Contact Linguistics. Chap

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Detd Nd

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If it is true that multi-word switches are syntactically integrated into the ML just like single-word switches, this would mean, as Treffers-Daller points out, that borrowings and insertional switching are not very different in principle. An approach that stresses the unitary nature of these phenomena would seem preferable to those proposed in earlier versions of the MLF Hypothesis, which offer quite different (and sometimes conflicting) explanations for the two types of insertion.

Myers-Scotton & Jake (1995) adopt a position quite similar to that proposed by Treffers-Daller (1994), Bentahila & Davies (1983), Pandit (1990) and others. Thus they note that EL islands need not be identical in composition to their ML counterparts, but their placement must follow the well-formedness conditions of the ML, not the EL (1995:1011). This approach seems to offer a better explanation for the various kinds of EL-island insertions that had proved problematic for the EL-island Trigger Hypothesis.
We might note, finally that there appears to be some relationship between the frequency with which phrasal categories are switched and the degree of their centrality to the subcategorization frame of the verb. Both Myers-Scotton (1993b:144) and Treffers-Daller (1994:234) note that there is a hierarchy of switched EL islands, with peripheral constituents such as time and manner expressions being switched more frequently than those that are arguments of the verb (e.g., agent and object NPs). Myers-Scotton suggests the following implicational hierarchy. The implicational relationship is from bottom to top; for instance, if there are subject NPs as islands, there are also object NPs, and so on.


Implicational hierarchy of EL islands. From Myers-Scotton (1993b:144)

1. Formulaic expressions and idioms (especially as time and manner PPs but also as VP complements);

2. Other time and manner expressions (NP/PP adjuncts used adverbially);

3. Quantifier expressions (APs andNPs especially as VP complements);

4. Non-quantifier, non-time NPs as VP complements (NPs, APs, CPs);

5. Agent NPs;

6. Thematic role- and case-assigners, i.e. main finite verbs (with full inflections).

Treffers-Daller (1994:226) suggests a similar hierarchy, though hers includes full clauses as well as islands. She also agrees that switches occur most frequently at "points that are loosely attached to the syntactic structure of the sentence" (p. 234). As Myers-Scotton explains, since the central constituents carry the main weight of the sentence, it makes sense that they should appear either in ML islands or possibly ML+EL constituents (p. 144). This would explain why such constituents are switched less often. Treffers-Daller (1994:234) also notes that bilinguals often resort to the strategy of fronting or dislocation to facilitate switching of core constituents such as Agent NPs, as in the following example from Dutch/French code switching (French in italics):

(81) Les étrangers, ze hebben geen geld. (1994:207)

the strangers, they have no money.
"The strangers, they don't have any money."

These strategies, as well as the hierarchy of switched constituents suggest that switching is indeed sensitive to the subcategorization properties of ML heads, and that bilinguals have a clear sense of which constituents can be most easily switched without violating core ML rules.

6. Further issues.
The study of code switching phenomena has much to offer by way of providing more insight into all forms of bilingual language mixture and the constraints that regulate it. In particular, it has contributed much to our understanding of the notion of congruence, which is highly relevant to a wide range of contact phenomena, including borrowing, structural diffusion and various kinds of L1 influence on an L2. However, much remains to be done before we achieve a better understanding of the relationships among these varied phenomena.
The notion of congruence and its role in determining different patterns of code switching needs to be explored more fully across language pairs whose members show varying degrees of typological similarity. There is some evidence that different degrees of typological fit between the languages involved in code switching lead to different patterns of mixture. Poplack & Sankoff (1988) argue that similar typology leads to equivalence-based code switching (alternations) while conflicting typology leads to "nonce borrowings" (single-word switches) and/or "multi-word fragments" (EL islands). Muysken (1997c:374) provides some empirical support for this. His survey of corpora from recent code switching studies reveals that insertional code switching is more common in language pairs like Swahili/English and Tamil/English whose members are typologically quite different. On the other hand, alternational code switching is more common in language pairs like Spanish/English, French/Dutch and French/English which are typologically more similar. We saw how, in the case of Spanish/English contact in New York City, the resulting code switching combines patterns of insertion and alternation to the point where it is difficult to separate the two. The following example from Pfaff (1976), cited earlier, illustrates:

(82) Bueno, in other words, el flight que sale de Chicago around three o'clock.

"Good, in other words, the flight that departs from Chicago around three o'clock."

Recall that Muysken refers to this type of code switching as "congruent lexicalization," a type of mixture arising from code switching between languages which share a great deal of grammatical structure. Obviously, congruence in syntax is crucial in these cases. The real problem here is that one is unsure which language is being activated at a given time, since they share so much structure. But there are also cases involving typologically different languages where the mixture involves a combination of alternation and insertion, so this pattern may not be unique to typologically similar language pairs. Pandit (1990:50-51) provides the following examples from her Hindi/English code switching corpus:

(83) Many larake interview ke liye bulaaye gaye the but nobody was found suitable

boys for called were