Substitution and Codeswitching among Some Ewe-English Bilinguals

Abstract

This study investigated how the Ewe language realizes cohesion by means of substitution in comparison with English. The study also sought to find out constraints that inform the choice of substitution in Ewe-English bilingual constructions (codeswitching). Findings reveal that though the two languages belong to different language families and operate on different grammatical systems, when it comes to the cohesive device of substitution, they mirror each other almost perfectly. Moreover, the study shows that the matrix language, unnaturalness, clausal boundary, phonological environment and uniformity are the constraints that inform the choice of substitution in Ewe-English codeswitching. The findings reveal that while the matrix language model is still
in force, other constraints are equally relevant in bilingual constructions.