The aim of this book is to review critically the state of the art in the field of languages in contact. By ‘languages in contact’ we mean ‘the use of two or more codes in interpersonal and intergroup relations as well as the psychological state of an individual who uses more than one language’. We distinguish between bilingualism and bilinguality. The concept of bilingualism refers to the state of a linguistic community in which two languages are in contact with the result that two codes can be used in the same interaction and that a number of individuals are bilingual (societal bilingualism); but it also includes the concept of bilinguality (or individual bilingualism). Bilinguality is the psychological state of an individual who has access to more than one linguistic code as a means of social communication; the degree of access will vary along a number of dimensions which are psychological, cognitive, psycholinguistic, social psychological, social, sociological, sociolinguistic, sociocultural and linguistic (Hamers, 1981).

DEFINITIONS

The concept of bilingualism seems at first sight to be non-problematical. According to Webster's dictionary (1961) bilingual is defined as ‘having or using two languages especially as spoken with the fluency characteristic of a native speaker; a person using two languages especially habitually and with control like that of a native speaker’ and bilingualism as ‘the constant oral use of two languages’. In the popular view, being bilingual equals being able to speak two languages perfectly; this is also the approach of Bloomfield (1935: 56), who defines bilingualism as ‘the native-like control of two languages’.