Codeswitching and Compromise Strategies: Implications for Lexical Structure

Abstract

This paper deals with two compromise strategies: 1) “Embedded Language Islands” and 2) “bare forms” in codeswitching (CS) within the CP (projection of Complementizer). These elements are discussed within the framework of the Matrix Language Frame Model (MLF model), a model explicated in Myers-Scotton (1993) and extended in Myers-Scotton and Jake (1995). While both EL Islands and bare forms are compromise strategies in CS, both are permissible options under the provisions of the MLF model; this paper shows how the MLF model provides an explanatory account for their occurrence. However, more importantly, the analysis of compromise strategies in CS has implications for how linguists should approach 1) differences across languages and 2) the nature of linguistic structure within a language–in particular, what levels of linguistic structure (i.e., lexical vs. S-structure) seem to be the most significant in regard to contributing to grammatical structure.

Keywords

codeswitching cross-linguistic congruence language contact Matrix Language Frame Model

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

ABNEY, S. P. , (1987). The English noun phrase in its sentential aspect. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

BACKUS, A. M. , (1992). Patterns of language mixing. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

BACKUS, A. M., & BOESCHOTEN, H., (1996 January). Turkish/Dutch codeswitching and levels of lexical structure. Paper presented at symposium on codeswitching, Linguistic Society of America, annual meeting, San Diego, CA.

BENTAHILA, A. , ABDELÂ LI , & DAVIES, E. E. , (1995). Patterns of code-switching and patterns of language contact. Lingua, 96, 75–93.

BENTAHILA, A. , & DAVIES, E. E. , (1992). Code-switching and language dominance. In R. J. Harris (Ed.), Cognitive Processing in Bilinguals (pp. 443–458). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

BOCK, K. , & LEVELT, W. , (1994). Language production: grammatical encoding. In Morton Ann Gernsbacher (Ed.), Handbook of Psycholinguistics (pp. 945–984). New York: Academic Press.

FULLER, J. M., (1996). (German/English codeswitching) Unpublished data.

GROSJEAN, F. , & MILLER, J. , (1994). Going in and out of languages: An example of bilingual flexibility. Psychological Science, 5, 201–206.

HALMARI, H. , (1993). Structural relations and Finnish-English code switching. Linguistics, 31, 1043–1068.

10.

JACKENDOFF, R. , (1990). Semantic structure. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.

11.

LEVELT, W. , (1989). Speaking, from intention to articulation. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.

12.

MILIAN, S., (1996, January). Case assignment in Spanish/English codeswitching. Paper presented at symposium on codeswitching, Linguistic Society of America, annual meeting, San Diego, CA.

13.

MYERS-SCOTTON, C. , (1993). Duelling languages: Grammatical structure in codeswitching. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

14.

MYERS-SCOTTON, C. , & JAKE, J. L. , (1995). Matching lemmas in bilingual competence and performance model: evidence from intrasentential code switching. Linguistics, 33, 98–1024.

15.

MYERS-SCOTTON, C., JAKE, J. L., & OKASHA, M., (1995, April). Arabic and constraints on codeswitching. Keynote paper presented at the Ninth Annual AAL Meeting, Georgetown University.

16.

NORTIER, J. M. , (1990). Dutch and Moroccan Arabic in contact: Code switching among Moroccans in the Netherlands. Dordrecht: Foris.

17.

OKASHA, M., (1995). (Arabic/English codeswitching) Unpublished data.

18.

PFAFF, C. , (1979). Constraints on language mixing: Intrasentential code-switching and borrowing in Spanish/English. Language, 55, 291–318.

19.

RAPPAPORT, M. , & LEVIN B. , (1988). What to do with theta-roles. In Wendy Wilkins (Ed.), Syntax and Semantics (vol 21): Thematic relations (pp. 7–36). New York: Academic Press.

20.

STENSON, N. , (1990). Phrase structure congruence, government and Irish-English code-switching. In Randall Hendrik (Ed.), Syntax and semantics (vol 23), The syntax of the modern Celtic languages (pp. 167–197). New York: Academic Press.

21.

SWIGART, L., (1992). Practice and perception: Language use and attitudes in Dakar. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle.

22.

TALMY, L. , (1985). Lexicalization patterns: Semantic structure in lexical form. In Timothy Shoepen (Ed.), Language typology and syntactic descriptions (vol 3) (pp. 57–149). New York: Cambridge University Press.