Code-switching

Hello there! I've been lost (in this dark and scary place called the University Library) but now I'm found again! You see, if you don't hear a single word from me during a couple of days it probably means that I've found something super interesting in the library. I know now what I can study next for my thesis! The area I'm interested in is called code-switching and this concept really impressed me when I realised that's what my whole material is about: it's about switching a code between Finnish and Portuguese. This is going to be my fourth critique so far and this time I'll try to pay special attention to the way I'm writing. This means I'll try to use long forms instead of shorts (oops, what I meant to write was I will, of course!), I will try to use passive voice instead of active voice (or not to use I, me and myself all the time) and I will try to use some formal, academic words instead of using neutral or informal words like I mostly do when I'm writing this blog. The task might be hard since I'm so excited about the book I found but I'll try my best. So, here we go:

"This critique is about an article "Code-switching and Communicative Competence" in Suzanne Romaine's book called Bilingualism (1989, Basil Blackwell, Oxford). Firstly, some basic knowledge about code-switching will be introduced and secondly, a personal point of view of the writer of this critique concerning the matter will be discussed.

As the author reminds, the main focus of this article is "code-switching and the role it plays in the bilingual's communicative competence" (Romaine, 1989: 110) but firstly the definition of the concept of code-switching must be given. Code-switching was defined as "the juxtaposition within the same speech exchange or passages of speech belonging to two different grammatical systems or subsystems" by John Joseph Gumperz (1982: 59). The author presents an idea that the term "code" can be used not only to make a reference to different languages but "also to varieties of the same language as well as styles within a language". Linguistic choices can then be seen for example as indexes of social relations, rights and obligations which are created in conversation. Another important term the author observes is the concept of diglossia first described by Ferguson et al (1972). Diglossia by this definition is a situation in which "two languages co-exist and are specialized according to function". (It would now be extremely exciting to know whether this kind of situation predominates in the thesis material, or not!) The author proposes that language shift or a co-existence of two or more languages does not "necessarily indicate incipient loss" of one of the languages. According to Suzanne Romaine, an important factor that indicates the linguistic situation is "the use of code-mixing and code-switching as a discourse strategy".

The author subdivides the study of code-switching to grammatical and pragmatic approaches. From the point of view of the pragmatic framework, the motivation for code-switching is stylistic and it is treated as a discourse phenomenon while the grammatical framework tries to account linguistic constraints or universal rules on code-switching. Both two perspectives are utilised by researchers of our time. In addition to the bipartition of the study of code-switching, the author lists different types and degrees of code-switching. This division was first proposed by Poplack (1980). Tag-switching "involves the insertion of a tag in one language into an utterance which is otherwise entirely in the other language". (There are this kind of sentences in the thesis material!) The author gives different kind of examples of tag-switching situations and even Finnish/English example is included (Poplack, Wheeler and Westwood 1987). Intersentential switching involves a switch on sentence boundary "where each clause or sentence is in one language or another". This also has to do with speaker turns since the switch of language may occur between turns. (This phenomenon also appears in the Portuguese/Finnish material!) Thirdly the author mentions intrasentential switching which, according the author, arguably "involves the greatest syntactic risk, and may be avoided by all but the most fluent bilinguals". This argument was captivating since  there are this kind of changes in the thesis material in which speakers are not always fluent. It is possible then that, according to the future data of the thesis, this argument might not be correct... The author assumes that "all three types of code-switching may be found within one and the same discourse", as it seems to happen in the thesis material.

There is a reason to be grateful to Romaine since her article is primarily a very good introduction to the study of code-switching. Still the article is not attending the fact that the pragmatic and grammatical frameworks have been used simultaneously by researchers in recent studies. It seems that the author is making a too strict separation between these two perspectives. Best benefits can be obtained if both two aspects are being observed." 

Okay, I really tried my best this time. The funniest thing is that I just couldn't keep my thesis out of the critique when I was writing! (That's why I used parenthesis all the time.) It seems I've already started to write my thesis here! Next Friday I won't be able to join the lesson because I'll be carrying chairs and tables... And decorating the wedding hall! It's amazing how time goes by so fast! First thing I know I was a child and now I'm already getting married! Next time we'll meet I'll be Mrs Alice.

P.S. I found some nice new words from the article. Words like juxtaposition, interchangeable, notwithstanding and unambiguous just to name a few.