Revisiting the Classic Codeswitching–Composite Codeswitching Distinction: A Case Study of Nonverbal Predication in Ewe–English Codeswitching

Amuzu, Evershed Kwasi

doi:10.1080/07268600500113690

Cited by 11 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The model distinguishes two types of ml: an ml informed by the abstract grammatical structure of only one of the languages in cs contact and an ml informed by a composite of abstract grammatical structures from the languages involved. Myers-Scotton refers to cs involving the one-language ml as "Classic cs"7 and to the cs involving the composite ml as "Composite cs".8 However, it is argued in Amuzu (2005aAmuzu ( , 2005bAmuzu ( [2010) that a different kind of Composite cs from the one Myers-Scotton has outlined occurs in Ewe-English cs and other cases of cs in West Africa. In this paper, the original composite cs is referred to as "Composite-1 cs" and the second type is referred to as "Composite-2 cs".…”

Section: The Matrix Language Frame Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Language production is perceived as being modular, involving four stages or levels of operation: the conceptual, lemma, functional, and surface/positional levels. See Table 1 below; it is adapted from Myers-Scotton and Jake 2001, Myers-Scotton (2002), and Amuzu (2005a). Table 1 The language production model in bilingual cs.…”

Section: The Matrix Language Frame Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Related Literature This section summarizes some earlier works by Amuzu in which it is argued that Ewe-English cs is a case of Composite-2 cs rather than Classic cs contra Myers-Scotton (1993 and2002). Amuzu (2005a) focuses on bilingual nonverbal predication (mixed copula constructions) and the issue of theoretical interest is the consistent occurrence of English predicative adjectives in the complement slot of the Ewe ascriptive copula le 'be.at' .11 The expectation from the point of view of Classic cs is for Ewe equivalents to project the complement of le slot for the English predicative adjectives found in that slot.…”

Section: 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The focus is bilingual verb phrases. The paper is a sequel to Amuzu (2005aAmuzu ( , 2005bAmuzu ( [20105 and in print). In those works, the claim is made that Ewe-English cs is a case of 'composite cs' contra Myers-Scotton's claim in her 1993 and 2002 works that Ewe-English cs is 'Classic cs ' .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a debate in the literature on Ewe linguistics about whether le is a copula or not. For example, while Amuzu (2005aAmuzu ( , 2010 argues that it is an ascriptive copula that is in opposition with an equative copula nye, Essegbey (1999) argues that it is a locative verb. Details of the debate are beyond the scope of this paper.…”

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confidence: 99%

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A Comparative Study of Bilingual Verb Phrases in Ewe-English and Gengbe-French Codeswitching

Amuzu

2014

J Lang Contact

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This article describes contact phenomena between two closely related varieties of the Gbe language cluster Ewe and Gengbe each with a Germanic and a Romance language. The focus is on a comparison of verb phrases in Ewe-English codeswitching, spoken in Ghana, and Gengbe-French codeswitching, spoken in Togo. It is the first qualitative comparative study of this kind although quite a number of local (West African) languages are in contact with English and French. It finds that because the two varieties of Gbe are morphosyntactically similar, there are remarkable morphosyntactic similarities between bilingual clauses containing English verbs and those containing French verbs. English/French verbs with the same transitivity value which assign the same set of thematic roles to their arguments occur in slots in Ewe/Gengbe-based clauses where Ewe/Gengbe verbs with those subcategorization features also occur. The explanation for this pattern, from the perspective of the Matrix Language Frame model, is that during codeswitching English and French verbs are treated as if they belong to the class of Ewe and Gengbe verbs which share their subcategorization features. Assuming language production to be modular (in the sense of Myers-Scotton 1993, 2002), it is argued that the pattern is illustrative of a kind of composite codeswitching (Amuzu 2005a, 2010, and in print) by which abstract grammatical information from one language about verbs from that language—here English or French—is consistently mapped onto surface structure through the grammatical resources of another language, here Ewe or Gengbe.

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Section: The Matrix Language Frame Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Matrix Language Frame Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Comparative Study of Bilingual Verb Phrases in Ewe-English and Gengbe-French Codeswitching

Amuzu

2014

J Lang Contact

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Bilingual serial verb constructions: A comparative study of Ewe-English and Ewe-French codeswitching

Amuzu

2013

Lingua

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A sparkling apéritif or old wine in new bags?

Muysken¹

2013

Bilingualism

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In the keynote article “Language contact outcomes as the result of bilingual optimization strategies” (Muysken, published online May 31, 2013; henceforth KA), I have tried to accomplish three things: (a)linking a number of fields of language contact research (code-switching, Creole studies, contact-induced language change, bilingual production), by(b)assuming four roles that the contributing languages may play ((i) first language dominant, (ii) second language dominant, (iii) neither language dominant – patterns common to the two languages, and (iv) neither language dominant – language-neutral communicative strategies), and(c)modeling these four roles in terms of bilingual optimization strategies, which may be implemented in an Optimality Theoretic (OT) framework. Bilingual strategies are conditioned by social factors, processing constraints of speakers’ bilingual competence, and perceived language distance. Different language contact outcomes correspond to different interactions of these strategies in bilingual speakers and their communities.

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Revisiting the Classic Codeswitching–Composite Codeswitching Distinction: A Case Study of Nonverbal Predication in Ewe–English Codeswitching

Cited by 11 publications

References 7 publications

A Comparative Study of Bilingual Verb Phrases in Ewe-English and Gengbe-French Codeswitching

A Comparative Study of Bilingual Verb Phrases in Ewe-English and Gengbe-French Codeswitching

Bilingual serial verb constructions: A comparative study of Ewe-English and Ewe-French codeswitching

A sparkling apéritif or old wine in new bags?

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