Doris Stolberg - Böcker

The book investigates the diachronic dimension of contact-induced language change based on empirical data from Pennsylvania German (PG), a variety of German in long-term contact with English. Written data published in local print media from Pennsylvania (USA) between 1868 and 1992 are analyzed with respect to semantic changes in the argument structure of verbs, the use of impersonal constructions, word order changes in subordinate clauses and in prepositional phrase constructions.The research objective is to trace language change based on diachronic empirical data, and to assess whether existing models of language contact make provisions to cover the long-term developments found in PG. The focus of the study is thus twofold: first, it provides a detailed analysis of selected semantic and syntactic changes in Pennsylvania German, and second, it links the empirical findings to theoretical approaches to language contact.Previous investigations of PG have drawn a more or less static, rather than dynamic, picture of this contact variety. The present study explores how the dynamics of language contact can bring about language mixing, borrowing, and, eventually, language change, taking into account psycholinguistic processes in (the head of) the bilingual speaker.

Koloniale und Postkoloniale Linguistik / Colonial and Postcolonial Linguistics (KPL/CPL) provides the platform for a new research program which is currently taking shape in the realm of linguistics, viz. "Colonial and Postcolonial Linguistics". This new sub-discipline of linguistics is inspired by the work carried out within the framework of Missionary Linguistics and by the recent discussion about language, linguistics and colonialism. The integration of these two perspectives in one approach makes "Colonial and Postcolonial Linguistics" special. KPL/CPL serves the purpose of making accessible to the interested public (linguists, historians, native speakers of the object languages, etc.) and commenting upon those texts the topic of which are languages of the former European possessions in overseas and which were written during the European colonial era. The focus is on hitherto unpublished manuscripts and texts which nowadays are hard to come by. KPL/CPL also investigate in what ways the cultural and political discourse of the (post-)colonial times is reflected in the contemporary linguistic contributions dedicated to the languages of the colonized peoples. The new series publishes monographs and collections of articles. All incoming manuscripts are peer-reviewed (double blind). The languages of publication are preferably English and German.