Bilingual verbs in three Spanish/English code-switching communities

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 952-967 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osmer Balam ◽  
María del Carmen Parafita Couto ◽  
Hans Stadthagen-González
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
New Mexico ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
English Language ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Comparative Judgment ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Specific Distribution ◽  
Compound Verbs

Objectives/research questions: We investigate two understudied bilingual compound verbs that have been attested in Spanish/English code-switching; namely, ‘ hacer + VInf’ and ‘ estar + VProg’. Specifically, we examined speakers’ intuitions vis-à-vis the acceptability and preferential use of non-canonical and canonical hacer ‘to do’ or estar ‘to be’ bilingual constructions among bilinguals from Northern Belize, New Mexico and Puerto Rico. Methodology: Speakers from Northern Belize ( n = 44), New Mexico ( n = 32) and Puerto Rico ( n = 30) completed a two-alternative forced-choice acceptability task and a language background questionnaire. Data and analysis: The data were examined using an analysis of variance and Thurstone’s Law of Comparative Judgment. Conclusions: Whereas Northern Belizean bilinguals gave the highest ratings to ‘ hacer + VInf’, both groups of US bilinguals gave preferential ratings to ‘ estar + VProg’ bilingual constructions. On the other hand, Puerto Rican bilinguals gave the highest preferential ratings to the canonical estar bilingual compound verbs (i.e. estar + an English progressive verb) but rejected hacer bilingual compound verbs. While ‘ hacer + VInf’ and ‘ estar + VProg’ may represent variants that are available to Spanish/English bilinguals, the present findings suggest a community-specific distribution, in which hacer bilingual compound verbs are consistently preferred over estar bilingual compound verbs in Northern Belize, whereas estar bilingual constructions are preferred among US bilinguals. Originality: This is the first cross-community examination of these bilingual compound verbs in Northern Belize (Central America/Caribbean), New Mexico (Southwest US) and Puerto Rico (US/Caribbean), three contexts in the Spanish-speaking world characterized by long-standing Spanish/English language contact and the use of bilingual language practices. Implications: Findings underscore the importance of bilingual language experience in modulating linguistic competence and the necessity to study code-switching from a language ecological perspective, as subtle context-specific patterns in code-switching varieties may be manifested not only in bilingual speakers’ oral production but in intuition as well. A more fine-grained understanding of speakers’ judgments is vital to experimental studies that seek to investigate code-switching grammars both within and across communities where code-switching varieties of the same language pair are spoken.

Language choice, social institutions, and symbolic domination

1995 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Heller
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
English Language ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Language Choices ◽  
Symbolic Domination ◽  
Institutional Relations ◽  
Language Minority Education ◽  
Relations Of Power

ABSTRACTThe study of language choice and code-switching can illuminate the ways in which, through language, social institutions with ethnolinguistically diverse staff and clients exercise symbolic domination. Using the example of French-language minority education in Ontario (Canada), this article examines the ways in which ethnic and institutional relations of power overlap or crosscut, forming constraints which have paradoxical effects. In an analysis of two classrooms, it is shown how an ideology of institutional monolingualism is supported or undermined by program structure, curriculum content, and the social organization of turn-taking, and how individuals use language choices and code-switching to collaborate with or resist these arrangements. The effect of these processes is to contain paradoxes and to produce new relations of power within the school. (Symbolic domination, choice of language, code-switching, French/English language contact, social institutions, Canada)

Competing Nationalisms

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosina Lozano
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rico ◽  
New Mexico ◽  
Puerto Rican ◽  
English Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
English Language Instruction

Comparing the approaches to Spanish language instruction in New Mexico and Puerto Rico offers a focused study of how language and national identity intersect. In Puerto Rico, Spanish remained a language of necessity into the 1940s despite educational efforts to incorporate English language instruction. In 1942, a Senate subcommittee hearing exposed the absurdity of trying to impose English on a weak educational system. Additionally, the fact that U.S. officials pushed English was an affront to Puerto Ricans' sense of nationalism, which included being a Spanish-speaking society. Puerto Rican educators supported Spanish-language instruction in their schools for pragmatic reasons and as a form of nationalism that distinguished them from the United States. By contrast, Spanish in New Mexico was largely the language of culture and the home and no longer politics or society by the 1940s. New Mexicans rooted themselves as U.S. citizens first and used Spanish as a means of aiding the nation. The major political argument used in New Mexico to reintroduce Spanish language instruction in public elementary schools centered on the crucial role of the language in helping to fulfill national hemispheric goals.

Experiences with the Use of Automation for Collecting and Recording Medical-History Data

1969 ◽  
Vol 8 (02) ◽  
pp. 53-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Mayne
Keyword(s):  
Medical History ◽  
English Language ◽  
Medical Information ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Video Screen ◽  
History Data ◽  
Computer Storage ◽  
Computer Controlled ◽  
Questionnaire Studies ◽  
Health Questionnaires

For the past several years, experimental studies have been undertaken at the Mayo Clinic to evaluate the feasibility of utilizing electronic data processing to handle medical information, especially the medical information which makes up a medical record. We have experimented with automated techniques for collecting and storing medical-history data, specifically with techniques for computer generation and processing of health questionnaires, for computer-controlled administration of health questionnaires, and for computer-controlled entry and retrieval of medical-history data directly by physicians in ordinary English language by use of a video-screen and light-pen computer terminal.The questionnaire studies are concerned with ways of entering into computer storage medical-history data obtained from patients without physician involvement; the video-screen studies are concerned with entry into computer storage of medical-history data obtained by physicians in their interview with the patient. The paper describes our experiences in these studies.

