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Afterword: Linguistic Perspectives on Code-Switching
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Afterword Linguistic Perspectives on Code-Switching Michael Shelton, Occidental College 155 “Put that in your pipa and fúmenlo, mijos.” “Well, it will warm up on the skin, me dijo.” “Los estudiantes no tenían idea; quedaron completely perplexed.” What’s your reaction to these sentences? How do you feel when you hear people speak like this? Do you find it pretty? Are they examples of broken Spanish or broken English? Examples of how some people just can’t stick to one language? Or perhaps the skillful expressions of a fluent bilingual? All of these thoughts are common reactions to what many people know as Spanglish, and what linguists refer to as intrasentential code-switching, the alternation of two languages within a single utterance. Interestingly, many people do not object to language shifts between sentences, but switches within the sentence or clausal level often evoke strong emotions. Perhaps this reaction is due to the traditional understanding of code-switching as a manner of compensating for incomplete acquisition of either of two languages. To the outsider, it may appear that these speakers change back and forth between their two languages when they encounter linguistic difficulties. However, contrary to these impressions, research in linguistics over the past few decades has shown that among native code-switchers these apparently random shifts in language are in fact systematic and rule-governed. One way we know that code-switching is not random in nature is the fact that proficient bilinguals, whether they are code-switchers themselves or not, have intuitions about “good” and “bad” switches. For example, most bilingual speakers of English and Spanish will accept the sentences above, which were extracted from pages of this book. However, these same speakers will reject a switch such as Me dijo Carlos que ha worked there for two years. If some switches are deemed acceptable and others not, then there must be some system that informs our judgments. We start to ask ourselves: Where in a sentence is codeswitching possible? What makes certain switches sound ungrammatical ? Questions such as these have led to a substantial body of research in theoretical linguistics that seeks to identify the grammatical constraints on intrasentential code-switching. The great majority of code-switching occurs at points in the sentence where the structure of the two languages follows similar patterns. For example, a native code-switcher might say Estoy muy cansado because I’ve been studying all day. This is an acceptable switch, because both the English sentence I’m very tired because I’ve been studying all day and the Spanish sentence Estoy muy cansado porque llevo todo el día estudiando divide the sentence into a main clause and a subordinate clause at the same point (between “tired” and “because”). In contrast, we reject an utterance such as She wants Mark comprar la camisa negra, because the two languages are incongruent at the point of the switch. In English the second clause of this sentence would contain an infinitive: She wants Mark to buy the black shirt. The Spanish clause, however, requires the subjunctive: Ella quiere que compre Mark la camisa negra. This divergence in the syntax of the two languages leads us to consider the sentence an example of a “bad” switch. Another observation that researchers have made is that switching usually does not occur between bound morphemes. We can say When I called yesterday my wife estaba jugando con los niños, or When I called yesterday my wife was playing con los niños, but not When I called yesterday my wife was play-ando con los niños. The “-ing” and “-ando” at the end of words like playing and jugando are suffixes that are bound to their verbs and thus are inappropriate points for code-switching. It is clear from examples such as these 156 Afterword [3.84.7.255] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 12:22 GMT) 157 Afterword that code-switching is not random in nature. Its systematic use exempli fies the need for high proficiency in both languages involved. We might also ask ourselves why a person would choose to codeswitch in the first place. Wouldn’t it just be easier to speak one language? Studies in conversation analysis show that the use of code-switching serves a pragmatic function. Speakers are able to communicate additional information and employ stylistic differences by alternating languages . Take for example the sentences I can’t today, dijo Juan and Juan consult...