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11 - A Matter of Degree: All Languages are Mixed

from Part III - The Development of Syntax

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2025

By
Marlyse Baptista  and
Olivia Sedlacek
Edited by
Dany Adone  and
Astrid Gabel
Dany Adone
Affiliation:
Universität zu Köln
Astrid Gabel
Affiliation:
Universität zu Köln
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Summary

Baptista and Sedlacek’s chapter takes Bickerton’s view that admixture is one of the chief characteristics of Creole languages (Bickerton 2008) as a starting point. The objective of their chapter is to bring to light the tight connections between the congruent forms observed across Creole languages (Faraclas et al. 2014; Faraclas 2012; Baptista 2006, 2009, 2020) which have been argued to result from speakers’ perception of similarities between the languages in contact and Weinreich’s notion of interlingual identification. A close review of interlingual identification (as it was laid out in Weinreich 1953) and how the concept has been applied and experimentally tested in situations of both bilingualism (Flege 1991) and multilingualism (Kresić and Gulan 2012) attest to how speakers use their native language as the mold through which they shape differently their interpretation of the same linguistic element in another language. As a result, the chapter argues that interlingual identification is ground zero for language mixing and language change.

Keywords

interlingual identificationcongruenceconvergencelanguage mixinglanguage change
Type
Chapter
Information
The Evolution, Acquisition and Development of Syntax
Insights from Creole Languages and Beyond
 , pp. 193 - 208
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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