Bilingual Speech
A Typology of Code-Mixing

In depth analysis of different types of language-mixing among bilingual speakers.

Pieter Muysken (Author)

9780521023917, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 November 2005

324 pages, 34 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.498 kg

'The book's most obvious contribution is in bringing together a huge range of evidence from the field of language contact and proposing a way of fitting it into a coherent framework … Bilingual Speech should be compulsory reading not only for those interested in the grammar of bilingual productions but for anyone seriously interested in grammatical debates.' Journal of Sociolinguistics

This book provides an in depth analysis of the different ways in which bilingual speakers switch from one language to another in the course of conversation. This phenomenon, known as code-mixing or code-switching, takes many forms. Pieter Muysken adopts a comparative approach to distinguish between the different types of code-mixing, drawing on a wealth of data from bilingual settings throughout the world. His study identifies three fundamental and distinct patterns of mixing - 'insertion', 'alternation' and 'congruent lexicalization' - and sets out to discover whether the choice of a particular mixing strategy depends on the contrasting grammatical properties of the languages involved, the degree of bilingual competence of the speaker or various social factors. The book synthesizes a vast array of recent research in a rapidly growing field of study which has much to reveal about the structure and function of language.

1. The study of code-mixing
2. Differences and similarities between languages
3. Insertion
4. Alternation
5. Congruent lexicalization
6. Function words
7. Bilingual verbs
8. Variation in mixing patterns
9. Bilingual speech and language contact.

Subject Areas: Sociolinguistics [CFB]