Code-switching at the crossroads between structural and socio-linguistic perspectives

Organized by: Gerald Stell (Vrije Universiteit Brussel & FRIAS), Kofi Yakpo (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen & FRIAS)

The study of the use of two languages in conversation – which we generically refer to as code-switching (henceforth CS) – has developed in two distinct directions: structural and sociolinguistic. The structural approach is primarily concerned with the search for language internal constraints on the occurrence of switches from one language to another. This approach has evolved a range of predictive models, calling on elements from different theoretical frameworks (e.g. Myers-Scotton 1993, 2002 McSwan 1999). The perspective which we broadly label sociolinguistic is descriptive and draws on micro- and macrosocial analysis in a bid to account for and classify CS phenomena (e.g. Muysken 2000). The two approaches also differ in their respective units of analysis. While the structural approach has relied on the analysis of grammar at the sentence-level, the sociolinguistic approach is centred on pragmatics with a focus on conversational structure and communicative and social context. One consequence of the different methodology and objectives of these two approaches is that they have traditionally been kept apart. This one and a half-day workshop seeks to bring structural and socio-linguistic approaches closer to each other, by addressing, amongst others, the following questions:

Guiding questions

• Can the inclusion of social factors constrain or expand the predictive power of structural models of CS?
• Conversely, can structural models of CS index certain types of pragmatic purposes, conversational structures or general sociolinguistic contexts?
• Do social norms and language ideologies affect the types of CS found in multilingual communities?
• Do structural constraints play a role, if it all, in social scenarios that lead to the rise of mixed languages, and do they manifest themselves in the grammar of these languages?
• What does research on bilingual language processing tell us about structural constraints and long-term effects of societal multilingualism?

Schedule:

Thursday, June 7, 2012

09:00 Registration & welcome coffee
09:30 Gerald Stell (VU Brussel/FRIAS) & Kofi Yakpo (RU Nijmegen/FRIAS)

• Opening

09:45 Ad Backus (Tilburg University)

• A usage-based approach to codeswitching: The need for reconciling structure and function

10:15 Gerald Stell (Vrije Universiteit Brussel/FRIAS)

• Towards an integrated structural and conversational approach of CS

10:45 Coffee break
11:15 Nikolay Khakimov (University of Freiburg)

• Disentangling code-switching and borrowing: The role of frequency of co-occurrence

11:45 Gerrit Jan Kootstra (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen)

• The crossroads between sociolinguistics, structural linguistics, and psycholinguistics: Experiments on code-switching in monologue and dialogue

12:15 Lunch break
14:00 Carmel O’Shannessy (University of Michigan)

• Structural innovation and retention of codeswitching patterns in Light Warlpiri, a new mixed language in northern Australia

14:30 Kofi Yakpo (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen/FRIAS)

• Codemixing and social change: Observations from Suriname

15:00 Evershed Amuzu (University of Ghana)

• Relating the Matrix Language Frame model to the Markedness Model in accounting for the bilingual language practices of a speech community

15:30 Coffee break
16:00 Maria Del Carmen Parafita Couto (University of Strathclyde)

• How do Welsh-English bilinguals deal with conflict? Adjective- noun order resolution

16:30 Gerald Stell (VU Brussel/FRIAS) & Kofi Yakpo (RU Nijmegen/FRIAS)

• Closing of Day 1 & logistics

Friday, June 8, 2012

09:30 Sabine Ehrhart (University of Luxembourg)

• Acts of identity in the continuum from multilingual practices to language policy

10:00 Eric Anchimbe (University of Bayreuth)

• Code-switching: Between identity and exclusion

10:30 Bettina Migge (University College Dublin)

• The role of social and discursive information in analyzing patterns of code-mixing, codeswitching and learner practices in a multi-variety contact setting

11:00 Coffee break
11:30 Katherine Chen (The University of Hong Kong)

• Styling bilinguals: How structurally distinctive code-switching styles index social groups in Hong Kong

12:00 Klaus Beyer (University of Frankfurt)

• Multilingual speakers in a West-African rural contact zone

12:30 Gerald Stell (VU Brussel/FRIAS) & Kofi Yakpo (RU Nijmegen/FRIAS)

• Conclusion & the way forward

13:00 Farewell