Variación, contacto, revitalización y traducción de la lengua: un estudio de corpus del uso de la concordancia alocutiva en vasco
| Autor | Guillem Belmar Viernes |
| Cargo | Currently a Graduate student at the Department of Lingusitic of the University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Páginas | 38-57 |
LANGUAGE VARIATION, CONTACT, REVITALIZATION, AND TRANSLATION: A
CORPUS APPROACH TO ALLOCUTIVE AGREEMENT IN BASQUE
Guillem Belmar Viernes*
Abstract
Translation is widely known to have had a positive impact on the revitalization of the Basque language (Mendiguren
Bereziartu, 1995), as it is one of the main means of creation, consolidation and spreading of the standard model of the
language (Belmar, 2017).
This paper will analyse how issues surrounding the revitalization of a minoritized language—such as the tension
between standardization and variation; or the pressures of language contact on notions of authenticity (see Wong,
contact with Spanish and pressure from the standard, register-neutral, language (Alberdi, 2018). A corpus study of the
use of allocutive agreement in both original and translated works of literature will illustrate these issues in practice. The
Keywords: language revitalization; language standardization; minoritized language; translation; language planning;
Basque.
VARIACIÓ, CONTACTE, REVITALITZACIÓ I TRADUCCIÓ DE LA LLENGUA: UN
ESTUDI DE CORPUS DE L’ÚS DE LA CONCORDANÇA AL·LOCUTIVA EN BASC
Resum
És àmpliament conegut que la traducció ha tingut un impacte positiu en la revitalització de la llengua basca (Mendiguren
Bereziartu, 1995), ja que és un dels mitjans principals de creació, consolidació i extensió del model estàndard de la
llengua (Belmar, 2017). Aquest article analitza els problemes que envolten la revitalització d’una llengua minoritzada:
com ara la tensió entre estandardització i variació; o bé les maneres en què la pressió del contacte lingüístic pot afectar
l’ús de formes verbals expressives que estan desapareixent de la llengua parlada, ja sigui com a causa del contacte
amb l’espanyol o per la pressió del registre estàndar (Alberdi, 2018). Un estudi de corpus de l’ús de la concordança
al·locutiva en obres de literatura tant originals com traduïdes il·lustrarà aquestes qüestions a la pràctica. De fet, les
dades suggereixen que hi pot haver un esforç planicat per revitalitzar l’ús de marcadors al·locutius.
Paraules clau: revitalització de la llengua; estandardització de la llengua; llengua minoritzada; traducció; planicació
lingüística; basc.
* Guillem Belmar Viernes: is currently a Graduate student at the Department of Lingusitic of the University of California, Santa
Barbara. gbelmarviernes@ucsb.edu
Article received: 30.01.2020. Blind reviews: 06.05.2020 and 02.09.2020. Final version accepted: 28.10.2020.
Recommended citation: Belmar, Guillem. (2020). Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach
to Allocutive Agreement in Basque. Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, 74, 38-57. https://doi.org/10.2436/rld.
i74.2020.3410
Guillem Belmar Viernes
Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach to Allocutive Agreement in Basque
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 74, 2020 39
Summary
Introduction
1 Allocutivity and modes of address in Basque
2 Research questions and hypotheses
3 Methodology
4 Results and discussion
5 Conclusions
Reference list
Guillem Belmar Viernes
Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach to Allocutive Agreement in Basque
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 74, 2020 40
Introduction
Basque is an isolated language spoken in the traditional seven Basque provinces straddling the Pyrenees
mountain chain on the border between France and Spain. It currently has about 800,000 speakers and it
is used as a means of instruction in most schools in the Basque Autonomous Community (made up of the
provinces of Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa), as well as in some public schools in Navarre/Nafarroa and
some private schools, known as ikastolak, in Iparralde, the Northern Basque Country (the provinces of
the 1980s in the Basque Autonomous Community as well as in the northern part of Navarre. Especially in the
Basque Autonomous Community a very ambitious revitalization program was put into place, including the
creation of a Basque-language TV channel and the sponsorship of two translation projects that made all sorts
of literature available in Basque: Literatura Unibertsala (translating works by renowned authors such as
Shakespeare, Joyce, Saramago or Tolstoy) and Pentsamenduaren Klasikoak (translating works by Aristotle,
Locke, Nietzsche or Foucault, among others) (López Gaseni, 2000; Mendiguren Bereziartu, 1995).
