32.2117, Review: General Linguistics: Hickey (2020)
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Subject: 32.2117, Review: General Linguistics: Hickey (2020)
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Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2021 20:44:13
From: Emmanuel Schang [emmanuel.schang at univ-orleans.fr]
Subject: The Handbook of Language Contact, 2nd Edition
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/32/32-67.html
EDITOR: Raymond Hickey
TITLE: The Handbook of Language Contact, 2nd Edition
SERIES TITLE: Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics
PUBLISHER: Wiley
YEAR: 2020
REVIEWER: Emmanuel Schang, University of Orléans
SUMMARY
The Handbook of Language Contact is edited by Raymond Hickey and gathers 37
chapters, plus an important introduction written by the editor. The book is
divided into two parts: a theoretical presentation of the main aspects of
language contact (Part 1 - Contact, Contact Studies, and Linguistics) and some
important case studies (Part 2 - Case Studies of Contact) for a total of 780
pages (all included).
It is aimed at a large audience of scholars and students in linguistics (but a
basic knowledge of the key concepts of linguistics is required).
The volume starts with an erudite presentation of the literature on the topic
(Language Contact and Linguistic Research, by R. Hickey) and this introduction
lists the questions related to the field.
In Chapter 1, S. Tomason ('Contact Explanations in Linguistics) shows that ''
both internal and external motivations are needed in any full account of
language history and, by implication, of synchronic variation''. She explains
why the extreme positions (language contact is responsible only for minor
changes vs contact is the sole source of change and variation) are both
untenable.
Chapter 2 is dedicated to bilingualism and diglossia (Contact, Bilingualism
and Diglossia, by L. Sayahi). The author starts with a discussion on the uses
of the term diglossia (and extended diglossia), and continues with the
description of language contact phenomena such as code-switching. Most of the
examples and cases come from Arabic and its contact with French.
The next chapter (Chapter 3: Language Contact and Change through Child First
Language Acquisition, by C. O'Shannessy and L. Davidson) addresses the role of
children in contact-induced change. It describes several cases of new language
creation or new dialect creation where children have played a significant
role.
In Chapter 4, B. Heine and T. Kuteva is entitled Contact and
Grammaticalization. They show that ''grammatical replication in general, and
contact-induced grammaticalization in particular, are far more common than has
previously been assumed''.
In Chapter 5, A. Grant deals with ''Contact and Language Convergence''. After
having defined the different meanings behind the notion of convergence, he
describes different places where convergence may take place (from phonetics to
semantics and pragmatics).
Chapter 6 (Contact and Linguistic Typology, by O. Bond, H. Sims-Williams and
M. Baerman) focuses on morphological typology and ''recent developments in
research on language contact in relation to contemporary thought in linguistic
typology''.The authors conclude that ''language contact is an important
explanatory tool for understanding the distribution of typological variables,
and must be taken into consideration as a possible influence when constructing
probabilistic theories accounting for cross-linguistic diversity''.
In Chapter 7 (Contact and Language Shift) R. Hickey presents data from the
language shift form Irish to English over the past centuries. Beyond this case
study, he asks the question ''whether language shift varieties represent a
typological class of their own''. He concluded that ''to answer this question
positively, there must be sufficient features which are unique to shift
varieties (...) and which appear irrespective of their occurrence in either
the substrate or superstrate inputs which engender a shift variety''.
In Chapter 8, P. Durkin deals with Lexical Borrowing. He defines the notion
and reviews the different types of borrowing found in the literature.
Chapter 9 is dedicated to code-switching (Contact and Code-switching, by P.
Gardner-Chloros). It ponderates its impact in language change and shows
precisely what is its impact.
Chapter 10 (Contact and Mixed Languages, by P. Bakker) deals with mixed
language as ''the most extreme result of language contact''. P. Bakker defines
the notions of pidgins, pidgincreoles, creoles and mixed languages, using a
''thought experiment'' where he creates fictitious specimen of these types to
illustrate pedagogically the content of these notions.
In Chapter 11, entitled ''Contact and Sociolinguistic Variation'', M.
Ravindranath Abtahian and J. Kasstan focus ''on research in the variationist
paradigm that intersects with the field of language contact. [They]
predominantly focus on sound change, which forms the bulk of the work at this
interface, as well as a significant part of the tradition of variationist
sociolinguistics''.
Chapter 12, entitled Contact and New Varieties (by P. Kerswill) describes the
different scenarios and forces at play in the emergence of 'new' varieties. It
deals with dialect leveling, new-dialect formation, koineization, ethnolects
and multiethnolects.
'Contact in the City', by H. Wiese, is the penultimate chapter of Part 1. As
its title indicates, it deals with language contact in the urban context, but
in very different places, such as Cameroon (Camfranglais) or Germany (berlin,
Kiezdeutsch).
The last chapter of Part 1 (Linguistic Landscapes and Language Contact, by K.
Bolton, W. Botha and S-L. Lee) proposes an overview of the studies in
linguistic landscapes, and provides examples taken from studies in
contemporary Hong Kong.
