16.721, Review: Sociolinguistics/Bilingualism: Callahan (2004)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-16-721. Thu Mar 10 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.721, Review: Sociolinguistics/Bilingualism: Callahan (2004)

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1)
Date: 10-Mar-2005
From: Cecilia Montes-Alcalá < cecilia.montesalcala at modlangs.gatech.edu >
Subject: Spanish/English Codeswitching in a Written Corpus 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 21:31:25
From: Cecilia Montes-Alcalá < cecilia.montesalcala at modlangs.gatech.edu >
Subject: Spanish/English Codeswitching in a Written Corpus 
 

AUTHOR: Callahan, Laura 
TITLE: Spanish/English Codeswitching in a Written Corpus
SERIES: Studies in Bilingualism 27
PUBLISHER: John Benjamins
YEAR: 2004
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-2086.html


Cecilia Montes-Alcalá, Georgia Institute of Technology

DESCRIPTION

This book analyzes a written corpus of Spanish-English codeswitched data 
within the Matrix Language Frame model in both syntactic and 
sociolinguistic terms. 

Chapter 1 discusses different criteria for distinguishing borrowing from 
codeswitching (i.e. phonological adaptation, quantity, frequency, 
pragmatic functions) as well as cultural and nonce borrowings. In this 
chapter, Myers-Scotton's (1993) Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model is 
presented. Explanations are given for the key terms of this model (i.e. 
Matrix Language versus Embedded Language, Embedded versus Matrix Language 
islands and constituents, etc.) Lastly, the author introduces the main 
discourse and socio-pragmatic functions of codeswitching and Myers-
Scotton's (1998) Markedness Model.

Chapter 2 presents the corpus of the study. The corpus is composed of 
thirty texts published in the United States in the last three decades. All 
of them are fiction prose (short stories and novels/novellas) containing 
Spanish-English codeswitching. There are twenty-four authors, of which 
fourteen are Chicano, one is Spanish, one is Mexican, six are Puerto Rican 
or Nuyorican and the remaining two are non-Latino. Each text is summarized 
in terms of its thematic content and its style of codeswitching. In this 
chapter the methodology of the study is also introduced and the author 
explains her criteria for the classification of the material (borrowings 
versus codeswitches, determination of the Matrix Language, and 
clarification as to what constitutes a sentence.)

Chapter 3 offers the bulk of the analysis, that is, the three types of 
tabulations taken into account in her study. The first type is the 
syntactic categories (single lexical items, phrases, and clauses.) Single 
nouns account for the majority of codeswitches. Here, the author also 
offers counterexamples to the three main syntactic constraints most 
discussed in the literature (i.e. codeswitching is considered ill-formed 
between complementizer and its complement, between auxiliaries and main 
verbs, between finite verbs and adjacent infinitive complements, and 
between verbs and pronominal subjects or objects.) The second type of 
tabulation regards the constituents of the MLF. According to the data 
presented, written codeswitching does not require a separate model of 
syntactic constraints but rather follows the patters reported for oral 
codeswitching. Interestingly enough, the author shows how the MLF model 
accounts better for the texts that conform more closely to traditional 
written formats, while those texts resembling oral discourse appear to be 
more deviant from the MLF model. Thus, she concludes that oral versus 
written is not a crucial factor to predict the syntactic patters of 
codeswitching. Finally, the third type of tabulation is discussed, the 
discourse function analysis. Here, the author offers examples for some of 
the eight discourse functions she used to classify her material, all of 
them well documented in oral codeswitching (i.e. referential, vocatives, 
expletives, quotations, commentary and repetition, set phrases, tags and 
exclamations, discourse markers and directives.) Her findings indicate 
that the referential function accounted for 60% of the data, followed by 
vocatives, and set phrases, tags, and exclamations. She also concludes 
that there is some parity between oral and written codeswitching in regard 
to discourse function.

In chapter 4 historical and contemporary examples of written codeswitching 
involving different languages are surveyed. From Sanskrit-Prakrit 
codeswitching in Indian plays to the introduction of Náhuatl in Chicano 
poetry, the author reviews the literature of written codeswitching in 
poetry, drama, and fiction. Most of the previous studies offer a 
sociolinguistic approach, while others look at codeswitching from a 
sociopolitical perspective, and yet others look at the syntactic 
constraints. In the last part of the chapter, a brief review of 
codeswitching in nonfiction (magazines, advertising, newspapers, etc) as 
well as in nonprint media (radio, television, popular music) is offered.

