Awareness of Grammatical Variability in Language Contact: The Case of Mano and Kpelle in Guinea

Abstract

This paper contributes to research on the awareness of grammatical variability through a study of variation in reflexivity marking in Mano under the influence of Kpelle, both indigenous languages of Guinea. The speakers of these languages are found to be sensitive to contact-induced grammatical variation in reflexivity, which manifests via variation in comprehension patterns and, more specifically, in form-to-meaning correspondence, across different communities. We explain the patterns by hypothesizing that variation in comprehension is at least partially based on language experience in a particular environment and does not necessarily reflect a difference in grammatical representation. Such explanation underscores the importance of sociolinguistic considerations for employing acceptability judgments in syntactic analysis.