Article published In: Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 13:4 (2023) ► pp.500–528
Codeswitching and the Egyptian Arabic construct state
Evidence for the wordhood of a complex syntactic unit
Published online: 21 February 2022
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.19015.sed
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.19015.sed
Abstract
In this paper, I assume a grammatical approach to codeswitching ( (2012). Code
switching and linguistic theory, In T. Bhatia & W. Ritchie (Eds.), Handbook
of Bilingualism and
Multilingualism (pp. 323–350). Blackwell. ), which predicts a ban on codeswitching below the head level. Previous literature has analyzed this ban largely at
the word-level, terming it a ban on word-internal codeswitching. In this paper I argue that the said ban can also
be extended from the lexical domain to certain syntactic domains that act as one word. I test MacSwan’s theory in the context of
codeswitching within construct state nominals, a genitive construction prevalent in Semitic languages. The construct state is
particularly relevant for discussions on the syntax-phonology interface within codeswitching because it is a complex and
productive syntactic structure that is mapped onto one word. The results of an acceptability judgment experiment show lowered
acceptability for sentences where a codeswitch occurred within a construct state nominal vs. sentences where the codeswitch
occurred outside of a construct state nominal. The lowered acceptability for such codeswitched judgments suggests that the ban on
word-internal codeswitching is not in fact limited to words but can be extended to complex syntactic units that
prosodically function as one word.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Codeswitching and the minimalist program
- 2.1Intrasentential codeswitching
- 2.2The PF interface condition
- 2.3The ban on word internal codeswitching within the PFIC
- 3.The construct state
- 3.1Syntactic motivations for the lexical analysis of the construct state
- 4.Testing the predictions of the PFIC
- 4.1Participants
- 4.2Materials
- 4.3Procedure
- 4.4Data analysis
- 4.5Results
- 5.Discussion
- 6.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
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