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In:Spanish-English Codeswitching in the Caribbean and the US
Edited by Rosa E. Guzzardo Tamargo, Catherine M. Mazak and M. Carmen Parafita Couto
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 11] 2016
► pp. 107–138

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Language dominance and language nativeness

The view from English-Spanish codeswitching

 | University of Ottawa and Universidad Nebrija
ORCiD logo with link | Universidad de Valladolid
 | University of Ottawa
Published online: 7 September 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.11.05lic
Investigating the interpretation and production of codeswitched structures involving functional and lexical categories by bilingual speakers constitutes a reliable tool to assess language dominance and/or nativeness. Language dominance has been described and measured in the context of bilingualism while nativeness is more rooted in the characterization of primary versus non-primary acquisition. Both concepts are intended to identify the specific ways in which language is represented in the mind of a bilingual. We draw from three different hypotheses formulated in the context of formal linguistics: the Grammatical Features Spell-Out Hypothesis, the Gender Double-Feature Valuation Mechanism, and the PF Interface Condition to show whether and how the codeswitching conditions established by these hypotheses constitute a diagnostic for language dominance and language nativeness.
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