Corpus analysis reveals context-dependent plural marking on English nouns in Hindi speech and text, indicating single-word insertions function as both loanwords and code-switches.
Key Points
To determine whether English-origin noun insertions in spoken and written Hindi function as established loanwords or code-switches by examining plural marking patterns.
Quantified Google search results for Hindi- versus English-plural-marked forms across more than 60 common English-origin nouns written in Devanagari script.
Evaluated a spoken corpus of YouTube interviews featuring 28 Bollywood personalities (over 140,000 words) using chi-square tests to analyze distribution differences.
Google search tallies showed English-origin words split into three distinct categories based on plural preference: Hindi-dominant plurals representing established loanwords, and two categories displaying mixed loanword and code-switch characteristics.
Spoken interview data revealed an overwhelming preference for English plural marking on English-origin nouns within a Hindi matrix, indicating code-switching as the primary mechanism in spoken discourse.