Investigating post-focus compression in code-switching: A comparative study of Twain Mandarin and English

Abstract

On-focus pitch range expansion is a documented phenomenon in both English and Mandarin Chinese. However, the presence of post-focus compression (PFC) contrasts with its absence in Taiwan Mandarin, a regional variant of Mandarin Chinese. This discrepancy becomes particularly intriguing in the context of code-switching, which provides a unique lens to observe the interplay between these two languages. This study probes the manifestation and cognitive processing of PFC in code-switching constructs, employing a bilingual paradigm between English and Taiwan Mandarin. Through a carefully designed production experiment, this research addresses two questions: (a) Is PFC evidence in the code-switching utterances of simultaneous and early bilinguals? (b) Is there an observable correlation between the emergence of PRC in linguistic output and the language proficiency of late bilinguals, potentially indicating a transfer effect from Taiwan Mandarin to English? Anticipated results may substantiate the presence of linguistic transfer in the code-switching sentences of bilingual individuals of diverse English proficiencies. Furthermore, the implications of these findings may extend to pedagogical strategies, offering insights into the deployment of code-switching within multilingual educational settings.