A unified approach to the study of language contact: Cross-language priming and change in adjective/noun order

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The connection between language contact the bilingual speaker goes back to foundational authors in field of linguistics. Yet there is very little work that combines these two levels a single study. In this paper, we propose unified approach by testing role cross-language priming (CLP) on contact-induced change at level complex noun phrases (NPs). Design/methodology/approach: We conducted three studies with different types data. Study 1, analyse Romani Morpho-Syntax database identify word order preferences dialects from countries. 2, examine corpus interviews Romania. 3, conduct an experiment test short-term adjective (ADJ)/noun (N) Romanian within Romani. Data analysis: approximately 3000 NPs 119 speakers. speech 9400 words four elderly Romani–Romanian bilinguals. 90 bilinguals participated experiment. used multinomial mixed-effects logistic regression, Bayesian models Random Forests experimental results. Findings/conclusions: 1 shows speakers Romania stand out for their frequent use postnominal ADJs. 2 confirms uses free speech. 3 reveals significant CLP effects, whereby favour determiner (DET)–N–ADJ immediately following suffixed (N DET) –ADJ sentence read Romanian. Originality: Our study first demonstrate effects ADJ/N order. Significance/implications: illustrate introducing theoretical methodological advances bilingualism into change.