Preface
The essay “Code Copying. The Strength of Languages in Take-over and Carry-over Roles” presents a new synthesis of my Code-Copying Model, an integrated framework for investigating contact-induced processes. The volume summarizes the model’s principles and foundations in a clear, cogent, and coherent manner. The fundamental difference between ‘take-over’ copying and ‘carry-over’ copying is given special value. Speakers can take over copies from a secondary code into their own primary code or, alternatively, they can carry over copies from their own primary code into their variety of a secondary code. The results of these two types of copying are significantly different and thus provide insights into historical processes.
My own work on this topic started 30 years ago, and the model has thus been tested theoretically and empirically through many years studying the relevant issues. My purpose is to define a framework which includes all the main issues in their interrelationship. The terminology is kept intuitive and simple to apply. The model is demonstrated to be applicable to both spoken and written codes. Moreover, the model can be pertinent to describing non-linguistic copying processes, for instance, in cultural contexts.
This is a first innovative summary presenting all essential details of the Code-Copying Model. Over the years, numerous linguistic studies have applied the framework for analyzing contact-induced changes in different languages. This volume is a further logical step in the process of understanding the phenomena involved. It does not replace earlier contributions by other linguists.
The volume is not an introductory text, but rather provided for students of linguistics who already have a certain knowledge of the subject. The statements are illustrated from a wide range of languages. The prevalence of Turkic languages is due to the author’s special interest in this language family, but illustrative examples from a large number of other languages demonstrate the validity of the model for the description of contact-induced phenomena in any language.
The aim is not to engage in debate. Code Copying has distinct bearing on human communication, cognition, categorization, and social conventions. It stands apart from the treatment of contact processes in other contributions, but it shows interrelations with them. The major focus is on the dynamics of contact-induced processes synchronically and through language history.
It has long been my desire to present the Code-Copying Model in a single monograph, but so far, my relevant research has only been available in studies published in journals and collections of essays. The series Research Perspectives: Linguistics provides an appropriate forum for realizing the plan to elaborate my views on the different aspects of the topic. The volume begins with a summary of the model’s components, illustrates the types of copying with illustrative examples from Turkic and various other languages in the world. Bi-and multilingual large, English, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and small high-copying languages provide examples of language contact scenarios. Individual chapters deal with questions of copiability of grammaticalization, stability of high-copying languages, and the difficulties in distinguishing between cognates and copies. My aim has been to demonstrate that copying is not ‘dangerous’, and does not lead to the death of languages. On the contrary, it is a creative, rule-governed process, which can increase the strength of the copying code by facilitating bi- or multilingual speakers’ communication. The final chapter presents the phenomenon of language intertwining in written high-copying languages analyzed in the Code-Copying Model.
Lars Johanson