[Mihalic] New PhD thesis - Jana Harvey's Tok pisin and the internet - NOT AVAILABLE

[Robin Hide]

Oops - ai bilong mi pas olgera... looking at the small print (upper right 
hand corner of the webpage) for this thesis, I see it says:
At the request of the author, this graduate work is not available for 
purchase.
sori
Robin


>>Tok Pisin on the Internet
>>by Harvey, Jana R., Ph.D., Ball State University, 2007, 170 pages;
>>Abstract
>>Internet message boards are a medium by which educated Papua New Guineans 
>>who are living outside of Papua New Guinea (PNG) maintain ties to one 
>>another and to their home country. One of the languages that they use on 
>>these message boards is Tok Pisin (TP), an English-based creole spoken in 
>>PNG that has changed rapidly in the approximately 120 years since its 
>>creation as a pidgin.
>>
>>Romaine (1992) suggests that decreolization by means of new changes 
>>toward English is occurring in the TP language. Smith (2002) disagrees 
>>and claims that there is no evidence for decreolization. This study shows 
>>that there is evidence in favor of decreolization, in particular a Matrix 
>>Language (ML) turnover (Myers-Scotton 2002), in the TP used on seven 
>>Internet message boards. This conclusion is also derived through the 
>>study of 139 letters to the editor in the TP weekly newspaper Wantok 
>>written during 2003 and 2006.
>>
>>In looking for English 'late system morphemes,' whose existence in 
>>bilingual complementizer phrases that have TP as the ML would indicate 
>>the beginning of a ML turnover (Myers-Scotton 2002), this study counts 
>>deletion of the TP particle i as a late system morpheme.
>>
>>Results show that on Internet message boards, the particle i only marks 
>>the predicate in 33% of the locations where it would occur in Standard 
>>TP. In Wantok letters to the editor, i occurs 95% of the time. Internet 
>>users are more likely to be influenced by English and have less access to 
>>Standard TP.
>>
>>Although TP is still valued by highly educated Papua New Guineans in the 
>>English domain of the Internet to discuss personal topics and show 
>>solidarity with one another, it is not their first choice of language, 
>>and the loss of the particle i shows evidence for a ML turnover having 
>>begun in the language. One conclusion that may be drawn from this study 
>>is that planning for the future of TP by the leaders of PNG is essential 
>>to maintain TP as a community language.
>>
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