Acceso usuarios
Daniel J. Olson
Purpose: The present study investigates the suprasegmental reflexes of code-switching, considering both language context (i.e., language mode) and language dominance.
Design: To this end, an experimental oral production paradigm was administered to 14 Spanish-English bilinguals, comparing code-switched to non-switched productions and varying both context (monolingual or bilingual) and response language (dominant or non-dominant).
Data and Analysis: Productions were analyzed for two suprasegmental features: pitch height and stressed vowel duration.
Conclusions: Results indicate a significant effect of code-switching on suprasegmental production, with code-switched tokens produced with overall greater pitch movement and duration relative to non-switched tokens. These effects, however, were modulated by both language context and language dominance.
Originality: Given the relation of prosody to cognitive factors, this novel approach to the suprasegmental features of code-switching, specifically considering language dominance and context, provides a unique opportunity to further the understanding of the underlying language switching process.
Significance: These findings are addressed within a theoretical framework of predictability and hyper-articulation, and it is suggested that the suprasegmental realizations of code-switched tokens correspond to a degree of contextually driven predictability.
