Examines the ways in which linguistic traits may change in a contact situation. This book contains an encyclopaedic introduction, which sets out a general theory of contact-induced change, and twelve subsequent chapters, which analyse the effects of language contact on grammatical systems in a variety of languages.

The book includes a glossary to facilitate its use by graduates and advanced undergraduates in linguistics and in disciplines such as anthropology.

1. Grammars in Contact: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective
2. Grammatical Diffusion in Australia: Free and Bound Pronouns
3. How Long do Linguistic Areas Last? Western Nilotic Grammars in Contact
4. Grammars in Contact in the Volta Basin (West Africa): On COntact Induced Grammatical Change in Likpe
5. Basque in Contact with Romance Languages
6. Language Contact and Convergence in East Timor: The Case of Tetun Dili
7. Language Contact and Convergence in Pennsylvania German
8. Balkanizing the Balkan Sprachbund: A Closer Look at Grammatical Permeability and Feature Distribution
9. Cantonese Grammar in Areal Perspective
10. Semantics and Pragmatics of Grammatical Relations in the Vaupes Linguistic Area
11. The Vaupes Melting Pot: Tukanoan Influence on Hup
12. The Quechua Impact in Amuesha, an Arawak Language of the Peruvian Amazon
13. Feeling the Need: The Borrowing of Cariban Functional Categories into Mawayana (Arawak)
Glossary of Terms
Index