Analytic-synthetic conflict sites in bilingual speech : a comparative analysis of expressive phenomena in US contact communities

The study presented here compares the realization of two related expressive phenomena, intensification and attenuation (specifically the diminutive construction), in the speech of the bilingual communities of Miami (Florida) and El Paso (Texas), both characterized by large Hispanic populations and, as a result, high degrees of English-Spanish bilingualism. Both phenomena under study constitute conflict sites between the grammars of English and Spanish, where English mostly relies on analytic strategies to express them (e.g. very beautiful, a little house; Quirk et al., 2007; Schneider, 2003), whereas Spanish employs rich and productive paradigms of affixes (e.g. guapísimo, una casita; Lázaro Mora, 1999). These diverging paradigms raise the question which choices bilingual speakers make in their realization of these phenomena. As both are highly expressive phenomena that, besides referring to extended or limited size or degree, tend to express evaluative, affective and intersubjective notions, it is found that their realization by bilingual speakers is influenced by a variety of factors related to the speaker’s personal identity and that of the bilingual community as a whole. The latter underlines the importance of community norms within bilingual speech communities and indicates the significant effect that a community’s profile can have on bilinguals’ speech. Additionally, although both phenomena are similar to each other in their morphosyntax and semantics and their scaling of referents in terms of size or degree, it is observed that they behave substantially differently when compared directly in the context under study. This can be attributed to the different roles both phenomena have within the systems of both languages. By comparing two related phenomena in two bilingual communities exhibiting both similarities and differences in their sociolinguistic identity and their speakers’ profiles, the current study aims to better understand the choices bilingual speakers make and the ways in which languages interact in bilingual contexts.