LINGUIST List 33.1682
Thu May 12 2022
Review: German; Russian; Sociolinguistics; Syntax: Hakimov (2021)
Editor for this issue: Amalia Robinson <amalialinguistlist.org>
Date: 13-Mar-2022
From: Marco Forlano <marco.forlano
unibg.it>
Subject: Explaining Russian-German code-mixing
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AUTHOR: Nikolay Hakimov
TITLE: Explaining Russian-German code-mixing
SUBTITLE: A usage-based approach
SERIES TITLE: Contact and Multilingualism
PUBLISHER: Language Science Press
YEAR: 2021
REVIEWER: Marco Forlano, University of Bergamo
SUMMARY
Nikolay Hakimov’s “Explaining Russian-German code-mixing. A usage-based approach” is a monograph dealing with structural aspects of code-mixing. The analysis is carried out on a Russian-German bilingual corpus by applying usage-based approaches. The book is divided into seven chapters, preceded by an Introduction.
Chapter One offers a survey of the main existing studies on structural aspects of code-mixing, starting from Muysken’s (2000) code-mixing typology. Muysken’s classification, which connects structural aspects of code-mixing to the sociolinguistic situation of bilingual communities, allows the author to focus in more detail on the social aspects of code-mixing. The main theories accounting for insertional code-mixing, namely those of Myers-Scotton and associates, starting from the Matrix Language Frame Model (cf. Myers-Scotton 1993), and of Backus, starting from Backus (1996), are then described. While following Myers-Scotton’s terminology, Hakimov expresses his purpose of quantitatively verifying through his analysis Backus’s theories based on cognitive linguistics, according to which insertions from one language into another in bilingual speech tend to be represented by relatively fixed expressions, including multiword ones. Finally, the author enters the debate over the distinction between borrowing and code-mixing in a synchronic bilingual discourse. The author argues that borrowing and code-mixing are different phenomena and chooses to rely on the criterion of frequency in order to rule borrowings out from the analysis of code-mixing.
Chapter Two provides some theoretical background for the analysis by introducing usage-based linguistic theories developed in the context of cognitive linguistics. First of all, the theory of exemplars is illustrated, according to which the human brain can store linguistic experiences as memories, categorizing them as exemplars through cognitive processes; in this scenario, exemplars are strengthened by the frequency at which they occur in speech. Afterwards, the centrality of multimorphemic words and multiword expressions in usage-based approaches is emphasized. In this regard, several studies concerning both the processing and production of such expressions are illustrated. The chapter closes with the application of usage-based theories to language variation, emphasizing the role played by socio-cultural factors besides cognitive ones.
Chapter Three introduces the participants in the research, the data collection methods, and the structuring of the corpus. The nineteen participants are presented both as a group and as individuals. They belong to a group of so-called German repatriates from the Soviet Union and its successor states. Overall, the group is homogenous: most of them belong to the intermediate generation of immigrants, i.e., they were born in Russia and migrated to Germany during their childhood or adolescence, before the age of eighteen. All of them have lived in Germany for over ten years and are proficient in both languages, being fluent in German and using Russian in their day-to-day interactions.
Chapters Five, Six, and Seven make up the core of the book, where variation in code-mixing patterns within three different morpho-syntactic contexts is analyzed. Those patterns involve German nouns or phrases inserted into Russian, which, following Myers-Scotton’s (1993) terminology, can be considered to be the matrix language. In all three chapters, in order to account for such variation, the author both verifies already existing explanations and hypothesizes new usage-based factors, mostly based on the frequency both of specific lexemes and of the co-occurrence of certain strings of words in monolingual speech. Since the insertions mostly involve German lexemes, frequency is measured on a German corpus. Finally, the predictive ability of the various hypothesized factors is statistically analyzed through a linear regression model, which also takes into account the possible influence of the speakers’ idiosyncratic choices.
Chapter Four deals with code-mixing within noun phrases with adjective modifiers. In the Russian-German bilingual corpus, either the adjective-noun sequence is in German or single German nouns are modified by Russian adjectives. The choice between the two patterns is hypothesized to depend on the frequencies of the single nouns and adjectives, as well as on the co-occurrence frequency of the adjective-noun pairs, which are computed on the German corpus. In addition to their frequency of co-occurrence, the cohesion of the adjective-noun pairs is calculated through a statistical measure, the Mutual Information. The linear regression model shows that, among the hypothesized factors, frequency of the adjective is the best predictor for code-mixing patterns, followed by the co-occurrence one. In this regard, less frequent adjectives are found to be produced in German whereas more frequent ones tend to be produced in Russian. It is also estimated that regularly co-occurring words tend to repel code-mixing. Thus, combining these two patterns, it emerges that if the frequency of the adjective is low and the co-occurrence frequency of a noun-adjective couple is high, a German noun phrase is very likely to be produced.
Chapter Five deals with code-mixing within prepositional phrases. In the Russian-German bilingual corpus, either German prepositional phrases or mixed prepositional ones (where a Russian preposition is followed by a German noun phrase) may be found. The choice between the two patterns is hypothesized to depend on the frequency of the noun in a prepositional phrase and of co-occurrence of the preposition-noun pairs, which are calculated on the German corpus. The presence of the same noun or preposition shortly before in the speech is also hypothesized to play a role in the variation of code-mixing patterns, and it is detected in the Russian-German bilingual corpus. The linear regression model shows that all the above factors influence the structure of code-mixing. Specifically, the most influential one is found to be the occurrence of the same preposition in the preceding discourse, which proves the influence of priming in shaping bilingual speech. This means that the chances of producing a preposition in one of the languages involved are higher if the same preposition occurs in the same language shortly before in the discourse.
