This thesis focuses on theoretical accounts of code-switching with regard to Papiamento-Dutch bilinguals. It examines two contrasting theories, the Matrix Language Framework model (Myers-Scotton,...Show moreThis thesis focuses on theoretical accounts of code-switching with regard to Papiamento-Dutch bilinguals. It examines two contrasting theories, the Matrix Language Framework model (Myers-Scotton, 2002) and the Minimalist Program (Cantone and MacSwan, 2009), and compares them by examining which accounts for what happens at conflict sites in occurrences of Papiamento-Dutch code-switching, looking specifically at switching in noun-adjective word-order conflict sites. An event-related potential study was carried out at Leiden University with Papiamento-Dutch bilinguals. Its aim was to provide an objective measure of the neurocognitive processes underlying code-switching in bilinguals (Parafita Couto, Pablos, Boutonnet, de Jong, Perquin, de Haan and Schiller, under review). The two theories were tested using code-switched sentences which comprised six conditions: two control sentences that were not code-switched, two code-switched conditions where the predictions of the theories differed, and two code-switched conditions where the predictions of the theories matched. It was predicted that the results would support the Myers-Scotton MLF model, as that was the case with a similar project carried out with Welsh-English bilinguals ((Parafita Couto, Boutonnet, Hoshino, Davies, Deuchar and Thierry, 2013). The results of the Papiamento-Dutch experiment showed a slight trend in support of the Minimalist Program. These results differed from those of the project regarding Welsh-English bilinguals which found significant results in support of the Matrix Language Framework model (Parafita Couto, Boutonnet, Hoshino, Davies, Deuchar and Thierry, 2013). The disparity between the conclusions in these two experiments could be due to the difference in the types of bilinguals which participated. Further research will benefit from considering the sociolinguistic features of the bilingual group which participated in the Papiamento-Dutch study discussed in this thesis.Show less
