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2.-Code-Switching

Code-switching is the practice of alternating between languages or dialects in conversation, common among both monolingual and bilingual speakers. It serves various functions, including privacy, navigating power dynamics, and enhancing communication, while also fostering solidarity within speech communities. Examples illustrate how code-switching can empower individuals or reflect social hierarchies.

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evhirayo
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6 views

2.-Code-Switching

Code-switching is the practice of alternating between languages or dialects in conversation, common among both monolingual and bilingual speakers. It serves various functions, including privacy, navigating power dynamics, and enhancing communication, while also fostering solidarity within speech communities. Examples illustrate how code-switching can empower individuals or reflect social hierarchies.

Uploaded by

evhirayo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CODE SWITCHING

What Is Code-Switching?

The term code-switching refers to a person changing languages or dialects throughout a single
conversation and sometimes even over the course of a single sentence.

This sociolinguistic concept—sometimes also referred to as “code-mixing”—applies to both


monolingual and bilingual speakers. Monolingual speakers might switch between different
language varieties or dialects.

Why Is Code-Switching Common?

Code-switching allows people to express themselves in the way they see fit in any given
scenario. For instance, in an English-dominant culture, immigrants might speak exclusively in
English to strangers but revert to a mixture of English and their native language around family,
friends, and other members of their speech community.

Different types of code-switching can occur depending on the specific situations. Sometimes
code-switching is empowering and allows people to express their authentic selves—a person
might revert to a native tongue when they feel comfortable. Other times, it indicates an uneven
power dynamic—a person might take on the language or accent of an entrenched power group
so they aren’t singled out or thought of as a lesser-than.

Examples of code-switching include: A Spanish and English speaker saying, "Pero WHY do I
have to go a la casa?" Or, "But WHY do I have to go home?" A speaker of Black Vernacular
English saying, "We finna get to school on time today," instead of "we are going to get to school
on time today." Who BAGTING the bell?

5 Functions of Code-Switching

People code-switch for a variety of different reasons. Here are just five examples of why
someone may code-switch while speaking:

1. Code-switching allows for privacy. Speaking in a foreign language can mask what you’re
saying to people who do not speak the same language. Consider a group of high school
students all taking the same French class. Suppose they want to keep a secret about a surprise
they’re planning for the neighboring Spanish class. By switching from their shared native tongue
to French while around the Spanish students, they can keep them unaware of their plans.

2. Code-switching exists within a power dynamic. Code-switching can be a sign of an in-group


having implicit or explicit power over an out-group. In the United States, many marginalized
groups felt they had to adopt the accents, dialects, and languages of the dominant social group
to achieve a semblance of equivalence and receive attribution and respect.

3. Code-switching happens naturally. For many multilingual speakers, code-switching happens


at a subconscious level of cognition. They may not even realize they’re exchanging pronouns,
verbs, and the like from one language to the next. Sometimes, this sort of code-switching
happens in a rapid-fire way—for example, intersentential switching happens between sentences
while intrasentential switching happens within the sentences themselves. As an additional
example, people of all groups often refrain from the use of slang in professional settings but will
speak in a more free-flowing vernacular in casual environments.

4. Code-switching helps to find the right words. Second-language learners might code-switch to
their native tongue since they have a greater vocabulary in their primary language. If an Arabic
speaker starts to learn English, they might struggle to know what the right word or phrase is to
express what they mean in English. In this scenario, they might start off speaking in English and
then drift back into Arabic as they try to express their thoughts.

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5. Code-switching increases solidarity. Code-switching helps people increase bonds between
speech communities. For example, New York is home to many different linguistic and dialectical
enclaves. For residents there to be able to code-switch depending on where they are in the city
allows them to express themselves in whichever way seems most fitting, putting the other
speaker at ease and allowing them to speak in the language they know best.

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