Chapter Six deals with code-mixing below the word level, namely in plural nouns. In the Russian-German corpus, German nouns either keep their German plural markers or take the Russian ones. The choice between the two patterns might depend on the following three possible factors: the frequency at which German nouns occur either in the plural form or in the singular form in monolingual German speech, the morphological structure of the German lexical root, and, lastly, the different syntactic position of the nouns, due to inconsistencies between the case systems of Russian and German. The linear regression model shows that all three factors influence the structure of code-mixing. However, the most influential turns out to be the frequency at which the nouns occur in the plural in monolingual German speech. In that regard, plural-dominant German nouns retain their German plural suffixes once inserted into Russian, repelling code-mixing.
In Chapter Seven, the author summarizes the issues previously dealt with in the book and highlights the effectiveness of utilizing usage-based criteria to account for the variation of code-mixing in structural patterns.
EVALUATION
“Explaining Russian-German code-mixing. A usage-based approach” is a clear and in-depth study aimed at explaining the structural variation of code-mixing patterns in Russian-German bilingual discourse.
The book is very well structured. As should be clear from the Summary, the first three chapters, which explain the theoretical background and methodology of the research, are followed by three chapters designated for the analysis of the data extracted from the Russian-German corpus. The specific configurations of code-mixing are analyzed within three different morphosyntactic contexts, i.e., noun phrases modified by adjectives, prepositional phrases, and plural nouns. The different patterns of code-mixing are instantiated through many glossed examples. Before beginning the analysis, the author devotes a large space to outlining how the constructions under survey are realized both in Russian and German. Thus, the book is also made accessible to those who are not fluent in either language. Moreover, the author very carefully describes the statistical measures used to analyze the data. This way, the book is also made available to those without any preliminary statistical knowledge. Moreover, the description of the applied statistical processes is greatly supported by graphs and figures.
Dealing with structural aspects of code-mixing, Hakimov delves into a deeply studied and yet controversial topic. In fact, although several scholars have tried to identify models so as to categorize structural variation in code-mixing by considering specific language pairs, such models have always been invalidated by several counterexamples from other language pairs. Thus, as Ciccolone (2014: 2) has rightly pointed out, the various attempts to identify structural boundaries in code-mixing have paradoxically highlighted the great level of freedom and linguistic creativity in bilingual discourse. However, in carrying out the analysis, Hakimov distances himself from rigidly syntax-based models, which are the most famous ones, such as Poplack’s (1980) Equivalence Constraint and Free Morpheme Constraint and Myers-Scotton’s Matrix Language Frame Model (1993). Rather, he chooses to apply usage-based models, relying on cognitive linguistics.
The starting point for this book is the idea that the same cognitive processes present in monolingual speech may be active in bilingual speech and thus influence code-mixing patterns. Accordingly, frequent multimorphemic words or sequences of words, which, following usage-based theories, tend to be stored as units in the language users’ mental lexicon, are hypothesized to show up as units even when inserted in a discourse conducted in another language and, as such, to repel code-mixing. An advantage of the work is that it provides a multi-factorial explanation for variation in code-mixing patterns, i.e., it does not exclude a priori other possible factors which, besides frequency, can influence the structure of code-mixing in a Russian-German bilingual discourse. In fact, while carrying out the analysis, Hakimov hypothesizes other factors as well, both usage-based (such as priming) and structural (such as the inconsistency between the morphological and syntactic structures of the languages in contact). The effective influence of these factors in shaping code-mixing patterns in all the three examined contexts is systematically verified through a linear regression model, which is another strength of the book.
Eventually, Hakimov fully achieves his main goal, i.e., he proves that measuring the frequency of occurrence of specific words as well as of the co-occurrence of specific sequences of words in monolingual speech can be useful in predicting code-mixing patterns in bilingual speech. However, the author himself acknowledges that the findings need to be tested in further studies based on larger corpora. Another possible development of the work could be the application of usage-based models also to the other types of code-mixing, i.e., alternation and congruent lexicalization (cf. Muysken 2000).
In conclusion, the book proves to be valuable for researchers dealing either with language contact or cognitive linguistics. It is therefore a promising and highly innovative adaptation of the two fields of linguistics.
REFERENCES
Backus, Ad. 1996. Two in one: Bilingual speech of Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands. Studies in Multilingualism 1. Tilburg: Tilburg University Press.
Ciccolone, Simone. 2014. Classificare il ‘code-mixing’: una reinterpretazione dei parametri di ‘constituency’ del modello di Muysken. Linguistica e Filologia 34. 95-134.
Myers-Scotton, Carol. 1993. Duelling languages: Grammatical structure in codeswitching. Oxford: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press.
Muysken, Peter. 2000. Bilingual Speech: A Typology of Code-mixing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Poplack, Shana. 1980. Sometimes I’ll start a sentence in Spanish Y TERMINO EN ESPAÑOL: Toward a typology of code-switching. Linguistics 18(7/8). 581–618.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
After gaining an M.A. in Linguistics at the University of Pavia (with a thesis on the sociolinguistic situation of Romani in Italy) and at the Collegio Ghislieri, Marco Forlano is now a Ph.D. student at the University of Pavia and the University of Bergamo (Italy). His doctoral research deals with contact between Italian and Romani, with particular attention to code-mixing phenomena among Lombard Sinti. His primary research interest is sociolinguistics, with a specific focus on plurilingualism and synchronic language contact.
Page Updated: 12-May-2022