Double Object Constructions in Afro-Brazilian Portuguese: Contact driven L2 learning and Maximize Minimal Means
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Isis Barros
[1]
;
Ana Calindro
[2]
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[1] Universidade Federal do Recôncavo da Bahia
Universidade Federal do Recôncavo da Bahia
Brasil
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[2] Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Brasil
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- Localización: Isogloss: Open Journal of Romance Linguistics, ISSN-e 2385-4138, Vol. 9, Vol. 2, 2023 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Romance grammars: context and contact)
- Idioma: inglés
- Enlaces
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Resumen
During the colonial period (16th - 19th centuries), Brazil was a multilingual country, home to Portuguese, Indigenous peoples, and Africans. Portuguese was learned as a second language by the Africans brought to Brazil by the slave trade, mainly under the influence of the Bantu languages the slaves spoke. From this language contact, an Afro-Brazilian Portuguese variety has emerged (ABP) which displays a ditransitive construction with an unmarked Goal dative, and V-Goal-Theme order, similar to Double Object Constructions (DOC) in English. We propose that the so-called DOC in ABP can be understood in terms of the Maximizing Minimal Means model (Biberauer 2018, 2019). In this model, Feature Economy and Feature/Input Generalization (Biberauer & Roberts 2017) constitute a major factor in L2 learning in contact scenarios. For the innovative ABP structure, the [+animate] and low applicative features of the Bantu substrate grammars are shown to have been key in the first generation’s L2 acquisition of a marked Classical Portuguese V-Goal-Theme structure. The structure becomes established in subsequent L1 acquisition of ABP, with expansion beyond the original core structures.
