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CHAPTER 3 LITERATURE REVIEW
INTERACTIONAL SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Blom and Gumperz?? defined code-switching as fulfilling situational or
metaphorical functions. According to their definition, code-switching either
takes place in a certain situation or at a specific social event in which code¬
switching is the expected language choice (situational switching), or it is used
to refer to a certain social event, topic or subject matter even though there
is no relevant situation for it (metaphorical switching). Hence, Blom and
Gumperz” assume a direct relationship between a social event or a topic and
a code or a language choice. However, they pointed out that even though code¬
switching can be interpreted in the wider social context, the relation between
a code, a topic and a social event evolves dynamically, so no rigid one-to-one
relationship can be assumed between them’.
Later, in an attempt to clarify the complexity of the interpretability of
language use in given situations, Gumperz called for such a conversational
study of code-switching which “might bridge the gap between macro- and
micro-analysis by providing insights into the functioning of broader social
concepts in interpersonal relations.”*. Therefore, he added the conversational
function to the repertoire of code-switching functions to provide the means
of interpreting code-switching in a given linguistic context. He emphasized
that code-switching is a “conversational contextualization cue” fulfilling such
discourse related functions as “quotations, addressee specification, interjections,
reiterations, message qualification, and personalization vs. objectivization””.
Gumperz claimed that the contextualization cues help to reconstruct the wider
social reality, and code-switching, as one of those cues, reflects “the underlying
unverbalized assumptions about social categories”’*. Therefore, code-switching
as a contextualization cue helps to interpret the wider social context. However,
the issue of how such an interpretation can be achieved has not been elaborated
by Gumperz and triggered further discussions.
THE SOCIOCULTURAL APPROACH
In explaining the nature of linguistic choices, the sociocultural approach
places the greatest emphasis on the objective, essentialist social world as the
code-switching, 156-176; Wei, “How can you tell?”, Journal of Pragmatics, 375-389;
Gafaranga, Demythologizing language alternation studies, Journal of Pragmatics, 281-300
Blom — Gumperz, Social meaning in linguistic structure, 407-434
24 Blom — Gumperz, Ibid., 407-434
25 Blom — Gumperz, Ibid., 421
Gumperz, Discourse Strategies, 99
7 Gumperz, Ibid., 61
28 Gumperz, Ibid., 99
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