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1. Field-Testing Code-Switching Constraints: A Report on a Strategic Languages Project

   https://doi.org/10.3390/languages4010007  

   Lipski, John M. (March 2019, Languages)

   The present article provides an overview of ongoing field-based research that deploys a variety of interactive experimental procedures in three strategically chosen bilingual contact environments, whose language dyads facilitate a partial separation of morphosyntactic factors in order to test the extent to which proposed grammatical constraints on intra-sentential code-switching are independent of language-specific factors. For purposes of illustration, the possibility of language switches between subject pronouns and verbs is compared for the three bilingual groups. The first scenario includes Ecuadoran Quichua and Media Lengua (entirely Quichua syntax and system morphology, all lexical roots replaced by Spanish items; both are null-subject languages). The second juxtaposes Spanish and the Afro-Colombian creole language Palenquero; the languages share highly cognate lexicons but differ substantially in grammatical structures (including null subjects in Spanish, only overt subjects in Palenquero). Spanish and Portuguese in north-eastern Argentina along the Brazilian border form the third focus: lexically and grammatically highly cognate languages that are nonetheless kept distinct by speakers (both null-subject languages, albeit with different usage patterns). Results from the three communities reveal a residual resistance against pronoun + verb switches irrespective of the subject-verb configuration, thereby motivating the application of similar techniques to other proposed grammatical constraints. 

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2. Can a bilingual lexicon be sustained by phonotactics alone?: Evidence from Ecuadoran Quichua and Media Lengua

   https://doi.org/10.1075/ml.19024.lip  

   Lipski, John M. (November 2020, The Mental Lexicon)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract This study focuses on bilingual speakers of Ecuadoran Quichua and the mixed language known as Media Lengua, which consists of Quichua morphosyntactic frames with all content word roots relexified from Spanish. For all intents and purposes, only the lexicon – more specifically, lexical roots – separate Media Lengua from Quichua, and yet speakers generally manage to keep the two languages apart in production and are able to unequivocally distinguish the languages in perception tasks. Two main questions drive the research effort. The first, given the very close relationships between Quichua and Media Lengua, is whether each language has a distinct lexicon, or a single lexical repository is shared by the two languages. A second and closely related question is the extent to which language-specific phonotactic patterns aid in language identification, possibly even to the extent of constituting the only robust language-tagging mechanism in a joint lexicon. Using lexical-decision and false-memory tasks to probe the Quichua-Media Lengua bilingual lexical repertoire, the results are consistent with a model based on a single lexicon, partially differentiated by subtle phonotactic cues, and bolstered by contemporary participants’ knowledge of Spanish as well as Quichua. 

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3. Reconstructing the life-cycle of a mixed language: An exploration of Ecuadoran Media Lengua

   https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006919842668  

   Lipski, John M. (April 2019, International Journal of Bilingualism)

   Aims and objectives:This study explores the assertion that bilingual mixed languages are only diachronically stable if they are not spoken together with both of the contributing source languages. Ecuadoran Media Lengua, which combines all-Quichua morphosyntax with nearly all lexical roots replaced by Spanish-derived forms, coexists in three communities with both Spanish and Quichua, having arrived in each community in successive generations. Methodology and design:Trilingual speakers (Quichua, Media Lengua, Spanish) participated in four interactive tasks: speeded translation, speeded acceptability judgments, language classification, and lexical decision. Data and analysis:For each task, the calculated rate of separation of Quichua and Media Lengua was the response variable for a series of linear mixed-effects models, with community (and when appropriate, age group) as a fixed effect. Findings/conclusions:The results suggest that a mixed language spoken together with the languages that supplied both the lexical roots and the morphosyntax can maintain its integrity for a generation or two, but the perceptual boundaries circumscribing the mixed language eventually become more permeable. They point to a significant correlation between the chronology of language contacts and the perceptual stability of Media Lengua, which is greatest when the only competing language is Quichua, somewhat less when Spanish is acquired later as the second language, and lowest when Spanish is one of the early acquired or native languages alongside Quichua. Originality:This is the first attempt to test the putative diachronic stability of a mixed language by means of synchronic experimental data. 

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4. Language classification in Western Amazonia: advances in favor of the Pano-Takana Hypothesis

   https://doi.org/10.20396/liames.v23i00.8670150  

   Valenzuela, Pilar; Zariquiey, Roberto (January 2023, LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas)

   The languages of the Pano and Takana families exhibit a considerable number of lexical and structural affinities that cannot be ascribed to mere chance and are not readily detectable instances of borrowing. After the comparative studies by Key (1968) and Girard (1971) the proposal of a genetic relationship between these two families was generally accepted (e.g. Loos 1973, 2005; Suárez 1973; Kaufman 1990; Campbell 1997). Without solid argumentation, however, this classification was later put into question (Fabre 1998; Loos 1999; Fleck 2013) and, even today, there is no full consensus as to whether the observed similarities are due to genetic inheritance or long-term language contact. The present paper offers lexical and grammatical evidence in support of the hypothesis that Pano and Takana are genetically connected. Comparing for the first time what can be considered Proto-Pano and Proto-Takana reconstructions, it is shown that 18 of the 40 items in the basic vocabulary list proposed by the Automated Similarity Judgment Program (asjp) (Holman et al. 2008) might be cognate; this includes 9 body-part terms. Also, a set of alleged grammatical cognates are assembled, and shared constructions involving motion verbal morphology, intransive and transitive auxiliaries, transitivity harmony restrictions, and switch-reference are discussed. 

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5. Heritage language gaps

   https://doi.org/10.1093/9780191987731.003.0004  

   Polinsky, Maria (March 2025, Oxford University PressOxford)

   Abstract This chapter examines the "Silent Problem" in heritage languages (HLs) - the systematic difficulty heritage speakers experience with silent grammatical elements compared to their overt counterparts. Through analysis of null pronouns and gaps in relative clauses, the study reveals consistent patterns where heritage speakers show reduced sensitivity to silent elements in both comprehension and production. The research demonstrates that heritage speakers maintain the basic licensing conditions for null elements but exhibit altered interpretive strategies. They show a stronger preference for subject antecedents in anaphoric dependencies than baseline speakers, following what the author terms the "Position of Antecedent Strategy" (PAS) - consistently choosing the highest structural argument as the antecedent regardless of pronoun type (null or overt). A pilot study on Russian relative clauses using weak crossover (WCO) effects reveals that baseline speakers exhibit bimodal grammar patterns - some using A-bar movement, others using coindexation - while heritage speakers uniformly employ coindexation structures, suggesting a shift from syntactic to anaphoric dependencies. This represents a preference for "Merge over Move" operations in heritage grammars. The chapter identifies several factors contributing to these patterns: (1) reduced perceptual salience of silent elements, (2) heritage speakers' aversion to scalar principles in favor of equipollent oppositions, and (3) difficulty establishing long-distance dependencies. Production data shows heritage speakers often use resumptive pronouns instead of gaps in relative clauses, reflecting the general avoidance of silent elements. The study draws parallels between heritage languages and endangered languages, suggesting these patterns reflect universal consequences of reduced linguistic exposure. The findings contribute to understanding how grammatical representations restructure under conditions of limited input, with implications for theories of bilingual language development and syntactic processing. 

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