Revisiting the cline from code-switching to borrowingEvidence from the late middle english Cely letters (1472-1488)

Abstract

In this paper I examine the relationship between code-switching and lexical borrowing in the Cely letters (1472-1488). Most researchers agree in situating these concepts at the opposite ends of a diachronic continuum, so that code-switches, in the course of time and given the adequate circumstances, may become integrated borrowings in the recipient language. There is, however, some controversy as regards the classification of intermediate phenomena such as non-assimilated or nonce borrowings. Yuron Matras has recently proposed a set of criteria which, in my opinion, are useful to categorise the intermediate elements in the continuum. These criteria are applied to a selection of words from the Cely letters. As such, the analysis of these terms helps test the historical validity of Matras’s benchmark, at the same time as it determines the necessity of keeping a distinctive terminology.