The Negotiation and Outcome of Language and Culture Contact

Abstract

In the lived-in practice of one's first language and culture, mastery within one's social niche is the expectation and, barring disabilities, the result. Contact with a second language and culture leads to the possibility of individual choice within a social context of greater or lesser constraints. Personal goals, political and economic relations, and sociocultural circumstances will largely determine the outcome of contact and the language strategies available. In the negotiation of contact, the outcome may be mastery of the grammatical structure alone, varying degrees of communicative ability, integration into the new group, or the ability to use the language as a means of making a social statement, whether as a sign of association with another group or as an attempt to garner prestige within or dissociate themselves from the reigning social order of their own community. Here we suggest how the outcome of language and culture contact can be predicted only once an understanding of the context has been achieved.