“All at Once” – Language Choice and Codeswitching by Turkish-Dutch Teenagers
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Tilburg University "All at once" Eversteijn, N. Publication date: 2011 Link to publication in Tilburg University Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): Eversteijn, N. (2011). "All at once": Language choice and codeswitching by Turkish-Dutch teenagers. Universiteit van Tilburg. 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Download date: 29. sep. 2021 “All at once” LANGUAGE CHOICE AND CODESWITCHING BY TURKISH -DUTCH TEENAGERS ” “All at once” LANGUAGE CHOICE AND CODESWITCHING BY TURKISH -DUTCH TEENAGERS ” P R O E F S C H R I F T ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Tilburg, op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof. dr. Ph. Eijlander, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties aangewezen commissie in de aula van de Universiteit op vrijdag 14 januari 2011 om 10.15 uur door Nadja Irmgard Maria Eversteijn - Kluijtmans geboren op 8 januari 1973 te Eindhoven Promotor : prof. dr. A.J.A.G. Extra Copromotor: dr. A.M. Backus Promotiecommissie : prof. dr. J.M.E. Blommaert prof. dr. S. Mahootian prof. dr. P. Muysken dr. J. Aarssen dr. M. Dorleijn ISBN 978-94-6167-006-9 © Nadia Eversteijn, 2011. All rights reserved. Voor mijn ouders Table of contents Preface xi Acknowledgements xiii 1 Language choice in the Turkish-Dutch community 1 1.1 The Turkish community in the Netherlands 1 1.2 The TCULT program 4 1.3 Outline of the study 4 2 Language choice and codeswitching 7 2.1 Terminology in the field of language choice and codeswitching 7 2.1.1 Language choice and codeswitching 8 2.1.2 Insertion and alternation 10 2.1.3 Matrix Language and Embedded Language 12 2.1.4 Code and switching 13 2.1.5 Determinants and functions of codeswitching 22 2.2 Methodology in the field of language choice and codeswitching 26 3 The survey: informants, design and instruments 35 3.1 Informants 35 3.2 Research design 36 3.3 Instruments 43 3.3.1 Pilot studies 44 3.3.2 Questionnaire on background characteristics and attitudes 45 3.3.3 Questionnaire on language choice 45 3.3.4 The languages tests 53 3.3.5 Observation protocol 62 viii “All at once” – Language choice and codeswitching by Turkish-Dutch teenagers 4 Survey results: informant characteristics 65 4.1 Background information on the survey informants 65 4.1.1 Socio-biographical characteristics 65 4.1.2 Cultural orientation 70 4.1.3 Direct contacts with Turkey 73 4.1.4 Social networks 74 4.2 Language dominance 78 4.2.1 Direct self-report on language dominance and language proficiency 79 4.2.2 Indirect self-reports on language dominance 81 4.2.3 Bilingual word definition task 84 4.2.4 Discussion of the language dominance measures and correlations between them 88 4.3 Language attitudes 93 5 Survey results: reported language choice 99 5.1 Language choice related to interlocutors 99 5.1.1 Language choice with relatives 99 5.1.2 Language choice with friends 106 5.1.3 Language choice with neighbours 108 5.1.4 Language choice with Turkish interlocutors in general 108 5.2 Motivations for language choice and codeswitching behaviour 113 5.2.1 Directive factors 118 5.2.1.1 Inclusion 118 5.2.1.2 Exclusion 120 5.2.1.3 Respect/social distance 123 5.2.1.4 History of linguistic interaction with interlocutor 124 5.2.1.5 Exploring the interlocutor’s language skills, dominance and preference 124 5.2.1.6 Concluding remarks on directive factors 125 5.2.2 Referential factors 125 5.2.2.1 Appropriateness 127 5.2.2.2 Lexical reasons 128 5.2.2.3 Intertextuality 131 5.2.2.4 Concluding remarks on referential factors 131 5.2.3 Expressive factors 132 5.2.3.1 Expressing identity 132 5.2.3.2 Expressing emotion 133 Table of contents ix 5.2.3.3 Shift to ‘serious mode’ 133 5.2.3.4 Joking 133 5.2.4 Phatic factors 133 5.2.4.1 Quotation 134 5.2.4.2 Clarification 134 5.2.4.3 Personalizing 134 5.2.4.4 Mitigating/softening 135 5.2.4.5 Strengthening/emphasizing 135 5.2.4.6 Dispreferred/rebelling response (refusal) 136 5.2.4.7 Negotiating 136 5.2.4.8 Swearing/calling names 136 5.2.4.9 Requesting/nagging 136 5.2.4.10 Instructing 137 5.2.4.11 