Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-bt4hw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T00:57:16.581Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Linguistic constraints on intrasentential code-switching: A study of Spanish/Hebrew bilingualism*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Susan Berk-Seligson
Susan Berk-Seligson
Affiliation:
Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures, University of Pittsburgh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In recent years, research has increasingly pointed toward the universality of three linguistic constraints on code-switching: (1) an equivalence of structure constraint, (2) a size-of-constituent constraint, and (3) a free morpheme constraint. The evidence derived from this study challenges the universality of the first two of these constraints, and argues instead that their claim to universality is largely a function of the coincidental relative similarity in the syntactic structure of Spanish and English, the two languages upon which most code-switching studies have been based. The present study breaks out of the Spanish-English mold and draws upon data from a language contact situation in which the two languages are syntactically very different from each other, namely, Spanish and Hebrew. The evidence presented also challenges the frequently made assertion that type of code-switching, namely, intra- versus intersentential code-switching, is correlated with degree of bilingualism of the speaker. Finally, the evidence suggests that intrasentential code-switching ability cannot, as some have argued, universally be considered a measure of bilingualism nor a mark of the balanced bilingual. (Code-switching, Spanish, Hebrew, bilingualism, syntactic constraints)

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , September 1986 , pp. 313 - 348
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Alonso, M. (1962). Evolución sintáctica del español. Madrid: Aguilar.Google Scholar
Armistead, S., & Silverman, J. (1965). Judeo-Spanish ballads in a MS by Solomon Israel Cherezli. In Langnas, I. & Sholod, B. (eds.), Studies in honor of M. J. Benardete. New York: Las Americas. 367–87.Google Scholar
Armistead, S., & Silverman, J. (1970). Exclamaciones turcas y otros rasgos orientales en el romance judeo-español. Sefarad 30:177–93.Google Scholar
Armistead, S., & Silverman, J. (1971). Judeo-Spanish ballads from Bosnia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Azar, M. (1976). The emphatic sentence in modern Hebrew. In Cole, P. (ed.), Studies in modern Hebrew syntax and semantics. Amsterdam: North Holland. 209–30.Google Scholar
Baruch, K. (1930). El judeoespañol de Bosnia. Revista de filología española 17:113–54.Google Scholar
Bentahila, A. & Davies, E. E. (1983). The syntax of Arabic-French code-switching. Lingua 59:301–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besso, H. (1952). Bibliografia sobre el judeo-español. Bulletin hispanique 54:412–22.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A. (1978). Modern Hebrew structure. Tel Aviv: University Publishing Projects, Ltd.Google Scholar
Herman, R. A., & Grosu, A. (1976). Aspects of the copula in modern Hebrew. In Cole, P. (ed.), Studies in modern Hebrew syntax and semantics. Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Company. 265–85.Google Scholar
Blanc, H. (1973). Israeli Hebrew in perspective. Ariel 32:93–104.Google Scholar
Blau, J. (1981). The renaissance of modern Hebrew and modern standard Arabic. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bunis, D. (1975). Problems in Judezmo linguistics. (Working Papers No. I in Sephardic and Oriental Jewish Studies.) New York: The American Sephardi Federation.Google Scholar
Bunis, D. (1978). Response to Denah Lida's paper on Ladino language and literature. In Paper, H. (ed.), Jewish languages: Theme and variations. 93–102. Cambridge: Association for Jewish Studies.Google Scholar
Crews, C. M. (1935). Recherches sur le judéo-espagnol dans les pays balkaniques. Paris: Droz.Google Scholar
Crews, C. M. (1954–1955). Some Arabic and Hebrew words in oriental Judaeo-Spanish. Vox Romanica 14:296–309.Google Scholar
Doron, E. (1981). On formal models of code-switching. Manuscript, University of Texas at Austin.Google Scholar
Fellman, J. (1973). The revival of a classical tongue: Eliezer Ben Yehuda and the modern Hebrew language. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Genishi, C. (1981). Code-switching in Chicano six-year-olds. In Durán, R. P. (ed.), Latino language and communicative behavior. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex. 133–52.Google Scholar
