Bilingual Code-mixing and Code-switching

Abstarct

Bilingualism and Multilingualism is an interdisciplinary and complex field. As is self-evident from the prefixes (bi- and multi-), the bilingualism and multilingualism phenomena are devoted to the study of production, processing, and comprehension of two (or more) languages, respectively.

Appendices

The Research Questions

• 1 Are bilinguals just a composite of two monolinguals in a single individual? Why? Why not?

• 2. Is language mixing (Code-mixing and Code-switching) a random or a systematic phenomenon? Why?

• 3. Is there a grammar of Code-mixing and Code-switching?

• 4. What motivates bilinguals to mix and alternate two languages? Do language educators use language mixing in classrooms?

• 5. How is a matrix language distinguished from embedded language in a code-mixed utterance?

• 6. What is the social evaluation of language mixing and language alternation?

• 7. What is the difference between code-mixing/code-switching and other related phenomena—borrowings, pidgin and creole languages and diglossia?

• 8. What are the two salient characteristics of the bilingual brain?

• 9. Is childhood language mixing different from adult language mixing?

• 10. Unlike monolinguals, a decision to speak multiple languages requires a complex unconscious process on the part of bilinguals. What factors determine language choice by bilinguals?

Suggested Resources

Bhatia, T., & Ritchie, W. (Eds.). (2013). The handbook of bilingualism and multilingualism. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

This handbook provides state-of-the art overviews of central issues of bilingualism and plurilingualism. The work represents a new integration of interdisciplinary research by a team of internationally-renowned scholars. The handbook is organized into four parts and comprises thirty-six chapters, covering neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and educational aspects of bilingualism. It covers of a wide variety of topics, ranging from neuro- and psycho-linguistic research to studies of media and role of language in psychological counseling.

Included in the handbook is the latest assessment of the global linguistic situation with particular emphasis on those geographical areas which are centers of global conflict and commerce. New topics such as global media and mobile and electronic language learning are also included. Chapter 13, devoted to methodology, is particularly useful for researchers interested in multidisciplinary research methodological approaches to bilingualism/multilingualism, while Chap. 15 underscores the social-psychological basis of bilingual language mixing. Other topics of interests are: Multilingualism and forensic linguistics; Bilingualism and writing systems; Bilingual education; and Endangered languages. This volume was the recipient of the Choice Outstanding Academic Award.

Gardner-Chloros, P. (2009). Code-switching. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

It is quite common for bilingual speakers to use two or more languages, dialects or varieties in the same conversation, without any apparent effort. This book explores how, when, why, and where aspects of Code Switching (CS) and Code Mixing (CM), using rich and diverse sources of data sets. Structurally diverse patterns of CS and CM across a wide-variety of language-pairs are presented. The phenomenon, known as CM and CS (aka, translanguaging), has become a major focus of attention in linguistics, language pedagogy and language policies. This concise and original study explores how, when and where code-switching occurs. Drawing on a diverse range of examples from medieval manuscripts to rap music, novels to advertisements, emails to political speeches, and above all everyday conversation, it argues that CS and CM can only be properly understood if we study it from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives such as sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic, grammatical, and language developmental aspects of the two phenomena.

Kroll, J., & De Groot, A. M. B. (Eds.). (2005). Handbook of bilingualism: psycholinguistic approaches. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

This handbook fills an important gap by exploring the psycholinguistics, neuro- and cognitive linguistic basis of bilingualism. Methodological and experimental issues are also explored. Like the other handbooks in the field, it is aimed at scholarly and cross disciplinary audiences.

This handbook explores the following central questions of bilingual/multiingual language development:

• How is language acquired when infants are exposed to multiple language input from birth and when adults are required to learn a second language after early childhood?

• How do adult bilinguals comprehend and produce words and sentences when their two languages are potentially always active and in competition with one another?

• What are the neural mechanisms that underlie proficient bilingualism?

• What are the effects of bilingualism for cognition and for language and thought?

In addition, it sheds light on the complex dimensions of additive and subtractive bilingualism.

Phakiti A., De Costa, P., Plonsky, L., Starfield, S. (Eds). (2018). The Palgrave handbook of applied linguistic research methodology. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive treatment of basic and advanced research methodologies in applied linguistics and offers a state-of-the-art review of methods particular to a variety of subfields including ELT/TESOL. The handbook is organized in four parts and is comprised of forty-one chapters. It covers a range of research approaches, presents current perspectives, and addresses key issues in different research methods, such as designing and implementing research instruments and techniques, and analyzing different types of applied linguistics data. As such, it offers an up-to-date and highly accessible entry point into both established and emerging approaches that offer new possibilities and perspectives as well as thorough consideration of best practices. This wide-ranging volume is an invaluable resource to applied linguists at all levels, including scholars in related fields such as language learning and teaching, multilingualism, corpus linguistics, critical discourse analysis, discourse analysis and pragmatics, language assessment, language policy and planning, multimodal communication, and translation.

Weinreich, U. (1953). Languages in contact: findings and problems. The Hague: Mouton.

This pioneering work represents a classic in bilingualism. It presents a comprehensive study of grammars in contact, underpinning the mechanism and structural factors in the language development of bilinguals. The role of non-linguistic factors also receives substantive treatment in this book. The book was the first to draw attention to language mixing by bilinguals. Code Mixing and Code Switching, interference, borrowing among other related phenomena such as interference, borrowing, pidgin-creoles. Weinreich laid out the concepts, principles and issues that govern theoretical and empirical issues and challenges in the field of bilingualism and multilingualism. Chapter 3 is noteworthy for its synthesis of the psychological and linguistic deficiency theories of individual bilingualism. This work views bilingualism as a life-long phenomenon, which makes the task of defining and measuring bilingualism a formidable challenge.