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Nonfinite verbs and negotiating bilingualism in codeswitching: Implications for a language production model*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2013

CAROL MYERS-SCOTTON  and
JANICE L. JAKE
CAROL MYERS-SCOTTON*
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
JANICE L. JAKE
Affiliation:
Midlands Technical College, Columbia, SC
*
Address for correspondence: Carol Myers-Scotton, Michigan State University, Department of Linguistics, Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages, 619 Red Cedar Road, Room B331Wells Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824, USAmyerssc3@msu.edu
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Abstract

This paper argues that a set of codeswitching data has implications for the nature of cognitive control in bilingualism and for models of language production in general. The data discussed are Embedded Language (EL) nonfinite verbs that occur in Matrix Language (ML) frames with appropriate ML inflectional morphology in some codeswitching (CS) corpora. Notably EL infinitives are involved, as in wo mu conçevoir be nuɖe . . . “they don't imagine that something . . .” (from Ewe–French CS). The main argument is that such nonfinite forms are selected because they only need checking at the lexical-conceptual level of abstract structure with the speaker's intended semantic-pragmatic meaning. That is, they do not project information about syntactic and argument structure that is included in the abstract structure of finite verbs. Nonfinite EL verbs occur because they better satisfy the speaker's intentions regarding semantic and pragmatic meaning than NL finite verbs. The employment of nonfinite EL verbs instead of EL finite verbs partially explains why codeswitching in general and such verb phrases in particular is perceived as fast and effortless. How one lexical entry (the EL nonfinite verb) can take on the morphosyntactic role of another one (the ML finite verb) implies flexibility in cognitive control at an abstract level. It also implies a certain malleability at an abstract level in the ML morphosyntactic frame that makes it possible to take in a nonfinite verb in a slot for a finite verb.

Keywords

codeswitchinglanguage production modelMatrix Language Frame modelnonfinite verbs
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , July 2014 , pp. 511 - 525
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

*

We would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their insightful and constructive comments. We also thank the BLC editors, particularly Carmen Silva Corvalán for her invaluable advice and constant support. We also appreciate the many authors of the examples employed that were not our own. Special thanks go to Evershed Amuzu, Jeanette Sakel, Leigh Swigart, and Jeanine Treffers-Daller who uncovered relevant examples in their data when we asked for their help. The authors are listed in alphabetical order. This is a much revised version of the co-authored talk titled “What does it cost? Codeswitching and its implications for language production”. Myers-Scotton gave this presentation at the 8th International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB8) in Oslo, Norway, in June, 2011. She is grateful to the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies of the University of Oslo for making her presence possible. She also thanks the audience at Penn State University where she presented another earlier version of this paper.

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