Thomason (2005)

Contact as a Source of Language Change

Types of linguistic interference

Systematic effects on the recipient language; Interference with and without imperfect learning; Linguistic factors in linguistic interference.

Systematic effects on the recipient language

The loss of old features; New features; Old features replaced by new features; Compare to internal language change.

Interference with and without imperfect learning

Borrowing or recipient language agentivity; Shift-induced change or source language agentivity.

Linguistic factors in linguistic interference

Universal markedness; Typological distance; When contact is intense enough, there appear to be no absolute linguistic barriers at all to borrowing.

Mechanisms of interference
Bilingualism in source and recipient language; Negotiation; Second language acquisition strategies; Concious and deliberate decisions.

Bilingualism
Code-switching; Code alternation; Passive familiarity; First language acquisition.

Negotiation
(Trying to) make one language or dialect more similar to another language or dialect. Pidgins, creoles.

Second language acquisition

More or less unconscious incorporation of lexical and grammatical features into a language by L2-learners. Lack of knowledge, lack of possibility.

Conscious and deliberate decisions

Pidgins, creoles; Language mixtures; The wish to be different; Etc.

Language attrition
Simplification, not accompanied by complication. Prelude of language death. Borrowing, internally motivated or both.

Contact-language genesis
Pidgins, creoles. Bilingual mixtures. Same principles as contact-induced change.

Explaining and predicting language change

Predicting is not possible. Explaining is possible afterwards.