Switching codes, affi rming identities: Writing in Texas Czech

Vol.2,No.2(2009)

Abstract
This contribution focuses on English/Czech codeswitching (CS) in a collection of letters written by a third-generation Texas Czech to this author, a European Czech living in the US since the 1990s. Specifi cally, the article explores the writer’s CS vis-à-vis her selfperceived ethnolinguistic identity. While the quantitative analysis establishes English as the letter’s dominant language, CS itself, rather than English, is proposed to be this writer’s unmarked choice, refl ecting her dual ethnic membership and positive attitudes towards both codes. The qualitative analysis further shows that most switches to Czech serve identifi able pragmatic functions, such as letter openings/closings and a variety of parenthetical comments used for emphasis, humour, clarifi cation, elaboration, topic closings/move-on, and mitigation.

Keywords:
Texas Czech variety; written codeswitching; pragmatic functions; code markedness; ethnolinguistic identity
References

Auer, P. (ed.) (1998) Code-Switching in Conversation. Language, Interaction and Identity.
London and New York: Routledge.


Blom, J.-P., Gumperz, J. J. (1972) ‘Social meaning in linguistic structure: Code-switching
in Norway.’ In: Gumperz, J. J., Hymes, D. (eds) Directions in Sociolinguistics. New
York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. 407-434.


Bolonyai, A., Bhatt, R. (under review) ‘Code switching and the optimal grammar of
bilingual language use.’ Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.


Callahan, L. (2002) ‘The matrix language frame model and Spanish/English codeswitching
in fi ction.’ Language and Communication 22, 1-16. DOI: 10.1016/S0271-5309(01)00018-0


Callahan, L. (2003) ‘The role of register in Spanish-English codeswitching in prose.’
Bilingual Review 27/1, 12-25.


Clyne, M. (1987) ‘Constraints on code switching: How universal are they?’ Linguistics
25, 739-764. DOI: 10.1515/ling.1987.25.4.739


Coulmas, F. (2005) ‘Code-switching: Linguistic choices across language boundaries.’
Sociolinguistics: The Study of Speakers’ Choice. New York: Cambridge University
Press. 107-125.


Dutkova-Cope, L. (2001) ‘Texas Czech: The language of Texans who say they speak “a
different type of Czech”.’ Southwest Journal of Linguistics 20/1, 29-69.

Dutkova-Cope, L. (2000) ‘Texas Czech folk music and ethnic identity.’ Pragmatics 10/1,
7-37.


Dutkova-Cope, L. (2003) ‘Texas Czech ethnic identity: So how Czech are you, really?’
Slavic and East European Journal 47/4, 648-76. DOI: 10.2307/3220250


Eckert, E. (2004) Kameny na prérii: Čeští vystěhovalci v Texasu. Praha: Nakladatelství
Lidové Noviny.


Gafaranga, J., Torras, M.-C. (2002) ‘Interactional otherness: Toward a redefi nition of
codeswitching.’ International Journal of Bilingualism 6/1, 1-22. DOI: 10.1177/13670069020060010101


Garden-Chloros, P. (1995) ‘Code-switching in community, regional and national
repertoires: The myth of discreteness of linguistic systems.’ In: Milroy, L., Muysken,
P. (eds) One Speaker, Two Languages. New York: Cambridge University Press. 68-
89.


Genesee, F. (2002) ‘Portrait of the bilingual child.’ In: Cook, V. (ed.) Portraits of the L2
User. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. 170-196.


Gumperz, J. J. (1982) ‘Conversational code switching.’ In: Gumperz, J. J. (ed.) Discourse
Strategies. New York: Cambridge University Press. 59-99.


Graedler, A.-L. (1999) ‘Where English and Norwegian meet: Codeswitching in written
texts.’ In: Hasselgård, H. and Oksefjell, S. (eds) Out of Corpora: Studies in Honour of
Stig Johansson. Amsterdam: Rodopi. 327-343.


