Syntactic Borrowing as a Function of Register

Abstract

This chapter shows that an Ausbau language it is naive to talk simply about borrowing 'into the language', and syntactic borrowing is a function of register in the, sense that syntactic caiques and transfers take place initially in well-defined circumscribed areas of a language. As regards borrowing, people must correspondingly envisage scenarios in which a feature is borrowed into one variety but not into another, the permeability of a borrowing depending on the prestige of the host variety. Syntactic borrowing has been much discussed in the literature on language contact, though chiefly from the point of view of the extent to which syntactic borrowing is possible. Register is closely connected with the fundamental distinction made by Kloss between Abstand and Ausbau languages. Part of the process of Castilian becoming an Ausbau language was the adaptation into the language of written sources in other Ausbau languages. The number of syntactic constructions attributable to the imitation of Latin is very high.

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