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Editorial

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3 pages, 267 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Introducing the Special Issue: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Code-Switching

by Draško Kašćelan and Margaret Deuchar

Languages 2021, 6(1), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6010019 - 28 Jan 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2451

Abstract

Research on code-switching was the province of specialists in linguistics alone in the latter part of the twentieth century and is still a valuable source of insights into the human language faculty [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Code-Switching)

Research

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19 pages, 2277 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Code-Switching in Linguistics: A Position Paper

by Margaret Deuchar

Languages 2020, 5(2), 22; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages5020022 - 18 May 2020

Cited by 36 | Viewed by 17874 | Correction

Abstract

This paper provides a critical review of the state of the art in code-switching research being conducted in linguistics. Three issues of theoretical and practical importance are explored: (a) code-switching vs. borrowing; (b) grammaticality; and (c) variability vs. uniformity, and I take a [...] Read more.

This paper provides a critical review of the state of the art in code-switching research being conducted in linguistics. Three issues of theoretical and practical importance are explored: (a) code-switching vs. borrowing; (b) grammaticality; and (c) variability vs. uniformity, and I take a position on all three issues. Regarding switching vs. borrowing, I argue that not all lone other-language items are borrowings once more subtle measures of integration are used. I defend the use of empirical data to compare competing theoretical frameworks of grammaticality, and I exemplify quantitative research on variability in code-switching, showing that it also reveals uniformity and the possible influence of community norms. I conclude that more research is needed on a range of bilingual communities in order to determine the relative contribution of individual factors, processing and community norms to the variability and uniformity of code-switching. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Code-Switching)

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24 pages, 4374 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Language Interaction in Emergent Grammars: Morphology and Word Order in Bilingual Children’s Code-Switching

by Virve-Anneli Vihman

Languages 2018, 3(4), 40; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages3040040 - 31 Oct 2018

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4908

Abstract

This paper examines the morphological integration of nouns in bilingual children’s code-switching to investigate whether children adhere to constraints posited for adult code-switching. The changing nature of grammars in development makes the Matrix Language Frame a moving target; permeability between languages in bilinguals [...] Read more.

This paper examines the morphological integration of nouns in bilingual children’s code-switching to investigate whether children adhere to constraints posited for adult code-switching. The changing nature of grammars in development makes the Matrix Language Frame a moving target; permeability between languages in bilinguals undermines the concept of a monolingual grammatical frame. The data analysed consist of 630 diary entries with code-switching and structural transfer from two children (aged 2;10–7;2 and 6;6–11;0) bilingual in Estonian and English, languages which differ in morphological richness and the inflectional role of stem changes. The data reveal code-switching with late system morphemes, variability in stem selection and word order incongruence. Constituent order is analysed in utterances with and without code-switching, and the frame is shown to draw sometimes on both languages, raising questions about the MLF, which is meant to derive from the grammar of one language. If clauses without code-switched elements display non-standard morpheme order, then there is no reason to expect code-switching to follow a standard order, nor is it reasonable to assume a monolingual target grammar. Complex morphological integration of code-switches and interaction between the two languages are discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Code-Switching)

17 pages, 597 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Patterns of Short-Term Phonetic Interference in Bilingual Speech

by Šárka Šimáčková and Václav Jonáš Podlipský

Languages 2018, 3(3), 34; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages3030034 - 24 Aug 2018

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4506

Abstract

Previous research indicates that alternating between a bilingual’s languages during speech production can lead to short-term increases in cross-language phonetic interaction. However, discrepancies exist between the reported L1–L2 effects in terms of direction and magnitude, and sometimes the effects are not found at [...] Read more.

Previous research indicates that alternating between a bilingual’s languages during speech production can lead to short-term increases in cross-language phonetic interaction. However, discrepancies exist between the reported L1–L2 effects in terms of direction and magnitude, and sometimes the effects are not found at all. The present study focused on L1 interference in L2, examining Voice Onset Time (VOT) of English voiceless stops produced by L1-dominant Czech-English bilinguals—interpreter trainees highly proficient in L2-English. We tested two hypotheses: (1) switching between languages induces an immediate increase in L1 interference during code-switching; and (2) due to global language co-activation, an increase in L1-to-L2 interference occurs when bilinguals interpret (translate) a message from L1 into L2 even if they do not produce L1 speech. Fourteen bilinguals uttered L2-English sentences under three conditions: L2-only, code-switching into L2, and interpreting into L2. Against expectation, the results showed that English VOT in the bilingual tasks tended to be longer and less Czech-like compared to the English-only task. This contradicts an earlier finding of L2 VOT converging temporarily towards L1 VOT values for comparable bilingual tasks performed by speakers from the same bilingual population. Participant-level inspection of our data suggests that besides language-background differences, individual language-switching strategies contribute to discrepancies between studies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Code-Switching)

