{"id":1358,"date":"2011-01-29T10:00:48","date_gmt":"2011-01-29T08:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=1358"},"modified":"2011-01-24T12:49:27","modified_gmt":"2011-01-24T10:49:27","slug":"convergence-and-divergence-in-language-contact-situations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=1358","title":{"rendered":"Convergence and divergence in language contact situations"},"content":{"rendered":"
Convergence and divergence in language contact situations<\/strong>. Ed. by Kurt Braunm\u00fcller<\/strong> and Juliane House<\/strong>. (Hamburg studies on multilingualism 8.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2009. Pp, viii, 241. ISBN 9789027219282<\/a>. $113 (Hb).<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Diego Pascual y Cabo<\/strong><\/a>, University of Florida<\/p>\n

This book is based from the proceedings of a symposium that took place during the fall 2007 at the Research Center on Multilingualism at the University of Hamburg. A detailed introduction by Kurt Braunm\u00fcller and Juliane House provides the reader with an in-depth review on the topic of convergence and divergence. This topic is further developed in three different parts.<\/p>\n

Part 1, \u2018Challenges to accepted views of convergence and divergence in language contact situations\u2019, consists of three papers that defy traditional beliefs on language convergence and divergence. First, Georg Bossong<\/strong> argues against the genealogical classification of languages and suggests a multilateral approach in his article \u2018Divergence, convergence, contact: Challenges for the genealogical classification of languages\u2019 (13\u201340). Second, in \u2018Increases in complexity as a result of language contact\u2019 (41\u201352), \u00d6sten Dahl<\/strong> argues against the idea that language contact is followed by the reduction in complexity of the language system. As a matter of fact, he claims that there is an increase in the complexity mainly due to the creation of distinctions that did not exist in either of the contributing languages (41). Lastly, Kurt Braunm\u00fcller<\/strong> concludes this section in \u2018Converging genetically related languages: Endstation<\/em> code mixing?\u2019 (53\u201370) by challenging Pieter Myusken\u2019s concept of congruent lexicalization (Bilingual speech: A typology of code-mixing<\/em>, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) and Carol Myers-Scotton\u2019s definition of composite matrix languages (Contact linguistics: Bilingual encounters and grammatical outcomes<\/em>, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) regarding language contact. His main contribution is the proposal of a new model of language mixing between closely related languages.<\/p>\n

Part 2, \u2018Convergence and divergence in different varieties in oral and written discourse\u2019, consists of four papers. Steffen H\u00f6der<\/strong> posits in \u2018Converging languages, diverging varieties: Innovative relativisation patterns in Old Swedish\u2019 (73\u2013100) that the emergence of appositive relative clauses and the pronominal relativization strategy, as the most typologically salient innovations, has to be explained as a grammatical replication of Latin features in a process of language Ausbau (73). Karoline H. K\u00fchl<\/strong> and Hjalmar P. Petersen<\/strong> analyze the vulnerability of verb phrases in bilingual speech in two language contact situations in \u2018Converging verbal phrases in related languages: A case study from Faro-Danish and Danish-German language contact situations\u2019 (101\u201324). \u00a0In \u2018Convergence and divergence of communicative norms through language contact in translation\u2019 (125\u201352), Viktor Becher<\/strong>, Juliane House<\/strong>, and Svenja Kranich<\/strong> evaluate the role of translation as a trigger for convergence and divergence phenomena in two studies involving English and German. They suggest that perceived similarities between linguistic elements in the two languages will result in convergence while perceived differences between linguistic elements will result in divergence. Lastly, Robert E. Vann<\/strong> reflects on the need for improved preservation, access, and analysis of spontaneous speech innovation in his article, \u2018On the importance of spontaneous speech innovations in language contact situations\u2019 (153\u201382). Vann offers previous evidence from Spanish speaking communities of Spain and America.<\/p>\n

Part 3, \u2018Phonological processes of variation and change in bilingual individuals\u2019, starts with Susana Cort\u00e9s<\/strong>, Conxita Lle\u00f3<\/strong>, and Ariadna Benet<\/strong>\u2019s article \u2018Gradient merging of vowels in Barcelona Catalan under the influence of Spanish\u2019 (185\u2013204). The authors analyze the intense contact situation between Catalan and Spanish in three districts of Barcelona. This paper examines the influence of Spanish phonology on the production of Catalan vowel contrasts, and provides quantitative evidence that both vowel systems are converging in the speech of children living in the highly Spanish-influenced district of Barcelona. Javier Arias<\/strong> and Conxita Lle\u00f3 conclude this volume with \u2018Comparing the representation of iambs by monolingual German, monolingual Spanish and bilingual German-Spanish children\u2019 (205\u201334). In this article, the authors examine stress acquisition in early childhood, specifically the production of iambic-shaped words by monolingual and bilingual children.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, this volume offers a fresh overview on convergence and divergence in language contact situations. Although most of its papers exclusively examine contact among (North) Germanic languages, all of the papers included in this volume successfully contribute to a better understanding of language contact. Overall, this book will be of great interest to linguists, particularly those interested in bi\/multilingualism, language in contact, and language variation and change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Convergence and divergence in language contact situations. Ed. by Kurt Braunm\u00fcller and Juliane House. (Hamburg studies on multilingualism 8.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2009. Pp, viii, 241. ISBN 9789027219282. $113 (Hb). Reviewed by Diego Pascual y Cabo, University of Florida This book is based from the proceedings of a symposium that took place during the fall […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1359,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions\/1359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}