摘要：In this article it is claimed that language contact has led to structural homogeneity in the
languages of Mesoamerica. Mesoamerican languages are demonstrated to be
structurally homogeneous insofar as they tend to be consistently right-branching. This
tendency can naturally be explained in terms of Hawkins!ˉ (1994, 2004) theory of Early
Immediate Constituents (EIC), which predicts that uniform branching facilitates online
processing. Adopting an evolutionary model of language change proposed by Kirby
(1999), it is argued that Mesoamerican languages have become structurally
homogeneous as a result of the adaptive interplay between the generation of structural
variation on the one hand, and the process of selection from among existing variants on
the other: Language contact acts as a source and amplifier of variation and therefore
feeds the evolutionary mechanisms of change. It offers speakers a choice and allows for
the selection of those structures which optimize Early Immediate Constituent
recognition best.