Hamers, J. F. and Blanc, M. H. A. (2000) Bilinguality and Bilingualism. 2nd ed. New York:
Cambridge University Press.


Komárek, M. et al. (eds) (1986) ‘Částice [Particles].’ Mluvnice Češtiny II. Tvarosloví
[Czech Grammar. Morphology]. Praha: Academia. 228-238.


Lattey, E. and Tracy, R. (2001) ‘Language contact in the individual: A case study based
on letters from a German immigrant in New Jersey.’ In: Sture Ureland, P. (ed.) Global
Eurolinguistics. European Languages in North America. Tubingen: Max Niemeyer
Verlag. 413-433.


Li, W. (1998) ‘The ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions in the analysis of conversational codeswitching.’
In: Auer, P. (ed.) Code-Switching in Conversation. 156-176.


McClure, E. (1981) ‘Formal and functional aspects of the code-switched discourse of
bilingual children.’ In: Durán, R. (ed.) Latino Language and Communicative Behavior.
Norwood, NJ: Ablex. 69-92.


McClure, E. (1998) ‘The relationship between form and function in written national
language-English CS: Evidence from Mexico, Spain, and Bulgaria.’ In: Jacobson, R.
(ed.) Codeswitching Worldwide I. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 125-150.


McClure, E. (2001) ‘Oral and written Assyrian-English codeswitching.’ In: Jacobson, R.
(ed.) Codeswitching Worldwide II. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 157-191.


Meeuwis, M. and Blommaert, J. (1994) ‘The ‘Markedness Model’ and the absence of
society: Remarks on codeswitching.’ Multilingua 13/4, 387-423.


Montes-Alcalá, C. (2001) ‘Written codeswitching: Powerful bilingual images.’ In
Jacobson, R. (ed.) Codeswitching Worldwide II. 193-219.


Myers-Scotton, C. (1989) ‘Codeswitching with English: Types of switching, types of
communities.’ World Englishes 8/3, 333-346.


Myers-Scotton, C. (1993a). Duelling Languages. Oxford: Clarendon Press.


Myers-Scotton, C. (1993b) Social Motivations for Code Switching. Oxford: Clarendon
Press.


Myers-Scotton, C. (1998) ‘Structural uniformities vs. community differences in
codeswitching.’ In: Jacobson, R. (ed.) Codeswitching Worldwide I. 91-107.

Myers-Scotton, C. (1999) ‘Explaining the role of norms and rationality in codeswitching.’
Journal of Pragmatics 32, 1259-1271.


Myers-Scotton, C. (2001) ‘The matrix language frame model: Developments and
response.’ In: Jacobson, R. (ed.) Codeswitching Worldwide II. 23-58.


Myers-Scotton, C. (2002) ‘Frequency and intentionality in (un)marked choices in
codeswitching: “This is a 24-hour country.” ’ International Journal of Bilingualism
6/2, 205-219. DOI: 10.1177/13670069020060020401


Pfaff, C. W. (1979) ‘Constraints on language mixing: Intrasentential code-switching and
borrowing in Spanish/English.’ Language 55/2, 291-318.


Polinsky, M. (1994) ‘Structural dimensions of fi rst language loss.’ In: Beals, K. et al. (eds)
Papers from the 30th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society II. Chicago:
Chicago Linguistic Society. 257-276.


Poplack, S. (1980) ‘Sometimes I’ll start a sentence in Spanish Y TERMINO EN ESPAÑOL:
Toward a typology of code-switching.’ Linguistics 18/7-8, 581-618. DOI: 10.1515/ling.1980.18.7-8.581


Sebba, M. and Wootton, T. (1998) ‘We, they and identity. Sequential versus identity-related
explanation in code-switching.’ In: Auer, P. (ed.) Code-Switching in Conversation.
262-286.


Stølen, M. (1992) ‘Codeswitching for humour and ethnic identity: Written Danish-
American occasional songs.’ Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
13/1-2, 215-228.

Metrics

233

Views

206

PDF views