convergence (n.)

A term used in SOCIOLINGUISTICS to refer to a process of DIALECT change in which the dialects become more like each other (or converge). This usually happens when a non-standard dialect falls under the influence of the STANDARD, but it may happen the other way round – as in the current development of modified forms of RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION in English. Geographically adjacent SPEECH communities are sometimes referred to as convergence areas. The opposite effect is known as DIVERGENCE. ‘Convergence’ also has a currency in HISTORICAL linguistic studies, referring to the MERGING of FORMS which at an earlier stage of a LANGUAGE were CONTRASTIVE.

In the MINIMALIST PROGRAMME, a DERIVATION is said to converge if a STRUCTURAL DESCRIPTION is interpretable at the level of PHONETIC FORM or at the level of LOGICAL FORM. For this to happen, there should be nothing other than PHONOLOGICALLY interpretable features in the phonetic REPRESENTATION (PF-convergence) and nothing other than SEMANTICALLY interpretable features in the semantic representation (LF-convergence). If these conditions are not met, the derivation is said to crash.