Seite 78 [78]
OCR
LITERARY CODE-SWITCHING distinguish between a strong type (without explication) and a weak type (with explication) of code-switching, based on terminology by Brian Lennon ("strong and weak plurilingualism”), to suggest the relevance of explication as a further defining criterion for literary code-switching. Another aspect worth considering when looking at texts by non-native language writers is the distinction between switches to the author’s first language(s) and to another second language spoken by the author. For example, in the texts discussed in this paper, embedded words in the author’s first language are shown to derive from particular semantic fields and to relate strongly to the author’s upbringing. However, to develop this thought further, a direct comparison with second language insertions would be required. Strong Intra-sentential Code-Switching The majority of the observed instances in the sample texts features neither an explication for nor a translation of embedded terms and can thus be categorized as a strong type of intra-sentential code-switching. What stands out is that the sample texts primarily employ one-word interferences from the semantic fields of home, tradition and/or family. Elke Sturm-Trigonakis previously observed that particular cultural practices are brought into the society of the matrix language and a synecdochian function is evoked through embedded terms from these fields.” For example, in Arantxa Hernandez’ creative nonfiction text “The Foreigner”,*° the Spanish word tequeno?! is used in-between a conversation about the meaning of home, which interlaces the concept of home with the physical activity of biting into a Venezuelan dish: ‘Are you going home for the summer?’ your best friend asks as she takes a bite of her sweet plantain. [...] You shake your head, ‘Doesn’t feel like home anymore.’ Her eyes widen and she stirs uncomfortably on her chair, ‘but it’s home at the end, isn’t it?’ She thinks she understands you because she also had to leave her home and move to Savannah, and she does in some ways — both of you feel like outsiders whenever someone doesn’t understand your accent, or asks ignorant questions [...]. 28 Brian Lennon: In Babel’s Shadow: Multilingual Literatures, Monolingual States, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2010, 17. 2° Sturm-Trigonakis: Weltliteratur, 214. 30 Arantxa Hernandez: The Foreigner, Tint Journal, Issue Fall’20, 2020, https://tintjournal.com/ essay/the-foreigner, accessed 17 October 2022. 31 Venezuelan cheese sticks. +76 »
