Relativism and Universalism in Linguistics - Fachbereich 10 ...

172 Workshops
References
Jochen Rehbein (2001) Turkish in European Societies. In: Lingua e Stile XXXVI-2/2001,
317-334
Annette Herkenrath, Birsel Karakoç & Jochen Rehbein (2003) Interrogative elements as subordinators
in Turkish – Aspects of Turkish-German bilingual children’s language use. In:
Müller, Natascha (ed.) (In)vulnerable domains in Multilingualism. Yearbook of
Multilingualism I. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 219-267
Jochen Rehbein & Birsel Karakoç (2004) On contact-induced language change of Turkish
aspects: languaging in bilingual discourse. In: C. B. Dabelsteen & N. Jørgensen (eds.)
(2004) Languaging and Language practices. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Studies in
Bilingualism. Vol. 36. University of Copenhagen, 129-155
The role of bilinguals in rapid language change
Veenstra, Tonjes
University of Berlin
tonjes@zedat.fu-berlin.de
New languages tend to emerge in multilingual contact situations, creoles being one of the
prime examples. Much of the recent literature seems to agree on the pivotal role that
processes of second language acquisition play in rapid language change. In this paper I will
discuss the role of the bilingual part of the population in the contact situation, arguing that
they are the real instantiators of the shift to another variety, thereby creating and establishing
a new emerging language. In this scenario the process of relexification finds its natural place.
Evidence will be presented from Hawaiian Creole English, the creole languages of Surinam,
and from computational modelling of multilingual contact situations.