Inter-generational contact and variation in agreement in Afro-Bolivian Spanish DPs

1. Inter-generational contact and variation in agreement in Afro-Bolivian Spanish DPs Bangor University 10 January 2011 Manuel Delicado-Cantero Australian National University ESRC Centre for Research on Bilingualism, Bangor University manuel.delicado@anu.edu.au Sandro Sessarego The Ohio State University sessarego.1@osu.edu

2. Outline • Introduction • Socio-historical overview • Afro-Bolivian Determiner Phrase features • A Formal Analysis to account for Number Agreement Variation in the DP • Conclusions

3. Introduction • This study evaluates variation in the number agreement system of Afro-Bolivian Spanish, an Afro vernacular dialect deriving from what was once a Spanish bozal (black slaves from Africa and their descendants) language spoken in Los Yungas, Department of La Paz, Bolivia. • Results indicate a case of cross-generational change, consisting of the systematic substitution of stigmatized basilectal Afro-Bolivian features with more prestigious High Bolivian Spanish ones. One of the outcomes of this situation is the transition from one number agreement system to another(and the consequent mix). • Our purpose is to shed light on the linguistic constraints regulating number agreement and propose a theoretical framework capable of accounting for the variation encountered. • Intra-speaker variation becomes the core in the research, thus reclaiming previously disregarded phenomena –i.e., previously considered as E-language phenomena (Adger and Trousdale 2007).

5. http://www.francescjosep.net/camino-a-los-yungas-definitivamente-una-carretera-extrema/http://www.francescjosep.net/camino-a-los-yungas-definitivamente-una-carretera-extrema/

6. Socio-historical overview • Afro-Bolivian Spanish is supposed to be the oldest surviving Afro-Hispanic dialect in Latin America. • Its speakers are believed to be the descendents of African slaves taken to the New World to work in Potosí silver mines during the 16th century. • Africans started being used as slaves presumably around the 18th century in Los Yungas, tropical valleys in which they did agricultural work (Crespo 1976, Lipski 2006, 2008).

7. Socio-historical overview Slavery was formally abolished in Bolivia in 1826, reestablished in 1830, and abolished again in 1831. However, until 1952, when the Land Reform took place, Afro-Bolivians continued to be employed in Los Yungas as slaves in haciendas.

8. Socio-historical overview The most important North Yungas communities containing high concentrations of Afro-Bolivians are Tocaña, Mururata, Chijchipa, Coscoma, Dorado Chico and Khala Khala. In South Yungas the principal black community is Chicaloma. Both areas are mainly inhabited by Aymara-speaking indigenous population.

9. Socio-historical overview Black Yungueños in South Yungas have frequently intermarried with Aymaras, speak Aymara and wear traditional Aymara clothing. As a result, in this area only a few of the traditional dialect features remain. On the other hand, in North Yungas communities, Afro-Bolivians remain linguistically and culturally separate from Aymaras; Afro-Hispanic speech still survives and is used as intra-group language between the members of the community.

10. Socio-historical overview • Typically, until 1952 black workers were not allowed to attend school. • However, after that date, the hacienda system ended and basic public education began to arrive in Afro-Yungueño communities. • The study of Spanish at schools, the possibility of traveling outside of Yungas, and the stigmatization attached to ABS resulted in a gradual drop of the traditional dialect by Afro-Bolivians. • As a consequence, some features of this vernacular have gradually been displaced by Highland Bolivian Spanish (HBS) ones.

11. ABS DP features • Lipski (2006) points out features of ABS DP, including: (a) lack of noun-adjective gender agreement: 1. La fiesta muy bonito [HBS bonita] The.fem.sg party.fem.sg very beautiful.®.sg `The very nice party’ (b) invariant plurals: 2. 100 mandarina [HBS 100 mandarinas] 100 mandarin.Ø `100 mandarins’ (c) extra invariant plural definite article lu (‘the-pl’): 3. Lu taza [HBS las tazas] The-pl cup.Ø ‘The cups’

12. Number variation inside the DP (d) frequently, the retention of plural /s/ only on the first element of plural DPs: 4. Mis abuelo [HBS mis abuelos] My.pl grandparent.Ø ‘My grandparents’ 5. Las cosa [HBS las cosas] The.pl thing.Ø ’The things’

13. ABS DP features • Lipski (2006) argues that DP features (gender, number) percolate up from the noun to the determiner (Grimshaw 1991; 1997) and eventually to the post-nominal element. • Cross-generationally, no case of post-nominal gender concord is found unless pre-nominal elements agree (Lipski 2006: 35): 6. *un curva ancha [HBS una curva ancha] a.Ø curve.fem.sg. wide.fem.sg ‘a large curve’(Lipski 2006)

14. Our Data • 944 tokens were extracted from a corpus of recorded interviews with the eldest speakers in the communities of Tocaña and Mururata, North Yungas. • The interviews were conductedby letting the speakers talk about any topic of their choice plus follow-up questions: • In line with the principle of Tangential Shift (Labov 1984:37), the goal was therefore to attempt to reduce the Observer’s Paradox (Labov 1972) as much as possible.

