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28 - Contact and Borrowing

from Part Six - Language, Society, and the Individual

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2022

By
Francesco Gardani
Edited by
Adam Ledgeway  and
Martin Maiden
Adam Ledgeway
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Martin Maiden
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

Language contact is at the base of potential changes in language, whose extent may vary considerably depending on the degree of multilingual interaction. Therefore, the study of language contact is key to the understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of language. The Romance linguistic landscape cuts across multiple possible contact-setting types, and the empirical evidence for contact-induced change involving Romance is abundant. The Romance languages thus qualify as an ideal testbed for language contact studies. This chapter highlights the difference between innovative and conservative effects of language contact and discusses borrowing as the fundamental process and result of contact-induced language change, distinguishing between RL and SL agentivity, and between matter borrowing and pattern borrowing. Several case studies of borrowing are presented in relation to different components of grammar, namely phonology, prosody, morphology, and syntax. The upper limits of borrowing are discussed (in terms of areal formation and mixed language genesis) and a number of predictors of grammatical borrowing are reviewed. Issues concerning the so-called borrowability hierarchies are critically addressed.

Keywords

areal formationborrowingborrowability hierarchiesconservative vs innovative effects of language contactlanguage contactmixed language genesismorphological borrowingphonological borrowingprosodic borrowingsyntactic borrowing
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Romance Linguistics , pp. 845 - 869
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

Selected References

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