Compound verbs in codeswitching: Bilinguals making do?

Abstract

This paper builds on an earlier one (Gardner-Chloros & Edwards, 2004), where we pointed to various problems underlying the search for grammatical constraints on codeswitching (CS), these problems being largely derived from the assumption that CS is the sum of two finite and discrete systems which together make up the competence of the bilingual speaker. Here we look more closely at the type of grammatical knowledge involved in intrasentential CS, by examining a widely attested structure in CS, bilingual compound verbs (BCVs). We consider the properties of compound verbs in general, including in monolingual contexts, their significance in the CS literature, notably for the notion of Matrix Language, and their implications for an understanding of bilingual grammars, broadly defined. We conclude that this widespread feature of bilingual speech is more than a convenient frame for inserting foreign words, and should be seen as part of a more general verb-formation process. The types of linguistic knowledge which allow such formations to emerge are based on what Sebba (1998) has called conceptual work, rather than on the simple interaction of two linguistic systems as such. We list a number of factors to be taken into account in trying to identify a CS grammar, within which idiolect, metalinguistic knowledge and community norms are particularly significant.