Bilingualism Language and Cognition· 2013Q1
Language contact outcomes as the result of bilingual optimization strategies
- 417citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2013year
Short summary
Bilingual speakers employ optimization strategies to manage structural coherence between their languages (L1/L2) and universal processing principles, explaining diverse language contact phenomena like creolization and borrowing.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Bilingual optimization strategies are proposed as a unifying framework for understanding language contact outcomes.
- Strategies include maximizing L1 coherence, maximizing L2 coherence, matching L1/L2 patterns, and using universal processing principles.
- These strategies are conditioned by social factors, processing constraints, and perceived language distance.
- The framework links diverse fields such as Creole studies, code-switching, and linguistic borrowing.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
This paper sketches a comprehensive framework for modeling and interpreting language contact phenomena, with speakers’ bilingual strategies in specific scenarios of language contact as its point of departure. Bilingual strategies are conditioned by social factors, processing constraints of speakers’ bilingual competence, and perceived language distance. In a number of domains of language contact studies important progress has been made, including Creole studies, code-switching, language development, linguistic borrowing, and areal convergence. Less attention has been paid to the links between these fields, so that results in one domain can be compared with those in another. These links are approached here from the perspective of speaker optimization strategies. Four strategies are proposed: maximize structural coherence of the first language (L1); maximize structural coherence of the second language (L2); match between L1 and L2 patterns where possible; and rely on universal principles of language processing. These strategies can be invoked to explain outcomes of language contact. Different outcomes correspond to different interactions of these strategies in bilingual speakers and their communities.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Bilingualism Language and Cognition, 2013 · DOI ↗
Continue with a free account
Ask the paper: 3 free questions a day about this paper; save it, get its citation, new summaries every day for your field. Takeaways are Premium.
Continue free on the webSign in with Google or Apple; no card needed. You come back to this paper.
On your phone:
Field: Linguistics and Language
Linguistics and LanguageSocial Sciences