Frisian Grammar
Linguistics
The Frisian Grammar research project (2011-2015) uses corpus-based research and qualitative grammaticality judgements to research the manner in which the grammar and vocabulary of a dominant language (in this case Dutch) influence the historical change processes of a minority language (in this case Frisian). The language change theme plays a role in each of the traditional linguistic sub-disciplines of syntax, semantics, morphology and phonology, which makes it eminently suitable to demonstrate the complex interactions between these four levels of language structure.
Summary
The focus of this research stream is mainly on the following two topics:
- Which Frisian language phenomena are sensitive to the influence of Dutch and which ones are immune?
- Which factors determine whether specific language phenomena in Frisian are sensitive to the influence of Dutch?
The main conclusion is that the quantified factors of frequency and analogy play a major role in the influence of Dutch on Frisian language phenomena. In the course of such an influence, we have often come across multiple causality at the various grammatical levels that determine in which way language changes persist.
From a scientific point of view, the added value lies in our understanding of the language competence of bilinguals, which is viewed as a neural network in which the strength of the connections is calculated ‘by proxy’ by measuring the frequency, while the representational distance between two units of information depends on the degree to which these units are similar, which, in turn, can be measured by applying the Levinshtein distance or a similar mechanism. This will help predict which Frisian language phenomena are bound to disappear in the future, and which stand a fair chance of survival. This, in turn, may increase the effectivity of Frisian language education: currently, much effort is wasted in trying to maintain and teach phenomena that are doomed anyway.
Below, you will find a list of key publications about this research project. Key publication Hoekstra and Slofstra 2014 (published in Language) sheds light on the way in which the various structural levels of syntax, semantics, phonology and morphology contribute to the study of a borrowed language phenomenon, and on the potential mutual dependencies. Hoekstra (2012b) shows how a current phenomenon, the Dutch word order in Frisian verb phrases, occurred as early as the seventeenth century in the work of the linguistically pure author Gysbert Japicx. In the seventeenth century, such interference was linked to complexity, while interferences in modern-day Frisian are common.
Duration
01/01/2011-01/09/2015
Funding
Fryske Akademy
Partnership with
prof.dr. Arjen Versloot (University of Amsterdam)
Publications
Hoekstra, E. and Slofstra, B. (2014). A diachronic study of the negative polarity item syn leven ‘his life > ever’ in West Frisian between 1550 and 1800. Language: Journal of the Linguistic Society of America, 89 (2013)(4), e39-e55.
Hoekstra, E. (2014). Oer –en(ien), de markearder fan ûnbeskate haadwurdlike ellipsis. In P Boersma, H Brand and J Spoelstra (Eds.), Philologia Frisica anno 2012 (pp. 192-206). Ljouwert: Fryske Akademy.
Hoekstra, E. (2014). Semantic maps and negative polarity. In J. Hoeksema and D. Gilbers (Eds.), Black book. A Festschrift in honor of Frans Zwarts (pp. 146-164). Groningen: University of Groningen.
Hoekstra, E. (2013). Fries substraat in de syntaxis van het West-Fries: oorsprong en implicatie van het onderscheid tussen infinitief en gerundium en hun syntactische distributie. It Beaken. Tydskrift fan de Fryske Akademy, 74 (2012), 151-172.
Hoekstra, E. and M. van Koppen (2013). Holland and Utrecht: Morphology and syntax. In F. Hinskens & J. Taeldeman (eds), Language and Space: Dutch (Language and Space. An International Handbook of Linguistic Variation, 3). Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, 418-433.
Hoekstra, E. (2013). Oer syn libben. Syntaktysk-semantyske kontekst en ynterpretaasje yn it Midfrysk en it Nijfrysk. In A.J. Brand, B.M. Groen, E. Hoekstra & C. van der Meer (eds.) De tienduizend dingen. Feestbundel voor Reinier Salverda (Fryske Akademy, 1075). Ljouwert: Fryske Akademy / Afûk, 435-448.
Hoekstra, E. (2013). Review of “Germen J. de Haan (2010) Studies in West-Frisian Grammar. Selected papers, edited by Jarich Hoekstra, Willem Visser and Goffe Jensma.” It Beaken. Tydskrift fan de Fryske Akademy, 73 (2011), 173-187.
Hoekstra, E., Slofstra, B. & Versloot, A.P. (2012). Changes in the use of the Frisian quantifiers EA/OAIT "ever" between 1250 and 1800. In A. van Kemenade & N de Haas (Eds.), Historical Linguistics 2009. Selected papers from the 19th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Nijmegen, 10-14 August 2009 (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 320) (pp. 171-189). Berlin: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Hoekstra, E. (2012a). Dat had niet zo (ge)moeten. Over de beschrijving van IPP in de SAND deel 2. Taal en tongval, 62 (2010)(2), 251-257.
Hoekstra, E. (2012b). Reade wurdfolchoarders en dêrmei gearhingjende aspekten yn 17e-ieusk Frysk. In ûndersyk nei de tiidwurdkloft yn Gysbert Japicx syn "Yen suwnerlinge forhânlinge Fen it Libben In fenne Deade". It Beaken. Tydskrift fan de Fryske Akademy, 72 (2010)(3-4), 223-239.
Hoekstra, E. (2011). Negative polarity in morphology: the case of Frisian FOLLE ‘much, many’ as compared to Dutch VEEL. In R. Nouwen, M. Elenbaas (eds) Linguistics in the Netherlands 2011. John Benjamins, Amsterdam, 25-37.
Hoekstra, E. (2011). VAN als markeerder van zinnen in de directe en indirecte rede in het Fries en het Nederlands. Leuvense bijdragen. Tijdschrift voor Germaanse filologie 96, 169-188.