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Is There Convergence in Language Death? Evidence from Chipewyan and Stoney
Author(s) -
Cook EungDo
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of linguistic anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.463
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1548-1395
pISSN - 1055-1360
DOI - 10.1525/jlin.1995.5.2.217
Subject(s) - convergence (economics) , thriving , linguistics , philosophy of language , language change , epistemology , history , sociology , philosophy , social science , economics , metaphysics , economic growth
There have been explicit claims and implicit assumptions that extensive and drastic structural reductions that occur in dying languages are due to convergence and confluence. This article argues that structural decay and change in language death are not caused by external influence but by an impeded and premature process of acquisition. Critical reviews of some well‐known convergence analyses (including Chipewyan) are presented to demonstrate that changes are not due to convergence but internally motivated. The conservative features in dying dialects and innovative changes in a thriving dialect of Stoney further suggest that convergence never or rarely occurs in the final stage of language death.