Greeting/opening conversation 137 5.2.4.12 Criticizing/reprimanding 137 5.2.4.13 Concluding remarks on phatic factors 138 5.2.5 Metalinguistic factors 138 5.2.5.1 Talking about the languages involved 138 5.2.5.2 Practice 139 5.2.5.3 Avoidance 139 5.2.5.4 Showing off one’s own language skills 140 5.2.5.5 Authority dictates the language to be spoken 141 5.2.5.6 Speaking a previously activated language 141 5.2.5.7 Concluding remarks on metalinguistic factors 142 5.2.6 Poetic factors 142 5.3 Reflection on reported factors 142 6 Discussion of the survey results 145 6.1 Earlier work: The Mannheim Research 145 6.2 Profiling the informants 147 6.2.1 Personal and sociological characteristics 148 6.2.2 Orientation to Turkish and Dutch culture 151 6.2.3 Contacts with Turkey 153 6.2.4 Social network constitution 155 6.2.5 Predicting language choice 156 6.3 Discussion of the correlational analysis 158 x “All at once” – Language choice and codeswitching by Turkish-Dutch teenagers 7 Design of the case study 169 7.1 Informants 169 7.2 Data collection and transcription 172 7.3 Data coding and anaysis 177 7.3.1 The coding system 177 7.3.2 Decision problems in coding 192 7.3.3 The role of discourse markers 201 7.3.4 Automatic quantitative analyis 205 8 Exploration of the case study data 209 8.1 The pattern of language choice per conversation 209 8.2 Pragmatic functions in a densely codeswitched conversation 225 8.2.1 Characterization of the conversation 225 8.2.2 Number of switches 228 8.2.3 Codeswitching in relation to pragmatic functions 235 9 Pragmatic functions and (non-)switching 257 9.1 Directive functions 258 9.2 Referential and expressive functions 264 9.3 Phatic functions 277 9.3.1 Mitigating and strengthening 277 9.3.2 Self-reports on mitigating and strengthening 281 9.3.3 Once more: directive functions 291 10 Discussion: building the stairway from language choice to codeswitching 295 10.1 Directive functions 296 10.2 Methodological issues 297 10.3 The survey 298 10.4 The case study 303 10.5 The steps of the stairs 306 10.6 Implications for future research 307 Summary in Dutch 311 References 321 Appendices 337 Preface This book is about poetry. At least, that is how the speech of young multilinguals sounds to me: as an art form. It is certainly not the way they perceive their frequent intertwining of language varieties themselves. At the start of the interviews with the teenagers who figure as informants in this study, I had to assure them that switching varieties is an intriguing phenomenon, which even has a scientific name; not something to apologize for. Heaving heard this, they were willing to open their world for me, a world in which they juggle aspects of two languages and cultures. Explicitly thinking about this world was a voyage of discovery, for them as much as for me. Thinking out loud, they guided me past many important persons and places in their lives, but fell silent when I asked them one particular question: how do you speak among bilingual peers? Then they stared off into the distance, shrugged their shoulders, and paused, until politeness forced them to provide an answer: “We praten gewoon door elkaar.” Which is an answer of untranslatable beauty. In the first place because of the unstressed adverb gewoon , which means something like ‘ordinary’, ‘just’ and ‘normally’, but all at the same time. (I have always wondered how English speaking communities have survived for ages without having at their disposal these little adverbs we have in Dutch, such as toch, wel, juist and hoor , but that is beside the point here.) I pointed out above why I consider this gewoon language behaviour as something extraordinary, in spite of its frequent occurrence all over the world. A second reason why it is beautiful is that door elkaar praten (literally meaning: ‘talking through each other’), which they used to indicate that their speech was mixed, has a more common, idiomatic meaning as well: not waiting for one’s speech turn. When I was at pains to translate we praten gewoon door elkaar in a satisfying way, I bumped into an English expression that denotes this latter, idiomatic meaning: ‘talking all at once’.