Diminutive constructions inbilingual speech

This article investigates English–Japanese children's code-switching (CS) from the structural point of view. Muysken categorises it into three types, that is, insertion, alternation and congruent lexicalisation. Regarding insertion, using Myers- Scotton's matrix language frame (MLF) model, for example, the matrix language (ML) of a bilingual clause can be identified and items from the other language are considered embedded. In contrast, alternation does not distinguish between the matrix and embedded languages: the speaker makes a full change from using language A to using language B. In congruent lexicalisation, on the other hand, the ML consists of two or more languages. In this article, natural data from two English–Japanese bilingual children (5;9-9;3, 3;3-6;9) are analysed primarily using the MLF model, the insertion framework, but the ML cannot be identified in 41.8% of the data. These are examined with the alternation and congruent lexicalisation frameworks. Qualitative analyses show that psycholinguistic processes and pragmatic forces underlie those non-insertional types of CS. Psycholinguistic processes of triggering and formulaic language play important roles in alternation, whereas convergence, another psycholinguistic process, leads to congruent lexicalisation. From the pragmatic point of view, English makes a pragmatic/discourse frame and Japanese expresses propositional meanings. This finding suggests that bilingual children can attribute different functions to different languages.

This paper uses some data from Igbo-English intrasentential codeswitching involving mixed nominal expressions to test the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model. The MLF model is one of the most highly influential frameworks used successfully in the study of grammatical aspects of codeswitching. Three principles associated with it, the Matrix Language Principle, the Asymmetry Principle and the Uniform Structure Principle, were tested on data collected from informal conversations by educated adult Igbo-English bilinguals resident in Port Harcourt. The results of the analyses suggest general support for the three principles and for identifying Igbo-English as a ‘classic’ case of codeswitching.

This article focuses on the question to what degree typological characteristics of the languages involved interact with the Matrix Language vs. Embedded Language and Content Morpheme vs. System Morpheme distinctions. In addition, the integration of Estonian items in Russian—Estonian codeswitched sentences is described, because the extent of integration of Estonian items into the Russian matrix is closely related to matrix language determination. Both Estonian and Russian have a complex inflectional morphology. Full integration of an Estonian item into Russian means gender and case assignment, but in fact this does not occur in all codeswitched instances. Russian—Estonian data demonstrate a wider range of possibilities than just fully integrated and completely unintegrated items. Estonian items may be integrated phonologically into Russian (e.g. regarding vowel length or stress), but morphological and phonological integration do not depend on each other: Estonian items may show extensive phonological but no morphological integration into Russian and vice versa. Bilingual data show that the matrix language cannot be determined by analyzing the morphosyntactic level only; the degree of phonological integration of codeswitched words should also be taken into account. Thus, the morphosyntactic bias in the Matrix Language Frame model, meaning that phonological adaptation has no influence at all on matrix language assignment, is criticized.

One of the most developed models for explaining bilingual constituents is the matrix language frame model (Myers-Scotton 1997). Its basic insight is that a bilingual constituent will be determined by the abstract structure underlying only one of the languages of the constituent, the matrix language. While the model has been tested against many language situations, a situation typical for minority linguistic groups in Maiduguri in NE Nigeria has not been studied in detail. The present study centers on Nigerian Arabs. Urban Nigerian Arabs are typically bilingual in Nigerian Arabic (NA) and Hausa, and additionally they use English and Standard Arabic, particularly for lexical concepts. Bilingual speech (codeswitching) is supported by both NA and Hausa matrices. In a number of respects, however, both lexical and constituent insertions into these two languages are different. This article documents these differences on the basis of an extensive spoken corpus, and examines their implication for the notion of matrix language. It is argued that the structural notion of matrix language needs to be supplemented with a perspective allowing matrix languages to be conceived of in hierarchical terms.

