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Volume 8, Issue 4
  • ISSN 1879-9264
  • E-ISSN: 1879-9272
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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.

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2017-03-07
2024-10-07

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Identifying partially schematic units in the code-mixing of an English and German speaking child
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 8, 477 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.15049.qui
/content/journals/10.1075/lab.15049.qui
/content/journals/10.1075/lab.15049.qui
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): bilingual child; code-mixing; English–German; partially schematic constructions; usage-based

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