Vernacular Universals and Language Contacts

<p>In this book, contributors have been brought together to discuss the role of two major factors shaping the grammars of different varieties of English (and of other languages) all over the world: so-called vernacular universals and contact-induced change. Rather than assuming a general typological perspective, the studies in this volume focus on putative universal vernacular features – significant phonological or (morpho-) syntactic parallels found in non-standard varieties of English, English-based Creoles, and also varieties of other languages, all of which represent widely differing sociolinguistic and historical backgrounds. These universals are then set against the other major explanatory factor: contact-induced change, by which we understand both the possibility of dialect contact (or dialect diffusion) and language contact (including superstratal, substratal and adstratal influences).</p> <p>Vernacular Universals and Language Contacts: An Overview <em>Markku Filppula, Juhani Klemola and Heli Paulasto </em><strong>Part I: The Theory of Vernacular Universals </strong>Chapter 1: Cognition and the Linguistic Continuum from Vernacular to Standard <em>J.K. Chambers</em> Chapter 2: Vernacular Universals and Angloversals in a Typological Perspective <em>Benedikt Szmrecsanyi and Bernd Kortmann </em><strong>Part II: Consonant Cluster Reduction and Default Singulars: Prototypical Vernacular Universals? </strong>Chapter 3: How Diagnostic are English Universals? <em>Daniel Schreier </em>Chapter 4: Number Agreement in Existential Constructions: A Sociolinguistic Study of Eighteenth-Century English <em>Terttu Nevalainen </em>Chapter 5: There was Universals; then there weren’t: A Comparative Sociolinguistic Perspective on ‘Default Singulars’ <em>Sali A. Tagliamonte </em><strong>Part III: Universals and Contact in Varieties of English </strong>Chapter 6: Irish Daughters of Northern British Relatives: Internal and External Constraints on the System of Relativisation in South Armagh English (SArE) <em>Karen P. Corrigan </em>Chapter 7 The Case of Bungi: Evidence for Vernacular Universals <em>Elaine Gold </em>Chapter 8: The Regularisation of the Hiatus Resolution System in British English – A Contact-Induced ‘Vernacular Universal’? <em>David Britain and Sue Fox </em>Chapter 9: The Interplay of ‘Universals’ and Contact-Induced Change in the Emergence of New Englishes <em>Donald Winford </em>Chapter 10: Digging for Roots: Universals and Contact in Regional Varieties of English <em>Markku Filppula, Juhani Klemola and Heli Paulasto </em><strong>Part IV: Methodological and Theoretical Perspectives </strong>Chapter 11: Methods and Inferences in the Study of Substrate Influence <em>Terence Odlin </em>Chapter 12: Some Offspring of Colonial English are Creole <em>Salikoko S. Mufwene </em>Chapter 13: Vernacular Universals and the Sociolinguistic Typology of English Dialects <em>Peter Trudgill </em>Chapter 14: Linguistic Universals and Vernacular Data <em>Peter Siemund</em> Chapter 15: Why Universals VERSUS Contact-Induced Change? <em>Sarah G. Thomason</em></p>