Alignment in <i>lingua receptiva</i>: from automaticity towards monitored code-switching

Bahtina-Jantsikene, Daria Daria · 2013 · Crossref

DOI: 10.12697/jeful.2013.4.2.03

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Summary

This paper investigates psycholinguistic alignment within *lingua receptiva* (LaRa), a multilingual communicative mode where interlocutors speak their respective native languages while relying on second language (L2) comprehension to understand each other. The study addresses how speakers establish mutual understanding when L2 proficiency is insufficient for automatic alignment, hypothesizing that code-switching (CS) functions as a monitored, compensatory alignment strategy. The research focuses on Estonian-Russian dyads, a genetically unrelated language pair lacking cognates, to examine how L2 proficiency, attitudes, and exposure influence communicative efficiency. The methodology involved an experimental task-oriented dialogue based on the Maze Game, where 96 participants (76 in LaRa, 20 in monolingual control) navigated schematic maps to find each other. Participants were instructed to speak only their native language. The study analyzed conceptual, structural, and lexical alignment, alongside a detailed typology of code-switching derived from language contact theories. CS was categorized into alternations (switching between languages) and insertions (integrating L2 elements into L1 structures), further subdivided by morpho-syntactic integration and sequential patterns. Data were collected from 38 LaRa dyads, with analysis focusing on the frequency of CS types, their relation to L2 proficiency levels, and their impact on task completion speed. The findings reveal that alignment in LaRa is not purely automatic but involves significant monitoring and explicit negotiation, particularly at the conceptual level where dyads established shared referential systems (e.g., matrix or path descriptions). Structural alignment occurred through routinization and syntactic priming, though distinguishing automatic from monitored alignment was difficult due to overlapping structures. Crucially, code-switching emerged as a primary lexical alignment strategy. The distribution of CS depended on the dyad’s L2 proficiency composition; dyads with mixed proficiency levels (one high, one low) were more efficient and faster in task completion. Alternations and insertions served as compensation strategies when mutual understanding was compromised. Specifically, CS predicted task success, with speakers using L2 words or structures to bridge comprehension gaps, effectively optimizing dialogue despite the instruction to use only L1. The significance of this work lies in redefining code-switching not merely as a linguistic phenomenon but as a functional alignment strategy in multilingual settings. The study concludes that in *lingua receptiva*, CS facilitates the creation of common ground and enhances communicative efficiency, particularly when automatic alignment mechanisms fail due to low L2 proficiency or lack of linguistic overlap. This provides a provisional typology of CS as a route toward optimized dialogue, highlighting the role of monitored, rather than automatic, processes in establishing understanding across genetically distant languages.

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• task switching