Language Contact

Abstract

Language contact research is often concerned with understanding which bounded language(s) are the source of particular linguistic forms, and identifying and explaining (in)consistencies across contexts of language contact. The field tends to place its focus on contexts in which variable use of linguistic forms is particularly salient, leading to interest in language change, shift, and minoritised languages. This chapter draws on linguistic anthropology and usage-based contact linguistics. We frame language contact broadly, as being the study of the exchange of semiotic resources across boundaries. Identification of the right boundaries becomes a core part of contact linguistics then, as resources are dynamically and differentially associated with particular social labels, including named languages. We argue that processes typically ascribed to contact (e.g. borrowing) are found across all contexts of language use. This approach has the advantages of, (a) Rejecting colonialist and essentialist characterisations of languages and language users which obscure the variable and opportunistic use of semiotic resources that typifies all language use; (b) Expanding beyond traditional, unimodal analysis to include multimodal, semiotic resources used in interaction; (c) Appealing to language users’ subjectivities, as opposed to top-down groupings, to account for the use of semiotic resources.