hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2017-12-11

■ #3150. 言語接触は言語を単純にするか複雑にするか？ [contact][language_change][geolinguistics][linguistic_area][pidgin][creole][creoloid][koineisation]

　言語接触 (contact) は言語を単純にするのか，あるいは複雑にするのか．古今東西の言語接触の事例を参照すると，いずれのケースもあると知られている．Trudgill がこの問題について論じているので，議論を紹介しよう．まず，言語接触は言語の複雑化に寄与するという観点について．

. . . there is considerable evidence that language contact can lead to an increase in linguistic complexity. This appears to occur as a result of the addition of features transferred from one language to another . . . . This is then additive change in which new features derived from neighboring languages do not replace existing features but are acquired in addition to them. A sociolinguistic-typological consequence of language contact is therefore that languages which have experienced relatively high degrees of contact are more likely to demonstrate relatively higher degrees of this type of additive complexity than languages which have not. (301)

　この点と関連して，地域言語学の立場から，類似した言語項が広まりやすく言語的多様性が小さい，したがって比較的単純な言語構造を示しやすい "spread zones" （例として印欧語族の行なわれている地域など）と，反対に言語的多様性と複雑性に特徴づけられる "residual zones" （例としてコーカサス地方やニューギニアなど）という概念についても触れられている．つまり，"contact among languages fosters complexity, or, put differently, diversity among neighbouring languages fosters complexity in each of the languages" (303) であるという．いくつかの考察を経たあとで上記を結論づけたのが，次の箇所である．

We can thus take seriously the sociolinguistic-typological hypothesis that languages spoken in high-contact societies are relatively more likely to have relatively more complexity, not just in terms of having more features such as grammatical categories and articulation types, but also in terms of possessing features which are inherently more complex. (305--06)

　一方で，逆説的ながらも，言語接触が言語の単純化をもたらす事例は広く認められている（ほかに「#1671. dialect contact, dialect mixture, dialect levelling, koineization」 ([2013-11-23-1])) も参照されたい）．

. . . the paradox here is that contact can also, and just as clearly, lead to simplification. This is very well known, and is a point which has been made by many writers. Pidgins, creoles, and creoloids . . . are all widely agreed to owe their relative structural simplicity to language contact; and koines to dialect contact . . . . (306)

　では，言語接触のいかなる側面が，複雑化か単純化かを決定するのだろうか．Trudgill は，接触の強度，期間，言語習得に関わる臨界期という要因を指摘している．臨界期とは，要するに，言語接触を経験している当の人々が，子供か大人かという違いである．Trudgill の結論は以下の通り．

1 high-contact, long-term pre-critical threshold contact situations are more likely to lead to additive (and only additive) complexification;
2 high-contact, short-term post-critical threshold contact situations are more likely to lead to simplification;
3 low contact situations are likely to lead to preservation of existing complexity.

　荒削りな類型のようにも見えるが，興味深い仮説である．

　・ Trudgill, Peter. "Contact and Sociolinguistic Typology." The Handbook of Language Contact. Ed. Raymond Hickey. 2010. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013. 299--319.

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