SOCIAL MOTIVATIONS FOR CODESWITCHING by Carol Myers-Scotton ( 9780198239239 )

Item Details

Title:

SOCIAL MOTIVATIONS FOR CODESWITCHING
EVIDENCE FROM AFRICA

By:

Carol Myers-Scotton

Format:

Paperback

List price:

£58.00

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£50.75

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£7.25

ISBN 10:

0198239238

ISBN 13:

9780198239239

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Publisher:

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

17 August, 1995

Series:

Oxford Studies in Language Contact

Pages:

190

Description:

This book deals with codeswitching - the use of two or more different languages in the same conversation. Using data from multilingual African contexts, Carol Myers-Scotton advances an original theory applicable to any society: speakers change languages in order to negotiate a change in the tenor of the conversation, conveying warmth or anger, solidarity or power, by their linguistic choices.

Synopsis:

Codeswitching may be broadly defined as the use of two or more linguistic varieties in the same conversation. Using data from multilingual African context, Carol Myers-Scotton advances a theoretical argument which aims at a general explanation of the motivations underlying the phenomenon. She treats codeswitching as a type of skilled performance, not as the 'alternative strategy' of a person who cannot carry on a conversation in the language in which it began. Speakers exploit the socio=psychological values associated with different linguistic varieties in a particular speech community: by switching codes speakers negotiate a change in social distance between themselves and other participants in a conversation. Switching between languages has much in common with making stylistic choices within the same language: it is as if bilingual and multilingual speakers have an additional style at their command when they engage in codeswitching. _

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Imprint:

Clarendon Press

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

CODES AND CONSEQUENCES (HB)

CODES AND CONSEQUENCES (PB)

CONTACT LINGUISTICS (HB)

CONTACT LINGUISTICS (PB)