The Production of Code-Mixed Discourse

We propose a comprehensive theory of codemixed discourse, encompassing equivalencepoint and insertional code-switching, palindromic constructions and lexical borrowing. The starting point is a production model of code-switching accounting for empirical observations about switch-point distribution (the equivalence constraint), well-formedness of monolingual fragments, conservation of constituent structure and lack of constraint between successive switch points, without invoking any "code-switching grammar". Codeswitched sentence production makes alternate reference to two virtual monolingual sentences, one in each language, and is based on conservative conditions on language labeling of constituents, together with a constraint against real-time "look-ahead" from one code-switch to the next. Selective weakening of model conditions can produce (i) the type of palindromic (or portmanteau) construction occasionally occurring e.g., in switches between prepositional and p...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: ACL
• Authors: David Sankoff
• Keywords: ACL 1998, ACL 2007, Lexical Borrowing, Successive Switch Points, Virtual Monolingual Sentences