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This class investigates the interaction of languages and its outcomes, as well as the social and linguistic factors that regulate language contact. By looking at a wide range of contact phenomena (i.e. borrowing, language convergence, and relexification), we take on both a linguistic and sociolinguistic perspective and survey current approaches to aspects of contact-induced change. Questions that will be asked throughout our class include the following (but are not limited to these): Why do languages come into contact? How can we explain contact phenomena? What combinations of social and linguistic influences conspire to produce them? What types of outcome can be created? What kinds of situation promote one type of outcome rather than another? Class meetings will be held biweekly on Zoom and students are expected to pursue an own research project on a contact language of their choice. |
