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Codeswitching and identity among Island Puerto Rican bilinguals

Abstract

This study investigates how a network of elite, educated bilinguals on the Island of Puerto Rico (PR) alternate between English and Spanish in everyday, casual conversations, and how their choice of language relates to their social identities. Due to the complex relationship between Spanish and English in PR this context is ideal for looking into the meaning and social significance of CS, and how individual creativity and collective social knowledge intersect in identity creation. Ethnographic interviews and observations, audio recording of casual conversations, and a thorough understanding of speakers’ socio-cultural realities revealed the development of the communicative style of CS, and its relationship to the enactment, reproduction, and shaping of the following identity categories: ‘elite,’ ‘American,’ and ‘Puerto Rican.’

Abstract

This study investigates how a network of elite, educated bilinguals on the Island of Puerto Rico (PR) alternate between English and Spanish in everyday, casual conversations, and how their choice of language relates to their social identities. Due to the complex relationship between Spanish and English in PR this context is ideal for looking into the meaning and social significance of CS, and how individual creativity and collective social knowledge intersect in identity creation. Ethnographic interviews and observations, audio recording of casual conversations, and a thorough understanding of speakers’ socio-cultural realities revealed the development of the communicative style of CS, and its relationship to the enactment, reproduction, and shaping of the following identity categories: ‘elite,’ ‘American,’ and ‘Puerto Rican.’

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements viii
  4. Introduction: Multiple influencing factors, diverse participants, varied techniques 1
  5. I. Codeswitching, identity, attitudes, and language politics
  6. Spanglish 11
  7. Codeswitching and identity among Island Puerto Rican bilinguals 37
  8. Codeswitching among African-American English, Spanish and Standard English in computer-mediated discourse 61
  9. II. Links between codeswitching and language proficiency and fluency
  10. Hablamos los dos in the Windy City 83
  11. Language dominance and language nativeness 107
  12. The role of unintentional/involuntary codeswitching 139
  13. III. Codeswitching in written corpora
  14. The stratification of English-language lone-word and multi-word material in Puerto Rican Spanish-language press outlets 171
  15. Socio-pragmatic functions of codeswitching in Nuyorican & Cuban American literature 191
  16. “Show what you know” 215
  17. IV. Bilingual structure in codeswitching
  18. Tú y yo can codeswitch, nosotros cannot 237
  19. On the productive use of ‘hacer + V’ in Northern Belize bilingual/trilingual codeswitching 261
  20. Mixed NPs in Spanish-English bilingual speech 281
  21. Comprehension patterns of two groups of Spanish-English bilingual codeswitchers 301
  22. Index 323
Spanish-English Codeswitching in the Caribbean and the US
This chapter is in the book Spanish-English Codeswitching in the Caribbean and the US
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.11.02per

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements viii
  4. Introduction: Multiple influencing factors, diverse participants, varied techniques 1
  5. I. Codeswitching, identity, attitudes, and language politics
  6. Spanglish 11
  7. Codeswitching and identity among Island Puerto Rican bilinguals 37
  8. Codeswitching among African-American English, Spanish and Standard English in computer-mediated discourse 61
  9. II. Links between codeswitching and language proficiency and fluency
  10. Hablamos los dos in the Windy City 83
  11. Language dominance and language nativeness 107
  12. The role of unintentional/involuntary codeswitching 139
  13. III. Codeswitching in written corpora
  14. The stratification of English-language lone-word and multi-word material in Puerto Rican Spanish-language press outlets 171
  15. Socio-pragmatic functions of codeswitching in Nuyorican & Cuban American literature 191
  16. “Show what you know” 215
  17. IV. Bilingual structure in codeswitching
  18. Tú y yo can codeswitch, nosotros cannot 237
  19. On the productive use of ‘hacer + V’ in Northern Belize bilingual/trilingual codeswitching 261
  20. Mixed NPs in Spanish-English bilingual speech 281
  21. Comprehension patterns of two groups of Spanish-English bilingual codeswitchers 301
  22. Index 323
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