Code-switching and pausing: an interdisciplinary study

This study considers code-switching (CS) and pausing in two sociolinguistically distinct groups in London and Cyprus, bilingual in Greek-Cypriot dialect (GCD) and English. The characteristics of their speech are examined both in monolingual and code-switching modes (Grosjean, 2001). It is hypothesized that in London Greek-Cypriots, where CS is a ‘default mode’, pausing and speech rate would be affected by the same factors as in monolinguals, and not by CS. In Cyprus, on the other hand, where CS serves specific discourse functions, overall fluency was expected to be negatively affected by the more marked character of the alternation. Results reveal that CS has no significant effect on pausing in either context. Conversational motives, along with lexical, grammatical and processing issues, are the determining factors in bilingual, as well as monolingual, pausing. Despite the lack of difference found here between the two groups, we conclude that sociolinguistic and discourse variables should form an essential element in attempts to model bilingual speech production