Chapter 5 analyzes "authentic" versus "artificial" written codeswitching, 
the differences between the oral and the written channel, and the effects 
of written codeswitching on the (bilingual or monolingual) reader. 
Regarding the register, the author argues that oral and written texts do 
not always signal informal and formal registers respectively. The degree 
of prestige of this mode of writing is relative to the perceived norms of 
the speech community. In fact, the author connects a positive attitude 
towards codeswitching with popular culture and entertainment, even being a 
sound marketing strategy. With regards to the thematic content of fiction 
written in the United States, there appears to be a strong correlation 
between codeswitching and social, political, or cultural issues related to 
the Latino community. Likewise, in these works the characters (or 
narrator) use this mode of speech as an ethnic marker, something that is 
not available for writers who are not members of this community.

Chapter 6 takes a look at the metalinguistic references present in 83% of 
the corpus. In these texts, explicit mentions are made of a character's 
linguistic competence or language choice, sometimes leading to 
discrimination, humiliation, and stereotypical views. The author discusses 
the speakers' attitudes towards Spanish and its varieties and the 
representation of nonstandard language (English or Spanish). Nonstandard 
Spanish appears in 70% of the corpus and the main varieties are 
Southwestern Spanish, Caribbean Spanish, and Chicano Caló. Nonstandard 
English appears in 53% of the corpus in the forms of African American 
Vernacular English and certain varieties of New York English. Finally, 
there is some portrayal of foreigner talk depicting the speech of non-
native speakers, many times with the purpose of producing a humorous 
effect.

Chapter 7 discusses the costs of codeswitching in terms of advantages and 
disadvantages within a macrosociolinguistic context-the language 
marketplace, in the words of Bourdieu (1977). It is argued that an author 
who publishes using Spanish-English codeswitching in the United States may 
not get financial gain, but may reach social and professional recognition, 
though risking loss of readership. According to Minderhout (1972), that 
author might also run the risk of being stigmatized by both the mainstream 
English world and the language purists within his/her own speech 
community. In the last part of the chapter, the balance of power between 
Spanish and English in the United States is discussed. The author predicts 
that as the number of Spanish speakers grows, so will their power. Despite 
the low presence of Latinos in the media, by publishing works using 
codeswitching these authors can challenge the power relationships between 
Spanish and English, bringing Spanish into the general marketplace. Thus, 
the book concludes quoting Heller, who argues that "codeswitching is a 
microlevel symptom of a macrolevel change" (1988: 12)

CRITICAL EVALUATION

Given that the bulk of research done on codeswitching in the last four 
decades has focused on the oral production of bilinguals, this book 
constitutes a valuable work and an important step within the still fully 
unexplored field of written codeswitching. Although not entirely 
nonexistent, research on written codeswitching has not yielded a large 
amount of studies and most of them have focused on Chicano poetry.  
However, codeswitching does take place in other types of texts, as 
discussed by Pfaff and Chávez (1986) in their analysis of Chicano plays 
and in Montes-Alcalá's (1999, 2000, 2001) research of other bilingual 
(both literary and non-literary) texts. In this sense Callahan's work 
constitutes a fine addition to the literature since it tackles not only 
Chicano but also Puerto Rican (or Nuyorican) as well as non-Latino 
fiction. 

Callahan effectively discusses the distinction between codeswitching and 
borrowing, which has traditionally been one of the most controversial 
issues. The reader is referred to Bhatia and Ritchie (1996) for further 
discussion on the topic. However, the true uniqueness of this book lies in 
the application of the Matrix Language Frame model to a written bilingual 
corpus, something that-to my knowledge-had not been done before. Further, 
a positive feature of the book is the quantity of data here presented and 
its particularly thorough analysis. While most studies tend to concentrate 
on one feature of this phenomenon (i.e. its syntactic constraints or its 
discourse functions) Callahan's work accounts for different grammatical 
and pragmatic aspects. Another very interesting and innovative element is 
her analysis of metalinguistic references within the texts. Thus, as 
regards the data, the book seems to be of great interest for researchers 
specializing on bilingualism in general and codeswitching in particular. 

