Book review: the Mixed Language Debate

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Forwarded from LINGUIST List 15.1537

Title: The Mixed Language Debate
Subtitle: Theoretical and Empirical Advances
Series Title: Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 145

Publication Year: 2003
Publisher:	Mouton de Gruyter
		http://www.mouton-publishers.com

Editor: Yaron Matras
Editor: Peter Bakker



Abstract:

Mixed Languages are speech varieties that arise in bilingual settings,
often as markers of ethnic separateness. They combine structures
inherited from different parent languages, often resulting in odd and
unique splits that present a challenge to theories of contact-induced
change as well as genetic classification. This collection of articles
is devoted to the theoretical and empirical controversies that
surround the study of Mixed Languages. Issues include definitions and
prototypes, similarities and differences to other contact languages
such as pidgins and creoles, the role of codeswitching in the
emergence of Mixed Languages, the role of deliberate and conscious
mixing, the question of the existence of a Mixed Language continuum,
and the position of Mixed Languages in general models of language
change and contact-induced change in particular. An introductory
chapter surveys the current study of Mixed Languages. Contributors
include leading historical linguists, contact linguists and
typologists.

FROM THE CONTENTS:

The study of Mixed Languages
YARON MATRAS AND PETER BAKKER

Social factors and linguistic processes in the emergence of stable
Mixed languages
SARAH G. THOMASON

Mixed languages and acts of identity: An evolutionary approach
WILLIAM CROFT

Split (mixed) languages as contact phenomena: What lies beneath
CAROL MYERS-SCOTTON

Mixed languages as autonomous systems
PETER BAKKER

Mixed languages: Re-examining the structural prototype
YARON MATRAS

Language contact and group identity: The role of "folk" linguistic
engineering
EVGENIY V. GOLOVKO

The linguistic properties of lexical manipulation and its relevance
for Ma'
MAARTEN MOUS

Can a mixed language be conventionalized alternational codeswitching?
AD BACKUS

Not quite the right mixture: Chamorro and Malti as candidates for the
status of mixed language
THOMAS STOLZ



Hardback: ISBN: 3110177765, Pages: vi, 325, Price: EURO 84.00