PAPIAMENTO DUTCH CODE-SWITCHING IN BILINGUAL PARENT-CHILD READING/

Code-switching between Papiamento and Dutch was studied in bilingual p arent-child reading sessions in Antillian migrant families (who were t o some extent bilingual in Papiamento and Dutch) in the Netherlands. M others were asked to read three picture books to their child: one in D utch, one in Papiamento, and one without text. The code-switching in t he data is studied from three perspectives: its relation to bilingual competence, its structural properties, and the implications for langua ge change through lexical borrowing. Our data confirmed the results of earlier studies, which found that intimate code-switching within the clause is characteristic of fluent bilinguals. In our study, this held in particular for knowledge of Papiamento. Structurally, the type of code-switching encountered was predominantly insertional (with Papiame nto as the dominant language), thus conforming to the constraints prop osed for this type of switching. The single Dutch words that were freq uently inserted into Papiamento utterances by the mothers could easily be interpreted by the child as Papiamento and are likely to become bo rrowings in the next generation. We conclude with some remarks about t he functions of code-switching in our data.