Ask-A-Linguist Message Details
| Subject: | What happens at the boundary of a phonological code-switch? |
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| Question: |
I want to embed a Japanese word into my English speech, but I want to be faithful to the Japanese pronunciation, so I enter a ''Japanese pronunciation mode''. Briefly, I understand this as an example of code-switching. For example, the Japanese word for thank you is [aɾiɡatoː]<あ りがとう>. Now I want to say ''it is {a/an} aɾiɡatoː'', or alternatively if [koaɾiɡatoː] was the word I would want to say ''it is {a/an} koaɾiɡatoː''. The assumption is that I am going to be 100% prosodically and segmentally faithful to the embedded Japanese word. To be precise, let # be the switch point. Then English phonology imposes upon you the obligation /a/->[an] / _V But if you actually say [it is an aɾiɡatoː] (and this seems to be the observed form) you didn't apply the above rule, but a rule of the form /a/->[an] / _#V This seems contradictory to your intention to code switch; the intention was for V to be under the sole purchase of Japanese phonology, but clearly V has participated in a rule of English phonology. I don't understand why, when under the assumption of faithful code switching, a foreign import can alter the host sentence. |
| Reply: |
There are many kinds of code-switching. The entry point for code-switching is the insertion, as in this example, of a single word. Shana Poplack refers to all insertion of a single word from one language into an utternace in another as an example of using a 'loan word': this recognises (a) that inserting a single word is a simple code switch that requires not structural adaptation; (b) it is often a waste of time arguing about when a word from one language becomes a word in another language (croissant, Bach, arigato, pide -- are they 'English words'?). So, if you just insert a word from Language A into text in Language B, then it follows the grammar of Language B, even if you keep the pronunciation of the word itself as it is in Language A. Anthea |
| Reply From: | Anthea Fraser Gupta click here to access email |
| Date: | 13-Sep-2012 |
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