A Response to MacSwan (2005): Keeping the Matrix Language

Creator(s)

Janice L. Jake, Midlands Technical College
Carol Myers-Scotton, University of South Carolina
Steven Gross, East Tennessee State University

Document Type

Note

Publication Date

12-1-2005

Description

This comment responds to some of the criticisms that MacSwan (2005) presents of the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model of codeswitching (CS) in general and of Jake, Myers-Scotton and Gross (2002), in particular. The goal is to point out misunderstandings and misinterpretations that are the basis of MacSwan's critique. His attempt to show how the Minimalist Program can explain CS on its own fails. Theoretically, while either of the participating languages in CS could frame the bilingual CP, only one, the ML, does. That is, recognizing the construct of the ML as the source of the morpho-syntactic frame of each bilingual clause showing CS is necessary.

Citation Information

Jake, Janice L.; Myers-Scotton, Carol; and Gross, Steven. 2005. A Response to MacSwan (2005): Keeping the Matrix Language. Bilingualism. Vol.8(3). 271-276. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728905002300 ISSN: 1366-7289