Blackwell Reference Online

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This chapter outlines some of the recent findings in the domain of language contact, focusing on three sub-domains of the language system: morpho-syntax, phonology, and lexicon. I will treat these in two clusters. The problem one is faced with is that there are findings in individual areas in sub-domains, but that so far these have not been integrated into a single perspective, let alone a single model encompassing these three sub-domains. I will first discuss the sub-domains of morpho-syntax ( section 6.2 ), and then phonology and lexicon together ( section 6.3 ). In section 6.4 I turn to what I think is a crucial question at the present state of the game, namely research methodology. At present the fields of code switching and morpho-syntactic interference are organized as separate domains of enquiry. The difference between them is simple: in the case of code switching or code mixing , there is lexical material from two languages present in the clause, in addition to morpho-syntactic structure from both languages. Interference – in Weinreich's (1953) sense of mutual influence between a bilingual's two languages – involves morpho-syntactic structure from two languages, but lexical material from only one of them. This difference can be illustrated with a few examples. A first example of code mixing is: (1) A ver , q'aya suya-wa-nki las cuatro-ta . let's see, tomorrow wait-1ob-2 ... log in or subscribe to read full text