Expecting the unexpected: Code-switching as a facilitatory cue in online sentence processing. Issue 1 (11th January 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tomić, Aleksandra; Valdés Kroff, Jorge R.
• Is Part Of: Bilingualism. Volume 25:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: 81
• Page End: 92
• Publication Date: 2022-01-11
• Subjects: code-switching -- sentence processing -- prediction -- word frequency -- visual world paradigm; Bilingualism -- Periodicals; Psycholinguistics -- Periodicals; Language acquisition -- Periodicals; 404.2
• DOI: 10.1017/S1366728921000237
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1366-7289

Abstract

Abstract: Despite its prominent use among bilinguals, psycholinguistic studies reported code-switch processing costs (e.g., Meuter & Allport, 1999 ). This paradox may partly be due to the focus on the code-switch itself instead of its potential subsequent benefits. Motivated by corpus studies on CS patterns and sociopragmatic functions of CS, we asked whether bilinguals use code-switches as a cue to the lexical characteristics of upcoming speech. We report a visual world study testing whether code-switching facilitates the anticipation of lower-frequency words. Results confirm that US Spanish–English bilinguals (n = 30) use minority (Spanish) to majority (English) language code-switches in real-time language processing as a cue that a less frequent word would ensue, as indexed by increased looks at images representing lower- vs. higher-frequency words in the code-switched condition, prior to the target word onset. These results highlight the need to further integrate sociolinguistic and corpus observations into the experimental study of code-switching.