Book Review

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Forwarded from Linguist-List
LINGUIST List 14.2140
Tue Aug 12 2003

Winford, Donald (2003) An Introduction to Contact
Linguistics. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Language in Society.

Eva Forintos, Department of English and American Studies,
University of Veszprm, Hungary

INTRODUCTION

One of the most remarkable social changes in the last two decades may be
the increase in opportunities for individuals to become bilingual,
basically by learning foreign languages in educational institutions.
People who have become bilingual by moving to a new linguistic and
cultural environment (e.g. immigrants, educational and professional
transients) are in a good position to reflect on their linguistic and
cultural heritage and to discover and develop new identity-components.
However, there was a time when misconceptions about the nature of
bilingualism were widespread, including the idea that linguistic
heterogeneity was gradually being lost as linguistic minority groups were
assimilated into the majority group. But now the opposite is the case, and
the value of bi- and multilingualism is recognised both for the individual
and the community. Moreover, the maintenance of multilingualism and
linguistic diversity, particularly but not exclusively among immigrants is
becoming more and more widespread.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BOOK'S PURPOSE AND CONTENTS

It is a well-known fact that the study of the effects of language contact
has been a focal point of the field of linguistics ever since the earliest
period of the scientific study of language in the nineteenth century. The
book under review is a comprehensive introduction to contact linguistics,
the field which attempts to integrate linguistic analysis with social,
psychological explanations to describe language contact and its
consequences. Although the emphasis is basically on grammatical
structures, the social and psycholinguistic factors that motivate or
affect the structural outcomes are also dealt with in detail. In contrast
to Appel and Muysken (cited by Winford p. 9), Winford is of the opinion
that ''the study of language contact is in fact a fairly well-defined
field of study, with its own subject matter and objectives. It employs an
eclectic methodology that draws on various approaches, including the
comparative-historical method, and various areas of sociolinguistics''.
Some parts of the book should be accessible to readers with no training in
linguistics, but the primary intended readers are advanced students,
especially those from the field of linguistics, and faculty from any of
the disciplines concerned with bilingualism and language contact, since
the main theoretical premise is that the same principles and processes
underlie all language contact phenomena.  At the end of the book a
comprehensive bibliography (roughly 560 entries) is followed by a subject
index. The author, David Winford, is a prominent scholar in the field who
has remained at the forefront of theoretical language contact research for
the last three decades.  In the course of nine chapters the following
topics are discussed: the field of contact linguistics (pp. 1-28);
language maintenance and lexical borrowing (pp. 29-60); structural
diffusion in situations of language maintenance (pp. 61-100); code
switching: social contexts (pp. 101-125); code switching: linguistic
aspects (pp. 126-167); bilingual mixed languages (pp. 168-207); second
language acquisition and language shift (pp. 208-267); pidgins and
pidginization (pp. 268-303); creole formation (pp. 304- 258).

CRITICAL EVALUATION

In Chapter 1, the author delineates the field of contact linguistics in a
series of questions: What will speakers of different languages adopt from
one another and adapt, given the right opportunity? How can we explain
such phenomena? What combinations of social and linguistic influences
conspire to produce them? What kinds of situation promote one type of
outcome rather than another?  Then follows a short history of the research
that contributed to the emergence of language contact. Within the same
chapter Winford distinguishes three broad kinds of contact phenomena: (a)
language maintenance; (b) language shift; (c) language creation: new
contact languages. He states that most cases of language contact can be
assigned to one or another of these categories but that they all present
their own problems of definition and classification. Table 1.2 (p.  23)
based partly on Thomason and Kaufman (1988: 50), illustrates the major
outcomes of language contact and includes examples. At the end of the
chapter the relationship between speech communities and language contact
is discussed. Loveday's (1996: 16) typology is used (p. 26) but his labels
and descriptions are amended where necessary. As the author emphasises,
this overview is not complete because it does not include the social
contexts that lead to the formation of pidgins, creoles, or bilingual
mixed languages.

