Bilinguals and multilinguals typically manage to inhibit all one (or more) language while speaking in the other, and to switch easily from one to another as called for by the occasion. However, once in a long, long while, users of two or more languages, "slip up," and find themselves interjecting a word or phrase from a contextually inappropriate language while conversing in another. I would like to investigate the conditions under which this happens -- are such 'slips' determined by the frequency of switching between languages, the rate of speech, the duration of continuous speech, or by other factor(s) altogether, such as the linguistic and cultural background of the listener, or the speaker's own physical and mental state?
Another exciting area of research concerns the use of figurative elements of language, such as jokes, metaphors, idioms and so forth by bi- and multilingual speakers. I am particularly interested in the use of cross-linguistic humour in bilingual and multilingual populations. [To give an example, the word PASS is a homophone of the Hindi word पास, which means NEAR... when a Hindi speaker whom I know was asked by a friend after her exam results were announced, "PASS या FAIL?" which translates to, "pass or fail?", she quipped, "पास नहीं, दूर", meaning, "not near, but far".]
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