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Written Code Switching in a Medieval Document: A Comparison with Some Modern Constraints

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Elaine R. Miller
Elaine R. Miller*
Affiliation:
Georgia State University
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Abstract

Most studies of code switching have focussed on its use in informal, oral settings, but written examples also occur. The Castilian-Hebrew switching in the Jewish taqqanot ‘statutes’ of Valladolid, Spain, written in 1432, provides important data for testing the different constraints proposed in studies on code switching. Examples of switches between determiner-noun, preposition-noun, possessive-noun, quantifier-noun, and ser-participle indicate that the code switches in the taqqanot usually conform to some of the constraints already proposed: the Free Morpheme Constraint, the Equivalence Constraint, and the Closed-Class Constraint. At the same time, the analysis of these medieval switches confronts the same unresolved issues as other studies, for instance, the need to adequately distinguish between borrowings and code switches and the question of whether bilingual utterances always have an identifiable matrix language.

Résumé

Résumé

La plupart des études sur l’alternance codique se sont principalement intéressées à son utilisation à l’oral dans des contextes informels quoique certains exemples à l’écrit se produisent également. L’alternance codique castillan-hébreu dans les taqqanot statuts juifs de Valladolid en Espagne, écrits en 1432, constitue une source importante de données pour tester les différentes contraintes qui ont été proposées dans les travaux sur l’alternance codique. Des exemples d’alternances entre le déterminant et le nom, la préposition et le nom, le possessif et le nom, le quantifieur et le nom, et le verbe ser et le participe indiquent que les alternances de code dans les taqqanot respectent généralement trois de ces contraintes: la Contrainte du morphème libre, la Contrainte d’équivalence et la Contrainte de la classe fermée. L’analyse de ces alternances médiévales se heurte aux mêmes problèmes non résolus que celles des autres études sur l’alternance codique, dont la nécessité de distinguer entre les emprunts et les alternances de code et la détermination de la langue matrice dans les énoncés bilingues.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 46 , Issue 3-4 , December 2001 , pp. 159 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 2001

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