Gingrás, R. (1974). Problems in the description of Spanish-English intra-sentential code-switching. In Bills, G. A. (ed.), Southwest areal linguistics. San Diego: Institute for Cultural Pluralism. 1967–75.Google Scholar
Gold, D. L. (1974). Review of Dawidowicz, L. S. et al. (eds.), For Max Weinreich on his seventieth birthday: Essays in Jewish languages, literature, and society. Language Sciences 31:47–53.Google Scholar
Gold, D. L. (1977). Dzhudezmo. Language Sciences 47:14–16.Google Scholar
Gold, D. L. (1981). Recent American studies in Jewish languages (review essay). Jewish Language Review 1:11–88.Google Scholar
Gold, D. L. (1983). Planning glottonyms for Jewish languages (with emphasis on Judezmo and Yahudic). Jewish Language Review 3:71–95.Google Scholar
Gold, D. L. (1984). Myths about the glottonym Judezmo. Jewish Language Review 4:126–41.Google Scholar
Gold, D. L. (1985). More on the glottonym Judezmo. Jewish Language Review 5:151–53.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. J. (1971). Bilingualism, bidialectalism and classroom interaction. In Language in social groups. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. J. (1976). The sociolinguistic significance of conversational code-switching. (Working Papers of the Language Behavior Research Laboratory, No. 46). Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. J., & Hernández-Chávez, E. (1975). Cognitive aspects of bilingual communication. In Hemández-Chávez, E., Cohen, A., & Beltramo, A. (eds.), El lenguaje de los Chicanos. Arlington, Va.: Center for Applied Linguistics. 154–63.Google Scholar
Harris, T. K. (1979). The prognosis for Judeo-Spanish: Its description, present status, survival and decline, with implications for the study of language death in general. Ph.D. dissertation, Georgetown University.Google Scholar
Hassan, I. M. (1963). Perspectivas del judeo-espa˜nol. Arbor 55:175–84.Google Scholar
Hasselmo, N. (1970). Code-switching and modes of speaking. In Gilbert, G. G. (ed.), Texas studies in bilingualism. Berlin: de Gruyter. 179–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayon, Y. (1971). Relative clauses with nonverbal predicates. Hebrew Computational Linguistics Bulletin 4:7–68.Google Scholar
Hayon, Y. (1973). Relativization in Hebrew: A transformational approach. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirsch, R. (1951). A study of some aspects of a Judeo-Spanish dialect as spoken by a New York Sephardic family. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Huerta-Macías, A. (1981). Codeswitching: All in the family. In Duran, R. P. (ed.), Latino language and communicative behavior. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 153–68.Google Scholar
Joshi, A. (1981). Some problems in processing sentences with intra-sentential code-switching. Paper presented at the University of Texas Parsing Workshop.Google Scholar
Kachru, B. (1975). Toward structuring the form and function of code-mixing: An Indian perspective. (Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 5.1.) Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois at Urbana.Google Scholar
Kay, P., & McDaniel, C. K. (1979). On the logic of variable rules. Language in Society 8:151–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kutscher, E. Y. (1982). A history of the Hebrew language. Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, the Hebrew University.Google Scholar
Lapesa, R. (1981). Historia de la lengua española. Madrid: Editorial Credos.Google Scholar
Lipski, J. M. (1978). Code-switching and the problem of bilingual competence. In Paradis, M. (ed.), Aspects of bilingualism. Columbia, S.C.: Hornbeam. 250–64.Google Scholar
Luria, M. A. (1930). A study of the Monastir dialect of Judeo-Spanish based on oral material collected in Monastir, Yugoslavia. New York: Institute de las Españas.Google Scholar
Malinowski, A. (1979). Aspects of contemporary Judeo-Spanish in Israel. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
McClure, E. (1981). Formal and functional aspects of the code-switched discourse of bilingual children. In Duran, R. P. (ed.), Latino language and communicative behavior. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex. 69–94.Google Scholar
Nehama, J. (1977). Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol. Madrid: Institute Arias Montano.Google Scholar
Parfitt, T. V. (1972). The use of Hebrew in Palestine. Journal of Semitic Studies 17:237–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfaff, C. W. (1976). Functional and structural constraints on syntactic variation in code-switching. In Steever, B. et al. (eds.), Papers from the parasession on diachronic syntax. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society. 248–59.Google Scholar
