grammatical constraints and motivations for - University of the ...

In these examples, the main verbs are English, but the subjects are Afrikaans.
These examples would never be regarded as valid switches by English/Afrikaans
bilinguals, hence, the former constraint proposed by Timm (1975) seems to apply.
Examples illustrating the latter constraint are evident in the following examples:
* they want TE EET (to eat)
* hy het (he has) ATE
These phrases are ungrammatical and would not be regarded as acceptable
switches. In these examples, support for Poplack’s (1980) constraint is also
provided since, here, switching does not occur where the surface structures of the
two languages map onto each other. In addition to this, the second example
would not be regarded as a valid switch because both the auxiliary verb ‘het’ and
the English verb ‘ate’ are marked for past tense.
Azuma (1996) proposes a new constraint on codeswitching which challenges
Poplack’s (1990) theory. Azuma (1996: 364) argues that Poplack’s (1980)
constraint “does not refer to the semantic content of an item switched … (and
that) … it is more natural to consider that meaning takes precedence over form.”
In addition to this, Azuma (1996) argues that if all categories were able to switch,
the most commonly switched words would be ‘high frequency words’ like
determiners, but it is commonly agreed upon that nouns are most frequently
switched.
Azuma (1996) also argues against Joshi’s (1985) constraint which states that
closed classes cannot be switched, arguing that, although classified as a closed
class item, a conjunction may be switched.
Taft (1990) (cited in Azuma, 1996) argues that the relevant issue in determining
whether closed class items may be switched is the semantic content of the word.
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