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Aims and objectives: This article examines a grey area on the code-switching–borrowing continuum in a Basque–Spanish language contact situation. It is argued that the notion of conventionalized code-switching is needed to explain the clear semantic-pragmatic patterns that emerge under these specific sociolinguistic circumstances. A key aspect of conventionalized code-switching is its predictability: items that pertain to certain semantic-pragmatic categories are switched as default.
Approach: The approach follows the principles of usage-based grammar: cognitive organization of linguistic material can be deduced from the usage. Conventionalized code-switching informs us about the bilingual informants’ mental representation of the contact varieties.
Data and analysis: Two types of data were examined for this research: (1) 22 hours of naturally occurring speech data with 22 informants from the Greater Bilbao area, and (2) eight hours of metalinguistic conversations about code-switching with 33 informants.
Findings and conclusions: The informants seem to use Spanish pragmatic markers, swear words and colloquialisms throughout the data as default expressions for these semantic-pragmatic domains. Their Basque equivalents are almost absent from the data. Even though frequently used, the conventionalized expressions still retain their Spanishness and have not become established borrowings for the informants.
Originality: The discussion about code-switching and borrowing has concerned mainly single items. In this article, the focus is on patterns. The paper also connects the study of synchronic code-switching with loanword layers studied in historical contact linguistics.
Significance: The article paints a comprehensive picture of ongoing lexical language change. Yet, conventionalized code-switching is fundamentally a synchronic phenomenon and does not always turn into diachronic establishment of these elements.
Limitations: The code-switching of aforementioned semantic-pragmatic categories has been conventionalized in the bilingual community, but there is great variation of entrenched items in the individual repertoires. This individual variation is worth further study.
