Chicano English in Context

265 Pages·2003·18.85 MB·English

by  Carmen Fought (auth.)

Chicano English in Context
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Chicano English in
Context
Carmen Fought
palgrave
macmillan
© Carmen Fought 2003
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st editrion 2003978-0-333-98637-0
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
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as the author of this work in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2003 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.
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ISBN 978-0-333-98638-7 ISBN 978-0-230-51001-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230510012
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managed and sustained forest sources.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fought, Carmen, 1966-
Chicano English in context 1 Carmen Fought.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-0-333-98638-7 (pbk.)
1. Mexican Americans-Languages. 2. English language-United States
Foreign elements-Spanish. 3. English language-Variation-United States.
4. Spanish language-Influence on English. 5. Bilingualism-United States.
I. Title.
PE3102.M4 F68 2002
427' .973'0896872-dc21 2002074837
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03
Contents
List of Tables viii
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments x
Introduction 1
I.1 What is Chicano English? Setting aside the myths 1
1.2 The scope of this work 8
1 Fieldwork in the Los Angeles Chicano
Community 11
1.1 History of Mexican immigration to Los Angeles 11
1.2 The history of Chicano English 14
1.3 Field methods 20
2 The Social Context of the Chicano
Community 30
2.1 Social structures and gender roles in
Latino families 30
2.2 Social class differences among Chicanos 33
2.3 The dynamics of conflict and oppositions
within the community 38
2.4 The structure of the gang member sub-group 45
2.5 Other affiliations 53
2.6 The role of networks 55
3 Phonology of Chicano English 62
3.1 Introduction: features of Chicano English phonology 62
3.2 Vowels 64
3.3 Consonants 67
3.4 Prosody in Chicano English 70
3.5 Comparison with the English of non-native speakers 80
3.6 Comparison with older studies 85
3.7 The influence of African-American English 86
3.8 The influence on Chicano English phonology
of California Anglo English 87
v
vi Contents
4 Syntax and Semantics of Chicano English 93
Part I: Syntactic features of Chicano English 94
4.1 Features characteristic of many non-standard dialects 94
4.2 Features characteristic of African-American English 95
4.3 Features of ambiguous origin 97
4.4 Features particular to Chicano English 98
Part II: Semantic/lexical features of Chicano English 102
4.5 General lexical items 102
4.6 Use of like, be like, and be all 107
Part III: The older generation of speakers 109
5 Sociolinguistics of Chicano English I:
Phonetic Variation 111
5.1 Introduction 111
5.2 Measuring /u/-fronting 113
5.3 Social categories, identity and /u/-fronting in
Chicano English 118
5.4 Interacting social factors and the role of gender 121
5.5 Phonetic variables beyond /u/: /&/-backing
and /&/-raising 126
5.6 Quantitative analysis of the three linguistic
variables 128
5.7 Implications of the sociolinguistic patterns 135
6 Sociolinguistics of Chicano English II:
Syntactic Variation 140
6.1 Syntactic variation: negative concord 140
6.2 Qualitative differences among dialects 142
6.3 Quantitative differences 143
6.4 Results and comparison with phonetic variables 146
6.5 Constructing identities: what the use of
these variables reveals 149
6.6 Possible sources for negative concord 151
7 Bilingualism and Spanish Fluency 152
7.1 Background: degrees of bilingualism in the
community 152
7.2 Patterns of language use among bilingual speakers 159
7.3 Rita and Avery: two individual cases 165
7.4 Experimental evidence for factors that
affect Spanish fluency 169
Contents vii
7.5 The gender/social class interaction and
its influence on the acquisition of Spanish phonology 188
7.6 Implications for theories of second
language acquisition 190
8 Language Attitudes 193
Part I: Attitudes about Spanish 193
8.1 Using Spanish in the interviews 193
8.2 General attitudes about speaking Spanish 197
8.3 Self-evaluation and linguistic insecurity 197
8.4 Attitudes about parents who speak Spanish:
the language gap 198
8.5 .The importance of speaking Spanish to
Mexican/Chicano identity 200
8.6 Parents' attitudes about teaching Spanish
to their children 204
8.7 Attitudes about other dialects of Spanish 207
Part II: Attitudes about codeswitching 208
Part III: Attitudes about Chicano English 211
8.8 Experimental evidence of language attitudes 211
Part IV: Attitudes as represented in the media 211
8.9 The representation of the language of
Mexican-Americans in feature films 212
9 Conclusions: The Future of Research on
Chicano English: Where Do We Go from Here? 226
9.1 Conclusions 226
9.2 Future directions 229
Appendix A: Examples from Narratives, in IPA Transcription 235
Appendix B: Response sheet for the Accent-rating Experiment 237
Notes 238
References 242
Index 249
List of Tables
1.1 Latino population by birthplace 12
1.2 Population of Culver City, 2000 13
2.1 Social class rankings 37
3.1 'Standard' inventory for American English 68
5.1 GLM of lui-fronting (Analysis of Variance) 129
5.2 GLM of lui-fronting with significant variables
only (Analysis of Variance) 130
5.3 GLM of iX'-backing (Analysis of Variance) 132
5.4 GLM of iX'-raising (Analysis of Variance) 133
5.5 GLM of iX'-raising with significant variables,
plus gang status 134
5.6 Pearson correlations of values by speaker for
three variables 136
6.1 Syntactic categories used to code negative concord 144
6.2 Negative concord by syntactic category
(in order of weight) 145
6.3 'Conservative' and 'tough' categories 147
6.4 VARBRUL analysis of factors that affect negative
concord 147
7.1 Language use among bilingual speakers 160
7.2 Language use as reported on the Bilingual Home Survey 163
7.3 Accent ratings for the bilingual speakers 179
7.4 One-way ANOVA results for family language
use variables 181
7.5 One-way ANOVA results for social categories
and other variables 184
7.6 Generalized linear model results for the
interactions of variables 186
7.7 GLM using the model 'Nativeness =
Constant + SEX*CLASS + Monolingual parent 2' 186
8.1 Major Latino characters in five feature films 222
8.2 Minor Latino roles in five feature films 223
viii
List of Figures
2.1 Networks of young adults 57
3.1 Helena: English vowel space 90
3.2 Amanda: English vowel space 91
5.1 Ramon: English vowels 115
5.2 Avery: English vowels 116
5.3 Degree of lui-fronting for all speakers 118
5.4 Degree of lui-fronting by social class 119
5.5 Degree of lui-fronting by gang status 121
5.6 lui-fronting for women by class and gang status 123
5.7 lui-fronting for men by class and gang status 124
5.8 lui-fronting by sex (GLM) 129
5.9 lui-fronting by gang status (GLM) 130
5.10 lui-fronting by social class (GLM) 130
5.11 The interaction of social factors in lui-fronting 131
5.12 lcel-backing by sex (GLM) 132
5.13 lcel-backing by gang status (GLM) 133
5.14 lcel-raising by sex (GLM) 134
5.15 lcel-raising by gang status (GLM); not
statistically significant 135
5.16 The interaction of social factors in lcel-raising 136
6.1 Comparison of the correlations of gang status
with phonetic vs. syntactic variables 150
7.1 Means for phonological nativeness by
monolingual parent (3 levels) 182
7.2 Means for phonological nativeness by
monolingual parent (2 levels) 182
7.3 Means for accent nativeness by visits to
Mexico (not significant) 186
7.4 Accent nativeness and the interaction
of sex and social class 187
ix