Carol Myers-Scotton

Common and uncommon ground: Social and structural factors in codeswitching

The social forces affecting the performance of codeswitching (CS) may be distinguished from those factors controlling its basic structure, with which they interact. The constraints on possible patterns in CS are largely under innately based controls. These constraints are presented here in a model of intrasentential CS, and their validity is tested against findings of CS practices in a number of communities; all options can be accounted for under the model. Thus the options for CS structures seem universally set; but community-specific or group-specific social forces may determine which permissible patterns are preferred . In addition, micro-level, discourse-based factors may prompt individuals to produce certain CS structures. A second model of the social motivations for CS helps explain both the macro- and micro-level preferences. (Bilingualism, codeswitching, language contact, socio-pragmatics)

Comparing codeswitching and borrowing

An issue regarding codeswitching discourse is the extent to which material from a donor language (the Embedded Language or EL) appearing in a recipient language (the Matrix Language or ML) shows internal differentiation. Three questions are relevant: (1) Are all singly‐occurring EL lexemes in such discourse borrowed forms, or are some codeswitched forms (CS forms)? (2) If some are CS forms, how are they differentiated from borrowings? (3) What is the relationship of either established borrowings or singly‐occurring CS forms to multiword stretches of codeswitching? Working within a model of the structural constraints on codeswitching (the Matrix Language Frame Model), this paper argues that while some important differences do exist among the various forms of EL material appearing in codeswitching discourse, in general the forms arise from related processes. Therefore, any model of the structural aspects of codeswitching must provide a unified account for all EL material in codeswitching utterances.

Calculating speakers: Codeswitching in a rational choice model

Although the methodologies for describing many types of linguistic variation have been well developed, satisfactory theoretical links between data and explanation – especially links that include causal mechanisms – remain lacking. This article argues, somewhat paradoxically, that even though most choices reflect some societal pattern, speakers make linguistic choices as individuals. That is, choices ultimately lie with the individual and are rationally based. Rational Choice Models (e.g. Elster 1979, 1989, 1997) provide explanatory mechanisms for the ways actors in society select from alternative structures and available options. The Rational Choice approach taken here is enhanced by diverse theories of human action (e.g. Damasio 1996, Klein 1998, Lessig 1995). Analysis of codeswitching examples within a recasting of the Markedness Model (Myers-Scotton, e.g. 1993, 1998) suggests how a rationally based model offers better explanations for linguistic variation than do other approaches.

Making a Minimalist Approach to Codeswitching Work: Adding the Matrix Language.

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.

Explaining the role of norms and rationality in codeswitching

Abstract When does rationality favor making an unmarked choice versus a marked choice in codeswitching and vice versa? Within the framework of rational actor models (e.g., Elster 1979, 1989) and Lessigs (1995) examination of the regulation and construction of social meaning, the paper shows how the potency of unmarked choices is derived from existing norms and how selecting the marked choice is an attempt to construct new norms. Rational actor models (including the markedness model of Myers-Scotton, 1993, 1998) take account of large-scale societal factors, but not as directly determining linguistic choices. Rather, selection is located with the individual, and rationality itself is the mechanism by which choices are made. To act rationally means that a choice reflects a goal to enhance rewards and minimize costs - to optimize ones returns, given the prevailing circumstances. To engage in codeswitching at all is an instance of speakers acting rationally because codeswitching makes optimal use of the resources in their linguistic repertoires. When the switch is a marked choice, the message is that the speaker is attempting to construct a new social meaning for the speakers own persona or the import of the ongoing discourse, thereby negotiating a new norm.

Natural codeswitching knocks on the laboratory door

This contribution discusses findings and hypotheses from empirical data of naturally-occurring codeswitching. The discussion is framed by some comparisons of the approaches of contact linguists and psycholinguists to bilingual production data. However, it emphasizes the relevance of naturally-occurring codeswitching to the theoretical questions asked by psycholinguists. To accomplish this, relevant grammatical structures in codeswitching are exemplified and analyzed. Analysis largely follows the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model, but differing approaches are mentioned.

Codeswitching and Compromise Strategies: Implications for Lexical Structure.

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.

Testing the 4-M model: An introduction*

The goal of this special issue is to report on new directions in our research that began with codeswitching, but increasingly includes other types of language contact phenomena. The issue consists of articles by the junior members of our research team and reports on their analyses and explanations for a variety of outcomes in bilingual production. Their approaches rely on the principles laid down in Duelling Languages (Myers-Scotton, 1993 [1997]). That is, their research looks for answers at an abstract level. Just like monolingual speech, bilingual speech is not best explainable only in terms of surface configurations. Duelling Languages presents an innovative model of structural constraints on codeswitching to explain the differential contributions of the participating languages in codeswitching. These constraints refer to the Matrix Language (ML) versus Embedded Language (EL) opposition and the content versus system morpheme opposition. Using these two oppositions, the model accounts for the bilingual structures observed in codeswitching data produced by proficient bilinguals. In addition to explicating the data in Duelling Languages, the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model also accounts for the bilingual constituents from such diverse language pairs such as Turkish/Dutch (Backus, 1996), Chinese/English (Wei, 1999), Hungarian/English (Bolonyai, 1998), Arabic/English (Jake & Myers-Scotton, 1997), Spanish/English and Italian/Swiss German (Myers-Scotton & Jake, 1998b), and Mandinka, Wolof/English (Haust, 1995). The MLF model was based largely on what Myers-Scotton and Jake have since termed “classic codeswitching,” that is, codeswitching by speakers proficient enough in all participating varieties that they could engage in monolingual discourse in any of them. In Section 2 below, we offer readers

Orderly mixing and accommodation in South African codeswitching

‘Mixed Language,’ a characteristic pattern of language use among African township residents in South Africa, may well include words or full constituents from several languages. However, from both a structural and a social perspective, such speech has a systematic nature. In reference to grammatical structure, within any CP (projection of COMP) showing codeswitching, only one language (the Matrix Language) provides the grammatical frame in the data studied. Also, while speakers from different educational levels engage in codeswitching with similar frequencies, the types of codeswitched constitutents they prefer are different. In reference to the social use of language, we argue that specific patterns of codeswitching indicate how language is both an index of identity and a tool of communication in South Africa. In the codeswitching patterns they use, speakers exhibit strong loyalty to their own first languages. Yet, because they recognize that codeswitching facilitates communication with members of other ethnic groups, they use a number of codeswitching strategies as a means of accommodating to their addressees and simultaneously as a means of projecting multiple identities for themselves.

The structure of Tsotsitaal and Iscamtho: code switching and in-group identity in South African townships

This paper examines the structure of two varieties, Tsotsitaal and Iscamtho, that are spoken predominantly by males who live in the Black urban townships of South Africa. While many think that Tsotsitaal and Iscamtho lack predictable structure, this paper argues that all versions follow the same type of morphosyntactic constraints that structure code switching as well as playing a part in other language-contact phenomena. Data come largely from conversations recorded in Soweto, a major township outside Johannesburg. As in-group markers, the varieties are characterized by much slang and lexical variation across versions of the same variety. Tsotsitaal can be identified as a variety, or set of versions, with a nonstandard version of Afrikaans as its matrix language, while Iscamtho versions have a South African Bantu language - usually Zulu - as their matrix language. Issues considered include these: how are Tsotsitaal and Iscamtho similar and different from other language-contact phenomena; to what extent do their structures support the matrix-language frame model of Myers-Scotton (1993a) ?