In this paper, we show how some proposals within the Minimalist Program are compatible with a model of codeswitching that recognizes an asymmetry between the participating languages, the Matrix Language Frame model. Through our discussion of an analysis of NPs in a Spanish–English corpus, we illustrate this compatibility and show how recent minimalist proposals can explain the distribution of nouns and determiners in this data set if they adopt the notion of Matrix Language as the bilingual instantiation of structural uniformity in a CP. We outline the central premises of the Matrix Language Frame model, and introduce the Uniform Structure Principle which requires that the structure of constituents be uniform at an abstract level. We then review previous applications of the Minimalist Program to codeswitching. Much recent research in minimalism has focused on issues related to feature checking. Earlier approaches to feature checking required matching of features in grammatical structures, although more recent proposals consider distinctions in the values of features and in types of matching. Because phi-features for grammatical gender in Spanish and English differ, an analysis of NPs in this corpus of naturally occurring Spanish–English conversations provides a test for minimalist applications to codeswitching. We present our general findings of the distribution of types of NP constituents and then consider explanations of these distributions in light of minimalist proposals. It is possible to explain these distributions in a recasting of the Matrix Language Frame model in minimalist terms, if the construct of the Matrix Language is maintained. The requirement that one language, the Matrix Language, provide an abstract grammatical frame in bilingual constituents corresponds to the type of uniformity that Chomsky (2001) suggests is necessary for the explanatory study of language and variation in language.

Introduction. In contact linguistics, the problem of differentiating between code switches and loanwords is relevant enough, which arises from that there are no unified research approaches thereto, and consequently nor there any precise definitions for the phenomena and classification criteria. The difficulties in distinguishing between the two linguistic processes result from that in intensive language contacts they tend to gain more similarities in terms of phonology, morphology and syntax — rather than differences. Some scholars argue that code-switching is the first stage in the development of a token in a matrix language, i.e. the lexemes had been code switches before they became ‘nuclear’ borrowings. The process of switching codes in speech is associated with the phenomenon of mass bilingualism. Goals. The problem of code-switching is understudied in Bashkir linguistics, and the paper attempts to distinguish the former from borrowings in the context of Bashkir-Russian bilingualism. Materials and methods. The study analyzes transcribed recordings of colloquial Bashkir (from speakers of Karaidel, a dialect of northwestern Bashkir) obtained during the author’s expeditions of 2022 and 2023. When it comes to describe code-switching, the workr employs Myers-Scotton’s Matrix Language Frame model. The article deals with intraphrasal switches in the form of inclusions and insular switches within one sentence. Results. The study identifies some difficulties of distinguishing between borrowings and code switches. According to G. Chirsheva, borrowings are divided into cultural and occasional (nuclear) ones. The latter are essentially and functionally close to code switches. K. Myers-Scotton presumes their main differences can be reduced to that code switches are used in individual cases (or no more than three times) and are not included in the mental lexicon of the matrix language. Therefore, barbarisms, such as еще / ищо, уже / ужы, вис, сәпсим, etc., which are often used in the speech of bilingual Bashkirs, must be referred to as occasional / nuclear borrowings (according to G. Chirsheva), while individual foreign-language inclusions be considered code switches.

Bilingual serial verb constructions: A comparative study of Ewe-English and Ewe-French codeswitching