15. http://www.afropop.org/multi/feature/ID/862 Reuters: http://www.daylife.com/photo/0gsse0U2WZ0hc

16. Table 1 • Functional Hypothesis (Kiparsky 1972: 195): phonological elements loaded with a morphological plural value (e.g. casa-s ‘house-s’) should be more resistant to deletion. • However, our data show that the opposite is true for ABS

17. Syntax matters Our results indicate that the rate of –s ‘omission’ is higher for inflectional instances of –s (see Table 1) Strictly phonological factors are playing only a limited role. Supported by the occurrence of plural forms like lu dictador [los dictadores] ‘the dictators’, lu varón [los varones] ‘the males’ without the –e of the Spanish plural morpheme. ABS –s plural marking variation is syntactic rather than phonological.

18. Table 2 Table 2. Contribution of Grammatical Category to the Omission of Plural (s) (Log likelihood = -287.688, Significance = 0.007, N=944) Results agree with Lipsky’s works: more omission for adjectives than for Ds

19. ABS DP features • Our data are inline with Lipski’s, but some cases seem to contradict the pre-nominal to post-nominal percolation order. Number/gender disagreement on strong quantifiers (despite highest position in the clause) 7. Todolas cosa bonita [HBS todas las cosas bonitas] all.Ø the.fem.pl thing.fem.Ø pretty.fem.Ø ‘all the nice things’

20. A new approach Percolation cannot account for the data Formal analysis of variation based on feature presence/absence (Adger & Smith 2005, Adger & Trousdale 2007) Minimalist program approach to agreement

21. A formal analysis • In the minimalist framework, agreement is conceived as the result of valuation processes. • Number agreement involves the transmission or sharing of features with (normally) nominal origin to other lexical items (adjectives) or to functional elements (determiners, quantifiers), thus accounting for internal concord/agreement in the DP (Chomsky 2000, 2001, 2004; Frampton & Gutmann 2000; Carstens 2000)

22. Features in a formal analysis • The Minimalist Program distinguishes between interpretable and uninterpretable features: • Interpretable features have an interpretation at LF or SEM (e.g. tense on V). Really meaningful • Uninterpretable features lack semantic import and are present to trigger the necessary merger or agreement operations during the derivation (e.g. number on A) Redundant information

23. Features in a formal analysis • The Minimalist Program distinguishes between valued and unvalued features: • Valued featuresare those that possess a value of the feature • Unvalued features are those which await valuation

24. Agree Operation Agree A probe lacking feature specification searches for a local –i.e. c-commanded– goal (inside its domain) to undergo agreement (Chomsky 2000: 101, 134; Chomsky 2001: 12, 15) Valuation/Interpretability biconditional(Chomsky 2001): 1. Uninterpretable features are unvalued 2. Interpretable features are valued Therefore, 3. Uninterpretable features must be valued and deleted

25. http://www2.let.uu.nl/uil-ots/lexicon/

26. Feature sharing and multiple Agree Feature sharing (Frampton and Gutmann 2000; Pesetsky and Torrego 2004, 2007) Multiple Agree (Hiraiwa 2001, Carstens 2001, Chomsky 2008: 142) Necessary to account for multiple expression of a feature inside the DP (as is the norm in Romance, for instance) Agree (Pesetsky and Torrego 2007:4): valued vs. unvalued (i) An unvalued feature F (a probe) on a head H at syntactic location (F) scans its c-command domain for another instance of F (a goal) at location (F) with which to agree. (ii) Replace Fwith F, so that the same feature is present in both locations.

27. Valuation process Unvalued PROBE Valued GOAL Matching feature present PROBE c-commands GOAL Result: same feature in both categories

28. Possible feature specifications uF [ ]: uninterpretable, unvalued feature iF [ ]: interpretable, unvalued feature uF [val]: uninterpretable, valued feature iF [val]: interpretable, valued feature

29. Number features • Number agreement involves uninterpretable features of all items except for Num. Num carries an interpretable feature [num] (Picallo 2008, Pesetsky & Torrego 2007). • Nouns carry an uninterpretable valued feature for number [unum: + pl] (Picallo 2008: 59; cf. Zamparelli 2008 for number features) • Determiners and adjectives bear an uninterpretable feature for number [unum: ], which is valued after probing and matching the feature on N. • Unvalued features probe for valued features to agree with (only unvalued Fs can be probes (Pesetsky & Torrego 2004/2007, Picallo 2008))

30. Formal syntactic variation Adger & Smith (2005) Certain uninterpretable features may be variably present in one category but absent in another. Being uninterpretable, they would have no semantic repercussion, thus being equally legitimate for a convergent derivation with different phonological outcomes Variation is reduced to the specification of the uninterpretable features in a derivation (Adger & Smith 2005: 161) Underspecification of uninterpretable features → no-F [ ] Complies with Brody’s (1997) Radical Interpretability

31. Sociolinguistic factors • Several (social) factors may affect the item selection: • ease of lexical access (probably linked to frequency of use) • speaker-hearer relationships • social identity, etc. (Adger & Smith 2005: 164)

32. A preview of the analysis • Certain uninterpretable features may be present in a certain entry but absent in another: 8. Unos amigos uF[val]…. uF[val] 9.Unosamigo.Ø uF[val].… no-F[]

