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Lesson 4: Bilingual Language Phenomena

Definition: 

Bilingual language phenomena emerge in language contact situations. This term refers to languages influencing each other due to sustained interaction.

Key Concepts

  • Transfer

  • Borrowing

  • Loanwords

  • Code-switching

UNIT 1: Transfer, Borrowing and Loanwords

Think of a German speaker trying to learn English. You can hear their accent, maybe they use German word order to form sentences and they might translate some words incorrectly. To put it differently, they apply elements of their first language when speaking their second language. For example, in German-speaking Switzerland the expression von Freitag auf Samstag is often translated as da venerdì su sabato. In Italian, however, the sentence is formed with the preposition a, not with the direct translation of auf. These phenomena can be described as transfer. Elements of any level of the language, meaning phonetics, grammatical structures and lexic can be transferred. However, transfer cannot only occur when speaking a less dominant language. Speech communities can also adopt features from less dominant languages. Such cases can be described as borrowing. While loanwords are the most common form of  borrowing, other linguistic structures can be borrowed as well (e.g. the suffix -ieren in German is borrowed from French as well as the phoneme [Ê’] in Garage). One reason for borrowing is to adopt a word from a different language if there is no equivalent to express the same concept in the target language. This is often the case when speaking about novel cultural items, such as events or food. Borrowing can also be motivated by prestige. Even if there is an expression for the same concept in the recipient language, the borrowed word can carry a different kind of prestige. You can think of prestige as the social associations evoked by the loanwords.  

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Activity 1: Loanwords

Activity 1: In the first step, make a list of five loanwords that come to your mind. Try to find loan words from as many different languages of origin as possible. 

 

In the next step, you can examine the words on your list in many different ways. 

- In which socio-historical context was the word adopted into English?

- Is there an expression with the same meaning in English? Could you use both words interchangeably or do they differ in style or connotation?

- Was the word altered (e.g. spelling, phonetics) to fit in better with the English language?


You can use resources for your research, for example https://www.etymonline.com/.

Unit 2: Code-switching

If you are bilingual, you probably already are familiar with code-switching, even if you have not heard of this term. Before looking into different aspects of code-switching, let us define the term itself. Code in this context refers to languages and their varieties. Code-switching describes the alternate use of two languages within one utterance. Furthermore, we can differentiate between two types of code-switching. Intersentential code-switching means the use of more than one language within one conversation, switching the language between sentences.

Example: "I don't know. Haz lo que quieras." ("I don't know. Do what you want.")

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Intersentential code-switching, respectively, refers to switching codes within a sentence.

Example: "You didn't have to worry que somebody te iba a tirar con cerveza o una botella or something like that." (You didn't have to worry that somebody was going to throw beer or a bottle or something like that at you.")

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For a long time, code-switching was seen as a form of incorrect use of language, occurring randomly. While some still hold negative attitudes towards code-switching, even individuals in bilingual speech communities, researchers see code-switching as a bilingual competence guided by systematic rules, providing a different set of pragmatic and social functions to the speaker. 

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Grammatical structures are taken into account during code-switching. Code-switches can include all word classes as well as only parts of words. Interestingly, even languages with very different structures can be mixed.

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Intrasentential code-switching is often motivated by the filling of lexical gaps. This can be the case if a speaker doesn't know a certain word, uses a word more frequently in the other language, or because they consciously choose to use the word in the other language. In the case of intersentential code-switching, identity and conversational functions may play a more prominent role. Code-switching can be used to emphasize personal and group identity or to express solidarity with a particular language community.

This paragraph served as a brief introduction to structural, functional, and symbolic properties of code-switching. Now it is time to observe your own use of language. Form groups with at least one bilingual speaker and discuss the following questions:

  • What languages are you mixing?

  • Do you have balanced competence in both languages?

  • What kind of words lead to switches?

  • In which setting can you practise code-switching?

  • Can you code-switch with any interlocutor?

  • (How) do you integrate one language into the other?

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Exercise 2
Code-switching

Final thought

 

In this unit, we have explored a selection of phenomena that can emerge from language contact. We hope to have heightened your awareness of the fact that languages are continuously shaped by bilingual interactions. Individual languages are not isolated systems, they can interact with and be influenced by other languages

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