Wim Vandenbussche – författare

This book examines the relationship between political identity and variation from a diachronic perspective, and how vernacular features could index political and ideological affiliations. Specifically, it explores the use of written Scots in the correspondence of Scottish politicians active during the Union of the Parliaments debates at the turn of the eighteenth century. Drawing from the frameworks of First, Second and Third Wave perspectives on variation, and combining macro-social statistical modelling with microsocial analysis, broad socio-political factors are empirically investigated alongside plausible stylistic intentions in conditioning observed linguistic behaviour. Detailing the process of building a corpus, identifying relevant Scots features, and presenting analyses across time, sociolinguistic factors, and individual recipients, this volume provides the first in-depth quantitative and sociolinguistic examination of early modern Scots and its expanding indexical roles.

What are the points of contact between the study of language and the study of history? What are the possibilities for collaboration between linguists and historians, and what prevents it? This volume, the proceedings of an international conference held at the University of Bristol in April 2009, presents twenty-two articles by linguists and historians, exploring the relationship between the fields theoretically, conceptually and in practice. Contributions focus on a variety of European and American languages, in historical periods from the Middle Ages to the present day. Key themes at the intersection of these two disciplines are the standardization and classification of languages, the social and demographic history of medieval and early modern Europe, the study of language and history ‘from below’, and the function of language in modern politics. The value of interdisciplinary collaboration is demonstrated in a wide-ranging set of case studies, on topics including language contact in Northern and Central Europe, the relationship between peninsular and transatlantic Spanish, and new approaches to the recent histories of Nicaragua, Luxembourg and Bulgaria. The volume seeks out the interdependencies between the two fields and asks why exchanges between linguists and historians remain the exception rather than the rule.

Focusing on the sociolinguistic history of Germanic languages, the current volume challenges the traditional teleological approach of language historiography. The 30 contributions present alternative histories of ten ‘big’ as well as ‘small’ Germanic languages and varieties in the last 300 years. Topics covered in this book include language variation and change and the politics of language contact and choice, seen against the background of standardization processes of written and oral text genres and from the viewpoint of larger sections of the population.

Language Contact. An International Handbook offers a comprehensive overview of current topics in research on language contact. Broadly conceived, it stands out for its international approach to language contact, complementing the theoretical state-of-the-art with examples from traditionally eclipsed areas and languages. Next to a thorough introductory overview of the ground-breaking methodological and theoretical approaches that shaped the discipline, ample attention goes to the new and innovative insights on language contact in the 21st century. Combining concise introductory contributions with in-depth treatment of the most relevant case studies in the field, the handbook speaks to both junior and established scholars.

Language Contact. An International Handbook offers a comprehensive overview of current topics in research on language contact. Broadly conceived, it stands out for its international approach to language contact, complementing the theoretical state-of-the-art with examples from traditionally eclipsed areas and languages. Next to a thorough introductory overview of the ground-breaking methodological and theoretical approaches that shaped the discipline, ample attention goes to the new and innovative insights on language contact in the 21st century. Combining concise introductory contributions with in-depth treatment of the most relevant case studies in the field, the handbook speaks to both junior and established scholars.

Targeting a full range of students and scholars, this volume provides a total of 50 chapters illustrating the linguistic dynamics and the dynamics of (inter)individual, and societal language contact as well as the dynamics of multidisciplinary language contact studies. Fueled by a wealth of data from a rich variety of contact situations, its geographically balanced case studies are governed by the triangulation between a focus on language structure and change, a sincere drive of sociopolitical and academic agency, and the confrontation with an everyday reality that can be unkind to (and ignorant of) those two factors. The volume clearly demonstrates the social relevance of our trade in a time burdened with ecolinguistic challenges.