Editing Language convergence (section)

== Contexts ==

Language convergence occurs in geographic areas with two or more languages in contact, resulting in groups of languages with similar linguistic features that were not inherited from each language's [[proto-language]].<ref name=":0" /> These geographic and linguistic groups are called linguistic areas, or [[Sprachbund]] areas.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=An Introduction to Contact Linguistics|last=Winford|first=Donald|publisher=Blackwell|year=2003|isbn=0631212515|location=Malden, MA|pages=65, 70–78}}</ref> Linguistic features shared by the languages in a language area as a result of language convergence are called areal features.<ref name=":0" /> In situations with many languages in contact and a variety of areal features, linguists may use the term language convergence to indicate the impossibility of locating a singular source for each areal feature.<ref name=":1" /> However, as the classification of linguistic areas and language convergence depends on shared areal features, linguists must distinguish between areal features resulting from convergence and internally motivated changes resulting in chance similarities between languages.<ref name=":4">Appel, René; Pieter Muysken (1987). "Language Contact and Language Change", In ''Language Contact and Bilingualism''. New York: Edward Arnold. pp. 153-163.</ref>

Language convergence can also occur for a particular person's grammar. It sometimes occurs in children who are acquiring a second language. Because the grammar of the child's native language is still developing, the grammar patterns of the first and second language can influence each other. Singaporean students learning both English and Mandarin showed use of common Mandarin grammatical structures when speaking English.<ref>Chen, Ee San (2003) Language Convergence and Bilingual Acquisition, Annual Review of Language Acquisition, vol. 3, 89–137, {{doi|10.1075/arla.3.05che}}</ref>