A Usage-Based Approach to Pattern Finding: The Traceback Method Meets Code-Mixing

Usage-based approaches have become increasingly important in research on language acquisition and recently also bilingual first acquisition. Lexically specific patterns, such as What’s this? frame-and-slot [I want X] play an role scenarios. The ubiquity of conventionalized chunks patterns supports the idea that children construct their early utterances out concrete pieces they heard stored before. To investigate emergence children’s speech traceback method has been developed, which accounts for composition by relying previously acquired material. Recently, applied to code-mixed testing assumption are structured around a pattern open slot is filled (a) word(s) from other language, e.g., [where where das feuer ‘where fire’. In this paper we present how empirical use method, general adoption usage-based theoretical perspective, can shed new lights study phenomena, code-mixing.