Chapter 2 deals with lexical borrowing, which is the most common form of
cross-linguistic influence. By enumerating and discussing in detail the
different contact situations (''casual'' contact, contact in settings
involving ''unequal'' bilingualism, equal bilingual situations), the
author tries to determine why borrowing is so extensive in cases of
''distant'' contact or in diglossic situations, while it is so limited in
cases of ''equal'' bilingualism. He concludes that an examination of the
social motivations for lexical borrowing is needed to understand the
problem. The main contribution of the section titled ''The Processes and
Products of Lexical Borrowing'' is that it provides Haugen's (1953)
classification of lexical contact phenomena, which Winford has expanded to
include a third subcategory (creations using only foreign morphemes) under
Haugen's category of ''native creations''.

Chapter 3 reports extensively on a continuum of contact situations,
ranging from those in which relatively little structural diffusion has
occurred to cases involving the widespread diffusion of both lexical and
structural features.  The author asks: Under what conditions do languages
import structure from external sources ? What kinds of agency are involved
in the diffusion of structural features?  Is structural borrowing mediated
by lexical borrowing? Can structure be borrowed in its own right? Winford
opposesThomason and Kaufman (1988), arguing that ''lexical'' and
''structural'' borrowing cannot proceed independently of each other. He
suggests that there is in principle no limit to what can be transferred
across languages. He also emphasises that when structural features are
transferred, it is rarely the result of direct borrowing. It is rather
mediated by lexical borrowing or introduced under the agency of speakers
of the external source language, and the speakers of the recipient
language adopt these innovations. When examining stable bilingual
situations, Winford makes it clear that with varying degrees of lexical
borrowing only a marginal diffusion of structural features occurs; in
other words the affected language remains highly resistant to foreign
structural interference. In cases of unstable bilingualism - due to the
threat of the dominant external language - ongoing shift appears to lead
to more structural innovations in an ancestral language. He also gives
evidence that bilinguals play an active role in the kinds of structural
diffusion which lead to the convergence of linguistic systems.

The main objective of Chapter 4 is to examine code switching, the actual
performance of bilinguals who exploit the resources of the languages they
command, first of all for social and stylistic purposes. In accordance
with the general goal of the book, Winford considers other researchers'
definitions of code switching with a critical eye and words his own
definition. According to him the phenomenon includes ''the alternating use
of relatively complete utterances from two different languages,
alternation between sentential and/or clausal structures from the two
languages, and the insertion of (usually lexical) elements from one
language into the other.'' The other focus of this chapter is the
sociocultural factors which influence code switching. It is stated that
the choice of code can be an act of identity by which speakers locate
themselves in social space and in relation to their interlocutors, and
that it is typically associated with different situations or
sociolinguistic domains. Consequently, code switching can be considered a
communication strategy similar to the stylistic variation typical of
monolingual communities.

Chapter 5 focuses on bilingual mixture in situations where the two
languages involved are maintained and the mixed code has not achieved
autonomy as a distinct language. The author's aim is to describe the
linguistic structure of code- switched utterances and identify the
linguistic principles and constraints that govern their production. He
concludes that code-switching phenomena constitute a continuum of outcomes
ranging from simple types of insertion to more complex types of
alternation. Poplack's ''interacting grammars'' model (1981) and
Myers-Scotton's Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model (1993b) theories on code
switching are discussed and compared in this chapter.  Winford finds the
former model the best example of alternational code switching analysis,
whereas the latter is the dominant model of insertional code switching.
Since bilinguals' competence includes both abilities, the author suggests
that the models should be seen as complementary rather than opposed to
each other.

Chapter 6 concentrates on bilingual mixed or ''intertwined'' languages,
the new and autonomous creations of bilingual situations. Although some
scholars (e.g. Thomason 1995, Bakker 1994) have attempted to find the
precise origins of these languages and to classify them, there is still
some disagreement over the issue. Winford seems to argue in favour of
Bakker's classification. Nevertheless he doubts if Bakker's classification
adequately accounts for all known cases of language intertwining. He
examines four well- known exemplars of this type of contact language,
Media Lengua, Michif, Ma'a, and Copper Island Aleut. These must have been
chosen by the author because they display noticeable difference in their
patterns of mixture and therefore provide some sense of the diversity of
the outcomes of contact.

