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Lifespan Acquisition and Language Change: Historical sociolinguistic perspectives
Edited by Israel Sanz-Sánchez
[Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics 14] 2024
► pp. 104–126

Chapter 5
Multilingual acquisition across the lifespan as a sociohistorical trigger for language change

ORCID logo | University of Amsterdam

Language contact implies more variation in language use, both in the individual and in the community. This increased variation can accelerate language change, but it can also halt it (Aalberse et al. 2019; Muysken 2013). Which parts of language do change, and which parts do not depends on cognitive and social factors: the change or non-change should be cognitively possible and socially acceptable. What is cognitively possible or cognitively likely partly depends on the age of the language user. What is socially desirable is also partly dependent on age. This chapter provides an overview of bilingual speaker optimization strategies inspired by Muysken (2013), relating preferences for a type of strategy to life stages. The chapter ends with a discussion on the challenges and opportunities of combining the lifespan acquisition perspective with the historical sociolinguistics of language contact.

Keywords: language contact, bilingual optimization strategies, acquisition across the lifespan, AoA (age of onset of acquisition), language change, language stability, cognitive factors, social factors
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Language contact outcomes as the result of bilingual optimization strategies
  • 2.Life stages and language development
  • 3.Rely on one language
    • 3.1What social circumstances increase the likelihood of reliance on one language?
    • 3.2Which linguistic domains are most likely to be part of the ‘rely on one language’ strategy?
    • 3.3What is the role of age in the selection of the rely on one language strategy?
  • 4.Rely on more languages
    • 4.1What social circumstances increase the likelihood of reliance on more languages?
    • 4.2Which linguistic domains are most likely to be part of the ‘rely on more languages’ strategy?
    • 4.3What is the role of age in the selection of the ‘rely on more languages’ strategy?
  • 5.Acquisition across the lifespan and the historical sociolinguistics of language contact: Challenges and opportunities
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 April 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ahs.14.05aal
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