Evershed Kwasi Amuzu

Because English and French are in codeswitching (CS) contact with several typologically-different African languages, it was possible for scholars to show that certain variations in distribution of English and French lexemes in CS structures are due to the typological differences among the African languages. This study contributes to our knowledge about the role of language typology in CS by considering data sets in which an African language is in CS contact with English and French. The study compares the syntax of English verbs in Ewe-English CS with the syntax of French verbs in Ewe-French CS in order to (i) investigate the extent to which the distribution of the verbs relate to typological differences between English (Germanic) and French (Romance), and (ii) investigate the nature of influence that Ewe morphosyntactic principles exert on the distribution of English and French verbs.