ABSTRACT
The investigation of syntactic borrowing should be seen in the context of the work that has been done on borrowing at other linguistic levels in metropolitan French. Both Beinke and Rowlett summarize the constructions that are presented in the literature as the most likely candidates for syntactic borrowing and there is only one difference between their two lists. Both linguists agree that the constructions that have emerged from the literature are the adverbial use of the adjective, the preposing of the adjective and the increased use of the passive. Although the received wisdom has it that this is a group of constructions which are more likely than others to be affected by contact, this is not supported by sufficient evidence. This is a key observation with important consequences for the methodology used in this investigation. In testing whether syntactic borrowing takes place, this chapter is innovative in both the depth of the analysis offered and the methodology used.
