Code-switching in text and speech challenges information-theoretic speaker design

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Code-switching in text and speech challenges information-theoretic speaker design

In this work, we use language modeling to investigate the factors that influence insertional code-switching. Code-switching occurs when a speaker alternates between one language variety (the primary language) and another (the secondary language), and is widely observed in multilingual contexts. Recent work has shown that code-switching is often correlated with areas of low predictability in the primary language, but it is unclear whether low primary language predictability only makes the secondary language relatively easier to produce at code-switching points - that is, purely speaker-driven code-switching - or whether code-switching is additionally used by speakers for other purposes, for instance to signal the need for greater attention on the part of listeners. In this paper, we use bilingual Chinese-English online forum posts and transcripts of spontaneous Chinese-English speech to replicate prior findings that low primary language (Chinese) predictability is correlated with insertional switches to the secondary language (English). We then demonstrate that the predictability of the English productions is even lower than that of meaning-equivalent Chinese alternatives, and these are therefore not easier to produce, rejecting the purely speaker-driven theory of code-switching in both writing and speech.

One. Introduction

Most of the world's population speaks more than one language. Among such multilingual speakers, code-switching - the alternation between one language variety and another - is a commonly observed phenomenon. Code-switches are produced by speakers of varying ages between many different language pairs. For example, below, the Chinese word for basement, IL TE, has been replaced by its English equivalent, demonstrating an insertional code-switch:

Utterance 洗衣房 ŻE basement .

Gloss laundry room in basement.

Translation

The laundry room is in the basement.

Many psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic factors affect code-switching prevalence in bilingual speech. At the utterance level, these include speaker competency, the linguistic context, the speaker's emotional state or affective intention, and the type of information that the speaker wishes to convey, among others. In contrast to such speaker-centric factors, previous work has proposed a few audience-driven sociolinguistic influences on code-switching, for example, whether the audience is likely to be proficient in all of the relevant languages. At the word level, information load or predictability, as measured by sentence continuation probabilities, has previously been correlated with code-switching, but as Myslín and Levy point out, this influence could be produced by either speaker-driven or audience-driven pressures.

Since Shannon, information theory has been a prominent framework for understanding communication, in which speakers maximize the communicative function while minimizing the degree to which they overload listeners; this creates a trade-off in optimizing overall communication. As a result, speakers tend to produce predictable and mutually accessible utterances to mitigate the load associated with less predictable expressions, such as jargon. In this work, we investigate whether the relationship between continuation predictability and insertional code-switching is entirely speaker-driven. Under the speaker-driven view, which many have assumed, one (primary) language is generally most salient to a bilingual speaker in a given context. However, in areas of low predictability, which require greater cognitive effort to process, the relative linguistic complexity of the primary language continuation may make the secondary language easier to access for the speaker, increasing the chance that the speaker will switch into the secondary language and produce a code-switch. Alternatively, the same phenomenon could be motivated by other considerations. For instance, an area of low predictability is precisely the place where a listener might get confused. So, a potentially audience-driven speaker, or simply a speaker who is not solely driven by production ease, could signal to the listener that the upcoming material will be challenging and that they should accordingly pre-allocate more cognitive resources (e.g., attention) to the comprehension task to avoid misunderstanding. We speculate that code-switching is a possible mechanism by which the speaker could provide this signal to listeners.

In contrast to prior work that has analyzed the influence of the primary language on the code-switch, we analyze the influence of both the primary and the secondary language on code-switching in both written and spoken communication, and we apply an information-theoretic lens toward investigating whether the role of predictability in shaping code-switching stems purely from speaker-driven pressures. We conclude that speaker-driven pressures do not fully explain the relationship between predictability and insertional code-switching. Our findings support prior results by showing a clear effect of predictability on code-switching, but whereas previous predictability research presumed that this influence was driven by production pressures, our work reveals aspects that cannot be fully explained by production considerations alone. Our research design cannot definitively prove that these results stem from audience design, but we think this would be a fruitful avenue for future inquiry.

Two. Related work

Three. Research questions and hypotheses

Four. Corpora

Four point two. Spoken code-switched data

Five. Metrics

Six. Experiments

Six point two. Code-switching in writing has information-theoretic components that are not solely speaker-driven

Six point two point one. CS one English is more complex than monolingual English in writing

Six point two point two. CS1 English is relatively more complex than CS1 Chinese in writing

Six point three. Low predictability contributes to code-switching at CS1 in speech

Six point four. Code-switching in speech has information-theoretic components that are not solely speaker-driven

Six point four point two. CS one English is relatively more complex than CS one Chinese in speech

Seven. Discussion

Overview

The document explores how code-switching between languages is influenced by predictability, proposing that both speaker-driven and audience-driven factors play a role. It uses data from Chinese-English bilingual contexts to demonstrate that predictability impacts code-switching in both written and spoken forms.

Key Points

1Code-switching is affected by predictability in both primary and secondary languages
2The research challenges the purely speaker-driven theory of code-switching
3Audience-driven considerations may also influence code-switching behavior
4The study builds on previous findings and suggests new avenues for research on bilingualism
5Data from bilingual online forums and spontaneous speech were utilized for analysis

Details

Authors: Debasmita Bhattacharya, Marten van Schijndel
Category: Communication and Media

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