Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T07:31:22.386Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Insights into codeswitching from online communication: Effects of language preference and conditions arising from vocabulary richness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2021

Laurie Beth Feldman ,
Vidhushini Srinivasan ,
Rachel B. Fernandes Open the ORCID record for Rachel B. Fernandes [Opens in a new window]  and
Samira Shaikh
Laurie Beth Feldman*
Affiliation:
University at Albany, State University of New York, NY, USA
Vidhushini Srinivasan
Affiliation:
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Seattle, WA, USA
Rachel B. Fernandes
Affiliation:
University at Albany, State University of New York, NY, USA
Samira Shaikh
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Laurie Beth Feldman 1400 Washington Ave SS 399 Psychology Dept. Albany, NY12222lfeldman@albany.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Twitter data from a crisis that impacted many English–Spanish bilinguals show that the direction of codeswitches is associated with the statistically documented tendency of single speakers to prefer one language over another in their tweets, as gleaned from their tweeting history. Further, lexical diversity, a measure of vocabulary richness derived from information-theoretic measures of uncertainty in communication, is greater in proximity to a codeswitch than in productions remote from a switch. The prospects of a role for lexical diversity in characterizing the conditions for a language switch suggest that communicative precision may induce conditions that attenuate constraints against language mixing.

Keywords

bilingualismonline codeswitchingtweetslexical diversitylanguagepreferencelanguage proficiencytweeting historyvocabulary richness
Type
Research Notes
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , August 2021 , pp. 791 - 797
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abney, DH, Paxton, A, Dale, R and Kello, CT (2014) Complexity Matching in Dyadic Conversation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 143(6), 2304–2315. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000021CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barach, E, Shaikh, S, Srinivasan, V and Feldman, LB (2018) Hiding Behind the Words of Others: Does Redundant Word Choice Reflect Suppressed Individuality When Tweeting in the First Person Singular? In International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (pp. 603–614). Springer, Cham.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barach, E, Shaikh, S, Srinivasan, V, Hormes, J and Feldman, LB (2019, March). I approve but we disapprove: Pronoun choice reflects tendency for self-disclosure. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the International Convention of Psychological Science, Paris, France.Google Scholar
Barasa, S (2016) Spoken Code-Switching in Written Form? Manifestation of Code-Switching in Computer Mediated Communication. Journal of Language Contact, 9(1), 49–70. https://doi.org/10.1163/19552629-00901003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beatty-Martínez, AL and Dussias, PE (2017) Bilingual experience shapes language processing: Evidence from codeswitching. Journal of Memory and Language, 95, 173–189. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2017.04.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beatty-Martínez, AL, Navarro-Torres, CA and Dussias, PE (2020) Codeswitching: A Bilingual Toolkit for Opportunistic Speech Planning. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 16–99. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01699CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beatty-Martínez, AL, Navarro-Torres, CA, Dussias, PE, Bajo, MT, Guzzardo Tamargo, RE and Kroll, JF (2019) Interactional Context Mediates the Consequences of Bilingualism for Language and Cognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 46(6), 1022–1047. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000770Google ScholarPubMed
Beatty-Martínez, AL, Valdés Kroff, JR and Dussias, PE (2018) From the Field to the lab: a converging methods approach to the study of codeswitching. Languages, 3(2), 1–19. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/languages3020019CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broersma, M, Carter, D, Donnelly, K and Konopka, A (2019) Triggered code switching: Lexical processing and conversational dynamics. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1–14. https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1366728919000014Google Scholar
Broersma, M and De Bot, K (2006) Triggered code switching: A corpus-based evaluation of the original triggering hypothesis and a new alternative. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 9, 1–13. https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1366728905002348CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broersma, M, Isurin, L, Bultena, S and De Bot, K (2009) Triggered code switching: Evidence from Dutch-English and Russian-English bilinguals. In Isurin, L, Winford, D and De Bot, K (eds), Multidisciplinary approaches to code switching Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. 103–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bullock, BE and Toribio, AJ (2009) The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Code-switching Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511576331CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Declerck, M and Philipp, AM (2015) A review of control processes and their locus in language switching. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 22, 1630–1645. https://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-015-0836-1CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeDeo, S, Hawkins, RX, Klingenstein, S and Hitchcock, T (2013) Bootstrap methods for the empirical study of decision-making and information flows in social systems. Entropy, 15(6), 2246–2276. https://doi.org/10.3390/e15062246CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorleijn, M and Nortier, J (2009) Code-switching and the Internet. In Bullock, BE & Toribio, AJ (eds), The Cambridge handbook of linguistic code-switching. Cambridge University Press pp. 127–141). https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511576331.015CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, LB, Aragon, C, Chen, N-C and Kroll, JF (2017) Emoticons in informal text communication: A new window on bilingual alignment. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 21, 209–218. https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X15002903CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fricke, M, Kroll, JF and Dussias, PE (2016) Phonetic variation in bilingual speech: A lens for studying the production–comprehension link. Journal of Memory and Language, 89, 110–137. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2015.10.001CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Galati, A, Dale, R and Duran, ND (2019) Social and configural effects on the cognitive dynamics of perspective-taking. Journal of Memory and Language, 104, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2018.08.007CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gambi, C and Hartsuiker, RJ (2016) If you stay, it might be easier: Switch costs from comprehension to production in a joint switching task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 42, 608-626. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000190Google Scholar
