Field-Testing Code-Switching Constraints

A Report on a Strategic Languages Project

Bibliographic Data

ID5900902
AuthorsJohn M Lipski (0000-0003-1110-2697, Pennsylvania State University, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume4
Issue1
Pages7
Publication date2019-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguages (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2226-471X • E-ISSN: 2226-471X
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/languages4010007
OpenAlexW2911502171
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited70

The present article provides an overview of ongoing field-based research that deploys a variety of interactive experimental procedures in three strategically chosen bilingual contact environments, whose language dyads facilitate a partial separation of morphosyntactic factors in order to test the extent to which proposed grammatical constraints on intra-sentential code-switching are independent of language-specific factors. For purposes of illustration, the possibility of language switches between subject pronouns and verbs is compared for the three bilingual groups. The first scenario includes Ecuadoran Quichua and Media Lengua (entirely Quichua syntax and system morphology, all lexical roots replaced by Spanish items; both are null-subject languages). The second juxtaposes Spanish and the Afro-Colombian creole language Palenquero; the languages share highly cognate lexicons but differ substantially in grammatical structures (including null subjects in Spanish, only overt subjects in Palenquero). Spanish and Portuguese in north-eastern Argentina along the Brazilian border form the third focus: lexically and grammatically highly cognate languages that are nonetheless kept distinct by speakers (both null-subject languages, albeit with different usage patterns). Results from the three communities reveal a residual resistance against pronoun + verb switches irrespective of the subject-verb configuration, thereby motivating the application of similar techniques to other proposed grammatical constraints

Code-switching · Cognate · Creole language · Focus (optics · Language contact · Language family · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Neuroscience of multilingualism · Null (SQL · Pronoun · Subject (documents · Subject pronoun · Syntax · Variety (cybernetics · Verb · Computer Science · Language Development and Disorders · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Multilingual Education and Policy · Artificial Intelligence

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