Language Contact and Grammatical Change

Bibliographic Data

ID23398353
AuthorsBernd Heine (0000-0002-9304-7814, University of Cologne), Tania Kuteva (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)
Year2005
Publication date2005-01-27
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenueLanguage Contact and Grammatical Change (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/cbo9780511614132
OpenAlexW635781618
Open LibraryOL34444475M
ISBN9780511614132
LanguageEN
Citations received323
References cited260

The phenomenon of language contact, and how it affects the structure of languages, has been of great interest to linguists. This study looks at how grammatical forms and structures evolve when speakers of two languages come into contact, and offers an interesting insight into the mechanism that induces people to transfer grammatical structures from one language to another. Drawing on findings from languages all over the world, Language Contact and Grammatical Change shows that the transfer of linguistic material across languages is quite regular and follows universal patterns of grammaticalization - contrary to previous claims that it is a fairly irregular process - and argues that internal and external explanations of language structure and change are in no way mutually exclusive. Engaging and informative, this book will be of great interest to sociolinguists, linguistic anthropologists, and all those working on grammaticalization, language contact, and language change.

Epistemology · Grammaticalization · Language change · Language contact · Linguistics · Phenomenon · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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