Bilingual compound verbs in children’s Panjabi-English codeswitched narratives

Abstract

Bilingual compound verbs (BCVs) are documented in various languages and are common in codeswitching between English and South Asian languages. It has been suggested that BCVs have no monolingual equivalent, and are generated by a 'third system' independent of the two languages. BCVs have also been cited as evidence of language convergence, and as a strategy employed by dominant bilinguals to circumvent lexical gaps in one language. BCVs were common in narratives from four to six-year-old Panjabi-English children in Huddersfield, UK. BCVs are argued to be based on analogy with Panjabi monolingual compound verbs, and to be unrelated to language convergence or language dominance. Instead, BCV use relates to two types of codeswitching in the data: one utilising the simplest structures from both languages, the other drawing more fully on the two languages' grammatical resources. It is suggested that BCVs enable children with limited overall bilingual competence to 'do codeswitching' .

From Colombo to Athens: Areal and Universalist Perspectives on Bilingual Compound Verbs

“…Three recent studies throw further light on these issues. In her analysis of oral narratives from Panjabi/English children (ages 4-6), Crutchley [58] found that BCVs were particularly attested among less proficient bilingual children (i.e., "beginner bilinguals") who produced switched utterances that were shorter and less grammatically complex. Thus, Panjabi/English children's use of BCVs were not associated with syntactic complexity or innovation at the utterance level.…”

Mixed Verbs in Contact Spanish: Patterns of Use among Emergent and Dynamic Bi/Multilinguals

“…It must be highlighted that Wichmann and Wohlgemuth's [27] view that lower levels of bilingualism result in the use of mixed verbs are supported by child bilingual data but not post-adolescent and adult data. Crutchley's [54] recent analysis of narratives from 14 Panjabi/English bilingual children showed that mixed verbs were especially attested among 'beginner bilinguals' with limited bilingual competence. These beginner bilinguals generally produced utterances that were less grammatically complex than those attested among more proficient bilingual children who primarily produced monolingual Panjabi utterances and less mixed verbs.…”

“…These beginner bilinguals generally produced utterances that were less grammatically complex than those attested among more proficient bilingual children who primarily produced monolingual Panjabi utterances and less mixed verbs. In Crutchley's [54] (p. 20) view, the type of CS among beginner bilinguals "exploit[ed] the simplest structures on offer in both languages", but it was not associated with grammatical complexity and/or morphosyntactic innovation.…”