Matching lemmas in a bilingual language competence and production model: evidence from intrasentential code switching

Abstract

Data from naturally occurring code switching (CS) are presented as evidence for certain types of congruence between languages. The paper makes arguments about constraints on intrasentential CS and the viability of the "matrix language frame model" (Myers-Scotton 1993a) for explaining CS. Its major goal, however, is to discuss implications ofCS data regarding the nature of language competence and production, most specifically about the nature of lexical entries in some universal sense. This information becomes available from CS data because the existence of different patterns in sentences containing CS seems to depend on compatibilities between the languages involved regarding three levels of structure: lexical-conceptual structures, predication-argument structures, and morphological realization patterns. The playing out of these compatibilities in CS provides a uniquely available "empirical window" on the viability of key theoretical claims about the structure of language.

The Bilingual Lemma Activation Model as a Comparative Approach to Codeswitching

“…Grosjean, 1997) and preverbal message (cf. Myers- Scotton & Jake, 1995, 2000a to be desired. If the speaker chooses the monolingual mode, no CS will occur; if the speaker chooses the bilingual mode, then he/she must decide whether intersentential or intrasentential CS should be performed.…”

“…Instead, it proposes that CS juxtapositions originate with directions contained in lemmas (cf. Myers- Scotton & Jake, 1995;Wei, 2001aWei, , 2001b. As introduced earlier, lemmas are abstract entries in the speaker's mental lexicon which support the surface realization of actual lexemes.…”

“…Bilingual speech is not so-called "mixed" speech but is governed by a set of underlying structural principles, such as those proposed in the MLF Model (Myers- Scotton, 1993 [1997], 2002; Myers- Scotton & Jake, 1995;Wei, 2001b) and the BLA Model (Wei, 2006b). Such a language separation in bilingual speech is evidenced in the CS examples involving different language pairs below.…”

“…This model assumes that CS juxtapositions which may surface do not have much to do with superficial linear or typological correspondences between the participating languages. It argues that since lemmas are abstract entries in the mental lexicon (Levelt, 1989), CS juxtapositions originate with directions in the speaker's mental lexicon (Myers- Scotton & Jake, 1995). It further argues that lemma congruence is measured by the same universally-present metrics in all instances of CS, rather than by specific language-pair subcategorization patterns.…”

The Composite Nature of Interlanguage as a Developing System

“…Lemmas are defined as abstract entries in the mental lexicon that support the surface realization of actual lexemes (cf. Levelt 1989;Myers-Scotton and Jake 1995;Wei 2001. This is because for each item, the mental lexicon contains its lemma information, that is, declarative knowledge about the word's meaning, and information about its syntax and morphology which is necessary for constructing the word's syntactic environment.…”