Abstract
Language change as a result of language contact is studied in many different ways using a number of different methodologies. This article provides an overview of the main approaches to syntactic change in contact (CIC), focusing on the Romance language group. Romance languages are widely documented both synchronically and diachronically. They have been in extensive contact with other language families both in bilingual contexts and in creolization contexts. Furthermore, they present great microvariation. They are therefore ideal to tackle language change in contact. Given the breadth of studies targeting Romance languages in contact, only a selection of facts is considered here, namely pro-drop, differential object marking (DOM), and deixis. The article shows that microcontact, i.e., contact between minimally different grammars, is a necessary dimension to be considered within contact studies, as it provides insights that are often radically different from those provided by the observation of contact between maximally different languages.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 309-328 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Annual Review of Linguistics |
| Volume | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 4 Jan 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This article was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement No. 681959) (“Microcon-tact”). The author wishes to thank Luigi Andriani, Brechje van Osch, and Silvia Terenghi for the extensive feedback on this work. Many thanks to Alberto Frasson, Luana Sorgini, and an anonymous reviewer for pointing out the inconsistencies and errors in the article.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2021 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved.
Keywords
- change in contact
- deixis
- differential object marking
- microcontact
- null subjects
- syntax