Serbian/English and Spanish/English code-switching: Toward a more comprehensive model
Abstract
This study tests the validity of the government constraint (Di Sciullo et al. 1986) in instances of Serbian (formally Serbo-Croatian)/English and Spanish/English code-switching. Violations of the constraint were found in both sets of code-switching data, thus indicating that the government constraint does not hold on a universal level. This study supports an analysis of code-switching based on more comprehensive models of code-switching developed by Myers-Scotton (1993), namely the Matrix Language Frame Model: and the Markedness Model, which account for both grammatical and social (and socio-pragmatic) aspects of code-switching. The findings of the Spanish/English code-switching study yield significant proof that non-spontaneous discourse can be successfully used in the sociolinguistic analysis of code-switching. The Serbian/English code-switching data support Myers-Scotton's (1993) MLF model hypotheses (not systematically tested in previous research), according to which code-switching can be viewed as a mechanism of language convergence and language change. However, the analysis of Serbian/English code-switching data shows that a broader definition of structural convergence needs to be introduced into the MLF model in order for all the aspects of structural organization of bilingual utterances in this type of bilingual community to be accounted for. In this study, it was appropriate to use the definition of structural convergence (structural borrowings) developed by Thomason and Kaufman (1988). In addition, a notion of diffuseness (LePage and Tabournet-Keller 1985) was introduced into the analysis in order for significant morphosyntactic variation in the Serbian variety spoken by the Serbian/English bilinguals to be accounted for. In conclusion, the analyses of Spanish/English and Serbian/English code-switching support the general predictions made by the MLF model of code-switching, thus adding to its potential universality (provided that the above described additions are made in the model).
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Hammond, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Linguistics|Romance literature|Slavic literature
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