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

本研究探讨了双语会话言语中同时使用多种语言的语码转换（CS）的语言学性质。计算机语言的模式不是随机的，而是系统的，这表明计算机语言可能受到人类语言基础的语法原则的约束。本研究将调查具有不同规范的对象(O)和动词(V)顺序的语言之间的CS。语码转换数据表明，语码转换不仅可以发生在具有不同规范词序的语言之间，如韩语等OV语言和英语等VO语言，而且语码转换成分的内部顺序也可能不同，表现出语码转换中涉及的两种语言的任何一种顺序。这个项目测试了一种假设，即汉语口语中的动词-动词变化不仅是由于特定动词的属性，而且是由于动词与宾语结合后产生的短语的含义。该项目将测试这一理论的预测，并以问卷的形式向韩语-英语和日语-英语双语者提供对CS模式的内省判断。CS已被广泛研究，但没有一个令人满意的说法来解释在各种语言对中发现的不同而系统的词序模式。通过对语序变化提供统一的语言学解释，本研究有助于理解双语语音的变化及其调控机制。本文的研究结果还将对目前理论句法中的几个建议产生影响。将这些建议应用于双语言语是一种创新的评估方法。最后，这项研究将对各个社会和教育方面产生更广泛的影响。CS经常被污名化，致力于CS将有助于减少这种负面看法。这项研究将促进CS作为一种合法的双语语言形式，它受到与单语语言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.