Colloquium \"Convergence and divergence in language contact situations\"
The colloquium "Convergence and divergence in language contact situations" will take place at Hamburg University (main building) October 18 to 20, 2007 and is part of the scientific program arranged by the German Science Foundation’s Research Centre on Multilingualism. It addresses processes of convergence and divergence that occur whenever languages come into contact with each other. This contact also includes language acquisition. It may involve genetically related languages like the Romance and the Germanic languages resulting in an approximation of frequently realized structures such that similar or parallel structures come to be preferred. Alternatively, linguistic replications involving genetically non-related languages can also occur, where transfer from a model language to a so-called replica language takes place. There are however also cases where the two languages, for instance for social reasons, are used in different domains (as in a diglossia situation) and are kept at a distance thus diverging rather than converging after contact.
At the colloquium, all of the projects in the Research Centre will present results from their own research. In addition, several internationally renowned experts in the field will attend the colloquium as key note speakers.
Weitere Informationen:
Powerpoint Präsentationen:
Paul Kerswill [download]