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For decades, linguists have treated code-switching as a "special" language of its own, and devised many constraints accounting for code-switching patterns in various language pairs. This book argues that code-switching is governed by the same constraints as those governing native "pure" languages, and hence code-switching data provide a "window" to our language faculty. Although some other works have already suggested that code-switching and "pure" languages are governed by the same syntactic rules, this book goes a step further and explores the possibility that both are constrained by the same system in terms of syntax, production, and pragmatics.
About the author
The Author: Brian Hok-Shing Chan is Lecturer in the Department of English at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He taught English and Linguistics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the City University of Hong Kong before he went to University College London for further study. He won an Overseas Researcher Scholarship (ORS) and received his Ph.D. in linguistics in 1999 from University College London.
Report
"This outstanding book is simultaneously a contribution to three different areas. On the basis of a detailed and meticulous examination of code-switching data from a variety of language pairs, especially Cantonese-English, Brian Hok-Shing Chan has cast light on current minimalist syntactic theory, on relevance-theoretic pragmatics, and, of course, on the nature of code-switching itself. Essential reading."
(Neil Smith, University College London)
"A novel approach to the highly fascinating type of code-switching found in the Chinese-English context. Brian Hok-Shing Chan has succeeded in applying highly innovative concepts drawn from Chomsky's minimalism to new data, reaching some thought-provoking conclusions."
(Pieter Muysken, Leiden University)