Lefevere, 1992: 1)—is a readily accessible tool minoritized communities can make use of to break certain
power dynamics (Belmar, 2017: 37). It is no surprise, therefore, that translation plays a key role in the
revitalization processes of minoritized languages, even when it is unplanned. Translators have long been
thought of as main actors in processes of standardization all around the world, from bigger languages such
as German—in which the translation of the Bible set the foundations upon which Standard German was
developed (Belmar, 2017: 43)—to minoritized languages. Translation has even been described as “some
these suggestions”, which in turn allows translators to “shape the standard model” and “spread it” (García
re-structuration and developing totally new registers and discourses” (Mendiguren Bereziartu, 1993: 107).
These processes of standardization, however, were more often than not linked to notions of language
purism (Dorian, 1994), which often resulted in a clear divide between the linguistic models of originals and
translations. On the one hand, writers were striving for genuineness, but the sociolinguistic situation was
pushing for standardization, which was often at odds with the former. In fact, standardization is known for
triggering dialectal levelling (see Castellanos, 2000; Lamuela, 1994) and the appearance of native speakers
of the standard variety (see Ortega et al., 2015 on new speakers of Basque). In addition, the native speakers
of this standard variety are often speakers who did not learn it at home, but rather at school (see Doerr, 2009
This push for standardization often forgets language variation, particularly register variation. Minoritized
40). In fact, the diglossia
way that formal registers would just not work in the minoritized language. Revitalization processes, as
a reaction, tend to focus on creating a standard model; a formal register that can be used instead of the
audiovisual translation into Basque is often criticized for a lack of credibility, namely: shortage of material,
little variety of voices, and a scarcity of registers. The latter has been referred to as linguistic disorientation
of the character.
Guillem Belmar Viernes
Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach to Allocutive Agreement in Basque
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 74, 2020 41
In addition to these issues surrounding the acceptability of the linguistic model in literature, minoritized
2018). Any language that is being learned as a second language by a large number of people will unavoidably
change. Those changes that had already started due to contact with the dominant language will be accelerated,
and new changes will pop up. In cases in which these speakers make up a sizeable percentage of the total
speaker population—such as new Basque speakers in the Basque Autonomous Community, who make up
unavoidable, but may even be desired so as to prevent the community from ‘splitting in two’ (see Hornsby,
‘Easy Basque’, as many authors have labelled it, is aimed at facilitating the creation of new speakers while
Basque author and translator:
discourse hidden behind what we call easy Basque, which can come across as fair from a sociolinguistic
of literature,” (as cited in Torrealdai, 1997, English translation from Belmar, 2017: 46).
planning the scope of the programs, to the goals the community aims to achieve with each action, ideological
including a much needed debate on how much change the community is willing to accept in order to revitalize
their language (see Dorian, 1994; Wong, 1999).
1 Allocutivity and modes of address in Basque
as clitics in the conjugated verb but can also appear as free pronouns (see Alberdi, 2018). In Southern
Basque (that is, mainly, Central and Western Basque) a three-way distinction hi – zu – berori has largely
been replaced by a two-way system hi – zu,
zu. In Eastern Basque, for the most part, a three-way distinction hi – xu – zu is still maintained (see Table 1).
