Language Contact, Language Conflict treats the increasingly commonphenomenon of language contact and the subsequent cultural influences that contact can entail.The collection of papers is the result of a symposium held in Duisburg in March 1992 and isdivided into two sections: (a) theoretical linguistic issues and (b) case studies from throughoutthe world. In the foreword, Hymes admits his skepticism toward the search for universals inlinguistics, cognition, and human nature when “so much of anger as of joy is in thedetails” and, therefore, to preserve humanity, “the complex, emergentconfigurations of particular languages and ways of life are what need to be understood andshared” (foreword, no page number).