Syntactic variation in German-English code-mixing
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Eva Duran Eppler
Abstract
This paper presents a quantitative account of the syntax of a contemporary German-English mixed code. It shows that the bilingual informants possess two identifiable linguistic systems, each with its grammatical rules, and that the mixed variety results from the interaction between lexical elements and grammatical rules from these languages. The syntactic analysis demonstrates that the principles guiding code-switching are probabilistic (rather than universal). The syntactic theory used for the analysis of the data (Word Grammar; Hudson 2007) furthermore reveals a syntactic processing factor as a facilitator of code-switching: dependency distance, i.e., the number of words between a head and a dependent.
Abstract
This paper presents a quantitative account of the syntax of a contemporary German-English mixed code. It shows that the bilingual informants possess two identifiable linguistic systems, each with its grammatical rules, and that the mixed variety results from the interaction between lexical elements and grammatical rules from these languages. The syntactic analysis demonstrates that the principles guiding code-switching are probabilistic (rather than universal). The syntactic theory used for the analysis of the data (Word Grammar; Hudson 2007) furthermore reveals a syntactic processing factor as a facilitator of code-switching: dependency distance, i.e., the number of words between a head and a dependent.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Clefts in Cypriot Greek 13
- Lexical change, discourse practices and the French press 27
- Arbitrary subjects of infinitival clauses in European and Brazilian Portuguese 47
- Modal verbs in long verb clusters 59
- Changing pronominal gender in Dutch 71
- Meaning variation and change in Greek morphology 81
- Syntactic variation in German-English code-mixing 91
- Sources of phonological variation in a large database for Dutch dialects 103
- Broad vs. localistic dialectology, standard vs. dialect 119
- Intonational variation in Swiss German 135
- Morphological reduction in Aromanian 145
- Greek dialect variation 157
- Using electronic corpora to study language variation 169
- Language attitudes and folk perceptions towards linguistic variation 179
- Salience and resilience in a set of Tyneside English shibboleths 191
- New approaches to describing phonological change 205
- Variation and grammaticisation 215
- Towards establishing the matrix language in Russian-Estonian code-switching 225
- Index 241
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Clefts in Cypriot Greek 13
- Lexical change, discourse practices and the French press 27
- Arbitrary subjects of infinitival clauses in European and Brazilian Portuguese 47
- Modal verbs in long verb clusters 59
- Changing pronominal gender in Dutch 71
- Meaning variation and change in Greek morphology 81
- Syntactic variation in German-English code-mixing 91
- Sources of phonological variation in a large database for Dutch dialects 103
- Broad vs. localistic dialectology, standard vs. dialect 119
- Intonational variation in Swiss German 135
- Morphological reduction in Aromanian 145
- Greek dialect variation 157
- Using electronic corpora to study language variation 169
- Language attitudes and folk perceptions towards linguistic variation 179
- Salience and resilience in a set of Tyneside English shibboleths 191
- New approaches to describing phonological change 205
- Variation and grammaticisation 215
- Towards establishing the matrix language in Russian-Estonian code-switching 225
- Index 241
