Progrès au-delà de l’état des connaissances et impact potentiel prévu (y compris l’impact socio-économique et les conséquences sociétales plus larges du projet jusqu’à présent)

This project raises awareness on the ubiquity and flexibility of language contact, particularly with regard to the often-neglected aspect of intonation. Physical mobility and media communication advances in the 20th century have profoundly changed social interactions, and that can be observed in linguistic dynamics as well. The T-LICS project showcases these kinds of changes within a particular language-contact situation within a European context.

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