Table 1. Modes of address in Basque (based on Alberdi, 2018)
Singular Plural
Familiar Hi
Zuek
Intermediate Xu (Eastern Basque)
Neutral/Polite Zu
(Hyper-)Polite Berori (Southern Basque) Beroriek / Berok / Eurok
What makes these modes of address especially noteworthy in Basque is verbal allocutivity: a fully
grammaticalized marker in the verb for the addressee of an utterance, when the addressee is not referred to
in the action or event, rather a non-argumental addressee (Antonov, 2015: 2), and overt allocutive markers
are “highly grammaticalized (…) unlike non-selected (or ethical) datives, which do not seem to show (…)
constraint on their usage” (Antonov, 2015: 25).
languages across the world that (may) feature such a phenomenon: Basque, Pumé, Nambikwara, Mandan,
Beja, Korean and Japanese. Of these, Korean and Japanese are probably better analysed as languages with
Guillem Belmar Viernes
Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach to Allocutive Agreement in Basque
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 74, 2020 42
markers found in Basque (even though both could be used to mark familiarity or politeness towards the
addressee).
berori, all the forms of address discussed above have grammaticalized
allocutive markers: -k and -n for hika-zu for zuka-xu/xü for xuka
6). Hika is systematically marked if the speaker addresses their interlocutor with hi, whereas the other
(1) Hire arreba dük
Hi-re arreba d-ü-k
2 sister.
‘She is your sister’ (talking to a man)
(2) Pettek lan egin din
Pette-k lan egi-n d-i-n-∅
Pette- work. do-
‘Peter has worked’ (talking to a woman)
(3) Pette mintzatü zitak
Pette mintza-tü ∅-zi-ta-k
Pette. speak-
‘Peter has spoken to me’ (talking to a man)
(4) Emango zizkionagu
Ema-n-go z-i-zki-o-na-gu
Give-
‘We will give them to him/her’ (talking to a woman)
Finally, allocutive agreement can also be used optionally to mark other relations with the addressee, namely
distant politeness (5) and intermediate respectfulness (6).
(5) Pettek lan egin dizü
Pette-k lan egi-n d-i-zü-∅
Pette- work. do-
‘Pette has worked’ (polite / V)
(6) Ni polita nauxu (from Alberdi, 2018)
1 beautiful.
‘I am beautiful’ (with intermediate allocutive agreement)
According to Alberdi, allocutivity in Basque “stands out from its neighbors [the Romance languages]
the speech levels of languages such as Japanese and Korean in that pronouns of address and speech levels
probably originating as the former (see Comrie, 1976).
Guillem Belmar Viernes
Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach to Allocutive Agreement in Basque
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 74, 2020 43
In fact, I argue that the Basque allocutive marker is likely to have developed from an overmarking of ethical
datives that became grammaticalized in the language (see also Ariel et al., 2015 on the high likelihood of
current syntactic restrictions on allocutive markers clearly distinguish them from ethical datives (see Eguren,
2018; see also Comrie, 1976).
Table 2.1
Mode of address Absolutive Dative Allocutive Ergative
Hi (male) h- -k/-a- -k/-a- -k/-a-
Hi (female) h- -n/-na- -n/-na -n/-na-
Zu z- -zu- -zu- -zu/-zu-
Berori d- -o- ∅ ∅
Xu
2 Research questions and hypotheses
By means of a corpus study, this paper aims to answer several questions, from both a structural and a
sociolinguistic point of view. Hika is by far the most studied type of allocutive agreement in Basque,
perhaps due to its systematic marking in the verb. According to Alberdi (2018), the male form (-k/-a-) is
generally far more used than the female form (-n/-na-). Other types of allocutivity seem to be optional and
are therefore hypothesized to be used less frequently. In addition, I put forward that an analogous form for
plural allocutivity may have been created with the 2nd-zue.
allocutive agreement in Basque is only possible in declarative sentences. Eguren (2000), however, argues
st person plural imperative sentences may
carry allocutivity by analogy. However, the imperative form is outside the scope of this paper.
