INTERLANGUAGE VARIATION IN THEORETICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL PERSPECTIVE. H. D. Adamson. London: Routledge, 2009. Pp. xviii + 209 (original) (raw)

A multi-model approach to contact-induced language change

Dynamics of Contact-Induced Language Change, 2012

This volume deals with some never before described morphosyntactic variations and changes appearing in settings involving language contact. The primary purpose of the articles it presents is to identify different factors in language change. These changes are not treated as phenomena amenable to explanation from a single source: they constitute a dynamic domain of complex, complementary, and correlated processes that have to be treated with a finegrained approach. The development of morphosyntactic structures in a situation of language contact should not be analyzed through a single lens. Contact-induced changes are generally defined as dynamic and multiple, involving internal change as well as historical and sociolinguistic factors. The identification and consideration of a variety of explanations constitutes a first step; analyzing their relationships forms a second. Only a multifaceted methodology enables this fine-grained approach to contact-induced change. A range of methodologies are proposed in the following chapters, but they generally have their roots in a typological perspective. The contributors recognize the precautionary principle: for example, they emphasize the difficulty of studying languages that have not been described adequately and for which diachronic data are not extensive or reliable, and they warn of the dangers of hypothesizing beyond the evidence and identifying possible tendencies that can never be confirmed definitively. Three main perspectives on contact-induced language change are presented here, corresponding to three possible approaches to discussing the subject as part of a complex whole. The first explores the role of multilingual speakers in contact-induced language change, especially their spontaneous innovations in discourse. The second explores the differences between ordinary contact-induced change and change in endangered languages. The third discusses various aspects of the relationship between contact-induced change and internal change. The role of speakers and settings Historical linguists claim that change is unpredictable; even the most common or frequent change does not inevitably occur in a particular language or in a particular situation (Faarlund 1990; Lass 1980). This is also true for contact-induced changes: "any search for deterministic predictions of language change is bound to fail, whether the focus is on internally-motivated change or on contact-induced change" (Thomason 2000: 173). Language changes are thus unpredictable partly because speakers' attitudes are unpredictable, but above all because "there are no linguistic constraints on interference" (Thomason 2001: 85). Contact-induced change and communicative goals Social factors are fundamental to the definition of contact phenomena. Thomason (2001; see also Thomason and Kaufman 1998) has proposed a typology of interference mechanisms,

Contact-induced language change

Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics, 2015

This chapter offers an overview of the field of contact-induced language change, with a particular focus on the underlying mechanisms responsible for this kind of change. It first addresses the question of what contact-induced language change is, arguing that, while the answer is necessarily dependent on individual researchers’ positions on wider debates in linguistics, any attempt to understand the general phenomenon must begin by exploring how bi- and multilingualism can affect usage. Van Coetsem’s (1988, 2000) cognitive approach to contact-induced change is then presented. This approach distinguishes three types of bilingual agentivity potentially involved in a given contact-induced change: dominance in the source-language (SL), dominance in the recipient-language (RL), and no dominance in either contact language. Recognition of these three types of dominance allows us to distinguish four main types of contact-induced change: ‘borrowing’ (under RL-agentivity), ‘imposition’, ‘restructuring’ (both under SL-agentivity), and ‘convergence’ (where no contact language is dominant). Case studies of each of these types are presented from a range of languages, and the cognitive mechanisms underlying each type are discussed with reference to the distinction between native and non-native language acquisition. Finally, the question of what constrains contact-induced language change is briefly discussed.

Bilingualism and contact-induced language change

2005

This paper explores the relationship between bilingualism and contact-induced language change, focusing on the question of which contributions might be expected from children and which from adults. The issue is reflected in debates among historical linguists as to whether internally-motivated language change is initiated by children during first-language acquisition or by adults-or by both. In language contact studies, it is possible to identify changes, usually temporary ones, that are initiated by children, and it is also possible to identify changes that are initiated by adults. The conclusion, therefore, is that both adults and children are responsible for contact-induced changes, although perhaps not for the same kinds of changes: shift-induced interference, which is due to imperfect learning of a target language by members of a speech community, is likely to be exclusively an adult phenomenon, or at least not primarily initiated by young children during first-language acquisition. I will not address in detail the question of the role of adults vs. the role of children in the initiation and spread of linguistic changes more generally, but some implications of the results from contact-induced change will be discussed in the concluding section. After laying some preliminary groundwork (§1), I will outline briefly the debate about agents of change in historical linguistics and then consider innovations introduced by children and adults in contact situations in which both child learners and adults have full effective access to the source language(s) (§2). Section 3 is devoted to innovations in contact situations that involve imperfect learning by a group, typically because of lack of full access to a target

Contact-induced language change in a trilingual context

Diachronica, 2010

This study provides a description and analysis of contact-induced language change in a dialect of Burushaski spoken in Srinagar (India). I present a unique situation in which contact outcomes are reflected via interplay of various sociolinguistic factors involving simultaneous contact with two languages — Kashmiri and Urdu, each affecting the language in a specific way: lexical borrowing from Urdu and structural borrowing from Kashmiri. The effects of contact are examined in a trilingual context where the contact languages are placed in a dominance relationship with Urdu occupying the top of the language hierarchy while Burushaski and Kashmiri are competing at the bottom. Data indicate that lexical borrowing and structural borrowing are two different types of contact phenomena which can occur independently of each other. The two processes are influenced by different sociolinguistic factors which may interact in different ways in different contact situations resulting in different ty...

Language contact: Constraints and common paths of contact induced change.

Language Contact and Contact Languages, 2008

It is a perhaps trivial truth that language contact over time will change the languages involved, but despite this seemingly obvious fact, robust models accounting for contact-induced change are still at a premium. We know that languages can influence one another in a situation of contact, but predicting the outcome of a language contact situation remains an immensely challenging task. And even though various substantial contributions to the field (Weinreich 1953; Thomason have increased our knowledge -both empirical and theoretical -considerably, the principles and mechanisms involved in language contact as well as their interaction remain difficult to capture.