Transfer och andra språkkontaktfenomen i amerikasvenskars svenska

Abstract

The aim of this Master Thesis is to contribute to increased knowledge of certain language contact phenomena in American Swedish and how these phenomena are affected by certain social factors. The present study examines the Heritage Language of six participants, focussing on transference and established structures in American Swedish. The theoretical framework of this study is three of Clyne’s (2003) types of transference: semantic, morphological and syntactic. Furthermore, the theoretical framework includes cognitive and social aspects of Heritage Language. This investigation is a qualitative study which examines transcriptions of speech of the six participants. The study examines certain language contact phenomena produced by the participants and what linguistic implications these phenomena have for the American Swedish language of the participants. The study also examines how the participants’ sociolinguistic backgrounds affect their Swedish in regard to transference, and also to established structures in American Swedish. The data shows that the occurrence of the examined language contact phenomena differs significantly between the participants; while the one with the most occurrences displays 56, the one with the fewest displays 0. There is also a difference concerning the total number of occurrences of transference phenomena and established structures: While there are 87 instances of the former, there are only 38 of the latter. The results of this study suggest that there is a tendency towards a higher degree of similarity, and also a tendency towards a lower degree of complexity, in structures involved in contact phenomena produced by the participants. Moreover, there is a tendency towards a higher degree of variability in the participants’ Heritage Language. To a certain extent social factors seem to account for the linguistic outcome of the participants’ American Swedish. The language situation at home during the participants’ childhood appears to be important, and also the amount of occasions for the participants to speak Swedish seems to influence the degree of mastery of their Heritage Language.