Language Assimilation and Crosslinguistic Influence

This is the first dissertation on code-switching, transference, integration and related language contact phenomena using written corpora. It provides a discourse analysis of language contact in the letters and diaries of major writers, such as Alfred Döblin, Oskar Maria Graf, Thomas, Klaus and Erika Mann, Karl Wolfskehl, Arnold and Stefan Zweig, and Carl Zuckmayer, and traces their assimilation into English and sometimes French speaking communities after they went into exile from National Socialism. The discourse analysis proceeds from an investigation of language contact in the mammoth correspondence of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels during their lengthy British exile. Because the private prose records the multilingual textual resources of these writers over many years, it has been possible to study the dynamics of language assimilation and crosslinguistic influence in the longer term and reassess the conclusions of cross-sectional investigations into bilingualism.