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Welsh-English code-switching: a clause-based analysis

Welsh-English code-switching: a clause-based analysis. Margaret Deuchar, Dirk Bury, Elen Robert, Peredur Davies & Jonathan Stammers. Goals of this talk. To argue that the notion “bilingual clause” is potentially problematic To demonstrate this with reference to complex clauses

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Welsh-English code-switching: a clause-based analysis

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  1. Welsh-English code-switching: a clause-based analysis Margaret Deuchar, Dirk Bury, Elen Robert, Peredur Davies & Jonathan Stammers

  2. Goals of this talk • To argue that the notion “bilingual clause” is potentially problematic • To demonstrate this with reference to complex clauses • To propose an analysis using “clausal units” - which are not necessarily constituents • To report on the results of assigning (a) linguality and (b) a matrix language using clausal units in an analysis of our Welsh-English code-switching data

  3. What is a bilingual clause? • A clause that contains words from more than one language Example: [CPmae o on stand-by ] is he on stand-by He’s on stand-by.

  4. Complex clauses • A complex clause is a clause or CP that contains a clause: [CP1a b c [CP2 d e f] ] Within CP1 (a complex clause), we can distinguish: - [CP2 d e f] : the subordinate clause - a b c : the “residue” of CP1

  5. Monolingual complex clause Example: [CP1sownesiddeud [CP2 (ba)swnI sodid Isay wouldI mynd dydd Sul] ] go day Sunday [CP1So I said [CP2I’d go on Sunday] ]

  6. 4 patterns of complex bilingual clauses 1. [CP1L1L2[CP2 L1L2] ] 2. [CP1 L1 L2[CP2L1]] 3. [CP1 L1 [CP2L2] ] 4. [CP1 L1 [CP2 L1L2] ]

  7. Pattern 1: [CP1 L1 L2 [CP2 L1 L2 ] ] Example: [CP1ond mae o mor cheesy butis it so cheesy [CP2mae(y)n funny] yndy ] isPRT funny TAG But it’s so cheesy it’s funny, isn’t it.

  8. Pattern 2: [CP1 L1 L2 [CP2 L1 ] ] Example: [CP1 hynna (y)dy ’r exam[CP2 dwi’n there is DET exam am-I PRT gorod eistedd (y)fory] ] have-to.NONFIN sit.NONFIN tomorrow That’s the exam I have to sit tomorrow.

  9. Pattern 3: [CP1 L1 [CP2L2 ] ] Example: [CP1wnesi ddeud[CP2oh d(o) you did I say oh do you fancy a pint on Wednesday?] ] fancy a pint on Wednesday I said “Oh, do you fancy a pint on Wednesday?”

  10. Pattern4: [CP1L1 [CP2 L1 L2 ] ] [CP1mae hi just yn meddwl [CP2bod is she just PRT think be (y)na quick-fixes ibobdim yeah] ] there quick-fixes toeverything yeah She just thinks there are quick-fixes for everything, yeah.

  11. Why are complex bilingual clauses problematic? Complex bilingual clauses create problems for: • counts of the proportion of bilingual clauses in a given corpus • identification of matrix language (as in Matrix Language Frame model) on a clause basis

  12. Counting bilingual complex clauses Pattern 4: [CP1mae hi just yn meddwl [CP2bod is she just PRT think be (y)na quick-fixes ibobdim yeah] ] there quick-fixes toeverything yeah She just thinks there are quick-fixes for everything, yeah. • #4' [CPl L1 [CP2 L1 [CP3 L1 [CP4 L1L2 ] ] ] ]

  13. Matrix Language Frame model • Unit of analysis is CP: “syntactic structure expressing the predicate-argument structure of a clause” (Myers-Scotton 2002:54) • A bilingual CP is one that contains bilingual constituents (Myers-Scotton 2002:56), including other CPs • Hypothesis (Myers-Scotton 2002:66): “the Matrix Language does not change at all within the single bilingual CP”

  14. Predictions of the MLF Morpheme Order Principle In bilingual constituents […], surface word (and morpheme) order will be that of the Matrix Language. System Morpheme Principle In bilingual constituents, all system morphemes which have grammatical relations external to their head constituents will come from the Matrix Language. (Adapted from Myers-Scotton 2002:59)

  15. Problem for hypothesis that ML doesn’t change Pattern 3 examples contain word order patterns and agreement morphology from two languages: [CP1wnesi ddeud[CP2oh d(o) you did I say oh do you fancy a pint on Wednesday?] ] fancy a pint on Wednesday I said “oh, d’you fancy a pint on Wednesday?”

  16. Solution: the clausal unit The basic unit of analysis must include : • simple clauses • complex clauses that contain a subordinate clause but without the subordinate clause(‘clause residues’) We call the basic unit of analysisclausal unit. Note: Clause residues are not constituents.

  17. Illustrative analysis applying MLF to Welsh-English data • Data from AHRC-funded project at Bangor (transcribed using LIDES system) • Sample of ca. 70 minutes analysed • Data from 3 conversations between 2 speakers • Total of 2429 clausal units analysed • Total of 1171 clausal units with finite verbs • Linguality and ML identified

  18. Identifying linguality • Identify all clausal units (including both simple clauses and clause residues) • Code each clausal unit as monolingual (Welsh or English), bilingual or either • Calculate proportion of bilingual vs monolingual clausal units in sample

  19. Identifying matrix language • Identify all clausal units (including both simple clauses and clause residues) • Identify ML of each clausal unit on basis of subject-verb agreement & word order as Welsh, English, either or dichotomous • Calculate proportion of bilingual and monolingual clauses in which ML can be identified

  20. Linguality: all clausal units

  21. Linguality: clausal units containing verbs

  22. Linguality: clausal units containing finite verbs

  23. ML of all clausal units

  24. ML of clausal units containing verbs

  25. ML of clausal units (CUs) containing finite verbs

  26. Summary of results on linguality and ML • The vast majority of clausal units are Welsh • About 15% of clausal units are bilingual • Clausal units with language-specific linguality mostly have the same language-specific ML • Clausal units with bilingual linguality mostly have Welsh ML • Dichotomous ML is extremely rare • The model can be most exhaustively applied when the analysis is limited to clausal units with finite verbs

  27. Discussion of results Results of analysis show that : • MLF model is generally descriptively adequate in relation to our data • There may be a relation between the ML which is most frequent in a dataset and that which is favoured in bilingual clauses

  28. Conclusions • Use of clausal units, including both simple clauses and clause residues, makes it possible to identify linguality and ML of clausal units on a more principled and precise basis. • Use of clausal units in analyses of linguality and ML provide quantitative information which leads to hypotheses which can be tested on other data using identical methods of analysis.

  29. Acknowledgements • Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), UK • Marika Fusser • Ellen Kimpton • Research Councils UK (RCUK) • Gary Smith

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