Shared Lexical Items as Triggers of Code Switching

TL;DR

This study investigates how lexical triggers like cognates and proper names influence code-switching in bilinguals, providing evidence that shared lexical items near switch points significantly trigger language switches.

Contribution

The paper offers a detailed, data-driven analysis confirming the triggering hypothesis across multiple datasets and language pairs, refining understanding of lexical triggers in code-switching.

Findings

Shared lexical items trigger code-switching.

Proximity of triggers to switch points affects switching.

Etymology of triggers does not influence switching.

Abstract

Why do bilingual speakers code-switch (mix their two languages)? Among the several theories that attempt to explain this natural and ubiquitous phenomenon, the Triggering Hypothesis relates code-switching to the presence of lexical triggers, specifically cognates and proper names, adjacent to the switch point. We provide a fuller, more nuanced and refined exploration of the triggering hypothesis, based on five large datasets in three language pairs, reflecting both spoken and written bilingual interactions. Our results show that words that are assumed to reside in a mental lexicon shared by both languages indeed trigger code-switching; that the tendency to switch depends on the distance of the trigger from the switch point; and on whether the trigger precedes or succeeds the switch; but not on the etymology of the trigger words. We thus provide strong, robust, evidence-based confirmation to several hypotheses on the relationships between lexical triggers and code-switching.