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“Yes we can! – Sí se puede!”

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Beyond Language Boundaries
This chapter is in the book Beyond Language Boundaries
Janett Haid, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder)“Yes we can!–Sí se puede!”Speaking the Language of the Masses.Codeswitching for Creating Togetherness with a ForeignAudience in Political SpeechesAbstract:What is happening between the speaker and the audience while codes-witching in political speeches? In Germany and Austria a lot of research has beenconducted on codeswitching (CS) between standard and dialectal varieties and itsfunctions (e.g. Schwitalla 2006; Kaiser 2006; Unterholzner 2009; for codeswitch-ing in political speeches see e.g. Holly 1990). However, CS between differentlanguages in a political context has been rather disregarded by linguistic orpolitolinguistic research so far.By analyzing speeches of US-American, German, and Russian politiciansspeaking in front of a foreign audience the aim of this chapter is to focus on thepragmatic use of CS as a strategy of inclusion in political contexts. The meansbrought about by CS in conversations will be identified and the use of CS asexploitation of contrastive connotations of two varieties (e.g. we-code/they-code)will be shown (see Gardner-Chloros 2009: 10).Based on the assumption that CS is a linguistic strategy to create a commonbond in a medial-public context this chapter wants to show how the communica-tive strategy of creating togetherness through the use of CS may be analyzed.Keywords:codeswitching, multilingualism, political discourse, pragmatics, lan-guage strategy, spoken language, culture contact, otherness, media discourse,openings, closings1 Introduction“Ich bin ein Berliner!”Everybody knows these famous words that John F. Kenne-dy proclaimed on June 26th, 1963 in front of the town-hall of Schöneberg inWestern Berlin. After this statement the crowd screamed enthusiastically. Why?What the people understood and should have understood was obviously:“Iamfirmly with you! I am one of you!”, not only due to what Kennedy said–but alsoor because he said it in German. He switched to the audience’s code.The literature covering codeswitching considers normally language or dia-lect-standard switches in everyday conversation. Most studies deal with bi- or
© 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

Janett Haid, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder)“Yes we can!–Sí se puede!”Speaking the Language of the Masses.Codeswitching for Creating Togetherness with a ForeignAudience in Political SpeechesAbstract:What is happening between the speaker and the audience while codes-witching in political speeches? In Germany and Austria a lot of research has beenconducted on codeswitching (CS) between standard and dialectal varieties and itsfunctions (e.g. Schwitalla 2006; Kaiser 2006; Unterholzner 2009; for codeswitch-ing in political speeches see e.g. Holly 1990). However, CS between differentlanguages in a political context has been rather disregarded by linguistic orpolitolinguistic research so far.By analyzing speeches of US-American, German, and Russian politiciansspeaking in front of a foreign audience the aim of this chapter is to focus on thepragmatic use of CS as a strategy of inclusion in political contexts. The meansbrought about by CS in conversations will be identified and the use of CS asexploitation of contrastive connotations of two varieties (e.g. we-code/they-code)will be shown (see Gardner-Chloros 2009: 10).Based on the assumption that CS is a linguistic strategy to create a commonbond in a medial-public context this chapter wants to show how the communica-tive strategy of creating togetherness through the use of CS may be analyzed.Keywords:codeswitching, multilingualism, political discourse, pragmatics, lan-guage strategy, spoken language, culture contact, otherness, media discourse,openings, closings1 Introduction“Ich bin ein Berliner!”Everybody knows these famous words that John F. Kenne-dy proclaimed on June 26th, 1963 in front of the town-hall of Schöneberg inWestern Berlin. After this statement the crowd screamed enthusiastically. Why?What the people understood and should have understood was obviously:“Iamfirmly with you! I am one of you!”, not only due to what Kennedy said–but alsoor because he said it in German. He switched to the audience’s code.The literature covering codeswitching considers normally language or dia-lect-standard switches in everyday conversation. Most studies deal with bi- or
© 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Introduction V
  3. Table of Contents IX
  4. First part: Multimodal Language Use
  5. Notes for a Multilingual and Multimodal Functional Discourse Grammar 3
  6. Actions as Sources of Gestures 34
  7. Argument Structure Shift for German Dynamic Verbs gehen and kommen in Situated and Embodied Communication 55
  8. Proxemics of Greetings and Farewells in Spanish and German 73
  9. Gestures and Lexical Access Problems in German as Second Language 93
  10. Analysing German Teachers’ Identities through Multimodal and Multilingual Use 114
  11. Second part: Language Use in Multilingual Contexts
  12. Co-Constructions in Multilingual Settings 137
  13. Deictic Strategies as Expression of Identity 153
  14. Use of Connectives and Argumentation in Catalan Parliamentary Debate 162
  15. Language Attitudes and Identity Construction 179
  16. Crossing and Blurring the Language Borders 200
  17. “Yes we can! – Sí se puede!” 221
  18. Global English and Multilingual Luxembourg 235
  19. Index 251
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110458817-013

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Introduction V
  3. Table of Contents IX
  4. First part: Multimodal Language Use
  5. Notes for a Multilingual and Multimodal Functional Discourse Grammar 3
  6. Actions as Sources of Gestures 34
  7. Argument Structure Shift for German Dynamic Verbs gehen and kommen in Situated and Embodied Communication 55
  8. Proxemics of Greetings and Farewells in Spanish and German 73
  9. Gestures and Lexical Access Problems in German as Second Language 93
  10. Analysing German Teachers’ Identities through Multimodal and Multilingual Use 114
  11. Second part: Language Use in Multilingual Contexts
  12. Co-Constructions in Multilingual Settings 137
  13. Deictic Strategies as Expression of Identity 153
  14. Use of Connectives and Argumentation in Catalan Parliamentary Debate 162
  15. Language Attitudes and Identity Construction 179
  16. Crossing and Blurring the Language Borders 200
  17. “Yes we can! – Sí se puede!” 221
  18. Global English and Multilingual Luxembourg 235
  19. Index 251
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