bilingual interactions

[Gaudio, Rudolf]

Dear colleagues:

What do you/we call it when a conversation unfolds in which Speaker A speaks to Speaker B in one language (X-ish), and Speaker B responds in another (Y-ish)? The assumption is that both speakers have at least some passive competence in the other's language.

And do you know of any scholarship on this phenomenon?

Thanks for your help.

-Rudi




Rudolf P. Gaudio
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Media, Society & the Arts
Purchase College, State University of New York
735 Anderson Hill Rd.
Purchase, NY 10577

tel. +1 914 251 6619
fax +1 914 251 6603
rudolf.gaudio at purchase.edu