The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
This study investigates the interrelation between use, meaning and the mind as a central issue of contact-induced linguistic variation and change, using the influence of French, Spanish, German and Yiddish on English as case studies. It relies on innovative methodological approaches, including the use of an integrative, socio-cognitive model of the dynamic lexicon, to describe borrowing processes and their linguistic outcomes. The multitude of socio-cultural contexts...