ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to explore the mechanisms that bring about contact-induced change, rather than the various factors that constrain it. The best-known and most widely cited approach to contact-induced change is that of Sarah G. Thomason and Terrence Kaufman. This chapter presents an overview of contact-induced language change, with a focus on the various mechanisms that underlie it. Despite the relatively greater interest in internally caused change, there is of course a large and ever-expanding descriptive literature on the synchronic outcomes of language contact in various situations. Donald Winford and various other authors have advocated viewing contact-induced change in terms of an alternative framework – that of Van Coetsem. For example, Einar Haugen suggests that nouns are in general more often transferred than verbs; and the data in Martin Haspelmath and Uri Tadmor provides solid evidence that this is correct, even though a handful of languages show the opposite tendency.
