Limited input: Circumstances and consequences

Aims and Objectives: The aim of this introductory chapter to Effects of Limited Input, a Special Issue of the International Journal of Bilingualism, is to give a brief overview of how the topic of limited linguistic input is situated within the study of bilingualism and language contact. The seven chapters—which present samples of the varied circumstances in which bilinguals acquire, use, maintain, and sometimes suppress areas of their languages—are introduced. Research Questions: The authors of this collection address the following kinds of questions: What are the circumstances—and consequences—of limited linguistic input? What kinds of changes are likely or unlikely to happen when the amount of input is low and stylistically reduced? How meager can the input be for some degree of functional bilingualism to still develop? Design/Methodology: The methods used in the seven articles in this collection vary; they include case studies, observations, speech-rate measurements, oral narration tasks, comparisons of production vs. comprehension, and longitudinal approaches. Data and Analysis: The studies in this collection draw from a wide variety of data sets, including bilingual corpora and naturally occurring or elicited speech. The data come from children, youth, and adults, from various languages and language contact settings, and from populations with varying degrees of bilingualism. Findings/Conclusions: We argue that limited input is not restricted to bilingual situations alone; it relates also to the mastering of monolingual registers. The key argument of this introductory chapter is that limited input is the rule, not the exception, as it is very rare to find a language contact situation wherein all contact varieties are equally represented in the input that speakers receive. Therefore, we argue against the theoretical notion of “balanced bilingualism” as a realistic outcome of bilingualism and claim that variations in the circumstances of language exposure will naturally lead to different consequences and configurations in the outcomes of bilingual acquisition. One inevitable outcome is language change. Originality: All the articles in this collection are original, providing new angles to the complex topic of variation in speakers’ access to their languages in contact settings. Significance: The authors of this collection look at various aspects of language contact situations through the lens of limited input. This emphasis allows us to view bilingualism as a special case of monolingual register variation and reject the concept of “balanced bilingualism.”