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Syntactic frames and single-word code-switching

A case study of Mandarin Chinese - Norwegian bilingualism
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Abstract

Mainstream core grammar theory, still to some extent relying on the idealized speaker in a homogeneous speech community, is ill equipped to handle different kinds of periphery data, like code-switching data and other types of language mixing data. In this paper, we defend a model of grammar that we argue is able to handle different types of both core and periphery data. Empirically, we focus on single-word code-switching data obtained from a small corpus of the Chinese production of a bilingual Mandarin Chinese – Norwegian child. We develop the beginnings of a generative frame model of grammar exploiting insights both from late insertion neo-constructional models and from code-switching theories assuming a matrix – embedded language asymmetry. We will be paying special attention to the lexicon – syntax interface.

Abstract

Mainstream core grammar theory, still to some extent relying on the idealized speaker in a homogeneous speech community, is ill equipped to handle different kinds of periphery data, like code-switching data and other types of language mixing data. In this paper, we defend a model of grammar that we argue is able to handle different types of both core and periphery data. Empirically, we focus on single-word code-switching data obtained from a small corpus of the Chinese production of a bilingual Mandarin Chinese – Norwegian child. We develop the beginnings of a generative frame model of grammar exploiting insights both from late insertion neo-constructional models and from code-switching theories assuming a matrix – embedded language asymmetry. We will be paying special attention to the lexicon – syntax interface.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Language ecology, language evolution, and the actuation question 13
  5. Syntactic change 37
  6. Language contact, linguistic variability and the construction of local identities 67
  7. The social side of syntax in multilingual Oslo 91
  8. The expansion of the Preterit in Rioplatenese Spanish 117
  9. Constructing diasystems 137
  10. Syntactic frames and single-word code-switching 153
  11. Norwegian discourse ellipses in the left periphery – interacting structural and semantic restrictions 171
  12. The myth of creole “exceptionalism” 191
  13. Some notes on bare noun phrases in Haitian Creole and Gùngbè 203
  14. Coding in time 237
  15. Index 259
The Sociolinguistics of Grammar
This chapter is in the book The Sociolinguistics of Grammar
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.154.08afa

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Language ecology, language evolution, and the actuation question 13
  5. Syntactic change 37
  6. Language contact, linguistic variability and the construction of local identities 67
  7. The social side of syntax in multilingual Oslo 91
  8. The expansion of the Preterit in Rioplatenese Spanish 117
  9. Constructing diasystems 137
  10. Syntactic frames and single-word code-switching 153
  11. Norwegian discourse ellipses in the left periphery – interacting structural and semantic restrictions 171
  12. The myth of creole “exceptionalism” 191
  13. Some notes on bare noun phrases in Haitian Creole and Gùngbè 203
  14. Coding in time 237
  15. Index 259
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