Linguistics 790.S97:Languages in Contact

Course Description

This is a small seminar in which students read and compared recent research in the area of language contact. We explore the different causes, types and effects of language contact. Different outcomes of language contact, including bilingualism, pidgins, creoles, diglossia, code-switching, language shift, and language death, are examined via the reading of case studies and recent articles. Educational, acquisitional, and cognitive effects of bilingualism, as well as the effects of bilingualism on language planning efforts (such as the U.S. English Only movement) are explored. Students write research papers exploring some aspect of language contact, as well as completing shorter assignments and presenting the recent articles in a seminar format.