An Introduction to Language Attrition

This introductory text brings together diverse perspectives and research streams on language attrition - forgetting or loss of language proficiency that can take place in one's first or additional language, for different reasons, and at different life stages. Offering a comprehensive state-of-the-art overview, Michael T. Putnam and David Natvig define key concepts and the contemporary debates in the field, discussing a variety of structural/grammatical, societal, and psychological/cognitive aspects of this phenomenon and their implications for linguistic theory and language learning. Setting the future research agenda on this subject and with helpful features like discussion questions, this will be an invaluable resource for advanced students and researchers of theoretical & applied linguistics, bilingualism & heritage linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, education, and beyond.

Michael T. Putnam is Professor of German and Linguistics at Penn State University and currently serves as the Director of the Linguistics Program. David Natvig is Associate Professor of Nordic Linguistics at the University of Stavanger.

Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. Sociolinguistic factors 3. Cognitive factors 4. Lexical attrition 5. Grammatical attrition 6. Toward a unified approach 7. Taking stock 8. Epilogue References Index