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A Study of Cantonese-English Code-switching in Bilingual Children

A Study of Cantonese-English Code-switching in Bilingual Children. Edwin Ko  LX540. Luke (1998). English lexical items typically follow Cantonese prosody and differ phonetically. 我 有 個 project 要 present. Ngo5 jau5 go3 pro1ject4 jiu3 pre6sent1

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A Study of Cantonese-English Code-switching in Bilingual Children

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  1. A Study of Cantonese-English Code-switching in Bilingual Children Edwin Ko LX540

  2. Luke (1998) • English lexical items typically follow Cantonese prosody and differ phonetically. • 我有個project 要present. • Ngo5 jau5 go3 pro1ject4 jiu3 pre6sent1 • (lit. I have CL-project need present) • “I have a project I need to present. • English lexical items are typically inserted into Cantonese syntactic frames. • happy di1 ‘happy’ + comparative marker ‘happier’ • pro m5 produce dou2 ‘can (it) be produced’ • English lexical items tend to have their range of meanings restricted to one specific meaning, or another meaning altogether. • ‘tissue’ is widely used to refer only to soft paper in a packet. • ‘board’ is widely used among civil servants to mean ‘board meeting’ • There is a significant absence of discourse markers. • E.g. and, but, after all, and then, etc.

  3. Yip and Matthews (2000) • Syntactic transfer in a Cantonese-English bilingual child • Wh-in-situ interrogatives • (1) What did you eat? • (2) Lei5 sik6±zo2 mat1je5? – (2) You eat-PFV what? • Null objects • (5) A: Gin6 saam1 hou2 leng3 wo3. • CL blouse very pretty PRT • “That's a nice blouse.” • B: Ngo5 zung1ji3 aa3. • I like PRT • “I like (it).” • Prenominal relatives • [[Ngo5 sik1 _s] go2 di1 jan4 NP] zau2 saai3. • I know those CL people leave all • “The people I know have all left.” • English shows substantial influence of Cantonese in the early development of a Cantonese-dominant bilingual. • MLUw for Cantonese was higher indicating dominance over English during the observed period.

  4. Methodology • CHILDES Database • CHILDES/EastAsian/Cantonese/ • The children were being instructed English and the majority of the data could not be used. • CHILDES/Biling/YipMatthews/ • Omissions: • Repetition of an immediate preceding utterance • Names • “Auntie”, “哥哥” (Brother), “Mickey Mouse” (米奇老鼠) • English words that have been lexicalized in Cantonese. • Hello, OK, Bye bye, etc. • Rote-learned expression • “Twinkle twinkle little star” • Chinese exclamative particles • “Bear bear呀” (Bear bear!/It’s bear bear! - context) • Exception: “嘩so many 呀” (Oh, wow! So many!)

  5. Subjects • Collected data from five subjects on the CHILDES database. • All subjects are Cantonese L1 and English L2 speakers. • Spontaneous speech data were obtained at the subjects’ home. • Subject #1 • Alicia/female • 1;3 – 3;0 • 40 transcripts • 20/20 early/late • Subject #2 • Charlotte/female • 1;8 – 3;0 • 19 transcripts • 9/9 early/late, the 10th transcript is omitted

  6. Results

  7. Results (cont.)

  8. Results (cont.)

  9. Analysis • Wh-in-situ interrogatives • *呢度 呢個 what? • nei1 dou6 ne1 go3 what ? what ne1 go3? • Lit. here this-CL what? Lit. what this-CL? • Null objects • 我 open . • ngo5 open. ngo5 soeng2 daai3 it. • Lit. I open – “I open (it).” Lit. I want bring it. • Prenominal relatives • 小朋友too dark 嗰個呀 . • siu2 pang4 jau5 too dark go2 go3 aa3 . • Lit. small friend too dark that-CL PRT – “The child who is too dark is that one!” *what 呢 個 ?. *我想戴 it.

  10. Analysis (cont.) • Classifiers • *我哋 咁一 garden 咁樣 . • ngo5 dei6 gam3 jat1 garden gam2 joeng2. • Lit. I-PL so one garden like this • Negation • *not 污糟呀*你 no *no 位呀 • not wu1 zou1 aa3. nei5 no no wai2 aa3 • Lit. not dirty PRT Lit. you no Lit. no space! • L1 Transfer • *I want 沖涼. • I want cung1 loeng4. • Lit. I want shower(verb) • “Attrition”/L2 Transfer (?) • *我想 dog 呀. • ngo5 soeng2 dog aa3. • Lit. I want dog PRT

  11. References Luke, K.K. (1998) Why two languages might be better than one: Motivations of language mixing in Hong Kong. In Pennington, M. (ed.) Language in Hong Kong at Century’s End, pp.145-159. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Chan, B. (1998). How does Cantonese-English code-mixing work? In Pennington, M. (ed.) Language in Hong Kong at Century’s End, pp.191-216. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Matthews, S. and Yip, V. (1994) Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar. London and New York: Routledge. Matthews, S. and Yip, V. (2000) Syntactic transfer in a Cantonese-English bilingual child. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 3.3.193-208. Cambridge University Press.

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