LING3670 - Language Contact

To this day, we have found no evidence of a language developing in total isolation from other languages. Most languages are in constant contact with other languages with the consequence that they can shape and influence each other. However, every language evolves in a distinct linguistic ecology and this means that the circumstances of language contact and the sociocultural relationships involved in each contact situation vary considerably, leading to a range of different outcomes. This course offers a thorough introduction to the field of contact linguistics including a detailed overview of contact situations and their linguistic and social consequences. The topics under study are: bilingualism (including code switching), multilingualism, morpho-syntactic and phonological transfer, structural diffusion, convergence, pidginization & creolization, language shift and language death. We will particularly focus on the cognitive processes involved in contact situations and will explore them, using descriptive, theoretical and experimental approaches.