Contact-Induced Change in Alorese Give-Constructions

This article describes and compares give-constructions in three languages of eastern Indonesia, Lamaholot (Austronesian), Alorese (Austronesian), and Adang (Papuan), with the aim of detecting structural convergence in Alorese. Lamaholot and Alorese are closely related, while Alorese has undergone contact-induced change due to contact with Papuan languages spoken in close proximity, such as Adang. To investigate structural convergence, we systematically compare the types and frequencies of give-constructions in these three languages. The data were obtained by using a common set of eight visual stimuli. The results show that Alorese and Adang share a preference for encoding 'give' events in serial verb constructions, while Lamaholot uses prepositional object constructions or multiverb constructions. We conclude that, in the domain of give-constructions, there is a higher degree of structural isomorphism between Alorese and Adang than there is between Alorese and its sister language Lamaholot. Such structural isomorphism is the outcome of contact-induced convergence; more specifically, we propose that convergence took place by a process of grammatical calquing carried out by children and preadolescents who were bilingual in Alorese and one or more Papuan languages.