Making a minimalist approach to codeswitching work: Adding the Matrix Language

Abstract

In this paper, we show how some proposals within the Minimalist Program are compatible with a model of codeswitching that recognizes an asymmetry between the participating languages, the Matrix Language Frame model. Through our discussion of an analysis of NPs in a Spanish–English corpus, we illustrate this compatibility and show how recent minimalist proposals can explain the distribution of nouns and determiners in this data set if they adopt the notion of Matrix Language as the bilingual instantiation of structural uniformity in a CP. We outline the central premises of the Matrix Language Frame model, and introduce the Uniform Structure Principle which requires that the structure of constituents be uniform at an abstract level. We then review previous applications of the Minimalist Program to codeswitching.Much recent research in minimalism has focused on issues related to feature checking. Earlier approaches to feature checking required matching of features in grammatical structures, although more recent proposals consider distinctions in the values of features and in types of matching. Because phi-features for grammatical gender in Spanish and English differ, an analysis of NPs in this corpus of naturally occurring Spanish–English conversations provides a test for minimalist applications to codeswitching. We present our general findings of the distribution of types of NP constituents and then consider explanations of these distributions in light of minimalist proposals. It is possible to explain these distributions in a recasting of the Matrix Language Frame model in minimalist terms, if the construct of the Matrix Language is maintained. The requirement that one language, the Matrix Language, provide an abstract grammatical frame in bilingual constituents corresponds to the type of uniformity that Chomsky (2001) suggests is necessary for the explanatory study of language and variation in language.

Determiner Asymmetry in Mixed Nominal Constructions: The Role of Grammatical Factors in Data from Miami and Nicaragua

“…For example, Liceras et al reported, from their review of research on mixed Spanish-English DPs in spontaneous adult speech and their own study of child speech, that mixed DPs with Spanish determiners are far more frequent than with English determiners [6]. In their own study of child speech, only about 5% of the mixed DPs had English determiners; in adult speech, Jake et al found 161 instances of Spanish determiners followed by English nouns, but no examples of English determiners followed by Spanish nouns [7]. However, Liceras et al [6] do not provide information about the morphosyntactic frame in which the mixed DPs appeared, which Herring et al [8] found to be relevant, as will be described below.…”

“…They state that "If Spanish is the ML in any CS corpus, then it is likely Spanish determiners will dominate for this reason alone under an analysis based on the MLF model" [10] (p. 356). This prediction had already been captured in the 'Bilingual NP Hypothesis' proposed by Jake et al [7] and was motivated by the Uniform Structure Principle according to which the "structures of the matrix language are always preferred" [11] (p. 8).…”

The Bilingual Lemma Activation Model as a Comparative Approach to Codeswitching

“…"I think it has just …" (Pfaff, 1979, p. Jake et al (2002Jake et al ( , 2005, Myers-Scotton (2002) and Wei (2015).…”

Searching for the origins of Uruguayan <i>Fronterizo</i> dialects: radical code-mixing as “fluent dysfluency”

“…The constraints relevant to the present study are summarized in Dussias (2003), Lipski (1982Lipski ( , 1985, and Toribio (2001aToribio ( , 2001b. MacSwan (1999MacSwan ( , 2000MacSwan ( , 2004MacSwan ( , 2005 provides refinements based on the Minimalist paradigm, while Myers-Scotton (2002) and Jake, Myers-Scotton, and Gross (2002) analyze codeswitching from within the Matrix Language Framework. Most of the examples analyzed in the present study would receive similar acceptability judgments in all of the aforementioned theoretical frameworks.…”