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General orientations.
All the linguistic fields are concerned with the problematics of "dynamics of languages and linguistic contact"; nevertheless, situations which explicitly show a complex state linked to multilingualism and the dynamics of contact it generates are certainly more interesting because they require a theoretical refocusing.
Two approaches can be proposed:
- a historical-linguistic approach.
- an anthropological-linguistic approach.
The historical-linguistic approach
is based on the study of the stratification
of contacts. It is concerned with the modification of forms and
structures of languages in contact, according to linguistic, cognitive criteria,
and hypothesis about past language activities.
as examples, we can present different cases of languages
and hybrid forms, resulting from non-linear evolutions,
of which we have a good documentation now. But there are also cases of
linguistic convergence which constitute another
interesting research source.
The anthropological-linguistic approach
is linked to language activity (it is closely linked to discursive constraints expressed in interactions). Then, it becomes significant to observe the way linguistic dynamics appear in the usual context of communication. It is concerned by sociolinguistic differenciations and areas of contact considered through those linguitic actualizations :
thus, situations which occur from both traditional multilingualism
and more or less lasting senses of identity are interesting: expression
of epilinguistic activity, of linguistic varieties renewal
in the traditional context of emergence contituted by teenagers groups.
And we can as well focus our attention on strategies of groups in diapora
who according to their own criteria will develop linguictic dynamics different
from the languages spoken in the host countries.
Of course, those few examples are not exhaustive.
"Dynamics of languages" can be defined as the actualization
and the transformation of languages: this means it includes all the issues
presented above, which are linked to many fields concerning man and society,
such as :
anthropology, sociology, history, as well as other aspects
of evolution of systems and cognitive approaches can be part of our questioning.