Overlap in Bilingual Play: Some Implications of Code-Switching for Overlap Resolution

Abstract

This paper examines children's procedures for dealing with simultaneous bilingual speech as it arises in multiparty play episodes. Sequential analyses of more than 10 hr of videorecorded recess activities at an English school in Sweden revealed that children use an array of methods to minimize the overlapping passage. Exceptions to this may be found in exchanges that are demonstrably competitive with regard to turn taking, in which participants' actions strive to gain exclusive rights to the floor, often resulting in stretched overlaps. Moreover, the sequential location of bilingual overlap onset proved relevant for its resolution: Whereas in interjacent onset participants would use different methods to deal with simultaneity, resulting in various outcomes of overlap negotiation, instances of overlapping turn beginnings occasioned by multiple self-selection were always resolved the same way, with the speaker diverging from the language of previous turn(s) keeping the floor. It is therefore suggested that the linguistic contrast arising with the code-switch may enhance second speakers' chances to acquire the floor and that the effectiveness of this "turn security device" is strongly dependent on its sequential placement.