Convergence and divergence are usually defined as changes in opposite directions
– convergence increases, divergence decreases interlingual similarities
between two given languages or varieties. Additionally, convergence is often
explained as the ‘natural’, expectable process in language contact, whereas divergence
is associated with psychosocial mechanisms. Based on observations from
the recent development of Low German in its present intense contact with High
German, this contribution argues that the distinction between convergence and
divergence is not as straightforward as it seems and that it is not convergence as
such that can be explained without the involvement of any extralinguistic factors,
but rather pro-diasystematic change (as opposed to counter-diasystematic
change) – i.e. innovations that facilitate the establishment of language-unspecific
structures in a common constructional system.
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