ASPECTS OF CODE-SWITCHING IN BILINGUAL CHILDREN.
Item
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Title
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ASPECTS OF CODE-SWITCHING IN BILINGUAL CHILDREN.
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Identifier
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AAI8222958
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identifier
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8222958
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Creator
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ROMERO, OLGA.
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Contributor
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Arthur Bronstein
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Date
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1982
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Language, Linguistics
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Abstract
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The purpose of the study was to ascertain the effects of code-switching in sentence imitation and to discover identifiable developmental trends in the code-switching patterns of bilingual children.;Twenty-four sentences were presented for imitation to a group of 60 bilingual children (ages 5 to 10). The sentences represented four syntactical types (variations of Relative Clause and Adverbial Clause sentences) and contained two types of code switches: (1) code-switches encompassing Major Constituents (SVO) within the sentence, and code-switches encompassing only the Determiner + Noun combination within the sentence (Lexical Switches).;The results showed that: (1) Younger children tended to increase the number of Spanish elements in their imitations of the sentences significantly more often than the older children. (2) Code switches involving Major Constituents or occurring at Major Constituent boundaries within the sentence were imitated better by the older children than those breaking up a Major Constituent. Both groups of children tended to reject Lexical Switches of the type used in the study. (3) Code-switches in the direction Spanish(--->)English were imitated better by the older children than those in the opposite direction. No direction preference was observed among the younger children.;Four factors which seem to affect the acceptance or rejection by the children of specific code-switches were isolated: (1) Place of the code-switch in the sentence. (2) Direction of the code-switch. (3) Type of code-switch. (4) Size of the code-switched portion of the sentence.;In addition, it was found that sentence type had an effect on the children's ability to imitate the sentences.;Observations were made regarding the translation skills of the children and the fact that the presence of code-switching within the sentence did not impair their ability to comprehend the sentences. A "Strong Verb Hypothesis" (the language of the verb determines the language of the elements adjacent to it) was proposed, as well as a "Neutral Determiner Rule" which restricts code-switching within the Determiner + Noun unit in the direction of English(--->)Spanish.;Implications for assessment of language dominance were also discussed.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Speech and Hearing Sciences
