Language Mixing in Bilinguals (Annotated Bibliography‪)‬

In today’s globalized world bilingualism, defined as the regular use of two or more languages, is a widespread phenomenon and has become nearly the standard and monolingualism the exception. Consequently linguists have become more and more interested in this topic and in the last decades much has been published regarding bilinguals and their language behavior.
Being able to manage two different languages or dialects, bilinguals are capable to code-switch within their languages. Code-Switching (in the following referred to as CS) occurs when a word or a phrase in one language substitutes for a word or phrase in a second language.

“Code switching is the alternate use of two (or more) languages within the same utterance, as illustrated in (1) (Belazi, Rubin, and Toribio, 1994).

(1a) This morning mi hermano y yo fuimos a comprar some milk.
This morning my brother and I went to buy some milk.

(1b) The student brought the homework para la profesora.
The student brought the homework for the teacher.”

CS follows functional and grammatical principles and is a complex, rule-governed phenomenon. Bilingual speakers often code-switch from one language to another, especially when both languages are used in the environment. This is mostly the case in multilingual communities.

Although much has already been written on how bilinguals organize their two languages, little is known about why bilinguals mix their two languages during communicative process. It would be easier for them just to stay in one language while communicating, being understood by everyone. Nevertheless they switch codes during conversations. This raises the question: Why do bilinguals code-switch?
The aim of this annotated bibliography is to shed some light onto this discussion by presenting both actual and back dating research efforts. Within the vast research area of bilingualism and CS it is not easy to find clear and satisfying answers. The papers selected try to cover a wide range of different approaches, including two leading and often quoted articles by Myers-Scotton, in order to point out the diverse points of view regarding the topic under discussion. In the end this should lead to first answers to the question why bilinguals code-switch, paving therewith the way for further research.