Complementizers as Functional Heads in Urhobo-English Code Switching

Pidgin and creoles, mixed languages and code-switching are some of the main outcomes of language contact. In Nigeria, as well as other ex-colonial countries in sub-saharan Africa, code-switching between the ex-colonial languages, English, French and Portuguese, and African languages has become pervasive. This paper analyzes code-switching of complementizers between Urhobo and English. The code-switched complementizers discussed in this paper include: the use of English ‘that’ as complementizer with Urhobo-English codeswitched structures as the complement which is the embedded clause of the complex sentence. There is the co-occurrence of the complementizers that (ne) in code-switched sentences. Third is the insertion of Urhobo complementizer ne (that) in Urhobo-English code-switched structures. Fourth is the insertion of the Urhobo complementizer tane in Urhobo-English code-switched structures. Fifth is the use of the Urhobo relationizer rhe (who) in Urhobo English code-switched structures. Lastly is the use of Urhobo conditioner complementizer da (if) in Urhobo-English code-switched structures. The issue of grammatical code-switched sentences and cases of aberrant code-switched structures are discussed for each of the complementizers mentioned above. The theoretical underpinnings of this study are Chomsky’s principles and parameters theory of Transformational Grammar for structural analysis and Myers-Scotton’s Matrix Language Frame (MLF) (1993b) and (2002) for a discussion on code-switched structures with focus on identifying the matrix and embedded language. This study can aptly be described as an insight into the grammatical aspect of code-switching.