10 PATTERNS OF LANGUAGE MIXTURE: NOMINAL STRUCTURE IN WOLOF-FRENCH AND FONGBE- FRENCH BILINGUAL DISCOURSE

A primary goal of any study of language mixture is to determine the properties of the internal grammars of bilinguals. Specifically, what grammar is utilised at the point where languages meet? Do speakers operate with a single base grammar which is on occasion overlaid with lexical items from another language or are different grammars activated at different times? If the latter is the case, what structural principles govern their juxtaposition? In this chapter, we demonstrate how the variationist method yields straightforward answers to these questions and further, assert that it is the only method which can irrefutably do so. Empirical studies of bilingual performance data have revealed that the utterance-internal combination of elements from more than one grammar may surface in a number of different forms, some of which are illustrated in (I), where Frenchorigin items (italicised) alternate with Wolof items.