Most societies in today's world are multilingual. "Language contact" occurs when speakers of different languages interact and their languages influence each other. This book is an introduction to the subject, covering individual and societal multilingualism, the acquisition of two or more languages from birth, second-language acquisition in adulthood, language change, linguistic typology, language processing, and the structure of language faculty. It explains the effects of multilingualism on society and language policy, as well as the consequences that long-term bilingualism within communities can have for the structure of languages. Drawing on the author's own first-hand observations of child and adult bilingualism, the book provides a clear analysis of such phenomena as language convergence, grammatical borrowing, and mixed languages.
● An integrated approach - covers both individual and societal bilingualism
● Includes authentic, first-hand examples of child and adult bilingualism
● Includes a detailed survey by category of structural borrowing

The phenomenon of language contact, and how it affects the structure of languages, has been of great interest to linguists. This study looks at how grammatical forms and structures evolve when speakers of two languages come into contact, and offers an interesting insight into the mechanism that induces people to transfer grammatical structures from one language to another. Drawing on findings from languages all over the world, Language Contact and Grammatical Change shows that the transfer of linguistic material across languages is quite regular and follows universal patterns of grammaticalization - contrary to previous claims that it is a fairly irregular process - and argues that internal and external explanations of language structure and change are in no way mutually exclusive. Engaging and informative, this book will be of great interest to sociolinguists, linguistic anthropologists, and all those working on grammaticalization, language contact, and language change.

Ten years of research back up the bold new theory advanced by authors Thomason and Kaufman, who rescue the study of contact-induced language change from the neglect it has suffered in recent decades. The authors establish an important new framework for the historical analysis of all degrees of contact-induced language change.

《汉语史中的语言接触问题研究》内容简介：在汉语史研究领域，较早注意到其他语言对汉语发展影响问题的，是王静如（1935）、吕叔湘（1940）等学者；1953年日本学者太田辰夫发表《关于汉儿言语——试论白话发展史》一文，首次系统考察了中古以来受阿尔泰语影响形成的北方“汉儿言语”的发展、盛行及消亡的过程。此后，这方面的研究相对沉寂。近年来这种情形逐渐得到改观，学者们开始重新认识和估价语言接触对汉语历史发展产生的影响。

《论早期东亚与欧洲的语言接触(中文版)》简介：语言是人类最显著和最独特的认知能力和认知方式，使用语言是人类区别于其他动物的关键特征之一。《论早期东亚与欧洲的语言接触(中文版)》主要介绍了早期耶稣会士认知日语及至汉语的进程、《圣人传辑录》与日语罗马字转写规范之起始、耶稣会士直面汉语、耶稣会插图本“专业汉语”教材《西字奇迹》、麦都思《朝鲜伟国字汇》钩沉等内容。揭示了传教士对汉字解析与认知之体系，以及该体系对东亚三国的语言尤其是汉语的发展所作的贡献。

十九世纪的历史比较语言认为语言的演化只有一种模式，即由一种母语不断分化出诸多有亲属关系语言的谱系树模式。本书作者通过对傣语和汉语接触的追踪研究，认为语言演化有两种根本不同的模式；即由印欧语系为代表的谱系树模式和以汉越联盟为代表的语言联盟。