Basque Differential Object Marking as a Contact-Induced Phenomenon: How and Why?

Abstract

The debate as to whether syntax can be borrowed has spurred much scholarly inquiry among those who argue that syntax cannot be borrowed (Silva-Corvalán, 2008) and those in favor of the ‘anything-goes’ argument (Thomason, 2001). In contribution to this debate, this study examines the contact-induced processes behind the variation of Basque Differential Object Marking (dom). We examine the use of Basque dom in the spontaneous speech of 42 speakers whose variety has been in a long-standing contact with Spanish (Gernika Basque) and 15 speakers of a ‘newly’ standardized variety (Standard Basque). We additionally examine the spontaneous speech of their leísmo in order to make a case that Basque dom is not an example of syntactic borrowing but involves a process of replica grammaticalization (Heine and Kuteva, 2005) whereby speakers replicate their use of leísmo either through matter-borrowing, pattern-borrowing or a combination of both.