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The topics and roles of the situational code-switching of an English-French bilingual

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2008

FRÉDÉRIQUE GRIM*
Affiliation:
C104 Clark, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1774, USA e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Most studies of child bilingualism (Döpke, 1992; Fantini, 1985; Genishi, 1999; Gumperz, 1977, 1982; McClure, 1977; Myers-Scotton, 1993a; Romaine, 1994) concern children raised in a bilingual language community. The present study concerns a four-year-old child in an English-speaking community raised in an environment where his mother only spoke French to him. Two questions were raised: Can a child raised by a non-native parent produce situational code-switching triggered by topic changes? Are there additional topics or roles to add to the previous literature that trigger a young English-French bilingual child to code-switch? The data in this study showed that the child produced situational code-switching. Two novel hypotheses for code-switching were also found: leadership and expression of emotions and sensations. This case-study is important for the field of code-switching in the environment of a non-native parent raising a child in a second language.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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