Reviewed by: The Cambridge handbook of linguistic code-switching Margaret Deuchar The Cambridge handbook of linguistic code-switching. Ed. by Barbara E. Bullock and Almeida Jacqueline Toribio. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Pp. xv, 422. ISBN 9780521875912. $135 (Hb). [End Page 702] This edited collection contains contributions from an impressive number of leading code-switching (CS) researchers. It is divided into five parts: Part 1, ‘Conceptual and methodological considerations in code-switching research’; Part 2, ‘Social aspects of code-switching’; Part 3, ‘The structural implications of code-switching’; Part 4, ‘Psycholinguistics and code-switching’; and Part 5, ‘Formal models of code-switching’. One of its many strengths is that it includes chapters on a wide range of methodological approaches, including the use of experimental techniques in studying CS, CS and the internet, CS between sign languages, CS and language disorders, and CS and the brain. The contributors represent not only a wide variety of approaches to CS but also the diversity of terminology used. The editors provide a persuasive argument for the study of CS in their introductory chapter, ‘Themes in the study of code-switching’ (1–17), but could have better highlighted the different uses of terminology by contributors, and might have made a few recommendations leading to increased uniformity in the future. For example, Bullock and Toribio describe the famous sentence from Poplack 1980, Sometimes I’ll start a sentence in Spanish y termino en español, in three different ways, as involving (i) classic CS, (ii) alternation, and (iii) intra-sentential CS. Only the second description is uncontroversial. The term intra-sentential is contrasted with inter-sentential in a fairly standard way, in that the latter is described as involving alternation at clause boundaries. Under this definition, however, the sentence by Poplack would be inter-sentential because there is a clause boundary between Sometimes I’ll start a sentence in Spanish and termino en español. There is in fact considerable confusion in the literature in the use of the term ‘intra-sentential’: some investigators (including Poplack 1980:589) use the term to mean ‘intra-clausal’, while others (like Dorlein and Nortier in Ch. 8) use it as Bullock and Toribio do to include switching within a complex sentence that is made up of more than one clause. In the editors’ shoes I might have used the introductory chapter to draw attention to this multiple usage, and perhaps recommend to future researchers replacement of these terms with the clearer ‘intra-clausal’ and ‘inter-clausal’. Another issue regarding terminology arises from Bullock and Toribio’s suggested equation of Muysken’s notion of congruent lexicalization with Myers-Scotton’s notion of a composite matrix language. As Myers-Scotton (2002:100) makes clear, she disagrees with Muysken’s (2000:132) view of congruent lexicalization as involving bidirectional code-mixing. Furthermore, while congruent lexicalization occurs where the two languages are closely related (as in the Dutch-Sranan example given by Bullock and Toribio), the notion of a composite matrix language is most clearly illustrated by CS between two languages that differ in word order and morphology. But leaving aside issues in terminology, the volume includes work with original findings that have considerable theoretical implications. For example, Ghada Khattab, in ‘Phonetic accommodation in children’s code-switching’ (142–59), provides evidence that should lead us to modify the accepted view on the unimportance of nonnative as opposed to peer input. Another chapter that presents new findings is Barbara E. Bullock’s ‘Phonetic reflexes of code-switching’ (163–81). In a research context in which little is known about the phonetic aspects of CS, Bullock demonstrates how CS had an effect on the production of the voiceless stops that English-Spanish bilinguals use when speaking English only. In ‘Code-switching between typologically distinct languages’ (182–98), Brian Hok-Shing Chan accounts for the lack of agreement on a universal model of CS by appealing to processing strategies and sociolinguistic factors. Processing strategies may include considerations of economy and isomorphism, which he suggests may account for the commonly found uniformity of the matrix language in the matrix language frame (MLF) model. He suggests that this should...

The aim of grammatical accounts of language alternation, as we have seen, is to demonstrate how speakers achieve a sense of structural uniformity despite diversity, how they use linguistic resources available to maintain a sense of order. In Chapter 3, I have reviewed two models which have been proposed as accounts of order in talk in two languages. In concluding the discussion, I suggested that one of the weaknesses of the models, the Matrix Language Frame Model in particular, is that, drawing on the assumption that the sentence is the highest unit of grammar, these models fail to capture regularities across data sets. It was also suggested that the notion of Matrix Language might not be as useful a concept as it is said to be, since each CP must be examined indifferently in order to determine exactly what its Matrix is. In this chapter, drawing on my corpus of Kinyarwanda-French bilingual conversations, I propose a case study through which I indicate how these issues might begin to be addressed.

This paper aims to study the morphological features of code-switching in Chinese Netspeak. Myers-Scotton's Matrix Language Frame Model is employed to explore the morphological feature of the embedded words, nouns, verbs and adjectives in Chinese Netspeak. The study shows that in matrix Chinese frame model, English nouns, verbs and adjectives all lose their original morphological inflection change and syntax feature and follow the matrix Chinese grammar rules.

