| The research in this programme focuses on the comparative study of patterns of language contact, diffusion and change in a variety of very different language settings and historical time depths. This involves comparative study of the grammatical systems and typological properties of languages, of the transmission of language from one generation to the next through first language acquisition, of the nature of language contact situations, of the linguistic responses to language contact through second language acquisition, and of the diffusion of those responses through language communities and over time. The research in this programme therefore combines linguistic description and typology with the study of language variation and change, and with the linguistic and sociolinguistic effects of first and second language acquisition. |
