ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses language contact within the individual. It begins with a brief historical overview of the competing theories of “child language acquisition” in general before it shows how learning two languages from an early age might differ from acquiring only one. Because not every bilingual is born into a home or community where they are constantly exposed to two or more languages from birth, this chapter looks at different individual trajectories to see how they might differ, focusing in the second part on what is known as “second language acquisition.” Finally, this chapter introduces the notion of “language attrition” in bilinguals. The chapter ends with a consideration of how the outcomes of the differing individual processes of acquisition and attrition could lead to language change.
