Investigating the Grammar of Code-switching in Human-machine Dialogues

Shuly Wintner

Most people in the world today are multilingual, and most multilinguals code-switch, yet the grammar of code-switched language is not fully understood. We developed a chatbot that can work with human participants to complete a Map Task using code-switched Spanish and English. In two experiments, we prompted the bot to code-switch according to different strategies, examining (1) the feasibility of such experiments for investigating bilingual language use, and (2) whether participants would be sensitive to variations in grammatical and discourse patterns. Participants generally enjoyed code-switching with our bot as long as it produced predictable code-switching behavior; when code-switching was random or ungrammatical, participants enjoyed the task less and were less successful at completing it. These results underscore the potential downsides of deploying insufficiently developed multilingual language technology, while also illustrating the promise of such technology for conducting research on bilingual language use.