Divergent development vs. convergent development. The common Germanic diachronic typological constant.

Divergent Development

Divergent development implies separation from a common point and movement in different directions

Convergent Development

Convergent development suggests coming together towards the same point. If languages tend to acquire more and more structural or other resemblances, which cannot be explained by genetic relationships ,it is possible to speak of convergence-The emergence of characteristics testifying to convergent development is usually observed in languages of the same geographical area and is studied by areal linguistics. Convergence is often caused by multifarious 1inguo-ethniс contacts between communities . It may manifest itself in specific(for a certain region)innovations shared by the areal group of languages

The lexical subsystem is the level of the language system most susceptible to areal innovations

We shall have to take into account fact when we start analysing typological tendencies in the English vocabulary system.

This is the convergent development of languages which neither form a single areal group nor display any genetic relationship. Their convergence does not derive from any contacts between communities. This is a typological convergence. English, as we have already stated above, has changed its system to such an extent that it is approximating to the agglutinating and isolating types.This means that in some leading aspects modern English is structurally closer to Turkish or Chinese than to Latin or Icelandic, though Latin,

English, and Icelandic belong to the Indo-European family, Icelandic (as a North Germanic language) being in close relationship to English. But neither Turkish nor Chinese are Indo-European languages

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