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17 pages, 402 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigating Gender Assignment Strategies in Mixed Purepecha–Spanish Nominal Constructions

by Kate Bellamy, M. Carmen Parafita Couto and Hans Stadthagen-Gonzalez

Languages 2018, 3(3), 28; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages3030028 - 16 Jul 2018

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 7045

Abstract

Purepecha has no grammatical gender, whereas Spanish has a binary masculine–feminine system. In this paper we investigate how early sequential Purepecha–Spanish bilinguals assign gender to Purepecha nouns inserted into an otherwise Spanish utterance, using a director-matcher production task and an online forced-choice acceptability [...] Read more.

Purepecha has no grammatical gender, whereas Spanish has a binary masculine–feminine system. In this paper we investigate how early sequential Purepecha–Spanish bilinguals assign gender to Purepecha nouns inserted into an otherwise Spanish utterance, using a director-matcher production task and an online forced-choice acceptability judgement task. The results of the production task indicate a strong preference for masculine gender, irrespective of the gender of the noun’s translation equivalent, the so-called “masculine default” option. Participants in the comprehension task were influenced by the orthography of the Purepecha noun in the -a ending condition, leading them to assign feminine gender agreement to nouns that are masculine in Spanish, but preferred the masculine default strategy again in the -i/-u ending condition. The absence of the “analogical criterion” in both tasks contrasts with the results of some previous studies, underlining the need for more comparable data in terms of task type. Our results also highlight how task type can influence the choices speakers make, in this context, in terms of the choice of grammatical gender agreement strategy. Task type should therefore be carefully controlled in future studies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Code-Switching)

16 pages, 2652 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Language Control and Code-switching

by David W. Green

Languages 2018, 3(2), 8; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages3020008 - 28 Mar 2018

Cited by 54 | Viewed by 15281

Abstract

Analyses of corpus-based indices of conversational code-switching in bilingual speakers predict the occurrence of intra-sentential code-switches consistent with the joint activation of both languages. Yet most utterances contain no code-switches despite good evidence for the joint activation of both languages even in single [...] Read more.

Analyses of corpus-based indices of conversational code-switching in bilingual speakers predict the occurrence of intra-sentential code-switches consistent with the joint activation of both languages. Yet most utterances contain no code-switches despite good evidence for the joint activation of both languages even in single language utterances. Varying language activation levels is an insufficient mechanism to explain the variety of language use. We need a model of code-switching, consistent with the joint activation of both languages, which permits the range of language use in bilingual speakers. I treat overt speech as the outcome of a number of competitive processes governed by a set of control processes external to the language networks. In a conversation, the speech of the other person may “trigger” code-switches consistent with bottom-up control. By contrast, the intentions of the speaker may act top-down to set the constraints on language use. Given this dual control perspective, the paper extends the control process model (Green and Wei 2014) to cover a plausible neurocomputational basis for the construction and execution of utterance plans in code-switching. Distinct control states mediate different types of language use with switching frequency as a key parameter in determining the control state for code-switches. The paper considers the nature of these states and their transitions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Code-Switching)

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Review

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19 pages, 2429 KiB

Open AccessReview

From the Field to the Lab: A Converging Methods Approach to the Study of Codeswitching

by Anne L. Beatty-Martínez, Jorge R. Valdés Kroff and Paola E. Dussias

Languages 2018, 3(2), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages3020019 - 6 Jun 2018

Cited by 42 | Viewed by 7952

Abstract

Variation in the ways by which an individual processes codeswitched language may reveal fundamental dynamics of the language system that are otherwise obscured under unilingual conditions. Despite this, an important aspect that has been largely neglected in the field is the role of [...] Read more.

Variation in the ways by which an individual processes codeswitched language may reveal fundamental dynamics of the language system that are otherwise obscured under unilingual conditions. Despite this, an important aspect that has been largely neglected in the field is the role of the bilingual experience in language processing. Drawing on corpus-driven and experimental research, the corpus-to-cognition approach to codeswitching integrates field- and laboratory-based work to examine how the bilingual experience may influence language processing. In this review, we elaborate on the best practices for investigating codeswitching, with converging evidence from different methodologies across different bilingual populations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Code-Switching)

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