Part 2 (Case Studies of Contact) brings together case studies from a wide
range of geographic situations and times (the title of the chapters give the
reader the indication of the geographic area). The chapters mentioned in the
list below are both an overview of the situation in a specific area (with
bibliographical information) and an analysis of particular points relevant to
this specific area. For instance, in the chapter on Contact and African
Englishes, the reader can find (among others) an analysis of resumptive
pronouns, which is motivated by the fact that Standard English uses a 'gap' in
relative clauses, while in Chapter 15 (Early Indo-European), the analyses
focus on phonetics and lexicon. In short, the content of the chapter is
adapted to the current debates in the area.
In Chapter 15 (Contact and Early Indo-European in Europe, by B. Drinka), the
author addresses the question of reconstruction for prehistoric languages and
the kind of arguments we can find in support of contact versus genetic
relatedness and several related questions.
In Chapter 16 (Contact and the History of Germanic Languages, by P. Roberge),
the author reviews various contacts in the area of Germanic languages and
concludes that ''contact with co-territorial languages has been a key element
in the development of Germanic in its diffusion across northwestern Europe and
the British Isles'' (p.338).
The next chapter (Chapter 17: Contact in the History of English, by R. McColl
Millar) discusses different types of lexical borrowings and the
morphosyntactic changes triggered by contact (a.o. A comparison on French and
Italian Lexical influence on English).
In Chapter 18 (Contact and the Development of American English, by J.C. Salmon
and T. Purnell), the authors review a number of recent arguments in favor of
the 'substratum' influence and claim that ''we now understand the
diversification of American English today in no small part as the slow-motion
resolution of the contacts encoded in our history.'' (p.377). And they
conclude “Time and again, we see the interplay between “internal”, or
structural, and “external”, or social factors, in the origins and transmission
of change. (p.378)”
Chapter 19 (Chapter 19: Contact and African Englishes, by R. Mesthrie) starts
with setting the background to Anglo-African contact. It goes on with a survey
of contact in phonology and syntax in the subsaharian varieties of English.
In Chapter 20 (Contact and Caribbean Creoles, E. W. Schneider and R. Hickey),
the authors review the influence of various sources of contact. They provide
arguments which mitigate the idea that creolization is a ''unique and highly
exceptional process'' (p.419). In particular, they show that aside from the
well known and well documented varieties of Jamaica, Trinidad or Guyana,
smaller and less documented varieties provide elements for a nuanced approach
of creolization (in sections “The Cline of Creoleness” and “Dialect Input to
the Caribbean”) taking in account the whole diversity of varieties and the
complexity of the input.
Chapter 21 (Contact and the Romance Languages, by J. C. Smith) consists in an
overview of the contacts in a well studied area: Romance languages.
Interestingly, the author claims that ''it is also fair to claim that contact
influence on Romance has often been overstated'' (p.444).
Chapter 22 (Contact and Spanish in the Pacific, by E. Sippola) deals mainly
with Spanish in the Philippines and Marianas, “where we find very different
situations and outcomes of Spanish in contact, including the maintenance of
Spanish as a heritage language, heavy borrowings form Spanish to local
languages (e.g. Tagalog in the Philippines and Chamorro in the Marianas), and
creolization leading to the emergence of a new variety called Chabacano” (p.
453). It also shows how the situation differs from other Spanish speaking
places.
H. Cardoso (Chapter 23: Contact and Portuguese-Lexified Creoles) presents an
overview of the Portuguese-based Creoles and their importance in
creolistics.These languages were some of the older creoles based on European
languages as the result of the European expansion since the 15th century.
Chapter 24 (Contact and the Celtic Languages, by J. F. Eska) discusses contact
in the early history of Celtic languages and contact in the Insular Celtic
languages. It reviews various grammatical features originating from contact,
sometimes dating from Prehistory (languages spoken in Britain and Ireland
before Celtic speakers could have arrived there).
L.A. Grenoble (Chapter 25: Contact and the Slavic Languages) surveys the
various types of contacts that occurred through time in the Slavic languages
as a result of the expansion of Slavic languages speakers over vast
territories. While Russian plays an important role here, this chapter also
includes discussion on other languages (Sorbian, Czech etc.).
Chapter 26 (Contact and the Finno-Ugric Languages, by J. Laakso) discusses the
reconstruction of language contact in Finno-Ugric family. In particular, it
discusses and challenges the traditional view of a bipartite division of the
Uralic family. The last section however deals with globalization and the
nature of contact in the recent years.
Chapter 27 (Language Contact in the Balkans, by B. D. Joseph) addresses the
question of the Sprachbund in the Balkans, the causes and the type of
convergence between groups of languages of the area.
In Chapter 28 (Turkic Languages Contacts) L. Johanson, E.A. Csató and B.
Karakoç explain that the massive displacements of the Turkic-speaking groups
over centuries has led to numerous contacts between languages. This chapter
proposes an overview of the various areas (Anatolia, Lithuania, Northwestern
Europe etc) and a description of the main features related to contact.
