HOW LANGUAGES CHANGE AND HOW THEY ADAPT: SOME CHALLENGES FOR THE FUTURE

Studies of contact between and within languages lead us to rethink our view of how languages change in ordinary use, how they come to be and develop. We now speak of multiplicity and heterogeneity1 in language as a matter of course and refer freely to variability and contact-induced change. But what do me mean by “as a matter of course”? For the professional analyst2, this can mean three partly interconnected things falling under the headings of both scientific procedure and the assessment of that procedure3.- Within the scientific community, it is now legitimate to recognize and take an interest, in word at least, in contact-induced phenomena without risk of intellectual stigmatization or socioprofessional ostracism. This means that we can “speak out”, though the actual impact of what we say remains uncertain.- In the drafting of research projects, it is now sensible to propose new investigations and seek out new fields where descriptions of empirical contact-induced phenomena can be 1 I make the following distinction between ‘multiplicity ’ and ‘heterogeneity’: ‘multiplicity ’ refers to entities of the same kind and/or with identical status (languages, dialects, and so on), and implies reproduction of the “oneness”. ‘Heterogeneity ’ involves entities of different kinds and/or statuses, which are situated with respect to one another, and participate in the construction/constitution of a single object, the working up of a phenomenon which is to be apprehended and/or defined (sometimes redefined) as ‘homogeneous ’ within