Stance and code-switching
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Cassie Smith-Christmas
Abstract
The concept of ‘stance,’ which is the means by which speakers position themselves in terms of the discourse and interlocutor(s), has gained attention in recent sociolinguistic literature. This paper demonstrates the value of using stance as an explicit analytic construct in examining rapid language alternation; in this case, the code-switching of first generation (50+ years) Gaelic-English bilinguals in an extended family on the Isles of Skye and Harris, Scotland. It uses a micro-interactional approach in looking at how code-switching occurs in concert with overt displays of epistemic and affective stance-taking and concludes that speakers use code-switching as a means to explicitly highlight certain stances. It further posits that facets of these interactions, such frequent occurrences of communicative trouble, necessitate the overt reification of particular stances and that to accomplish this task, these bilinguals draw on one of their most powerful communicative strategies: code-switching.
Abstract
The concept of ‘stance,’ which is the means by which speakers position themselves in terms of the discourse and interlocutor(s), has gained attention in recent sociolinguistic literature. This paper demonstrates the value of using stance as an explicit analytic construct in examining rapid language alternation; in this case, the code-switching of first generation (50+ years) Gaelic-English bilinguals in an extended family on the Isles of Skye and Harris, Scotland. It uses a micro-interactional approach in looking at how code-switching occurs in concert with overt displays of epistemic and affective stance-taking and concludes that speakers use code-switching as a means to explicitly highlight certain stances. It further posits that facets of these interactions, such frequent occurrences of communicative trouble, necessitate the overt reification of particular stances and that to accomplish this task, these bilinguals draw on one of their most powerful communicative strategies: code-switching.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- Where is syntactic variation? 1
- Phonological variation in Catalan and Alemannic from a typological perspective 27
- Language ideologies and language attitudes 45
- Late language acquisition and identity construction 57
- The variation of gender agreement on numerals in the Alpine space 69
- ‘Standard usage’ 83
- Code alternation patterns in bilingual family conversations 117
- A variationist approach to syntactic change 129
- Children’s switching/shifting competence in role-playing 145
- The Present Perfect in Cypriot Greek revisited 159
- Chain shifts revisited 173
- And the beat goes on 187
- Migrant teenagers’ acquisition of sociolinguistic variation 201
- The sociophonology and sociophonetics of Scottish Standard English (r) 215
- Stance and code-switching 229
- A town between dialects 247
- Variation of sibilants in Belarusian-Russian mixed speech 267
- The case of [nən] 281
- Index 295
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- Where is syntactic variation? 1
- Phonological variation in Catalan and Alemannic from a typological perspective 27
- Language ideologies and language attitudes 45
- Late language acquisition and identity construction 57
- The variation of gender agreement on numerals in the Alpine space 69
- ‘Standard usage’ 83
- Code alternation patterns in bilingual family conversations 117
- A variationist approach to syntactic change 129
- Children’s switching/shifting competence in role-playing 145
- The Present Perfect in Cypriot Greek revisited 159
- Chain shifts revisited 173
- And the beat goes on 187
- Migrant teenagers’ acquisition of sociolinguistic variation 201
- The sociophonology and sociophonetics of Scottish Standard English (r) 215
- Stance and code-switching 229
- A town between dialects 247
- Variation of sibilants in Belarusian-Russian mixed speech 267
- The case of [nən] 281
- Index 295
