Riassunto esame Lingua inglese III docente Ranzato testo consigliato Code Switching, Chloros

SWITCHING BETWEEN LANGUAGES PROVIDES CRUCIAL MATERIAL FOR OUR UNDERSTANDING OF HOW

LANGUAGE IS BOTH COMPREHENDED (PROCESSED) IN THE BRAIN AND PRODUCED.

CS acts as a signpost, pointing at where the difficult issues may arise, and paving the way towards a better

understanding of grammar.

Grammar specialists interested in CS try to discover whether the grammatical rules of the two varieties in

contact are enough to explain the patterns in mixed language speech.

Most of these plurilingual speakers mix their languages in various ways in their daily lives.

“pragmatic” research on CS focuses on the conversional functions of CS and its effects on conversional

participants.

It is important that CS be considered as the multifaceted phenomenon it is.

There has been an explosion of interest in CS. The work of Grumperz and his associates in the 1960s and

early 1970s. People realized that CS was not an isolated phenomenon but a widespread way of speaking.

Each new case which is documented can be looked at from multiple perspectives. Studying CS implies

dealing with several languages.

Few main approach:

- Sociolinguistic/ethnographic descriptions of CS situations.

- Pragmatic/conversation analytic approaches (WE-CODE, THEY-CODE)

- Grammatical analyses of samples of CS and the search for underlying rules, models and

explanations to explain the pattern found.

CS is not an entity which exists out there in the objective world, but a construct which linguistic have

developed to help them describe their data.

Code was originally taken from the field of communication technology.

Code switching refers instead to a mechanism for the unambiguous transduction of signals between

systems.

Nowadays code is understood as a neutral umbrella term for languages, dialects, style/registers, etc., and

partly usurps the place of the more usual “catch-all” term variety to cover the different sub-divisions of

language.

Switching appears transparent enough, in that it refers to alternation between the different varieties which

people speak.

A continuum with respect to borrowing, syntactic merging and those who consider it as the one form of

language contact which does not involve convergence of the two systems. Clyne has suggested that we

should reserve CS for transference of individual lexical items through to whole stretches of speech.

Haugen distinguished between CS on the one hand, in which the character of the contributing varieties is

said to be preserved, and interference and integration on the other.

They used the term BORROWING or NPNCE BORROWING for instances of juxtaposition which do show

some measures of convergence, be it morphological, phonological or syntactic.

The distinction between CS and CODE-MIXING:

CS is for cases where two codes maintain their monolingual characteristics and used CM for those where

there is some convergence between the two. Confusion arises, however, because the two processes often

co-exist within the same stretch of discourse as well as overlapping at the conceptual level.

In social psychology, CS refer to language choice in a bilingual setting.

CS may be used as a general term covering all outcomes of contact between two varieties, whether there is

evidence of convergence.

CS Is now a prolific area of research, and the subject of many doctoral and master’s these worldwide.

International Journal of Bilingualism and Bilingualism, Language and Cognition.

- Laziness: CS is seen as an easy way out when people cannot be bothered to search for the words

they need in a single language.

- Regular code-switchers often claim to disapprove of CS when specifically.

Approval of CS tends to coincide with a laid-back attitude towards authority; for example, within

the same community it tends to be more common in younger rather than older generations.

To sum up, CS is:

a. Thought to be an easy or lazy option;

b. Generally disapproved of, even by those who practice it;

c. Below the full consciousness of those who use it.

Where the speaker is a balanced bilingual – i.e. someone who can speak either variety equally competently,

CS may be used deliberately as a compromise strategy, when addressing others of varying competences

and preferences.

Trilingual: a speakers of more than three languages.

Speakers of three or more languages are by no means in the worlds.

Trilingual speakers often take a different “branch” on “exiting” from it and switch to a third language.

To conclude, CS is a growth area in linguistic, since it provides insights not only about plurilingualism, also

about language itself, from several different perspectives.

Any social parameter whatsoever may be the locus of some linguistic difference.

Linguistic who do study bilingual performance, in a sociolinguistic context for example, have show how CS

contributes in various ways to an understanding of how the individual is articulated with the social.

Studies of language and gender provide a good example of dangers inherent in doing this. Gender as such is

only an intervening variable, and not an explanation, for many differences in performance between woman

and men.

The notions of focusing and diffusion, developed by Le Page drew inspiration from the creole-speaking

areas where much of their research was carried out, but where intended to have a general application.

2.

CS occurs in contact situations of many types and relates in complex ways to the processes of change at

work in those situations.

CS occurs among immigrant communities, regional minorities and native multilingual group alike. Each time

minority language group meet majority language group under conditions of rapid social change.

Sociolinguists have treated CS mainly as a spoken genre.

But CS is also found in written texts from various historical periods. Latin-Greek in Cicero’s letters to his

friend Atticus, French-Italian in a thirteenth century Coptic phrasebook and a fourteen-century Venetian

manuscript of the Song of Roland; English-French CS in a variety of Medieval English texts. Novel where

spoken CS is represented, such a Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Eco’s The Name of the Rose.

As a symptom of quite opposite developments. It reflects social differences and tendencies within the same

society and language combination.

In most communities where there is CS, there is a correlation between the speakers’ age and the type of CS

which they use.

There is also evidence from historical linguistic work which suggests that CS is an important component of

change.

Bilingualism and CS must have played a major role in the process of lexical borrowing and mixed-language

texts can thus provide interesting information on the process of widespread relexification of English in the

ME period.

Relexification: is the process by which language which retains its basic grammatical identity replaces part

or all its lexical stock with words from another variety.

It is important to point out that CS takes place in a context where there is shift in progress.

This is the case of Sauris in the Carnian Alps, described by Denison. This small community had preserved a

local variety of German for some 600 years, Friulan being the regional norm and Italian the notional norm,

with which speakers, until this century, had relatively little contact.

Change can be fast or slow and can affect all aspects of language. It can take place over several generations

or within a single generation.

CS the in the sentence where there is a switch is a significant aspect of the conversation. The next stage is

language mixing: the use of the overall switching mode. The third stage is fused lects, which are stabilized

mixed varieties.

The stabilization of CS varieties arises when these varieties assume an identity function. They are often

characteristic of young second-generation immigrant communities which develop a pride in their mixed

identity.