Models of Codeswitching and a Lexical-Conceptual Approach to Bilingual Communication

Abstract

Unlike most previous studies of intrasentential codeswitching (CS for short) which focus on the descriptions of switched items and their surface configurations at the sentence level, this study investigates such a bilingual communicative strategy at a rather abstract level by adopting the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) Model (Myers-Scotton, 1993; Myers-Scotton & Jake, 1995) and the Bilingual Lemma Activation (BLA) Model (Wei, 2002, 2006, 2015). The MLF Model claims that the two participating languages play unequal roles in CS configurations, and the BLA Model claims that the bilingual mental lexicon contains language-specific lemmas in contact during CS and argues that it is the activation of language-specific lemmas which drives CS. Some naturally occurring CS instances selected for the study reveal that bilinguals switch content morphemes from one language into another language’s sentential frame most probably because of cross-linguistic lexical-conceptual gaps. As specified in the MLF Model, bilinguals do not switch system (grammatical) morphemes because it is the Matrix Language (the host language) which provides the sentential frame and all system morphemes, and the Embedded Language (the guest language) inserts certain content morphemes as desired into the lexical slots in the ML frame. By exploring the nature and activity of the bilingual mental lexicon, this study regards CS as a lexical-conceptual solution to bilingual communication.