Chapter 29 (Contact and Afroasiatic Languages, by Z. Frajzingier and E. Shay)
deals with a wide number of linguistic features (from vowel harmony to
logophoricity among many others) which can be related to contact between
languages inside Afroasiatic Languages or in connection with other languages.
With around 275 languages from around 55 different families, North American
Languages present a wide range of effects of language contact. In Chapter 30,
(Contact and North American Languages), M. Mithun considers several important
problems in phonology, morphology and syntax and provides numerous
interesting examples.
In Chapter 31 (Contact and Mayan Languages, by D. Law), the author provides an
overview of the currents discussions and questions about contact and mixing in
the area. While the Mayan family is quite small (32 languages spoken today),
the situation is very complex and the author underlines the methodological
difficulties in separating the contact induced changes from inheritance from a
common ancestor. While there is not a lot of examples, the bibliography is
rich and leads the reader to the sources.
South America contains 107 language families (53 language families and 54
language isolates). L. Campbell, T. Chacon and J. Elliott (Chapter 32: Contact
and South American Languages) propose an survey of the different areas
(Amazonia, Andes, etc) and review the contact languages, linguas francas,
mixed languages, pidgins and creoles of this wide area.
Chapter 33 (Contact among African Languages, by K. Beyer) reviews various
aspects of language contact in Africa and language contact research in this
area and provides two case studies in multilingual environment: Souroudougou
(Burkina Faso and Mali) and Ngaoundere (Cameroon).
Siberia is another vast geographic area, but the number of languages in the
area is rather low (over 30 languages). Nevertheless, B. Pakendorf (Chapter
34: Contact and Siberian Languages) explains that ''the indigeneous languages
show several structural similarities, leading Anderson (2004,02006) to speak
of a 'Siberian linguistic macro-area' ''. She provides examples of Russian
influence on the languages of Siberia, pidgins and mixed languages, and ends
the chapter with language contact among the indigenous languages.
In Chapter 35 (Language Contact: Sino-Russia), Z. Frajzingier, N. Gurian and
S. Karpenko focus on two questions: ''(i) What are the formal features used by
contact language speakers? and (ii) What functions are coded by these formal
features?''. They conclude that the ''use of Sino-Russian idiolects is
different from that of pidgins'' and they explain the differences.
Chapter 36 (Language Contact and Australian Languages, by J. Vaughan and D.
Loakes) deals with pidgins and creoles, mixed languages, restructured
traditional languages and arboriginal Englishes. The authors describe the
linguistic landscape of Australia and ''emphasize the importance of attending
to the social, the ideological and the emotional in language contact''.
In Chapter 37 (Contact Languages of the Pacific) J. Siegel provides an
overview of the various pidgin and creole languages of the Pacific area
(Australia and New Zealand excluded), focusing on lexicon and morphosyntax. It
deals with new languages only, and not with contact induced changes among the
thousand of languages of the area.
EVALUATION
This book (in its second edition) brings together a considerable amount of
knowledge on the subject of language contact. Inasmuch as topics range from
methodological discussions on contacts in prehistoric languages to urban
sociolinguistics, the diversity of the methodological approaches and the
extent of the phenomena covered are very impressive. The wide range of
languages taken in account is also impressive, even in Part 1 which is the
theoretical part of the book.
This book represents a perfect entry point for the study of language contact
phenomena. Even a linguist familiar with the field will probably discover a
hidden gem in these pages.
The bibliography which ends each chapter will help the reader to find more
information on the topic. As a consequence, each chapter is free-standing. And
surprisingly, the bibliography is not as redundant as one could have expected.
While the book is overall clear and easy to read, some chapters are quite
technical and require a good knowledge of the concepts of historical
linguistics. This reserves their access to students who already have a solid
theoretical background.
Let me give you some elements about what this book is not, in contrast with
other related books:
- It is not an introduction on pidgin and creole languages. While pidgin and
creoles take a important place in these pages (the theoretical discussion is
not limited to Chapter 10), the content goes beyond these languages and takes
on many other cases of contact. Moreover, some elements of Chapter 10 are
quite controversial among creolists (see Aboh 2015 among others) and could be
mitigated.
- A cookbook for studying contact phenomena. The diversity of the approaches
in Part 1 can provide the reader some inspiration for new researches with new
techniques. It is a source of inspiration, but definitely not a method.
Having said that, I recommend this book for any scholar looking for a
comprehensive overview of language contacts, and for (advanced) students in
linguistics. It is unquestionably a useful resource to have in your library.
REFERENCES
Aboh, E. O. (2015). The emergence of hybrid grammars: Language contact and
change. Cambridge University Press.
Anderson, G. D. (2004). The languages of Central Siberia: Introduction and
overview. Languages and prehistory of Central Siberia, 262, 1-119.
Anderson, G. D. (2006). Towards a typology of the Siberian linguistic area. In
Linguistic Areas (pp. 266-300). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Emmanuel Schang is an associate professor (HDR) in linguistics at the
University of Orléans (France). His research mixes creole languages studies
(Portuguese-based Creoles of the Gulf of Guinea, Guadeloupean Creole) and
natural language processing. He has led several projects on creole languages.
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