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Notes for LG102, Intro
Sociolinguistics
Autumn
2003, University of Essex
Prof.
Peter L. Patrick
A continuum of Language Choice:
|
Code-Switching |
>
Code-Mixing |
>
Nonce Loanwords |
>
Established Loanwords |
>
Style- Shifting |
>
Variation |
1.
Code-switching: stretches of Language
A big enough to show systematic properties of grammar (e.g. verb-subject
agreement) alternate with stretches of Language B that are similarly
systematic.
2.
Code-mixing: smaller bits
(morphemes, words, or phrases) of Language A get stuck into a frame that
clearly belongs to the system of Language B
3.
Nonce
loanwords:
occur when single words or morphemes of Language A get spontaneously borrowed
into a sentence of Language B-- but possibly for the first and only time
ever-- at any rate, they are not conventionalized. Eventually they disappear or
become...
4.
Established
loanwords, where (3) becomes
so frequent that the bits of Language A are no longer recognizable as
such without special knowledge of A-- they're now fully integrated into
B.
5.
Style-
or
register-shifting within a single language.
6.
Variation w/in a single
language (“inherent” variation, e.g. use of /-in’/ vs. /-ing/).
·
Looking
at the choices speakers make regarding a range of codes available to them, we can
arrange some common choices along a continuum according to how similar
the codes are -- from e.g. variation within one language, to
typologically-distinct languages -- and according to how fully-integrated
the switched or borrowed elements are into a single controlling (=matrix)
grammar.
·
In
this model, code-switching (between distinct languages, with little or
no integration) is at one extreme -- and inherent variation (within a
single language, using variables that are fully integrated into a single
grammar) is at the other.
·
This
model expresses both the similarity often noticed between CS, borrowing and
style-shifting, which serve similar kinds of social functions, and the contrast
between them in terms of language structure. It also allows us to locate kinds
of borrowing, both synchronic (nonce, i.e. spontaneous) and diachronic (established
over time), as intermediate phenomena.
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Last updated 11 November 2003