33. ABS DPs 10. a. [DP lus [NumP guaguasjóvenes]] • unum[+pl]……inum[+pl]……………...unum[+pl] b. [DP lus [NumP guaguasjoven]] • unum[+pl]……inum[+pl]….………….no-num[..] c. [DP lus [NumP guaguajoven]] • unum[+pl]…… no-num[..]..…..……..no-num[..] ‘The young kids’ (adapted from Lipski 2008: 93)

34. Crosslinguistic evidence Other languages show impoverished agreement in DP Amele (Corbett 2000: 137): 11. a. Dana (uqa) hoia man 3.sg came.sg ‘The man came’ b. Dana (ale) hosia man 3.dual came.dual ‘The two men came’ c. Dana (age) hoiga man 3.pl came.pl ‘The men came’

35. Other cases Brazilian Portuguese (Braga 1977, Scherre & Naro 1998, 2006; Magalhães 2004; Simioni 2007, among others) Colloquial French (Rowlett 2007: 19-20): loss of liaison Cape Verdean Creole (Baptista 2007)

36. Locating [inum: +pl] • Several recent works point to the interpretability of [num] on D: 1. Magalhães (2004): BP 2. Carvalho (2006): Uruguayan Spanish in contact with Portuguese • Support: • Abney (1987): DET as I • Olsen (1989): German D carries all phi-features • Longobardi (1994): [num] on D, not on N

37. Interpretable [num] on Num vs. N NumP (Ritter 1991, 1995; Picallo 2008) Hypothesis for variation: 1. Full redundancy [inum: ] on Num + valued on N 2. Only D: [inum: ] on Num, no-F on N + N-to-n-to-Num, feature valued on D after Agree Variation is located only on the featural content of lexical categories (as expected for variation and change) Partial valuation due to defective (i.e., missing) phi-feature (Bejar 2003: 61) Ortmann’s (2000) Principle of economic plural marking

38. Variation in ABS DPs 10. a. [DP lus [NumP [NP guaguasjóvenes]] • unum[+pl]……inum[+pl]……………...unum[+pl] b. [DP lus [NumP [NP guaguasjoven]] • unum[+pl]……inum[+pl]….………….no-num[..] c. [DP lus [NumP [NP guagua joven]] • unum[+pl]……inum no-num[..]..…..……..no-num[..] ‘The young kids’ (adapted from Lipski 2008: 93) Feature [ + pl] (Zamparelli 2008)

39. Full agreement

40. Full agreement Analysis based on Bernstein (1993), Picallo (2008): [num] on Num Pesetsky & Torrego (2007) suggest that [inum: ] may actually be always located in Num in Spanish No [inum: ] on N in Spanish Carstens (2001: 154): N-to-n-to-Num, but not for morphological reasons (no strong feature movement; cf. Alexiadou 2001) Postnominal APs are located following Demonte (2008: 25, 27) Agreement between APs and Nfeature sharingNum-A-N (Danon 2008)

41. Overt marking on D only

42. Overt marking on D only Num carries valued [inum: ] from Lexical Array/Numeration (Picallo 2008) N movement forced by N-feature on n and Num (EPP or categorial F; cf. Alexiadou 2001: 223) Absence of [num] on A and N eliminates probing [num] feature is overtly marked on D as affix (materialization of [+ pl] in Spanish in the morphology component). No relevant lexical item in Num for any –s to materialize (N is not eligible; defective, underspecified for [num]). Feature interpreted once in the chain, as needed (Brody 1997)

43. Restrictions on variation • Why not? 12. *[DP el [NP guaguasjóvenes] No-num[] [+pl] [+pl] • Ds always c-command Num and thus, carrying uninterpretable unvalued [num], probe for a goal for agreement. Num carries the necessary features for agreement. • Adjectives lower in the tree will require valued features on N to be able to agree with N (via FS)

44. Lack of plural on Qs • Qs project above DP, and thus are not Ds (NP-based analysis of Qs also accounts for lack of agreement: like As) • They do not carry specification for [num], like As 13 [QP todo [DP lus [NumP guaguajoven]]] no-num[..] unum[+pl]…. no-num[..]..…..……..no-num[..] all.Øthe.pl boy.Øyoung.Ø ‘All the young boys’ • In keeping with Ortmann’s (2000) Principle of economic plural marking

45. Semantic number marking Numerals such as tres (three) carry inherent plural features, thus licensing number on semantic grounds. Maybe also for strong quantifiers such as mucho/todo. Crosslinguistic evidence: Hungarian, Archi (Caucasus), Kurdish, Huanca Quechua, etc. (cf. Ortmann 2000: 252-3)

46. Conclusion • Difference in feature content in the items in the syntactic derivation account for variation • Different phonological outputs correspond with one semantic interpretation • Variation (like change) is located in the features (cf. Lightfoot 2006, Roberts 2007 for change) • Intra-speaker variation can be formalized • Variation within the same community and even the same speaker (‘dialect mixing’) • Our findings do not pretend to be categorical. Variation is a component of human languages, and our results confirm this fact.

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