When Language Resists. From Divergence to Language Dynamics: A Review Article of Stability and Divergence in Language Contact: Factors and Mechanisms (Braunmüller, H?der and Kühl, eds.)

摘要

The volume Stability and divergence in language contact: Factors and Mechanisms edited by Braunmüller, H?der and Kühl (2014) contains eleven studies about divergence and/or stability in language contact. The contributions plead for a differential description of language development (variation, change, stability) insofar as a given contact phenomenon makes sense in a different way from various perspectives. As convergence/divergence represent more/less structural harmony between languages in contact, the deeper sense of internal and external motivations (factors, mechanisms) of these dynamics is discussed. We argue that the key entity of development is the speaker, who takes the active part in the structuring process by an in-process positioning in discourse and the long-scale elaboration of his repertoire.