Syntactic frames and single-word code-switching: A case study of Mandarin Chinese - Norwegian bilingualism

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.

Language mixing and exoskeletal theory: A case study of word-internal mixing in American Norwegian

“…Speakers who exhibit (1a) are typically children who grow up as genuine bilinguals with parents who have different languages or where the parents speak one language at home and the child acquires another language outside its home. An example of (1a) is the speech of a bilingual Chinese child growing up in Norway, who masters both Mandarin Chinese and Norwegian, reported in Åfarli and Jin (2014). (2a) is an example produced by this child, in which Chinese is the main language and Norwegian is the secondary one.…”