topics: |  linguistics | code-switching

Note that there can be two views of linguistic contact; as noted by
Ameel et al 2009, Semantic convergence in the bilingual lexicon,

     The notion of convergence has been used to describe several related but
     distinct phenomena that involve interactions between two languages:
	 - contact between speakers of different languages
	 - contact in the mind of an individual who knows two languages.

Myers-Scotton is talking largely about the first kind of contact, there isn't
much psycholinguistic apparatus, though a considerable part of the book
focuses on the Matrix model for composing grammars.

Excerpts

Code-switching examples

Example 1: Shona speaker in Zimbabwe : "ovhataimi" / [overtime]
	simplest form of linguistic borrowing
Example 2: Swahili/English - between two friends in Nairobi, who do not share
   the same first lg: "to borrow" -> ku-i-borrow, in INF-OBJ-BORROW form
   and "anytime" "halfu anytime" (then anytime)
	If you would return that thing, then anytime you are needing [it] you
	can come and borrow it.
Example 3: Moroccan Arabic speaker in Netherlands: dutch word "omgeving" /
	[environment] "dyal-i omgeving" [my omgeving]
Example 4: French prepositional phrase "a front de rue" in a sentence framed
	by Brussels Dutch: "want die a front de rue waren" (were at the
	street front).
Example 5: German users start using "wissen" (know a fact) and "kennen" (know
	someone) in the same sense - e.g.wisse may be used for both senses by
	Pennsylvania German speakers:
	    Ich habe sei Name.  Ich habe ihn net ge-wiss-t, net really
	    I knew his name. I didn't know him, not really.

Singly-occurring nouns are the most commonly switched elements in
code-switching corpora.

p.3:
Note that when referring to the use of two languages in the same clause, I
use the term 'codeswitching', not 'mixing'.  Like Haugen (1950b:210), I think
labeling such a phenomenon as 'mixing' has distinct disadvantages.  Haugen
writes:
    [the term mixing] might seem to have a certain vividness that justifies
    its use, but on closer inspection it shows disadvantages which led later
    linguists, such as Sapir and Bloomfield, to abandon it...  Mixing implies
    the creation of an entirely new entity and the disappearance of both
    constituents; it also suggests a jumbling of a more or less haphazard
    nature".

Similarly, instead of "mixed languages", CMS prefers "split languages" since
these varieties show systematic organization, not accidental melanges.

blurb

Contact Linguistics is a critical investigation of what happens to the
grammars of languages when bilingual speakers use both their languages in the
same clause. It consolidates earlier insights and presents the new
theoretical and empirical work of a scholar whose ideas have had a
fundamental impact on the field. It also shows that bilingual data offer a
revealing window on the structure of the language faculty. Carol
Myers-Scotton examines the nature of major contact phenomena, especially
lexical borrowing, grammatical convergence, codeswitching, first language
attrition, mixed languages, and the development of creoles. She argues
forcefully that types of contact phenomena often seen as separate in fact
result from the same processes and can be explained by the same
principles. Her discussion centers around two new models derived from the
Matrix Language Frame model, previously applied only to codeswitching. One
model recognizes four types of morphemes based on their different patterns of
distribution across contact phenomena; its key hypothesis is that
distribution depends on differential access to the morphemes in the
production process. The other analyzes three levels of abstract lexical
structure whose splitting and recombination across languages in bilingual
speech explains many contact outcomes. This is an important volume, of
unusual relevance for theories of competence and performance and vital for
all those concerned with language contact. Carol Myers-Scotton is a Carolina
Distinguished Professor of Linguistics at the University of South
Carolina. She is a specialist in language contact phenomena and
sociolinguistics and has a special interest in East and Southern African
linguistics. In 1993, she published two volumes on codeswitching, Social
Motivations for Codeswitching: Evidence from Africa, and Duelling Languages:
Grammatical Structure in Codeswitching (both OUP). She has also edited a
volume of essays on language and literature (OUP 1998) and published many
articles in her areas of interest.