Variation and change in contact settings

Isabelle Léglise (1) , Claudine Chamoreau (1)

1 SeDyL - Structure et Dynamique des Langues

This paper introduces two linguistic fields dealing with language change: contact linguistics and sociolinguistic research on variation. It argues that although there is no language change without variation, linguistic variation is still an opaque area, a blind spot, for most contact-induced language change studies. The role of variation in changes occurring in multilingual settings has not been much discussed in the literature and the exact role and interplay of the notions of 'variation', 'change' and 'contact' have not yet been fully explored. This paper proposes to examine more precisely the relationship between variation and change in language contact settings.

Ce chapitre présente deux domaines s'intéressant au changement linguistique : la linguistique de contact et les travaux sur la variation. Bien que le changement linguistique implique des variations, leur étude demeure l'un des laissés pour compte des travaux s'intéressant au changement induit par contact. Ce chapitre se penche précisément sur les relations entre variation et changement en situation de contact.

Keywords: ongoing variation; contact-induced change; contact settings

Keywords: changement linguistique; contact de langues; variation linguistique

Domains: Linguistics

Isabelle Léglise, Claudine Chamoreau. Variation and change in contact settings. Léglise, Isabelle ; Chamoreau, Claudine. The Interplay of Variation and Change in Contact Settings, John Benjamins, pp.1-20, 2013. ⟨halshs-00800099⟩