Pfaff, C. W. (1979). Constraints on language mixing. Language 55:291–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poplack, S. (1980). “Sometimes I'll start a sentence in Spanish y termino en español”: Toward a typology of code-switching. Linguistics 18:581–618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poplack, S. (1981). Syntactic structure and social function. In Durán, R. P. (ed.), Latino language and communicative behavior. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex. 169–84.Google Scholar
Rosén, H. B. (1977). Contemporary Hebrew. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubinstein, E. (1968). Hamişpat haşemani (The nominal sentence). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz HaMeuchad.Google Scholar
Sala, M. (1971). Phonétique et phonologic du judéo-espagnol de Bucarest. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sala, M. (1976). Le judéo-espagnol. (Trends in Linguistics. State-of-the-art Reports No. 7.) The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sankoff, D. & Labov, W. (1979). On the uses of variable rules. Language in Society 8:189–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sankoff, D. & Poplack, S. (1979). A formal grammar for code-switching. (Working Paper No. 8.) New York: Center for Puerto Rican Studies, CUNY.Google Scholar
Santa, Ana O. (1982). A basic language analysis of codeswitched sentences. Manuscript, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Schmelz, U. O., & Bachi, R. (1974). Hebrew as everyday language of the Jews in Israel – Statistical appraisal. In Baron, S. W. (ed.), Jubilee volume II (English). Jerusalem: American Academy for Jewish Research. 745–85.Google Scholar
Sephiha, H. V. (1973a). Le ladino (judéo-espagnol caique), Deutéronome, versions de Constantinople (1547) et de la Ferrare (1553). Paris: Editions Hispaniques.Google Scholar
Sephiha, H. V. (1973b). The present state of Judeo-Spanish in Turkey. The American Sephardi 6:22–29.Google Scholar
Shaffer, D. (1978). The place of code-switching in linguistic contacts. In Paradis, M. (ed.), Aspects of biligualism. Columbia, S.C.: Hornbeam. 265–74.Google Scholar
Silva-Corvalán, C. (1980). Code-shifting patterns in Chicano Spanish. Paper presented at the conference on Spanish in the U.S. setting: Beyond the Southwest. Chicago: University of Illinois-Chicago Circle. To appear in Elias-Olivares, L. & Nasjileti, D. (eds.), Spanish in the United States: Beyond the Southwest. Washington, D.C.: N.C.B.E.Google Scholar
Tené, D. (1969). Israeli Hebrew. Ariel 25:48–63.Google Scholar
Timm, L. A. (1975). Spanish-English code-switching: el porqué y How-Not-To. Romance Philology 28:473–82.Google Scholar
Timm, L. A. (1978). Code-switching in War and Peace. In Paradis, M. (ed.), Aspects of bilingualism. Columbia, S.C.: Hornbeam. 302–15.Google Scholar
Valdés-Fallis, G. (1976). Social interaction and code-switching patterns: A case study of Spanish/English alternation. In Keller, G. et al. (eds.), Bilingualism in the bicentennial and beyond. New York: Bilingual. 53–85.Google Scholar
Valdos-Fallis, G. (1981). Code-switching as a deliberate verbal strategy: A microanalysis of direct and indirect requests among bilingual Chicano speakers. In Durán, R. P. (ed.), Latino language and communicative behavior. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex. 95–108.Google Scholar
Wagner, M. L. (1914). Beitrage zur kenntnis des Judenspanischen von Constantinopel. Vienna: Akademie der Wissenschaften Schriften de Balkankomission, Linguistische Abelitung 11.Google Scholar
Wagner, M. L. (1923). Algunas observaciones generales sobre el judeo-español de Oriente. Revista de filología española 10:225–44.Google Scholar
Wagner, M. L. (1930). Caracteres generales del judeo-español en Oriente. Madrid: Hernando.Google Scholar
Weinreich, M. (1956). The Jewish languages of Romance stock and their relation to earliest Yiddish. Romance Philology 9:403–28.Google Scholar
Wentz, J. (1977). Some considerations in the development of a syntactic description of code-switching. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Kansas.Google Scholar
Wentz, J., & McClure, E. (n.d.). As cited on p. 175 in S. Poplack, Syntactic structure and social function of codeswitching. In Durán, R. P. (ed.), Latino language and communicative behavior. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex. 169–84.Google Scholar
Woolford, E. (1981). A formal model of bilingual code-switching. Manuscript, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Zamora, Vicente A. (1979). Dialectología española. Madrid: Editorial Credos.Google Scholar
Zentella, A. C. (1981). Tá bien, You could answer me en cuatquier idioma: Puerto Rican Codeswitching in bilingual classrooms. In Durán, R. P. (ed.), Latino language and communicative behavior. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex. 109–32.Google Scholar