Reading Working Papers in Linguistics 4 (2000) - The University of ...

P. KERSWILL & A. WILLIAMS
3. Internal and external factors in language change through contact
In order to contextualise ‘salience’ as applied in sociolinguistic studies of
language change, we will briefly enumerate significant internal and external
factors in change triggered by contact, as suggested by the work of Thomason
and Kaufman (1988), Trudgill (1986; 1994) and Siegel (1985). Between
them, these authors seem to agree on emphasising the importance of the
following as factors affecting the outcome of contact:
‘Internal’ factors
• Typological distance between varieties in contact (roughly equivalent to
language vs. dialect contact)
• Transparency of equivalent constructions in the varieties in contact
• Markedness vs. naturalness of features which are candidates for transfer
‘External’ factors
• Social relations between the borrowing group and the group it is
borrowing from
• Time-scale and intensity of contact
• Are adults or children primarily involved in the contact?
• Does contact result in language shift or borrowing?
It is useful to think of these as ‘independent variables’ in an experimental
sense, though of course (for reasons given earlier) we can only make weak
predictions about outcomes. As Thomason and Kaufman (1988:59) say,
‘Since even the most natural changes often fail to occur, it is always
appropriate to ask why a particular change happened when it did’, in
recognition of the need to look for multiple causes of any linguistic change.
They in fact stress the importance, or even primacy of language-external
factors. As we shall see, ‘salience’ as normally conceived shows some
confusion about the relationships between internal and other factors.
The outcomes of dialect and language contact can be thought of as a set
of ‘dependent’ variables. These include:
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