Lecture (LEC)

• Above class meets with FRIT-F680

Contact linguistics seeks to answer questions such as: What aspects of language structure are susceptible to contact-induced change, and what are the mechanisms of such change? How can the nature (intensity, duration etc.) of a contact setting affect outcomes? The field overlaps both with historical linguistics and with sociolinguistics. Following the theoretical frameworks articulated by Thomason & Kaufman and by Van Coetsem, Winford, and others, we will distinguish cases of recipient language agentivity (speakers act on their dominant language) and of source language agentivity (speakers act on a nondominant L2 or L3...), treating, inter alia, lexical borrowing, structural, grammatical, and pragmatic replication, areal phenomena and Sprachbünde (e.g. the Balkans, Mesoamerica, Europe as a sprachbund), code-switching, shift-induced language change and the emergence of indigenized varieties (e.g. Hiberno-English, Cajun English). Finally, we will consider the most extreme outcomes of contact leading to new varieties known as pidgins (e.g. Mobilian Jargon, Chinese Pidgin English), creoles (e.g. Haitian Creole, Saramaccan), and bilingual mixed languages (e.g. Michif, Media Lengua).