The PF Disjunction Theorem to Southern Min/Mandarin code-switching

Abstract

Aim and research question:

The aim of this study is to test Macswan’s ((1999). A minimalist approach to intrasentential code switching. New York, NY: Garland; (2000). The architecture of the bilingual language faculty: Evidence from intrasentential code-switching. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 3, 37–54; (2005). Codeswitching and generative grammar: A critique of the MLF model and some remarks on “modified minimalism”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 8, 1–22.) PF Disjunction Theorem (PFDT), which was proposed based on Chomsky’s ((1995). The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.) minimalist programme, to answer the following question: Is code-switching (CS) behaviour governed by CS-specific grammar or an innate mechanism that produces monolingual and bilingual utterances in our language faculty?

Methodology:

A quantitative approach was adopted to test the PFDT with the Southern Min/Mandarin CS data.

Data and analysis:

811 lexical items extracted from 343 bilingual clauses in my Southern Min/Mandarin CS corpus, and almost no violation against this model (i.e., a word-internal switch) was found, except one example that was regarded as the informant’s slip of tongue.

Findings/conclusions:

The results of this study confirm the prediction of the PFDT that phonological systems cannot be mixed within a word.

Originality:

Although the morphosyntactic structures and in some cases the pronunciations of morphemes are identical, tonal differences of these two languages still prohibit word-internal switches.

Significance/implications:

This study thus supports the PFDT and argues that CS behaviour is governed by a single innate mechanism that governs both monolingual and bilingual language production and that the so-called CS-specific grammar/mechanism is not necessary.