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Article published In:
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 8:4 (2018) ► pp.477–501

Identifying partially schematic units in the code-mixing of an English and German speaking child

| University of Leipzig
| University of Manchester
| University of St Andrews | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
| Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology | Duke University
Intra-sentential code-mixing presents a number of puzzles for theories of bilingualism. In this paper, we examine the code-mixed English-German utterances of a young English-German-Spanish trilingual child between 1;10 – 3;1, using both an extensive diary kept by the mother and audio recordings. We address the interplay between lexical and syntactic aspects of language use outlined in the usage-based approach (e.g. Tomasello, 2003). The data suggest that partially schematic constructions play an important role in the code-mixing of this child. In addition, we find, first, that the code-mixing was not mainly the result of lexical gaps. Second, there was more mixing of German function words than content words. Third, code-mixed utterances often consisted of the use of a partially schematic construction with the open slot filled by material from the other language. These results raise a number of important issues for all theoretical approaches to code mixing, which we discuss.
Keywords: code-mixing, English–German, bilingual child, usage-based, partially schematic constructions
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Code-mixing in bilingual adults and children
  • 3.Functional approach to code-mixing
  • 4.Sampling
  • 5.Method
    • 5.1Participant
    • 5.2Data
    • 5.3Analysis
      • Basic measurements
      • Construction types
  • 6.Identifying partially schematic units in code-mixed utterances
  • 7.Results
    • 7.1Quantitative results
    • 7.2Mean length of utterance
    • 7.3Constructions in the recordings and diary context
    • 7.4Mixing in the recordings and diary
    • 7.5Partially schematic units in code-mixing – Recordings
  • 8.Discussion
    • 8.1Why is this child different compared to previous studies?
    • 8.2Pattern of code-mixing
    • 8.3Partially schematic units- A usage-based approach to code-mixing
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 7 March 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.15049.qui
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