Torrealdai, 1997) of Basque grammar as a by-product of the successful revitalization campaigns in the area.
to three main contributing factors: the obsolescence of the third-person address form berori (that bore no
allocutive marker); “the decline in the use of the familiar mode (especially the feminine form) in large areas
new speakers who have acquired Standard Basque at school” (Alberdi, 2018: 328) and who were not taught
allocutive paradigms. Since translation has been said to be an essential tool for revitalization movements
(Belmar, 2017), this study will distinguish between data collected from original literary works and data
collected from translation. According to Barambones (2012), in fact, allocutive agreement is not used in
sociolinguistic impact of the use of hika in the Basque dubbing of a Japanese cartoon), but the claim still
remains that allocutivity is less common in translations. In addition, the standardization of the allocutive
forms by the Euskaltzaindia (Academy of the Basque Language) makes me hypothesize that these standard
nauk
1 euskara batua (Standard
Basque).
Guillem Belmar Viernes
Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach to Allocutive Agreement in Basque
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 74, 2020 44
will be more common than nuk, see Table 4). Therefore, I put forward that the pressure for standardization
may decrease the use of allocutivity in translations. In line with this, allocutive agreement is also hypothesized
to be less common in more recent publications.
Finally, since allocutivity seems to be more alive in Central and Eastern Basque and men are said to use it
much more than women (Alberdi, 2018, 1986; Echevarria, 2000, 2001; Haddican, 2005; Soziolinguistika
Klusterrak, 2018), this research will also take this sociolinguistic information into account. If this variation
translates into written language, I hypothesize that the variables Gender and Province of Birth will help us
predict the use of allocutivity by an author/translator.
In other words, this study aims at documenting the types of allocutivity present in an online corpus of literary
Basque, as well as establishing whether this feature has been fading away over the years and whether the
the use of allocutive forms. Furthermore, the sociolinguistic variables of gender and province of birth of the
author/translator will be studied to see if the uses map on to what has been previously found for allocutivity
in spoken language.
3 Methodology
However, there are two main reasons why a literary corpus was used instead. Firstly, there seems to be no oral
(Euskara Dialektalaren Ahozko Korpusa or Oral corpus of Basque dialects), but do not contain conversational
For the purpose of this paper, therefore, I used data from the online corpus Ereduzko Prosa Gaur (EPG;
of these books were discarded because of their metalinguistic nature: Koldo Zuazo’s Euskara Batua, a book
on the Standard model for Basque, and Euskararen sendabelarrak, a book on Basque dialectology; Lourdes
Oñederra’s Fonetika Fonologia Hitzez Hitz, a book on phonetics and phonology; Itziar Laka’s translation of
Noam Comsky’s Syntactic Structures, Egitura sintaktikoak; and Isabel Arrigain’s translation of Ferdinand de
Saussure’s Cours de linguistique générale, Hizkuntzalaritza orokorreko ikastaroa. This resulted in a corpus
of 282 books, only 278 of which included at least one of the verb forms researched in this study: 166 original
literary works in Basque and 107 translations into Basque.
The EPG corpus was searched for instances of the 1st
verb ‘izan’ in the present indicative: naiz (see Table 3 for the paradigm). The possible allocutive forms for
this item were also collected:2 nauk, nuk, naun, nun, nauzu, nuzu, nauxu and nuxu (Table 4, based on Alberdi,
an absolutive and an ergative argument, see Table 5), and the form nun is also identical to the Eastern Basque
form for the interrogative pronoun Non
determine whether the sentence contained allocutive agreement. The allocutive forms were further analysed
banaiz, naizenean, naizelako, etc.) have not
been included in this study.
Guillem Belmar Viernes
Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach to Allocutive Agreement in Basque
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 74, 2020 45
Table 3.
Abs. gloss ABS root plz.abs
na- -iz
ha- -iz
za- -ra
xa- -ra
d- -a
ga- -ra
za- -re -te
di- -ra
In addition, I also gathered all the occurrences of nauzue and nuzue, which I hypothesize could work as
collected 206 tokens of nauzue, which I analysed to code for allocutivity.
Table 4.
