1. CODILANG: MIXED MODEL OF DIVERGENCE-CONVERGENCE OF LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD Vladimir Polyakov (Russia)

2. Contents Description of the problem Restrictions of the existing approaches Characteristics of linguistic contacts Elements of the model Stability, transitivity, genetic significance Reference list of grammar categories Conclusion

3. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM Historic linguistics focuses mainly on the problem of similari ty of languages. The existing models describe mainly the divergence (i.e. discrepancy, dissociation, splitting) of languages. The model of genetic tree is the most frequently used one. Along with it, there are quite obvious proofs of the fact that, as well as divergence, convergence of languages has comparable influence on the processes of forming languages. The processes of convergence can be observed in the historical time on the example of Creole languages. For example, a number of Creole languages appeared on the coast of Latin and Central America as a result of mass immigration of people from the African continent during the period of slavery. There are also hypotheses about convergent appearance of some languages, referring of which to one particular language family is rather complicated. The reconstruction of the process of appearance and changing of languages in prehistoric time under the influence of language contacts are a very complicated task, as the data about the contacts can be received only from linguistic, genetic and probably archeological data.

4. RESTRICTIONS OF THE EXISTING APPROACHES The methods of lexical statistics and comparative- historical method are oriented completely on building divergent models. The existing approaches to studying Creole languages are oriented on well checked historical data about language contacts. Shy attempts of getting data about lexical and grammatical loans do not reflect the historical linkage and the scale of the phenomenon. The genetic data bases form ethnic contents of regions and their dynamics, focusing primarily on the convergence of ethnic groups.

5. CHARACTERISTICS OF LANGUAGE CONTACTS The fact of a language contact The beginning and the duration of the language contact on the axis of prehistoric and historic time The form of the contact and the intensity of the contact (linguistic situation) The result of the contact (the type of the language)

6. Elements of the model The bases of the initial data (lexical, grammatical, genetic, archeological). The structure of the data, which describes not only divergent, but also convergent relations between the languages. Models, methods and algorithms of revealing relative relations and language contacts. Media of visualization of all types of relations.

7. STABILITY, TRANSITIVITY, ABILITY TO LOSE, CHANGEABILITY, GENETIC SIGNIFICANCE, GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND AGE OF GRAMMAR FEATURES In the data base “Languages of the world” there are data on the grammar structure of more than 300 languages of Eurasia and on more than 3000 grammar features. It is well known that grammar features tend to loans during the process of language contacts. It is probably connected with a number of specific cognitive characteristics of grammar structures, with a later time of their formation and different depth of penetration into the mind than that of the vocabulary. There are (and are also being developed) metrics, algorithms and methods, that allow to evaluate in numeric measurement such features of grammar categories as: - stability (marker of invariability of the category with the time); - transitivity (marker of the ability of the grammar category to moving to another linguistic environment); - ability to lose (marker of the ability of the grammar category to be washed out from the language); - changeability (marker of changeability of the features in the process of language contacts); - genetic significance of the feature (the relevancy of the feature of a definite language family); - geographical distribution (maps of the spread of grammar features); - age(time of appearance of the feature in Eurasia. There is hope that these data about the characteristics of the grammar structure, combined with the genetic data, will allow to build a map of language contacts on the territory of Eurasia.

8. REFERENCE LIST OF GRAMMAR CATEGORIES One of the tasks is forming an reference list of grammar categories (an analogue of Swadesh’s list of lexical units), which allows to receive reliable conclusions about the fact itself and about the character of language contacts. Probably, this list will not be one- dimensional, but will have a multidimensional character.

9. CONCLUSION The presented material is not a finished study. It is a preliminary discussion on the topic in question. The author calls on the colleagues to cooperate in this complicated field.

10. The End. Thank you.