Utterance modifiers and universals of grammatical borrowing

Abstract

Members of a functional category that I tentatively call utterance modifiers are the most vulnerable items to contact-related linguistic change in grammar. Utterance modifiers regulate linguistic-mental processing activities that can be attributed to a grammar of directing. Bilinguals, when faced with the tension of choosing among the systems at their disposal in what is a highly automaticized operation, are tempted to reduce the overt representation of the grammar of directing to just one set of elements. Preference is given to the pragmatically dominant language. Contact-related change in the area of utterance modifiers is therefore not due to lack of equivalent functions in the indigenous language, nor is it due to the prestige effect that the integration of L2 items may have on the overall flavor of the discourse. Rather, I attribute synchronic variation in the speech of bilinguals to the cognitive pressure exerted on them to draw on the resources of the pragmatically dominant language for situative, gesturelike discourse-regulating purposes, and the diachronic change that arises from such variation to the establishment of a permanent licensing for speakers to do so