Sprachvariation und Sprachkontakt in Existenzverbkonstruktionen des Pomerano. Eine korpusgestüzte Untersuchung einer niederdeutschen Varietät in Brasilien
Abstract
This study investigates the Low German variety of Pomerano spoken by descendants of settlers
who arrived in Brazil around 1860–1880 from the European region of Pomerania. The focus of
this linguistic study is on existential constructions (Existenzverbkonstruktionen – EVK), which
are used to express “existence” (Es gibt einen Gott) or an ingressive status of “coming into
existence” (Es gibt ein Fest). The data comprises eight hours of spoken Pomerano recorded from
18 speakers in the Pomeranian settlements in Espírito Santo, Rio Grande do Sul, and Santa
Catarina.
The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the variation in existential constructions with
GÄWEN, SIN, and HEWWEN in Pomerano on morpho-syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic levels.
Additionally, the study aims to identify contact-induced variation through Brazilian Portuguese,
taking sociolinguistic factors into account. The theoretical framework combines descriptive-structuralist
methods with a usage-based cognitive approach to language contact.
In general, the results indicate that the Low German construction in Pomerano appears
relatively stable at the morpho-syntactic level. Contact-induced variation by Brazilian
Portuguese occurs in the HEWWEN-EVK, which is documented here for the first time in about 14 %
of the 285 tokens under scrutiny. This innovation is interpreted as a re-structured variant of
the dominant HAVER/TER-EVK in Brazilian Portuguese and is discussed with the usage-based
factors similarity and frequency.
Additionally, the behavior of speakers in Santa Catarina and Espírito Santo, who are
competent in High German or not, respectively, suggests that High German is deployed in
preventing direct Portuguese influence on Pomeranian existential constructions, especially in
relation to the NP. Speakers in Santa Catarina, who typically speak a High German variety
alongside with Pomerano, use genuine German nominals or conventionalized loanwords in
HEWWEN-EVK. Speakers in Espírito Santo, who generally lack High German competence, tend
to use lexemes or spontaneous loan translations of Portuguese nominals. This makes the case for
a regionally specific development of Pomerano that should be further investigated.
The study also demonstrates multilingual speakers using different EVK variants depending
on their communicative goals. This leads to intra-individual use of a variant repertoire in
comparable semantic settings with highly conventionalized EVK, such as Es gibt einen
Unterschied.
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
University
Göteborgs universitet. Humanistiska fakulteten
University of Gothenburg. Faculty of Humanities
Institution
Department of Languages and Literatures ; Institutionen för språk och litteraturer
Disputation
Fredagen den 8 december 2023, kl. 13, sal J330, Humanisten, Renströmsgatan 6, Göteborg
Date of defence
2023-12-08
martin.hansen@tutamail.com
Date
2023-11-07Author
Hansen, Martin
Keywords
Language contact, variational linguistics, sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics, cognitive linguistic, existential constructions, spoken German in Brazil, Pomeranian Low German, Brazilian Portuguese
Publication type
Doctoral thesis
ISBN
978-91-8069-490-2 (tryckt), 978-91-8069-489-6 (pdf)
Language
ger