Nonetheless, some facts that may complicate the reading of the book should 
also be mentioned. For a novice reader not familiar with the MLF model 
some of the basic key concepts that appear at the beginning (chapters 1 
and 3) may seem difficult to understand, although others are explained in 
depth. The same issue arises with phonetic explanations of certain sounds 
and their corresponding (phonetic) symbols, especially in chapter 6. For a 
reader not familiar with these, the argument may be difficult to grasp. A 
further problem emerges in the visual presentation of the corpus texts and 
their English translations immediately below. Sometimes, especially in the 
case of longer texts, the translations get tangled with the texts 
themselves making it hard to follow either the text or the translation.

Regarding the structure and presentation, it would seem natural that 
chapters 4 and 5 (the ones where the literature and previous studies are 
reviewed) come earlier in the book, perhaps following the introduction and 
before getting to the analysis of the data, which then continues on 
chapter 6 after the intermission. Additionally, the last part of chapter 4 
focuses largely on oral (non print) rather than written codeswitching and 
the same applies to the last chapter of the book. Some, but not all, of 
the information about oral codeswitching is fairly pertinent to the 
discussion. 

Although the corpus texts are well summarized in terms of the plot and 
type of language used, there is not much information about the writers of 
these texts other than their names and ethnic background. Given that most 
studies of this nature contain a description of the profiles of the 
subjects whose speech is being analyzed, it would have been useful to have 
add some biographical data about the authors of the texts (bilingual 
upbringing, languages used at home or in their community, etc.) 

The proofreading and editing has been good and the number of typos is 
quite low (I found only three cases.) Overall, the book makes for 
stimulating and interesting read and gives a good insight into current 
issues and aspects of Spanish-English codeswitching in a written corpus.

REFERENCES

Bhatia, T., & W. Ritchie. (1996) "Bilingual Language Mixing, Universal 
Grammar, and Second Language Acquisition." In T. Bhatia & W. Ritchie 
(Eds), Handbook of Second Language Acquisition (pp. 627-88). San Diego, 
CA: Academic Press Inc.

Bourdieu, P. (1977). L'economie des échanges linguistiques. Langue 
Française, 34, 17-34.

Heller, M. (Ed.) (1988). Codeswitching: Anthropological and 
Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Minderhout, D. (1972). The Entrepreneur's Use of Language. In D. M. Smith 
& R. W. Shuy (Eds.), Sociolinguistics in Cross-Cultural Analysis (pp. 57-
66). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

Montes-Alcalá, C. (1999). "Oral vs. Written Code-Switching Contexts in 
English-Spanish Bilingual Narratives." In I. de la Cruz, et al. (Eds.), La 
lingüística aplicada a finales del siglo XX. Madrid: Servicio de 
Publicaciones de la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, 1999.

Montes-Alcalá, C. (2000). "Written Code-switching: Powerful Bilingual 
Images." In R. Jacobson (Ed.), Codeswitching Worldwide. Berlin: Mouton de 
Gruyter.

Montes-Alcalá, C. (2001). Two Languages, One Pen: Socio-Pragmatic 
Functions In Written Spanish-English Code-Switching. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI 
Dissertation Services. 

Myers-Scotton, C. (1993). Duelling Languages. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Myers-Scotton, C. (1998). A Theoretical Introduction to the Markedness 
Model. In C. Myers-Scotton (Ed.), Codes and Consequences: Choosing 
Linguistic Varieties (pp. 18-38). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pfaff, C., & L. Chávez. (1986). "Spanish/ English Codeswitching: Literary 
Reflections of Natural Discourse." In R. von Bardeleben, et al. (Eds.), 
Missions in Conflict: Essays on US-Mexican Relations and Chicano Culture 
(pp. 229-54). Tübingen: Narr. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER  

Cecilia Montes-Alcalá received her Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics from the 
University of California, Santa Barbara. She is currently an Assistant 
Professor of Spanish and Linguistics at the Georgia Institute of 
Technology. Her teaching and research interests include sociolinguistics, 
applied linguistics, bilingualism, and languages in contact. She has 
published several articles about Spanish and English in contact, Spanish-
English written codeswitching, and attitudes toward oral and written 
codeswitching.





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