Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact
- Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics
- The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Maps Volume II
- Figures Volume II
- Tables Volume II
- Contributors
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part One Multilingualism
- 2 Societal Multilingualism
- 3 Individual Bilingualism
- 4 Codeswitching and Translanguaging
- 5 Urban Contact Dialects
- 6 Multilingualism and Super-Diversity: Some Historical and Contrastive Perspectives
- 7 Multilingualism and Language Contact in Signing Communities
- 8 Multilingualism in India, Southeast Asia, and China
- 9 Monolingualism vs. Multilingualism in Western Europe: Language Regimes in France, Spain, and the United Kingdom
- Part Two Contact, Emergence, and Language Classification
- Part Three Lingua Francas
- Part Four Language Vitality
- Part Five Contact and Language Structures
- Author Index
- Language Index
- Subject Index
- References
3 - Individual Bilingualism
from Part One - Multilingualism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 June 2022
- The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact
- Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics
- The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Maps Volume II
- Figures Volume II
- Tables Volume II
- Contributors
- Preface
- Introduction
- Part One Multilingualism
- 2 Societal Multilingualism
- 3 Individual Bilingualism
- 4 Codeswitching and Translanguaging
- 5 Urban Contact Dialects
- 6 Multilingualism and Super-Diversity: Some Historical and Contrastive Perspectives
- 7 Multilingualism and Language Contact in Signing Communities
- 8 Multilingualism in India, Southeast Asia, and China
- 9 Monolingualism vs. Multilingualism in Western Europe: Language Regimes in France, Spain, and the United Kingdom
- Part Two Contact, Emergence, and Language Classification
- Part Three Lingua Francas
- Part Four Language Vitality
- Part Five Contact and Language Structures
- Author Index
- Language Index
- Subject Index
- References
Summary
Language contact is at its most intense within one and the same individual. This chapter discusses the dynamic and multifaceted phenomenon of individual bilingualism, which emerges when individuals learn to understand multiple language varieties. Individual bilingual language use may contribute to societal processes of language change, language maintenance, and language loss. It is as yet not fully clear how bilingual individuals affect such larger processes, but cross-linguistic influence in comprehension and production, patterns of language choice, and variable levels of proficiency across the lifespan all play a role. These in turn depend on individuals' contexts for learning and using languages throughout the lifespan. The chapter exemplifies some of these on the basis of bilinguals' language biographies (including Frederick the Great's). Language learning histories and opportunities for using each language help explain the large variability in language skills and use among bilinguals. New languages can be learned until well into adulthood. Their number is constrained only by learning opportunities and motivation. Previously learned languages, including languages learned very early in life, can be lost through lack of use and practice. Language attitudes play a large role in all of this.
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- Information
- The Cambridge Handbook of Language ContactVolume 2: Multilingualism in Population Structure, pp. 61 - 89Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022