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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Contact-Induced Convergence: Typology and Areality

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From an integrative perspective, research on language typology and research on areality understood in terms of contact-induced convergence are mutually dependent. Typologists need to be aware that their generalizations are as reliable as they manage to integrate effects of contact into their statistics. Contact linguists need to be aware that typological findings may not qualify as independent evidence for their field. Thus, typologists and contact linguists both need to have certain information concerning each other's field. For that reason, this article covers both fields under one title. The article is divided into three main sections. The first deals with language contact and its structural effects. Geographical consequences of structural convergence is the topic of the second main section. Instead of the problematic concept of linguistic area, the more open concept of zone of structural convergence is suggested. The typological part is treated in a third main section.