Abs. gloss ABS plz.abs root ALLOC All. Gloss
n(a)- -u- -k
d- -u- -n
g(a)- -it- -u- -zu / -xu
d- -it- -u- -*zue
Table 5.3
Abs. gloss ABS PLZ.ABS root PLZ.ABS ERG PLZ.ERG Erg. Gloss
n(a)- -u- -t
h(a)- -u- -k/-n
z(a)- -it- -u- -zu/xu
d- -u- -Ø
g(a)- -it- -u- -gu
z(a) -it- -u- -zte- -zue
d- -it- -u- -Ø-(z)te
translator, gender of the author/translator, province of birth of the author/translator and year of publication
of the book.
The quantitative data of this study was processed using R-studio. Since the data is not normally distributed,
original literary works. A linear regression was performed to establish whether allocutive agreement has
was an interaction between the province of birth and the gender of each writer. The provinces of origin
established are: Araba, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa (in the present-day Basque Autonomous Community, Spain),
Nafarroa/Navarre (in Spain) and the three Basque-speaking provinces in France (Lapurdi, Nafarroa Beherea
3 Note that 1st person absolutive cannot co-occur with 1st person ergative and 2nd person absolutive cannot co-occur with 2nd person
ergative.
Guillem Belmar Viernes
Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach to Allocutive Agreement in Basque
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 74, 2020 46
and Zuberoa), which were grouped under the label Iparralde (Northern Basque country) due to the smaller
number of occurrences. The alpha level set for these tests was 0.05.
4 Results and discussion
therefore be more common in dialogs than in narratives. All four types of allocutivity described in Alberdi
(2018) were found in the data, plus a plural form which I had hypothesized by analogy.
(7) Ni nauk erregearen mezularia (from the book Eraztunen Jauna III translation by Agustin Otsoa, 2004, of
The Lord of the Rings III by JRR Tolkien)
Ni na-u-k errege-aren mezulari-a
1 -be- king- messenger-
‘I am the messenger of the king’
nauk is the intransitive verb (the copula) with hika, familiar allocutive agreement (male
interlocutor).
(8) Sentitzen dinat, ez naun konturatu (from the book Euliak ez dira argazkietan azaltzen
Iturralde, 2000, original)
Senti-tzen d-i-na-t , ez na-u-n
feel-
kontura-tu
realize-
‘I am sorry, I didn’t realize’
naun hika, informal allocutive agreement (female
interlocutor). We can also see dinat
allocutive agreement.
(9) Hemen nauzu, jauna (from the book Elizen arteko Biblia, 2004, recent translation of the Bible)
Hemen na-u-zu jaun-a
here -be- lord-
‘Here I am, lord’
nauzu is the intransitive verb (copula) with zuka, formal/neutral singular allocutive
agreement. A palatalized version, nuxu,
verb (copula) with xuka,
(10) Segur nuxu xure xahartasuna etxeko kontura doala zuzenka (from the book Zeruetako erresuma by
sure. -be- .old-quality- house-
kontu-ra d-oa-la zuzen-ka
bill- -go- straight-
‘I am sure that your seniority goes directly to paying for the house’
nauzue
Guillem Belmar Viernes
Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach to Allocutive Agreement in Basque
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 74, 2020 47
2009; Alberdi, 1986, 2018; Antonov, 2015; Bonaparte, 1862; Echevarria, 2000, 2001; Eguren, 2000; Gómez
of address.
