The Asymmetric Multi-language Model: A Cognitive-Pragmatic Pattern to Explain Code-Switching by Unbalanced Multilinguals

This paper proposes a cognitive-pragmatic pattern to explain asymmetric code-switching. The various patterns on code-switching (CS) discussed in syntactic, pragmatic or syntactic-pragmatic approaches focus on balanced bilingualism and classic codeswitching; they are, therefore, insufficient to explain how the different proficiency between two or more languages reflects differential reliance on lexical and conceptual activation during the code-switching production processes. Starting from these critical issues, the paper focuses on functional, psycholinguistic, socio-cultural, and sociolinguistic aspects of asymmetric bilingualism, and proposes a model – called the Asymmetric Multi-Language Model (henceforth AMLM) – integrating these aspects within a cognitive-pragmatic perspective. The AMLM borrows and integrates principles deriving from: (1) the Dual Language Model (DLM) by Kecskes (Word 49(3):321–340, 1998) and Kecskes and Papp (Foreign language and mother tongue. Lawrence Erlbaum,Mahwah, 2000); (2) the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) by Myers-Scotton (Duelling languages: grammatical structure in code-switching. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1993 [1997]); (3) the lexical access theory by De Bot (Appl Linguist 13(1):1–24, 1992) and others (see References); and, finally, (4) the language mode theory by Grosjean (Studying bilinguals: methodological and conceptual issues. In: Bilingualism: language and cognition, 1, Cambridge University Press, pp 131–149, 1998; The bilingual’s language modes. In: Nichol J (ed) One mind, two languages: bilingual language processing. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 1–22, 2001). The AMLM introduces a number of advantages and innovations: (1) within a single model it provides a theoretical framework not only allowing a description of asymmetric bilingualism but also the more complex linguistic system of multilinguals; (2) with regard to asymmetric multilingualism, it replaces the notion of language mode continuum by Grosjean (Studying bilinguals: methodological and conceptual issues. In: Bilingualism: language and cognition, 1, Cambridge University Press, pp 131–149, 1998) with the notion of language mode gradatum; (3) it explains code-switching produced by unbalanced bi- and multilingual speakers from both a syntactic and functional point of view; (4) it interprets code-switching as a collaborative and dynamic process between codes, rather than as cross-linguistic interference due to the unbalanced proficiencies of the speakers. Focusing on asymmetric multilingualism in the communities of Italians abroad, the paper employs the AMLM model to analyze the asymmetric intra-sentential code-switching in a digital speech corpus belonging to second-generation subjects. The analysis of the different types of code-switching is based on the three-way classification of code-switching by Muysken (Bilingual speech: a typology of codeswitching. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000). The interpretation of their pragmatic use takes into account the main CS functional models and the principle that speech acts should be situated in context discussed by Mey (Pragmatics. Blackwell, Oxford, 2001) and Capone (Linguistics 41(6):1170–1173, 2003).