Page 23 [23]
APPROACHES TO THE MEANING-MAKING FUNCTION OF CODE-SWITCHING
The first approach to the function of code-switching focuses more on the
‘why’ aspect of code-switching, the objective aspect of it, placed in the wider
context of the social world with its constructs existing irrespective of the
constructive force of code-switching or that of any other linguistic means
(‘top-down approach’'’). In contrast, the focus of the conversation analysis
approach is more about the ‘how’s’ of code-switching, that is, to demonstrate
how language actually constructs its social reality (‘bottom-up approach’).
In interpreting the meaning of code-switching, the former approach relies on
knowledge of the wider social context in which code-switching is integrated.
The latter, however, interprets the meaning of code-switching with the help
of the linguistic evidence relevant in the particular context of code-switching.
Different ways of interpreting the meaning of code-switching can also be
detected in terms of how universal or idiosyncratic it is claimed to be. As a
continuation of the early interactional sociolinguistic traditions of Blom and
Gumperz”, some theorists claim that there is a universal (but ethnographically
community specific) normative framework which creates the context in which
the meaning and function of code-switching can be interpreted”.
In contrast to theorists interpreting the meaning-making function of
code-switching in a universal framework, others claim that the instances of
code-switching are more of idiosyncratic value as the community in which
they occur is heterogeneous. Therefore, instead of assuming a normative,
static framework, these theorists prefer a more dynamic, conversation-based,
descriptive approach, which does not interpret the meaning and function of
code-switching in a universal framework but rather demonstrates how that
framework is created locally in a conversation’.
Monica Heller, Strategic ambiguity: code-switching in the management of conflict, in: Monica
Heller (ed.), Code-switching: Anthropological and Sociolinguistic Perspectives, Berlin, Mouton
de Gruyter, 1988b, 77-96
Heller, Strategic ambiguity, 77-96
John Blom - John J. Gumperz, Social meaning in linguistic structure: Code-switching in
Norway, in: Gumperz — Hymes (eds.), Directions in Sociolinguistics: the Ethnography of
Communication, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1972, 407-434
Fishman, Hungarian Language Maintenance in the US; Blom — Gumperz, Social meaning in
linguistic structure, 407-434; Gal, Language Shift; Woolard, Code-switching and comedy
in Catalonia, 53-76; Woolard, Double talk; Heller, Strategic ambiguity, 77-96; Myers¬
Scotton, Duelling Languages: Grammatical Structures in Code-switching; Myers-Scotton,
A theoretical introduction to the Markedness Model, 18-38
Auer, Bilingual Conversation; Auer, À conversation analytic approach to code-switching
and transfer, 187-213; Auer, Introduction, 1-24; Peter Auer, A postscript: Code-switching
and social identity, Journal of Pragmatics, 37 (2005), 403-410; Ana Celia Zentella, Growing
Up Bilingual. Puerto Rican Children in New York, Malden, MA, Blackwell, 1997; Penelope
Gardner-Chloros, Language Selection and Switching in Strasbourg, Oxford, Clarendon Press,
1991; Stroud, The problem of intention and meaning in code-switching, Text, 127-155;
Stroud, Perspectives on cultural variability of discourse and some implications for code¬
switching, 321-348; Wei, The ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions in the analysis of conversational
21°