A usage-based approach to “language” in language contact

Abstract

Abstract The use of named languages is still prevalent in current contact linguistics research. In this paper, I argue that this cannot explain many contact situations and types of language knowledge. I propose a usage-based account of language instead which does not take linguistic systems for granted but construes them based on the single linguistic unit. A language is seen as a radially organized network of constructions, which are interlinked through co-use, which employ the same inventory of linguistic forms and which are appropriate in the same socio-pragmatic circumstances.