Awareness of Grammatical Variability in Language Contact: The Case of Mano and Kpelle in Guinea

ABSTRACTThis paper contributes to research on the awareness of grammatical variability through a study of variation in reflexivity marking in Mano under the influence of Kpelle, both indigenous languages of Guinea. The speakers of these languages are found to be sensitive to contact‐induced grammatical variation in reflexivity, which manifests via variation in comprehension patterns and, more specifically, in form‐to‐meaning correspondence, across different communities. We explain the patterns by hypothesizing that variation in comprehension is at least partially based on language experience in a particular environment and does not necessarily reflect a difference in grammatical representation. Such explanation underscores the importance of sociolinguistic considerations for employing acceptability judgments in syntactic analysis.