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Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 2:4 (2012) ► pp.439–457
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The phonetics of insertional code-switching

Suprasegmental analysis and a case for hyper-articulation

| Purdue University

This study investigates the phonetic production of Spanish-English insertional code-switches, constituents of an embedded language inserted within a discourse of a matrix language. While previous research on the phonetics of codeswitching has focused exclusively on the segmental properties, the current study provides a detailed examination of the suprasegmental features of code-switched tokens, including pitch height and duration. Code-switched productions are compared with non-code-switched tokens, and results indicate that insertional code-switched tokens are produced with a degree of hyper-articulation, evidenced by an increase in pitch height and duration. The results are discussed within Hyper- and Hypo-articulation Theory, drawing on the notion of a decreased local probability incurred by insertional code-switches.

Keywords: code-switching, bilingualism, phonetics, suprasegmental, prosody, intonation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Code-switching
    • 1.2Bilingual phonetic production
    • 1.3Code-switching and phonetic production
    • 1.4Current study aims
  • 2.Methodology
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Stimuli
    • 2.3Procedure
    • 2.4Measurements
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Pitch height
      • 3.1.1Pitch height — creaky voice
      • 3.1.2Pitch Height by Speaker
    • 3.2Duration
      • 3.2.1Duration by speaker
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1H and H Theory
    • 4.2Hyper-articulation and language modes
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 November 2012
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.2.4.05ols
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