Cover not available
Part of
Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2018: Selected papers from 'Going Romance' 32, Utrecht
Edited by Sergio Baauw, Frank Drijkoningen and Luisa Meroni
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 357] 2021
► pp. 131–150

Chapter 7
Contact phenomena

The I-language of a bilingual

| University of Illinois at Chicago

Against the common-sense notion that bilinguals have two grammatical systems I argue that the linguistic system of a bilingual should be integrated, following ideas developed in more detail in López (2020). In particular, I argue that both the lexicon and the post-syntactic operations that lead to the externalization systems are integrated. I further argue that the distinction between code-switching and borrowing is spurious and I extend the integrated hypothesis to syntactic transfer. I use Distributed Morphology to formally describe how an integrated system may work.

Keywords: code-switching, integrated hypothesis, lexicon, gender assignment, pronominal clitics, distributed morphology, borrowing, transfer
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Separationism and architecture
  • 3.Distributed morphology
  • 4.Only one lexicon
  • 5.Only one PF
  • 6.Code-switching and borrowing
  • 7.Syntactic transfer
  • 8.Conclusions
  • References
Published online: 17 December 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.357.07lop
References (38)
Acquaviva, Paolo
2009 Roots and lexicality in Distributed Morphology. York Papers in Linguistics Series 2. 1–21.Google Scholar
Alexiadou, Artemis, Terje Lohndal, Tor Afarli & Maren Berg Grimstad
2015 Language mixing: A Distributed Morphology approach. In Thuy Bui & Denis Ozildiz (eds.), Proceedings of NELS, 25–38. Amherst, MA: GLSA Publications.Google Scholar
Arad, Maya
2003 Locality constraints on the interpretation of roots: The case of Hebrew denominal verbs. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 21. 737–778. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Arregi, Karlos & Andrew Nevins
2012 Morphotactics. Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 86. Dordrecht: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Backus, Ad & Margreet Dorleijn
2009 Loan translations versus code-switching. In Barbara Bullock & Jacqueline Toribio (eds.), The Cambridge handbook of linguistic code-Switching, 75–94. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Badiola, Lucía & Ariane Sande
2018 Gender assignment in Basque mixed Determiner Phrases: A study of Gernika Basque. In Luis López (ed.), Code-switching – experimental answers to theoretical questions, 15–38. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bandi-Rao, Shoba & Marcel Den Dikken
2014 Light switches: On v as a pivot in code-switching, and the nature of the ban on word-internal switches. In Jeff MacSwan (ed.), Grammatical theory and bilingual code-switching, 161–184. Cambridge, MA: MIT PressGoogle Scholar
Bell, Roger T.
1976 Sociolinguistics: Goals, approaches and problems. London: Batsford.Google Scholar
Carstens, Vicki
1991 DP Structure in KiSwahili. PhD Dissertation: UCLA.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam
1995 The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
De Houwer, Anneke
2005 Early bilingual acquisition. In Judith Kroll & Annette de Groot (eds.), Handbook of bilingualism, 30–48. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Embick, David & Rolph Noyer
2001 Movement operations after syntax. Linguistic Inquiry 32 (4). 555–595. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goldrick, Matt, Michael Putnam & Linda Schwartz
2016 Coactivation in bilingual grammars: A computational account of code mixing. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 19. 857–876. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
González-Vilbazo, Kay
2005 Die syntax des code-switching. Ph.D. Dissertation: Universität zu Köln.Google Scholar
González-Vilbazo, Kay & Luis López
2012 Little v and parametric variation. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 30(1). 33–77. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grimstad, Maren Berg, Terje Lohndal & Tor A. Åfarli
2014 Language mixing and exoskeletal theory: A case study of word-internal mixing in American Norwegian. Nordlyd 41(2). 213–237. [URL]
Halle, Morris & Alec Marantz
1993 Distributed morphology and the pieces of inflection. In Ken Hale & S. Jay Keyser (eds.), The view from building 20, 111–176. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
1994 Some key features of Distributed Morphology. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 21. 275–288.Google Scholar
Harley, Heidi
2014 On the identity of roots. Theoretical Linguistics 40(3/4). 225–276. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Harley, Heidi & Rolph Noyer
2000 Distributed Morphology. Glot International 4(4). 3–9.Google Scholar
Harris, James
1994 The syntax-phonology mapping in Catalan and Spanish clitics. MITWPL 21. 321–353Google Scholar
Harris, Jim
1991 The exponence of gender in Spanish. Linguistic Inquiry 22. 27–62.Google Scholar
Kramer, Ruth
2015 The morphosyntax of gender. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kroll, Judith F. & Erika Stewart
1994 Category interference in translation and picture naming: Evidence for asymmetric connections between bilingual memory representations. Journal of Memory and Language 33. 149–174. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kroll, Judith F., Paola E. Dussias, Kinsey Bice & Lauren Perrotti
2015 Bilingualism, mind, and brain. Annual Review of Linguistics 1. 377–394. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
López, Luis
2016 Questions on data and input to GEN. Bilingualism, Language and Cognition 19. 889–890. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2020 Bilingual grammar: Toward an integrated model. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
MacSwan, Jeff
1999 A minimalist approach to intrasentential code switching. New York: Garland Press.Google Scholar
MacSwan, Jeff & Sonia Colina
2014 Some consequences of language design: Codeswitching and the PF interface. In Jeff MacSwan (ed.), Grammatical Theory and Bilingual Codeswitching, 185–210. Cambridge, MA: MIT PressGoogle Scholar
Marantz, Alec
1997 No escape from syntax: Don’t try morphological analysis in the privacy of your own lexicon. In Alexis Dimitradis, Laura Siegel, Clarissa Surek-Clark & Alexander Williams (eds.), Proceedings of the 21st Penn Linguistics Colloquium, 221–225. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Myers-Scotton, Carol
2002 Contact linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Myers-Scotton, Carol & Janice Jake
2009 A universal model of code-switching and bilingual language processing and production. In Barbara Bullock & Jacqueline Toribio (eds.), The Cambridge handbook of linguistic code-switching, 336–357. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Otheguy, Ricardo, Ofelia García & Wallis Reid
2015 Clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied Linguistics Review 6. 281–307. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pierantozzi, Cristina
2012 Agreement within early mixed DP. In Kurt Braunmüller & Christoph Gabriel (eds), Multilingual individuals and multilingual societies, 137–152. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Poplack, Shana & Nathalie Dion
2012 Myths and facts about loanword development. Language Variation and Change 24. 279–315. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Riksem, Brita
2017 Language mixing in American Norwegian noun phrases. Ph.D. Dissertation: Norwegian University for Science and Technology.Google Scholar
Roca, Iggy
1989 The organisation of grammatical gender. Transactions of the Philological Society 87(1). 1–32. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roeper, Tom
1999 Universal bilingualism. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 2: 169–186. DOI logoGoogle Scholar