(11) Eta hantxe izango nauzue (from the book Putzu
and
‘And I will be there’
Hika
since allocutivity is required when the familiar mode of address hi is selected, whereas it is optional in other
Zuka
to that of the feminine forms of hika. Xuka
xu,
been dropped in favour of the non-palatalized form zu, which is common in all varieties. Finally, I found a
zuka, which
Figure 1. Proportion for each type of allocutive agreement as a percentage of the total number of allocutive forms found
in the sample
Guillem Belmar Viernes
Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach to Allocutive Agreement in Basque
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 74, 2020 48
Table 6. Distribution of the verbal forms collected in the books from the corpus
Form Mean SD Min Max
Naiz (non-alloc) 57.95 74.21 0 791
Nauk 5.03 9.1 0 54
Nuk 0.11 1.05 0 16
Naun 1.44 5.88 0 70
Nun -- -- -- --
Nauzu 1.39 6.57 0 102
Nuzu 0.02 0.21 0 3
Nauxu -- -- -- --
Nuxu 0.02 0.25 0 3
Nauzue 0.29 1.63 0 25
Nuzue 0 1.05 0 16
Total (all forms
combined)
66.25 81.8 1 924
typological cross-linguistic comparison) on Basque, allocutivity seems to be quite restricted to declarative
interrogative sentence.
(12) Beraz gizagaldu baten ama nauk? (from the book Zeruetako erresuma
This. man.lost one- mother. -be
nauk is the intransitive verb (copula) with hika, familiar allocutive agreement (male
interlocutor) in a direct interrogative sentence. It seems, however, that allocutive agreement is more
widespread in structures involving tag questions with particles such as ezta?, ala?, e?, ados? and konforme?
(13) Ona naun gaixotasunekin, ezta? (from the book Maitea translation by Anton Garikano, 2003, of Beloved
by Toni Morrison)
good- -be- bad-quality- be
(14) Arraro samar egon naun lehenago, ezta? Ahulune bat izan dun, pasatu zaidan (from the book
Bederatzietatik bederatzietara translation by Anton Garikano, 2003, of Zwischen neun und neun by Leo
Perutz)
weird quite stay- earlier -be
Ahulune bat iza-n d-u-n pasa-tu
moment.of.weakness one. be- pass-
∅-zai-da-n
Guillem Belmar Viernes
Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach to Allocutive Agreement in Basque
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 74, 2020 49
(15) Lelotuena nauk, ala? (from the book Ugerra eta kedarra by Sonia Gómez, 2003, original)
stupid- -be- or
(16) Eta zergatik lokartuko naiz, ez nauk-eta logale? (from the book Pedro Páramo translation by Juan
Garzia, 2001, of Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo)
Eta zer-gatik lokar-tu-ko na-iz ez
and what- fall.asleep-
na-u-k-eta logale
1-be- sleepy
Even though this was not systematically researched in this study, from the data it can also be observed
that allocutive agreement does not occur in dependent clauses (in line with claims by Eguren, 2000; see
agreement (in the forms nauzue, nauk, dun, dinat and naun), while the dependent forms (naizen, naizenean
and datorrenean) do not bear any allocutive morpheme.
(17) Zuen artean bizi naizen atzerritarra nauzue (from the book Agindutako lurraren bila I by Jose Antonio
Mujika, 2002, original)
Zu-en arte-an bizi na-iz-en atzerritarr-a
2- live. foreigner-
na-u-zue
-be-
‘I am the foreigner that lives among you’
(18) Hiltzen naizenean, erle bihurtuko nauk (from the book Urregilearen orduak by Pako Aristi, 1998,
original)
Hilt-zen na-iz-en-ean erle bihur-tu-ko
die- bee. turn-
na-u-k
‘When I die, I will turn into a bee’
(19) Ez kezkatu, oraintxe etorriko dun, espero dinat, datorrenean irtengo naun, horrela ez haiz bakarrik
egongo, bale? (from the book Ugerra eta kedarra by Sonia Gómez, 2003, original)
worry- hope
d-i-na-t, d-atorr-en-ean irte-n-go
-come- get.out-
na-u-n, horrela ez ha-iz bakarrik ego-n-go
this.way -be lonely stay-
ok
Guillem Belmar Viernes
Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach to Allocutive Agreement in Basque
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 74, 2020 50
As for the sociolinguistic factors that were hypothesized to predict the use of allocutive agreement, none
works and translations. On average, in fact, translations contained more instances of allocutive agreement
(M=10.01, SD=19.97) than original literary works (M=7.21, SD
t(144.34)=-1.33; p = 0.18).
