Janice L. Jake

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.

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

Constructing interlanguage: building a composite matrix language

Treating interlanguage as language contact results in an explanatory account of second-language acquisition (SLA). The proposed model is informed by three sets of assumptions. First, lexical structure is composed of levels or substructures; the relevant levels are lexical-conceptual structure, predicate-argument structure, and morphological-realization patterns (Talmy 1985; Jackendoff 1990; Myers-Scotton and Jake 1995). Second, the distinction between content and system (i.e. functional) morphemes, developed in the matrix language frame model of intrasentential code switching (Myers-Scotton 1993), determines how lexical items can contribute to building the interlanguage grammatical system. Two types of system morphemes are recognized: conceptually activated system morphemes and structurally assigned system morphemes (Bock and Levelt 1994 ; Jake and Myers-Scotton 1996). Finally, the matrix-language and embedded-language distinction structures interlanguage. In SLA an INTENDED matrix language, the target language, and a DE FACTO matrix language, the developing linguistic competence, are recognized. The L1 acts as an embedded language. Interlanguage structures are projected by lexical substructures of the three linguistic systems in contact. Principles structuring language contact and the nature of the grammatical elements projecting lexical structure determine what types of grammatical structures each system can contribute and how they are combined into a developing composite matrix language

Revisiting the 4-M model: Codeswitching and morpheme election at the abstract level

Purpose: This paper offers an overview of the 4-M model from its inception, but pays special attention to how the characterization of morpheme types in the model has evolved. A new proposal is that the level at which morpheme types are “elected” in an abstract model of language production is a critical factor in predicting morpheme distribution across languages in bilingual data. Methodology: A new addition to the model, the Variable Election Hypothesis, predicts which language is likely to be the source of morphemes in certain structures in bilingual speech, based on how they are elected. Data and analysis: Data from available codeswitching literature illustrate the classification of morphemes according to the 4-M model and test this new hypothesis. Much of the analysis focuses on the role of Embedded Language nonfinite verb forms and the structure of mixed determiner phrases (DPs), as well as subordinators in codeswitching data. Findings: Both the 4-M model and the Variable Election Hypothesis make predictions for the source and relative frequency of morpheme types observed in the codeswitching literature. The paper provides evidence that, in bilingual constituents in codeswitching, the frequency of certain morpheme types depends on how they are elected at an abstract level of language production. Originality: The emphasis on the abstract nature of morphemes constitutes a new approach to studying language contact. Implications: These predictions could also apply to other types of contact data, such as borrowing and creole development.