Projects / Programmes
Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
6.05.00 |
Humanities |
Linguistics |
|
Code |
Science |
Field |
H350 |
Humanities |
Linguistics |
language contact, bilingualism, language shift, language death, code switching, borrowing, sociolinguistics
Researchers (1)
no. |
Code |
Name and surname |
Research area |
Role |
Period |
No. of publicationsNo. of publications |
1. |
06027 |
PhD Nada Šabec |
Humanities |
Head |
1998 - 1999 |
580 |
Organisations (1)
Abstract
The purpose of this project is to examine various aspects of Slovene-English language contact in immigrant environments (USA, Canada, Australia), where Slovene is surrounded by English, the dominant language and develops in the specific circumstances of the so-called enclaves. The comparison of language use among members of different immigrant generations reveals a relatively rapid language shift from Slovene to English, which is why I am particularly interested in the degree of the immigrants’ mother tongue maintenance and the factors that either encourage or discourage it. Of special interest is also the relationship between the degree of mother tongue preservation and the immigrants’ sense of ethinc identity. The focus is on the social and psychological motivations that govern the language choice of bilingual speakers. In addition, a detailed analysis of the morphological, syntactic, and pragmatic aspects of bilingual discourse (primarily code switching and borrowing) is provided. Certain structural changes of Slovene in the area of interlingual influences are explained primarily by means of morphological and syntactic rules of the English language.