Figure 2. Allocutive forms in original literary works and in translations
Therefore, Barambones’ claim (2012) that allocutivity was not used in translations seems totally mistaken.
present in translated works.
of publication of the books and the number of tokens containing allocutive agreement (F(1,270)=0.891,
p=0.34) with R^2=-0.0004.
Figure 3. Allocutive forms by year of book publication
Guillem Belmar Viernes
Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach to Allocutive Agreement in Basque
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 74, 2020 51
Echevarria, 2000, 2001; Haddican, 2005; Soziolinguistika Klusterrak, 2018). On average, male writers used
allocutive agreement more often (M=8.13, SD=13.43) than female writers (M=5.84, SD=9.33) (Figure 4).
t(37.37)=-1.075; p = 0.28).
Figure 4. Allocutive forms by gender of the author/translator
Basque author/translator on the use of allocutive agreement. On average, authors/translators from Araba
used allocutive agreement more often (M=17.3, SD=22.9), followed by those from Gipuzkoa (M=8.35,
SD=13.64), writers from Bizkaia (M=5.63, SD=10.84), from Iparralde (M=5.45, SD
from Nafarroa/Navarre (M=5.24, SDF(4, 263)=1.98,
p=0.09).
Figure 5. Allocutive forms by province of birth of the author/translator
Guillem Belmar Viernes
Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach to Allocutive Agreement in Basque
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 74, 2020 52
of birth in relation to their use of allocutive agreement (F(8, 259)=1.04, p=0.4).
Finally, an observation that can be drawn from the data used in this study is that familiar allocutive agreement
Morrison’s Beloved being the book with the fourth highest percentage of allocutive forms in the corpus.
(20) “Arrazoia din” pentsatu zuen Ellenek, “gogorregia naun neure buruarekin” (from the book Manhattan
Transfer translation by López de Arana, 1999, of Manhattan Transfer by John dos Passos)
“Arrazoi-a d-i-n-∅” pentsa-tu z-u-en
reason- -have- think-
Ellen-ek “gogorr-egi-a na-u-n neu-re buru-arekin”
Ellen- strong-too- be head-
‘“He’s right,” thought Ellen, “I am too hard on myself”’
(21) “Itzuliko naun” pasatu zait burutik (from the book Italia bizitza hizpide
original)
“Itzuli-ko na-u-n” pasa-tu ∅-zai-t
go.back- pass-
buru-tik
head-
‘“I will come back,” I thought.’
(22) Zerbaiten zain dagoela, eta ez naun ni (from the book Maitea translation by Anton Garikano, 2003,
of Beloved by Toni Morrison)
Zerbait-en zain d-ago-ela eta ez
Something- wait. be- and
na-u-n ni
-be-
‘He is waiting for something, and it’s not me’
(23) Pozten naun hi ikustearekin (from the book Maitea translation by Anton Garikano, 2003, of Beloved by
Toni Morrison)
Poz-ten na-u-n hi ikus-te-arekin
happy- see-
‘I am happy to see you’
Polite allocutive agreement, on the other hand, seems to be very common when talking to God (24) or when
God is talking to somebody (25), with the plural form also used when God is addressing people (26). These
nauzu, 102 are found in the Bible alone,
and the same is true for 25 of the 80 instances of allocutive nauzue.
