used in speech in a setting in which CS is a normal and generally accepted
phenomenon. In CS“triggering”appears to play a role. First, we want to
argue that CS is a very special type of bilingual language use and that it
shows characteristics of what in physics has been described as a“critical
state”.
8.4.2 CS as a critical state
In bilingual language production, speakers will in most cases stick to the
language that is most appropriate in a given setting. In some settings the use
of more than one language may be called for. In that sense, CS is a normal
way of speaking for many bilinguals but not the default in bilingual language
production. It is a unique setting in which both languages–if we restrict
ourselves to bilingual as opposed to multilingual situations–are activated to
a very high level. Both languages are in Green’s (1993: 263) terms“selected”,
that is, controlling speech output. In a CS setting switching between lan-
guages is the conversational norm, which means that there is a constant need
to switch. The amount and type of switching is highly dependent on the
conversational setting. In some settings minimal CS, such as pronouncing a
word using the sounds of the other language, is enough to signal group
adherence, in other settings longer stretches of speech are switched. This
means that the social setting will push the language system in a critical state,
that is, close to phase transition. In physics a wholefield of research on
phase transition has emerged and there is growing interest in what has been
labeled“self-organized criticality”(SOC), a concept that has been coined by
Baket al.(1987) and developed further in Bak’s (1996) bookHow Nature
Works: The Science of Self-organized Criticality. The central idea which is based
on CDST principles, is that systems develop through interaction with their
environment and through internal reorganization and tend to be attracted to
critical states in which a minor change can have unpredictable effects on the
system. The metaphor Bak used was that of a sand pile: sand is dripping onto
a smooth surface and forms a pile. As grains of sand are added one after the
other, the slope of the pile will get steeper and steeper. Then at some point,
adding one more grain of sand will cause an avalanche. When an avalanche
will take place, how big it will be and where it will go cannot be predicted. After
each avalanche, the system will be in a temporary state of balance until the next
avalanche occurs. SOC is a property of (classes of) dynamical systems, which
have a critical point as an attractor state. To quote Bak:
I will argue that complex behavior in nature reflects the tendency of
large systems with many components to evolve into a poised,“critical”
state, way out of balance, where minor disturbances may lead to events,
called avalanches, of all sizes. Most of the changes take place through
catastrophic events rather than by following a smooth gradual path. The
evolution to this very delicate state occurs without design from anyTrends III 95