Identifying partially schematic units in the code-mixing of an English and German speaking child
Abstract
Intra-sentential code-mixing presents a number of puzzles for theories of bilingualism. In this paper, we examine the code-mixed English-German utterances of a young English-German-Spanish trilingual child between 1;10 – 3;1, using both an extensive diary kept by the mother and audio recordings. We address the interplay between lexical and syntactic aspects of language use outlined in the usage-based approach (e.g. Tomasello, 2003). The data suggest that partially schematic constructions play an important role in the code-mixing of this child. In addition, we find, first, that the code-mixing was not mainly the result of lexical gaps. Second, there was more mixing of German function words than content words. Third, code-mixed utterances often consisted of the use of a partially schematic construction with the open slot filled by material from the other language. These results raise a number of important issues for all theoretical approaches to code mixing, which we discuss.
Citation
Endesfelder Quick , A , Lieven , E , Carpenter , M & Tomasello , M 2017 , ' Identifying partially schematic units in the code-mixing of an English and German speaking child ' , Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism , vol. 8 , no. 4 , pp. 477-501 . https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.15049.qui
Publication
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Status
Peer reviewed
Type
Journal article
Description
The support of the Economic and Social Research Council [ES/L008955/1] is gratefully acknowledged.Collections
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