Rater variation in pragmatic assessment: The impact of the linguistic background on peer-assessment and self-assessment

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-85
Author(s):  
Sunni L. Sonnenburg-Winkler ◽  
Zohreh R. Eslami ◽  
Ali Derakhshan
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Peer Assessment ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Social Rules ◽  
Language Background ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe present study investigates variability among raters from different linguistic backgrounds, who evaluated the pragmatic performance of English language learners with varying native languages (L1s) by using both self- and peer-assessments. To this end, written discourse completion task (WDCT) samples of requesting speech acts from 10 participants were collected. Thereafter, the participants were asked to assess their peers’ WDCTs before assessing their own samples using the same rating scale. The raters were further asked to provide an explanation for their rating decisions. Findings indicate that there may indeed be a link between a rater’s language background and their scoring patterns, although the results regarding peer- and self-assessment are mixed. There are both similarities and differences in the participants’ use of pragmatic norms and social rules in evaluating appropriateness.

Intra-Sentential Code-Switching among Bilingual Saudis on Twitter

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Hussein Ali Habtoor ◽  
Ghzail Faleh Almutlagah
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Common Phenomenon

Code switching (CS) is a common phenomenon in language contact situations wherein bilinguals utilize two languages in the same context. This study investigated the occurrence of intra-sentential code switching by 12 bilingual Saudi females on twitter who differed in age and education. The data were collected by taking screenshot for 1260 tweets. Data were analysed statistically to show the phenomena of Arabic- English code switching. Moreover, a qualitative method was used for data analysis. Findings of the study showed that code-switching was observed clearly on twitter and that intra-sentential code-switching occurs frequently. It was also observed that at the level of particular syntactic categories in Arabic-English CS, nouns were the most often switched elements in the corpus. This study focused on nouns and verbs as examples of these syntactic categories of CS. English as inserted language was mostly used by participant, so the study focused on Arabic sentences in which English is the embedded language. Finally, it is found that the most inserted words in English were related to the internet and other social aspects. 

scholarly journals Maternal drinking and smoking. Can it explain the exceptional academic performance of LBOTE children? A preliminary analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Louisa Gibson ◽  
Melanie Porter
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
English Language ◽  
Breastfeeding Duration ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
National Assessment ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Maternal Alcohol ◽  
Assessment Program ◽  
Grade 3 ◽  
Using Data

Abstract Objective Although children from language backgrounds other than English (LBOTE) may be disadvantaged in English-reliant exams, they outperform children from an English language background (ELB) on many Australian National Assessment Program–Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assessments. Maternal alcohol and tobacco use during pregnancy and/or breastfeeding have been associated with poorer cognitive and academic performance. Using data from the Growing Up in Australia Study, this paper aimed to identify demographic, lifestyle, and prenatal and perinatal risk differences related to maternal tobacco and alcohol use between LBOTE and ELB groups, as a first step in trying to understand the academic performance differences. Results Only data from breastfed babies was included in the current analyses. Although LBOTE children were disadvantaged in several demographic areas, their NAPLAN performance was the same or superior to ELB children across all Grade 3 and 5 NAPLAN assessments. The LBOTE group were, however, breastfed for longer, and their mothers smoked fewer cigarettes and drank less alcohol on fewer occasions throughout their pregnancy. The LBOTE mothers also had lower or less risky patterns of alcohol consumption while breastfeeding. The longer breastfeeding duration of LBOTE children combined with lower maternal use of alcohol and cigarettes during pregnancy and/or breastfeeding may partially contribute to their exceptional NAPLAN performance.

Code-Switching and Code Mixing in the Selected Tracks of the Hip Hop Music of Flavour and 9ice

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-70
Author(s):  
Balogun Sarah ◽  
Murana Muniru Oladayo
Keyword(s):  
Hip Hop ◽  
English Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
First Language ◽  
Music Industry ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
National Language ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
Unique Identity

This article attempts a comparative analysis of code-switching and code-mixing in the Nigerian music industry, using the lyrics of Flavour and 9ice as a case study. Although the English language is the national language in Nigeria and the language used by most of the musicians for the composition of their songs, and due to the linguistic plurality of Nigeria, most of these musicians tend to lace their songs chunks of words and phrases from their mother tongue or at least one of the three major languages in Nigeria, which are Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba. The Markedness Model by Myers-Scotton (1993) is used as the framework to interrogate the switching and mixing in the codes used by these selected musicians and we find that while most code-switching is done in three languages – English, Nigerian Pidgin and the artist’ first language (mother tongue)  – their mother tongue plays the prominent role. Code-switching or code-mixing in these songs, therefore, becomes a depiction of the Nigerian state with its diverse languages and it provides the links between the literates and the illiterates thereby giving the artiste the popularity desired. The study concludes that the unique identity created by code-switching and code-mixing in the Nigerian music industry has a positive influence on music lovers, helping artists to achieve wide patronage and reflecting the ethnolinguistic diversity of the Nigerian nation.

World Englishes, Code-Switching, and Convergence

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara E. Bullock ◽  
Lars Hinrichs ◽  
Almeida Jacqueline Toribio
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mixing Patterns ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Analysis Of Variation ◽  
Mixed Nature

In this chapter, it is argued that the study of World Englishes (WE) should assume a more central place in the analysis of variation and change in the context of language contact. Because they emerge from situations of bilingualism and contact, WE varieties are highly informative with regard to the structural issues of code-switching and convergence (also termed structural borrowing, transfer, interference, imposition). The inherently mixed nature of WE is shown here to mirror the diverse structural patterns that are commonly encountered in bilingual speech. It is argued that different mixing patterns arise in response to the social and medial embedding of WE vernaculars at the community, the individual, and the interactional levels. Social evaluations of relative prestige, individual projections of style, stance, and identity, and the complex nature of multilingual interaction conspire to bring about complex, new language structures.

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