This paper presents an analysis of the phenomenon of doubling in the context of Wolof-French codeswitching where the French subordinating conjunction comme “as” and its Wolof counterpart ni, often appear in succession. More specifically, the paper analyses the different patterns underlying the structure of these two conjunctions in the mixed sentence. The first observation is that doubling occurs either in the sentence initial position or between the independent clause and subordinate one. This suggests that each double corresponds both languages’ word order in the sense that in both Wolof and French, subordinating conjunctions can occupy the initial and middle position of the sentence. The study also indicates that the Wolof conjunction ni always occurs at the beginning of the subordinate clause, otherwise, the sentence becomes ungrammatical. For this reason, we claim that the Wolof conjunction (and not the French one) combines the subordinate clause to the independent one. Also, this is why the French conjunction comme may be dropped from the mixed sentence while the omission of the Wolof ni makes it ungrammatical. Using the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model to explain the indispensability of the Wolof conjunction, it is shown that this subordinating conjunction is a bridge system morpheme. Like outsider system morphemes, earlies and bridges also come from Wolof, the matrix language in Wolof-French codeswitching.

Code‐switching refers to the juxtaposition of elements from two (or more) languages (or dialects) within the same sentence or conversation. There are three major strands or approaches to code‐switching research: the sociolinguistic, the structural/syntactic, and the psycholinguistic. The first explores code‐switching's interactional functions and its relationship with macrosocietal factors. The second examines where in a sentence code‐switching can occur. The third investigates the cognitive mechanisms involved in the control of two languages. Well‐known models of code‐switching are introduced, with emphasis on sociolinguistic models, including Gumperz's situational and metaphorical code‐switching, Myers‐Scotton's markedness model and matrix language frame model, Auer's sequential analysis of code‐switching, Heller's politics of code‐switching, and Muysken's typology of code‐switching.

In the present study we analyze two features in Basque-Spanish code-switching data: (1) phonological mixing in intraword position involving phoneme /θ/ and (2) switches between pronouns and verbs. Both features have been discussed for several language pairs but have so far remained unexplored in the case of Basque and Spanish. The MELAN corpus on Basque-Spanish language contact is used in this study to obtain code-switching data and test the predictions of the two most influential theoretical frameworks for code-switching (the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model and the Minimalist Approach) for these particular features. The results at the phonological level reveal that Basque-Spanish code-switching resembles most other language pairs in avoiding phonemes from different phonological systems within words, although counter-examples are found and should probably be interpreted as signals of sound change in Basque. Conversely, the results from the analysis of pronoun-verb switch cases reveal that in Basque-Spanish data, switches take place in positions disallowed by current models and unaccepted in several other language pairs. The findings suggest that the ergative case marking in Basque may play a role in the grammaticality of the pronoun-verb switch patterns.

This study investigates the quality of the writing tasks assigned to native Spanish speakers in bilingual (Spanish-English) contexts, and the relationship between task quality and students’ use of an academic register in their native language. Fifty-six language arts tasks were collected from 26 grade 4 and 5 teachers, and four student writing samples were collected in response to each task (N = 224). Multilevel modeling revealed that variation in students’ use of key features of academic language in their writing was associated with the cognitive demand of writing tasks. Findings suggest that students’ opportunities to respond to challenging tasks when writing in their native language are rare and that the rigor of writing tasks may relate to students’ production and development of academic language.

Two topics in the front burner of contact linguistics are bilingualism and code switching. Code switching between an indigenous language and the English language is pervasive where outer circle Englishes are spoken. Nigeria and other former colonies of Great Britain belong to this circle of Englishes. This study discusses nouns functioning as lexical heads in Urhobo/ English code switches. The switches include code switched NP[Z1] with determiner[Z2] s from Urhobo and head word[Z3] s from English; Urhobo –English complex Code switched NP with an adjective; complex CS NP with an adjective[Z4] prepositional phrase as complement. The study is premised on two theories. First is Noam Chomsky’s (1981) principles and parameters theory of transformational grammar which has been used for the analysis of the sentences. The second is Myers-Scotton’s (2002) Matrix Language Frame (MLF), which is used for distinguishing between the matrix and the embedded languages in the nominal phrasal constituents within the code switched sentences. In this study, Urhobo is the matrix language while English is the embedded[Z5] language based on matrix language frame (MLF) parameters. The study concludes that nouns functioning as lexical heads constitute part of the structural basis of Urhobo English code-switching. [Z1]NPs [Z2]determiners [Z3]words [Z4]adjective [Z5]embedded language