Uniformitarianism in Language Speciation From Creolistics to Genetic Linguistics

Uniformitarianism is the widely held assumption that, in the case of languages,
structural and other changes in the past must have been triggered and
constrained by the same ecological factors as changes in the present. This
volume, led by two of the most eminent scholars in language contact, brings
together an international team of authors to shed new light on
Uniformitarianism in historical linguistics. Applying the Uniformitarian
Principle to creoles and pidgins, as well as other languages, the chapters
show that, contrary to the received doctrine, the former group of languages
did not emerge in an exceptional way. Covering a typologically and geographically
broad range of languages, and focusing on different contact
ecologies in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, the book also dispels
common misconceptions about what Uniformitarianism is. It shows how
similar processes in different ecosystems result in diverse linguistic patterns,
which don’t require exceptional linguistic explanations in terms of creolization,
pidginization, simplification, or incomplete acquisition.