<div dir="ltr"><div>Hi Ian,</div><div><br></div><div>One interesting perspective on this would have to do with the distinction between "language" and "dialect". While there are many ways of (trying to) define that difference, one relevant to usage is the perspective of the speaker, i.e. whether they treat languages as intelligible or not. Is language switching necessary for communication? Is translation necessary? Or is it functional to just talk to someone who speaks a different variety? This blurs the lines of what it means to be multilingual, also.</div><div><br></div><div>What I'm thinking of relates to what Romaine in her <i>Language in Society: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics</i> (chapter 1) refers to as "dual-lingualism", where speakers of different languages may understand each other and behave as if they are speaking the same language (each speaking their own, without any need for switching or translation), even though linguistically the languages may be quite different. I think that chapter is worth the read, but the specific example is based on this 1987 book by William Thurston about neighboring languages in Papua New Guinea (<a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/145417/1/PL-B99.pdf">https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/145417/1/PL-B99.pdf</a>). We can see parallels for other cases of similar languages, such as Swedish, Norwegian and Danish used together by speakers of each. But it also reminds me of for example an anecdote I recently heard from a speaker of an Indigenous Californian language, whose grandparents spoke different but related languages and would generally speak to each other in their own languages and could understand each other. I think that is probably a common situation. There are also, I believe, cases where speakers of two languages considered mutually intelligible from a linguistic perspective may deny that they can understand someone speaking the other language, for example I think sometimes this is the case for Hindi and Urdu.<br></div><div><br></div><div>More generally, we would also need to consider other contexts of contact and sprachbunds generally, but I imagine it works somewhat similarly. Once bilingualism is widespread, bilingual communication becomes mixed in various ways, and the usage tends to assimilate in general. A relevant case to consider would be what we must assume happened historically with Korean and Japanese, where similar contexts of usage, and bilingualism, resulted in convergent grammars. There are other relevant considerations also, including some already mentioned, like code-switching, priming, assimilation in a more general sociolinguistic sense, etc.<br></div><div><br></div><div>In short, maybe we could say that convergence is the result of breaking down a language (communication) barrier. The degree of convergence probably correlates with the degree to which the barrier is reduced: limited lexical borrowing in more limited contact scenarios, all the way to mixed languages in cases of widespread, consistent bilingualism where the languages cease to function as separate entities (at least for some purposes). An interesting case of this is Scots, historically a sister language to Old English, but then today it has to a great extent blurred into Scottish English to the point where for most purposes there is no consistently identifiable boundary between the two in typical usage (for example, the designers of the SCOTS corpus here <a href="https://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/">https://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/</a> did not find it practical to make a consistent distinction in the materials between "Scots" and "Scottish English", although of course a distinction can be made intentionally by speakers, for example those authors who choose to write, for example poetry, exclusively in Scots for cultural reasons).<br></div><div><br></div><div>Daniel<br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Jun 29, 2023 at 12:01 PM Juergen Bohnemeyer <<a href="mailto:jb77@buffalo.edu">jb77@buffalo.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg-3813386180680423149">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Dear Ian – There are apparently two separate forces at work here:
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<li class="m_-416518618447655763MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0in"><span style="font-size:11pt">Priming and statistical learning (which might be the same thing): any behavior, regardless of whether we produce it ourselves or observe it in others,
increases the probability of us repeating the behavior in the near future (decaying over time) all else being equal. Social factors determine who we are more likely to talk to and priming/statistical learning ensures that our and their linguistic patterns
propagate in the process including innovations. </span><span style="font-size:11pt" lang="DE">Cf. Pickering & Garrod (2004); Rosenbach & Jäger (2008); Kleinschmidt et al. (2018); inter alia.<u></u><u></u></span></li><li class="m_-416518618447655763MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left:0in"><span style="font-size:11pt">Social meaning and linguistic ideologies: Linguistic variables become indexically associated with particular social groups, speakers capitalize on these
associations to express their allegiance/distance to those groups. E.g., Eckert (1988); Irvine & Gal (2000); Milroy (1980); Trudgill (1972).<u></u><u></u></span></li></ul>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Best – Juergen<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Eckert, P. (1988). Adolescent social structure and the spread of linguistic change.
<i>Language in society</i> 17: 183-207.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Irvine, J. & S. Gal. (2000). Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In P. Kroskrity, ed.,
<i>Regimes of Language: Ideologies, Polities, and Identities</i>. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press. 35-84.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Jäger, G. & A. Rosenbach. (2008). Priming and unidirectional language change.
<i>Theoretical Linguistics</i> 34: 85–113.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt" lang="DE">Kleinschmidt, D. F., K. Weatherholtz, & T. F. Jaeger.
</span><span style="font-size:11pt">(2018). Sociolinguistic Perception as Inference Under Uncertainty.
<i>TopiCS</i> 10(4): 818-834.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Milroy, L. (1980). <i>Language and social networks</i>. Oxford: Blackwell.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt" lang="DE">Pickering, M. J., & Garrod, S. (2004).
</span><span style="font-size:11pt">Toward a mechanistic psychology of dialogue.
<i>Behavioral and Brain Sciences</i>, <i>27</i>(2), 169–190. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X04000056" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X04000056</a> <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Trudgill, P. (1972). Sex, covert prestige and linguistic change in the urban British English or Norwich.
<i>Language in Society </i>1(2): 179-195.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:black">Juergen Bohnemeyer (He/Him)<br>
Professor, Department of Linguistics<br>
University at Buffalo <br>
<br>
Office: 642 Baldy Hall, UB North Campus<br>
Mailing address: 609 Baldy Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260 <br>
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Email: </span><span style="font-size:11pt"><a href="mailto:jb77@buffalo.edu" title="mailto:jb77@buffalo.edu" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:rgb(0,120,212)">jb77@buffalo.edu</span></a></span><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:black"><br>
Web: </span><span style="font-size:11pt"><a href="http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jb77/" title="http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jb77/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:rgb(5,99,193)">http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jb77/</span></a></span><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:black"> <br>
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</span><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Office hours Tu/Th 3:30-4:30pm in 642 Baldy or via Zoom (Meeting ID 585 520 2411; Passcode Hoorheh) </span><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Helvetica;color:black"><br>
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There’s A Crack In Everything - That’s How The Light Gets In <br>
(Leonard Cohen) </span><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">From:
</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt;color:black">Lingtyp <<a href="mailto:lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank">lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>> on behalf of Ian Joo <<a href="mailto:ian_joo@nucba.ac.jp" target="_blank">ian_joo@nucba.ac.jp</a>><br>
<b>Date: </b>Thursday, June 29, 2023 at 2:33 PM<br>
<b>To: </b><<a href="mailto:lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org" target="_blank">lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org</a>><br>
<b>Subject: </b>[Lingtyp] The purpose of convergence and divergence?<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Dear Typologists,<br>
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I would appreciate it if you could point to me the literature discussing the purpose of linguistic convergence and divergence.<br>
Do they happen simply because they happen - or do they serve any purpose? Do they bring any benefit?<br>
For example if my lect changes based on to what my neighbors are speaking, it's an interesting phenomenon, but what good does it do? Does it make me more suitable as a neighbor? Does it make it more easier for me to learn their (dominant) lect? Does it facilitate
code-switching?<br>
Same about divergence - if a group that split away from a bigger group changes their lect in a divergent manner, then what benefit does it bring? Does it solidate their group identity? Does it help to identify an in-group member?<br>
These questions have been stuck in my head for quite a long time now and I would be grateful if you could provide me previous insights on such questions.<br>
<br>
>From the Netherlands,<br>
Ian<br>
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