Bilingual grammar: Toward an integrated model by Luis López

Abstract

Reviewed by: Bilingual grammar: Toward an integrated model by Luis López Artemis Alexiadou Bilingual grammar: Toward an integrated model. By Luis López. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. viii, 229. ISBN 9781108485392. $110 (Hb). This book presents a comprehensive theory of bilingual grammar that dispenses with the notion of two lexicons, common in most work on bilingual speakers. Luis López puts forth an integrated model, in which there is a unified system of linguistic competence. The main idea of this model, which focuses on code-switching by deep bilinguals, that is, bilingual speakers who have learned their two languages from birth or very early on, is that the linguistic competence of bilingual speakers should be considered a single cognitive module. To this end, the bilingual lexicon is viewed in the realization mode that characterizes distributed morphology, and several compelling arguments against the separationist view are discussed. The book strikes a fine balance between empirical coverage and theoretical discussion and contributes greatly to our understanding and modeling of bilingual grammars. The book contains ten chapters and two appendices. In Ch. 1, L motivates the unified model. The main goal here is to present arguments against mainstream approaches to code-switching and bilingualism in general, which adopt the view that speakers have two discrete languages at their disposal—the perspective labeled 'separationist' by L. If one adopts the separationist view, one might expect the combination of a speaker's two languages to give random results. From the point of view of the integrated model, the linguistic knowledge of a speaker is rule-governed in toto (9). This behavior is reflected in grammaticality judgment experiments, which previous literature has advised against running with bilingual speakers. L continues his review of separationist architectures in Ch. 2. The focus of this chapter is MacSwan's model (MacSwan 1999, 2000), which L considers, rightly in my view, to be the most formally rigorous model of the separationist perspective. The issue with MacSwan's model, which assumes two lexicons, is that it leads to numerous empirical problems. MacSwan adopts the minimalist perspective on grammar and assumes that bilinguals have two lexicons and two PFs (phonetic forms), but one computational system. Since items from both lexicons feed the computational system, this gives rise to code-switching. L notes two empirical problems for this model. First, a common strategy adopted in code-switching is the inclusion of structures containing a light verb, typically 'do', that takes as its complement a verb in its citation form, which is the element that carries lexical meaning. The light verb and the lexical verb come from different lexicons. In the case of Spanish-German bilinguals, while the Spanish monolingual grammar has two uses for the verb hacer 'do', a causative use and the heavy use, bilingual speakers have a third use—it can function as a light verb, but one that can select only a German infinitival verb. As L argues, if there are two independent lexicons, this restriction cannot be formulated. The second case involves English-Swahili code-switching, in which English nouns bear Swahili noun class markers. The question raised is where the information about class comes from in the English lexicon. L argues that this supports the view that bilingual speakers can use nouns in two different morphosyntactic frames; see Alexiadou et al. 2015 and Alexiadou & Lohndal 2018 for further such examples. The chapter also briefly discusses Tom Roeper's multiple grammar theory, which assumes that speakers have subgrammars which accommodate rules that may appear contradictory. [End Page 635] While this approach aims to explain apparent optionality, L's model is motivated by the idea that I-languages form continua and are not split into separate grammars. Ch. 3 introduces basics of minimalism and distributed morphology (MDM). MDM assumes a Y-model of grammar. Structure is formed via the application of Merge, both external and internal. There is also the operation Agree, which establishes dependencies between constituents. L introduces the basic syntactic structures for the nominal and verbal clause, which include a root as the basic unit. Roots become verbs or nouns in a particular morphosyntactic environment, that is, in the presence of an n or...