Chapter 7 is concerned with individual and group second language
acquisition (SLA) in which the target language (TL) is changed under the
agency of learners. Winford describes the strategies learners employ in
their attempts to acquire a TL. These strategies are: ''appealing to L1
knowledge, simplifying and avoiding TL structures that are difficult to
learn, and creatively adapting those L2 elements that have been
acquired''. He claims that L1 influence can manifest itself in the
individual learner's interlanguage at every level of structure. The second
section of the chapter deals with group SLA or language shift that
produces new contact varieties of a TL. He claims that such languages as
Irish English, Singapore English, and Taiwanese Mandarin show evidence of
significant substratum influence from the first languages of their
creators. Section III provides the possible routes to first language
attrition and death, emphasising that the same external pressures and
social forces that initiate language shift can make individuals or groups
abandon their first language. The different phases of the course from
language attrition to language decay are also enumerated.

Chapter 8 is devoted to the classification, origins, and development of
the various contact languages to which the term ''pidgin'' has been
applied. The author carefully argues against the term ''pidginization''
because 'in contrast to its meaning' not all cases of pidgin formation
involve a single source. He is of the opinion that: ''Rather than
attempting to fit pidgins into a single mold, our concern should be to
explain how particular configurations of social and linguistic factors
promote differences in lexical and grammatical input, and the eventual
outcomes of pidgin formation''. In order to better understand how pidgins
arise, Winford treats pidgin formation as a form of early SLA (second
language acquisition) and concludes that unlike individual SLA, it is
subject to social forces that promote levelling and compromise across
individual grammars, just as in the case of group SLA or language shift.

Chapter 9 covers one of the most controversial groups of contact languages
traditionally referred to as creoles.  Winford draws attention to the fact
that even the early scientific study of these languages in the nineteenth
century explored many of the issues that are still being debated today:
the role of substrate influence versus universals in creole formation, the
relationship between creoles and first or second language acquisition, and
the implications of these languages for theories of language contact.
After considering recent attempts to identify creoles, he arrives at the
conclusion that there are no absolute criteria, either sociolinguistic or
structural, that distinguish creoles as a type. Much of the confusion over
how best to define them, he states, is due to indeterminacy in the
definition of the pidgins from which they are claimed to have arisen.
Owing to the differences in the social contexts in which creoles were
created, they range from second language varieties that are close
approximations to the superstrates to ''radical'' outcomes that depart
significantly from the latter. Between these two extremes there is a
continuum of outcomes, with ''intermediate'' creoles closer to the
superstrate and ''basilectal'' creoles to the radical end. Despite
disagreement among creolists, it is generally accepted that creole
formation was a process of second language acquisition in rather unusual
circumstances and that children may have played a role in regularising the
developing grammar.

In conclusion the following can be stated: with the coverage Winford
provides, he achieves his main goal. By examining a wide range of language
contact phenomena from both the general linguistic and sociolinguistic
perspectives, he provides an insightful overview of the general processes
and principles that are at work in cases of contact.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Appel, Ren and Pieter Muysken. 1987. Landuage Contact and
Bilingualism. London: Edward Arnold.

Bakker, Peter. 1994. Michif, the Cree-French mixed language of the
Mtis buffalo hunters in Canada. In Bakker and Mous 1994: 13-33.

Haugen, Einar. 1953. The Norwegian Language in America: A Study in
Bilingual Behavior. Vol. I: The Bilingual Community; Vol. II: The
American Dialects of Norwegian. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Loveday, Leo J. 1996. Language Contact in Japan: A Socio-linguistic
History. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Myers-Scotton, Carol. 1993b. Dueling Languages: Grammatical Structure
in Code-Switching. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Poplack, Shana. 1981. Syntactic structure and social function of
codeswitching. In R. Duran (ed.) Latino Language and Communicative
Behavior, 169-84. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex.

Thomason, Sarah G. and Terrence Kaufman. 1988.  Language Contact,
Creolization and Genetic Linguistics.  Berkeley: University of
California Press.

Thomason, Sarah G. 1995. Language mixture: ordinary processes,
extraordinary results. In Carmen Silva-Corvaln (ed.) Spanish in Four
Continents: Studies in Language Contact and Bilingualism,
15-33. Washington D. C.: Georgetown University Press.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Eva FORINTOS is an assistant lecturer at the Department of English and
American Studies, University of Veszprm, Hungary. Her professional
interests include contact linguistics, Australian history, culture and
civilisation. At the moment she is working on her PhD dissertation:
the contactlinguistic examination of Hungarian language (one of its
written form) in Australia.