Aims and content
This handbook overviews the major issues in the linguistic study of code-switching (hereafter CS), the alternating use of two languages in the same stretch of discourse by a bilingual speaker. Comprised of chapters written by experts in a concise, accessible, and comprehensive format, the volume is intended to serve multiple audiences as a guide to the main theoretical and empirical contributions to the study of CS.
The handbook is targeted to a readership ranging from advanced undergraduate students to researchers with specializations in syntax, phonetics/phonology, morphology, bilingualism, language contact, discourse pragmatics, language acquisition, language attrition, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, speech science, and sociolinguistics. Most of the chapters are comprehensible to students and scholars of general linguistics who need not be experts in the study of bilingualism or in any of the specific theories pertaining to the subfields of linguistics.
Since the phenomenon of CS falls firmly within the fields of bilingualism and language contact, we expect that the chapters of this volume will serve as relevant companion readings to more general works such as Romaine’s (Reference Romaine1995) Bilingualism, second edition, Winford’s (Reference Winford2003) An introduction to contact linguistics, and Myers-Scotton’s (Reference Myers-Scotton2006a) Multiple Voices: An introduction to bilingualism. A major goal of this volume is to provide its readers with the background necessary to move from introductory texts on bilingualism, sociolinguistics, or general linguistics to research articles devoted to the analysis and implications of CS. Our broader objective is to help dispel the myths and misperceptions that surround the bilingual practice of CS.
Bilingual speech practices such as CS have engaged the interests of scholars from diverse disciplines, among them Communication Sciences, Education, and Cultural Studies, to name but a few; this volume focuses on the analysis of CS within the discipline of Linguistics. In the introductory chapter, Bullock and Toribio present the broad themes in the linguistic study of CS. Part I, “Conceptual and methodological considerations in code-switching,” consists of three chapters: Gullberg, Indefrey and Muysken (Chapter 2) survey and critique pertinent research techniques, and Sebba (Chapter 3), Treffers-Daller (Chapter 4), and Backus and Dorleijn (Chapter 5) seek to clarify the conceptual assumptions that underlie much CS research. Four chapters make up Part II, “Social aspects of code-switching.” Gardner-Chloros (Chapter 6) addresses the social motivations implicated in CS practices and Gafaranga (Chapter 7) examines CS as a communicative resource. CS on the internet as a new community of practice is considered by Dorleijn and Nortier (Chapter 8), and CS as accommodation is the focus of Chapter 9 by Khattab. The coverage in this section, though by no means exhaustive, is intended to be representative of the various types of approaches to sociolinguistic research on CS. Part III, “The structural implications of code-switching,” considers CS at all levels of linguistic analysis. Bullock (Chapter 10) addresses the phonetic/phonological patterns of CS, Chan (Chapter 11) considers the grammatical patterns attested in CS between typologically dissimilar languages, Müller and Cantone (Chapter 12) investigate CS patterns in bilingual first language acquisition, and Quinto-Pozos (Chapter 13) discusses CS in signed modality. Part IV, “Psycholinguistics and code-switching,” contemplates developmental and psycholinguistic aspects of CS. Miccio, Hammer, and Rodríguez (Chapter 14) distinguish CS from disordered speech in children, Bolonyai (Chapter 15) distinguishes CS from language attrition, Wei describes and theorizes the bilingual mental lexicon (Chapter 16), and Kutas, Moreno, and Wicha (Chapter 17) overview the psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic facets of CS. Finally, Part V, “Formal models of code-switching,” presents and further advances two influential theoretical models of bilingual morpho-syntactic patterns: MacSwan’s generativist framework (Chapter 18) and Myers-Scotton and Jake’s psycholinguistic processing and production model (Chapter 19).
The structure of this handbook follows a defined scheme, progressing from general methodological and definitional issues in the study of CS (Part I) through the three major linguistic approaches to CS – sociolinguistic (Part II), structural (Part III), and psycholinguistic (Part IV) – to formal models of CS (Part V). However, many issues recur throughout the volume. For instance, readers with interests in child language will benefit not only from the chapters in Part IV, but also from Chapter 9 and Chapter 12, both of which address first language acquisition; and language processing is invoked in Chapter 2, Chapter 4, Chapter 10, Chapter 16, and Chapter 19, as well as in Chapter 17, which is devoted to CS and the brain. Indeed, readers will discover a good deal of overlap among the themes discussed throughout this volume; this is to be expected, as linguists are converging on the view that CS must be examined from structural, social, and psycholinguistic perspectives concurrently.