Gollan, TH, Kleinman, D and Wierenga, CE (2014a) What's easier: Doing what you want, or being told what to do? Cued versus voluntary language and task switching. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 2167–2195. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0038006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gollan, TH, Schotter, ER, Gomez, J, Murillo, M and Rayner, K (2014b) Multiple levels of bilingual language control: Evidence from language intrusions in reading aloud. Psychological Science, 25, 585–595. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797613512661CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gotelli, NJ and Chao, A (2013) Measuring and Estimating Species Richness, Species Diversity, and Biotic Similarity from Sampling Data. In Levin, SA, editor, Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Vol 5 second edition. Academic Press, (pp. 195–211). https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-384719-5.00424-XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, DW (2011) Language control in different contexts: the behavioral ecology of bilingual speakers. Frontiers in Psychology, 2(103), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00103CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gullifer, JW and Titone, D (2019) Characterizing the social diversity of bilingualism using language entropy. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 23(2), 283–294. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728919000026CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guzzardo Tamargo, RE, Valdés Kroff, JR and Dussias, PE (2016) Examining the relationship between comprehension and production processes in code-switched language. Journal of Memory and Language, 89, 138–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2015.12.002CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hendrix, P and Sun, CC (2020) The role of information theory for compound words in Mandarin Chinese and English. Cognition, 205, 104389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104389CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaan, E, Kheder, S, Kreidler, A, Tomić, A and Valdés Kroff, JR (2020) Processing code-switches in the presence of others: An ERP study. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1288. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01288CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kapiley, K and Mishra, RK (2019) What do I choose? Influence of interlocutor awareness on bilingual language choice during voluntary object naming. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 22, 1029–1051. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728918000731CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kootstra, GJ, van Hell, JG and Dijkstra, AFJ (2009) Two speakers, one dialogue: An interactive alignment perspective on codeswitching in bilingual speakers. Studies in Bilingualism, 41, 129–159. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sibil.41.09kooCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kootstra, GJ, van Hell, JG and Dijkstra, T (2012) Priming of code-switches in sentences: The role of lexical repetition, cognates, and language proficiency. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15(4), 797–819. https://doi.org/10.1017/S136672891100068XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moscoso del Prado, MF (2017) Vocabulary, grammar, sex, and aging. Cognitive Science, 41(4), 950–975. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12367CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moscoso del Prado, MF and Du Bois, JW (2015, July). Syntactic alignment is an index of affective alignment: An information-theoretical study of natural dialogue. Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, CogSci 2015, Pasadena, CAGoogle Scholar
Osler, L (2019) Feeling togetherness online: a phenomenological sketch of online communal experiences. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 19(3), 569–588. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-019-09627-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shannon, CE (1948) A mathematical theory of communication. The Bell System Technical Journal, 27(3), 379–423. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shen, A, Gahl, S and Johnson, K (2020) Didn't hear that coming: Effects of withholding phonetic cues to code-switching. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 23, 1020–1031. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728919000877CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tenzer, H and Pudelko, M (2015) Leading across language barriers: Managing language-induced emotions in multinational teams. The Leadership Quarterly, 26(4), 606–625. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2015.05.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Treffers-Daller, J (2019) What defines language dominance in bilinguals? Annual Review of Linguistics, 5, 375–393. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011817-045554CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valdés Kroff, JR, Dussias, PE, Gerfen, C, Perrotti, L and Bajo, MT (2017) Experience with code-switching modulates the use of grammatical gender during sentence processing. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 7(2), 163–197. https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.15010.valCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Warriner, AB, Kuperman, V and Brysbaert, M (2013) Norms of valence, arousal, and dominance for 13,915 English lemmas. Behavior research methods, 45(4), 1191–1207. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-012-0314-xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, A, Srinivasan, M, Liu, C, Lee, P and Zhou, Q (2020) Why do bilinguals code-switch when emotional? Insights from immigrant parent–child interactions. Emotion, 20(5), 830–841. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/emo0000568CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhang, Y (2014) A corpus based analysis of lexical richness of Beijing Mandarin speakers: variable identification and model construction. Language Sciences, 44, 60–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2013.12.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Feldman et al. supplementary material

Feldman et al. supplementary material

Download Feldman et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 732 KB