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Language is a complex adaptive system (CAS). Its evolution, development in learners, and use are historically contingent and emergent. Its patterns emerge from social interaction in an environment, which both structures and is structured by iterative language use. Frequently-occurring patterns provide the system some stability; however, change is immanent in the system, brought about by its users co-adapting to an ever-changing environment. It is this co-adaptation that is the source of creativity and innovation in meaning making in a pragmatically appropriate manner. This view of language as a CAS represents a challenge to more traditional views of second language development. It suggests that there is neither linguistic innateness nor an endpoint to the development, certainly not one that is isomorphic with native speaker use. It at least partly explains why there is ubiquitous variability in the process and why given the nature of the process the learner's linguistic system is free to develop along alternative trajectories. These claims will be supported with both corpus and longitudinal developmental data.