Discoursivization and Contact-Induced Language Change

Abstract Borrowing can be facilitated or inhibited by linguistic constraints in language contact situations. This paper examines one such constraint: the effects of discoursivization on the usage of Spanish discourse connectives in Balearic Catalan. Using a variationist sociolinguistic analysis of conversational corpus data, this study seeks to determine the role of discourse among the social and linguistic factors that govern this contact phenomenon. The statistical findings indicate that the Spanish and Catalan discourse connectives have undergone and continue to undergo a process of discoursivization. However, this movement towards discourse does not seem to have an effect on their usage, and instead social factors are the most significant determinants affecting the use of Spanish discourse connectives in contemporary Balearic Catalan. Nonetheless, it appears that these Spanish loanwords may be falling out of use among younger speakers as a result of linguistic normalization efforts.