Guillem Belmar Viernes
Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach to Allocutive Agreement in Basque
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 74, 2020 53
(24) “Nor bidaliko dut? Nor izango dugu mandatari?” Nik erantzun nuen: “Prest nauzu, bidali neu”
(from the book Elizen arteko Biblia, 2004, recent translation of the Bible)
who. send- who. be-
4 messenger. answer-
“Prest na-u-zu, bidal-i neu”
ready be- send-
(25) Jaunak dio: “Itzuli niregana, herri fedegabe hori, neu bakarrik nauzu zeure nagusia eta” (from the
book Elizen arteko Biblia, 2004, recent translation of the Bible)
Jaun-ak d-io-∅ “Itzul-i ni-regana, herri fede-gabe
lord- -say- go.back- land faith-without
hori, neu bakarrik na-u-zu zeu-re
. lonely be-
nagusi-a eta
master- and
‘The Lord says: “Come back to me, people without faith, because I only am your master”’
(26) “Neure herritzat hartuko zaituztet eta zeuen Jainko izango nauzue” (from the book Elizen arteko Biblia,
2004, recent translation of the Bible)
Neu-re herri-tzat har-tu-ko za-it-u-zte-t
people- take-
eta zeu-en Jainko iza-n-go na-u-zue
and God. be-
‘I will take you as my people, and I will be your God’
A more in-depth study of the sociolinguistic characteristics of the characters—rather than the authors/
translators—and the relationships portrayed in each of these books would be needed to shed more light on
the distribution of types of allocutive agreement.
5 Conclusions
Due to the nature of the data, written literary language, allocutivity was only present in a small percentage
types presented by Alberdi (2018) were found in this study, namely hika (both male and female), zuka and
xuka. In addition, a plural allocutive marker -zue was also found in the sample. The plural allocutive marker
-zue seems to be a fairly recent innovation, likely to have arisen by analogy with zuka. It was not included
4
needed to establish such a claim.
Guillem Belmar Viernes
Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach to Allocutive Agreement in Basque
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 74, 2020 54
Table 7.
Mode of address Absolutive Dative Allocutive Ergative
Hi (male) h- -k/-a- -k/-a- -k/-a-
Hi (female) h- -n/-na- -n/-na -n/-na-
Zu z- -zu- -zu- -zu/-zu-
Berori d- -o- ∅ ∅
Xu
Zuek (pl.) z- + - -zue- -zue- -zue-
-zue) leads to the hypothesis that a similar
process of analogy may have given rise to an inclusive allocutive marker -gu (‘we’), as seems to be the case
in dugu st person morphemes at the same time, these
types of allocutive marker could not take place with the forms under study in this paper. Therefore, I would
fewer restrictions in terms of morpheme combinations.
In addition, allocutive markers were found to be rare in interrogative sentences (as suggested in Eguren,
2000) albeit not impossible (as suggested in Antonov, 2015). It is, however, common in tag questions
and it may appear in coordinated clauses inside a question in the secondary verb. Another restriction was
observed regarding dependent forms, which seem to not carry allocutive agreement under any circumstance
forms were not systematically studied in this paper, and further research should be done with varied data to
determine whether allocutive markers may residually be used in dependent forms.
As for the sociolinguistic data that previous studies signalled as predictors of the use of allocutive
agreement—namely Gender and Province of Birth (according to Alberdi, 1986, 2018; Echevarria, 2000,
(as implied in Barambones, 2012) (Figure 2) and allocutivity seems to be present at a stable rate in books
However, one must be careful with these results and emphasize the nature of the data at hand: written
literary language. These results do not map onto previous studies of allocutivity in spoken language, and they
and more research on allocutivity in speech should be conducted to further understand its distribution and the
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Abbreviations
1 First person
Guillem Belmar Viernes
Language Variation, Contact, Revitalization, and Translation: a Corpus Approach to Allocutive Agreement in Basque
Revista de Llengua i Dret, Journal of Language and Law, núm. 74, 2020 57
2 Second person
3 Third person
Ablative
Absolutive
Adverb / Adverbial
Allative
Allocutive
Animate
Comitative
Complementizer
Dative
Distal
Emphatic
Ergative
Feminine gender
Familiar register
Genitive
Intermediate register
Inessive
Instrumental
Imperfective aspect
Locative genitive
Masculine gender
Medial
Motivative
Negation
Nominalizer
Non-realized aspect
Perfective aspect
Plural
Pluralizer
Polite register
Postposition
Prolative
Past
Singular
Second person singular non-formal
Second person singular formal
