Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Deriving Word Order in Code-switching

本研究探讨了语码转换的语言学本质，即双语会话中同时使用多种语言的现象。语序转换的模式不是随机的，而是系统的，这表明语序转换可能受到人类语言背后的语法原则的制约。本研究将对宾语(O)和动词(V)的规范顺序不同的语言进行对比研究。语码转换数据显示，不仅可以在具有不同规范词序的语言之间进行转换，例如韩语这样的OV语言和英语这样的VO语言，而且语码转换成分的内部语序也可能不同，表现出CS中涉及的两种语言中的任何一种。这个项目测试了这一假设，即CS中的OV-VO变化是由于特定动词的属性，但也是由于动词与宾语组合后所产生的短语的意义。该项目将检验这一理论的预测与韩英和日英双语说话者以问卷形式呈现给他们的对CS模式的内省判断。对比分析已经得到了广泛的研究，但没有一个令人满意的解释来解释在不同语言对中发现的不同的、但系统的词序模式。通过对双语言语中某些语序变异的统一的语言学解释，本研究有助于理解双语言语中的变异及其调控方式。这项研究的结果也将影响到目前在理论句法方面的几个建议。将这些建议应用于双语演讲是一种评估双语演讲的创新方法。最后，这项研究将对社会和教育的各个方面产生更广泛的影响。CS经常被污名化，对CS的研究将有助于减少这种负面看法。这项研究将促进CS成为双语者的一种合法语言形式，它受到与单语言语相同的普遍原则的约束。

This study investigates the linguistic nature of code-switching (CS), the concurrent use of more than one language in bilingual conversational speech. Patterns of CS are not random but systematic, which suggests the possibility that CS is constrained by grammatical principles that underlie human language. This research will investigate CS across languages that have different canonical orders of object (O) and verb (V). CS data show that not only can a switch occur across languages with different canonical word orders, such as an OV language like Korean and a VO language like English, but the internal order of a code-switched constituent may also vary, exhibiting either order of the two languages involved in CS. This project tests the hypothesis that OV-VO variation in CS is due to properties of particular verbs but also the meaning of the resulting phrase after the verb has combined with an object. The project will test the predictions of such a theory against Korean-English and Japanese-English bilingual speakers' introspective judgments of CS patterns presented to them in the form of a questionnaire. CS has been extensively studied, yet there has been no single satisfactory account to explain the diverse, yet systematic, word order patterns found in various language pairs. By offering a unified linguistic account of certain word order variations in CS, this research contributes to an understanding of variation in bilingual speech and how it is regulated. The results of the study will also bear on several current proposals in theoretical syntax. Applying these proposals to bilingual speech is an innovative way to evaluate them. Lastly, this study will have a broader impact on various social and educational aspects. CS is often stigmatized and work on CS will help reduce such negative perceptions. This study will promote CS as a legitimate language form of bilinguals, which is subject to the same universal principles that govern monolingual speech.