Introduction to Linguistic Factors in Language Attrition

At the heart of most investigations into language attrition are the actual linguistic manifestations of the process: observable phenomena of how a particular individual uses or comprehends language differently after becoming bilingual from how they used or comprehended it in the past, or from how other monolingual speakers do this. This chapter gives a brief introduction to how research into these phenomena has unfolded and developed historically, and also presents a ‘sneak preview’ to some aspects of ongoing research, particularly in the area of phonetics/phonology and lexical access. It then introduces the contributions to the present section.