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AUTHOR Poplack, Shana - DOCUMENT _RESUME ED 214 394' FL 012 847 AUTHOR Poplack, Shana . TITLE "Sometimes I'll, Start a Sentence in Spanish Y TERMINO EN ESPANOL": Toward a Typology of Code-Switching. 4 CENTRO Working Papers, No. 4. *_. INSTITUTION City Univ. of New Ybrk, N.Y. Centro de Estudios Puertorriguenos. PUB DATE Mar 79 NOTE 83p.; Prepared by Language policy Taik,,Force., ( EDRS PRICE MF01/PC04 Plus Postage. ' DESCRIPTORS Adults; *Bilingualism; *Code Switching (Language); English; Ethnic Groups; Language Research; Language 4-, Usage; Linguistic Competence; *Puerto Ricans; * -/ *Sociolinguistics; Spanish; *Spanish Speaking; *Speech Communication; Syntax ., IDENTIFIERS New York (New York) ABSTRACT This paper.attempts'to integrate the results of the ethnographic and attitudinal components of a broader study into a specifically sociolinguistic analysis. While A variety of opinions can be found in the literature'on code-switching, the contention here is that code-switching is'a norm in specific speech situations that exist in stable bilingual communities. Satisfaction of th 'Is norm requires more linguistic competence in two languages than has heretofore been noted. The code- switching behavior of 20 Puerto Ricans from 102nd'Street in New York City, who had varying degrees (4 reported and obseeved bilingual ability, was observed 9.nd described. The quantitative'analyseis are based on recorded speech data in both interview and natural settings. The analysis deals with linguistic . questions concerning the surface configuration pf.the switch, and with the code-switchers themselves. A finding considered to be Crucial is that there are virtually no ungrammatical conbinations of the two Anguages in the 1,835 switches studied, regardless of. the bilingual ability of the speaker. It is also shown that switch types traditionally considered most deviant, those switches' occurring within a single sentence, are the ones reguiing most skill. They tend to be produced by the 'true" bilinguals in the sample. (AMH) 4 *************************************4*********.************************ * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * **********************************************************************0 t A fls rr US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFISRMAThON CENTER (ERIC) 2P:beic, e This. docurnenrias been reproduced as cerved from he person or organuanon originating rt Minor changes have,been made to improve reproduction quality TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Pants of view or ot;truorts stated In this docu- INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." ment do not necessanty represent official NIE 0031tron or polroy "Sometimes I'll Starta Sentence in Centro Spanish Y EN. ESPAROL": de Estudios Toward a Typology of Code- Switching, Ppertorrriquerios ,.'Language Policy TaskForce 1\tw York, March 1979 2 Copyright©, RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF THE CITY UNUERSITY OF NEW YORK, 1979 6 16A APRENDER' A , ES APRENDER CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS PUERTORR1QUENOS 445 W 59th St ,New York. N Y 10019 Tel (2123 489.5260 A 3 ."Sometimes I'll Stat4"O Sentence in Spanish Y TERMINO:EN ESPAROL"-: Toward a Typology of Code-Switchingl Shona PoplOck..- -Language Policy Task Force . 1. Introduction Anoverwhelmingthaloritye. P 2of Puerto Ricans re- siding in the continental United States currently claim . Spanish as their 'mother tongue'. This is true for young- . as well as older speakers, despite the facA t that most of them were either born, raised, or spent a good part of their adult life in an English-speaking Society. Along w-itIr signs of vigor anid renewal of the lan- a A c4 guage, however: the is-also some indication that use of Spanish is on the wane, especially among the younger generations of speakers who were born and raised in New Mork City (Pedraza 1978) . The present investigation is part of an Interdisciplinary study which aims to eicamine, the place of both Spanish and English in a-Puerto RiCan community in East Harlem thrbugh 1) participant observa- tion of their distribution in the daily ]rife of the bommu- , nity, 2) analysis of attitude's of community members toward each of the languages, and 3) quantitative _sodionguistic analysis of selected linguistic behavior. Va. * -2- .Due, among other things, to a circulatory pattern . of migration, this appears to bea stable bilingual am- munity, rather than(a transitionalone where acquisition of a second language would eventually displace the- first (Fishman 1971). This pattern of displacement of the mother tongue has characteriz d several early twentieth century immigrant groups in the United States, and has usually been brought to completion by the thirdgenera- . don,. In contrast, the Puerto Rican community under in- vestigation includes third-generation speakers of both Spnishand English. 102nd Street, a block in the heart of El Barrio',per- haps the oldest continuous Puerto Rican settlementin the United States, prov,idesa unique setting to investigate these issues. Block residents are predominantly (95%) Puerto Rican, to the virtual exclusion ofall other ethdic groups, an attribute which is not characteristic ofthe Puerto Rican community in tie UnitedStates as-a whole (Pedraza 1978). If the Spar i.sh language and PuertoRican 5 , culture'are to survive in the United States,their Chances of doing so are presuffiably greatest in suchan ethnically , homogeneous environment. This paper is an attempt to-integrate the results of , l / the ethnographic and attitudinal omponents of the broader study into a specifically sociolinguisticanalysis. 2. Code-Switching Long-term .ethnographic observation 102nd Street, carried but by Pedro Pedraza (1978), indicated three modeS,.of communicationamong block 'Members: English- - spfaking, Spanish-speaking and codeSwitching. While use of SpaniA predominates in 'certain domaini(such as in the home or while playing numbers), its.exclusive use in any of these settingswas not observed. 'Similarly, whileuse of English predominates in officialsettings, it is also possible to hear Spanish in these domains.,Pedraza fur- ther observed that 'therewere speakers who code-switched because they Lacked full command ofSpanish and those who code-switched because they lacked fullcommand of English' (p. 33). However, as we will see, 'it is only by linking ethnographic observations with linguisticanalysis that code-switching behaviormay be most adequately explained. 6 -4- Code-switching is the alternation-of two languages within a single discourse, s'entence,or constituent. In '1, a report on an earlier .study of a balanced,bilingual speaker '(Poplack 1978), code-switchingwas categotized according to the degree of integration of itemg-fromone language (L1) to,the phonological, morphological andsyn- tactic patterns of the other languate (L2). Because the balanced bj.linsgual has the optionof integrating his utterance into the patterns of the other language or preserVing its originalshape4items such as those 'in(1)'. below, which preserve English PhonClogical- , patterns, were considered examples of code-switching in that, study, while segments such asrthose in (2), which'are adapted to Puerto Rican Spanish patterns,'were considered to be instances of monolingualSpanilh.dis'cou4se.3 la. Leo un MAGAZINE [mmgu'ziyn] (I read a,magazine.) lb. He iban a LAY OFF [137 ohf] (Theywere going to lay me pff.) 2a. Leo un magazine [maya'si,fl (I 'read a magazine.) 2b. He iban dar layoff ['leiof] (They were going o lay ma off.) In the ensuing sections we explore code-switchington a community-wide basis, focusingon speakers of varying -5- V bilingual, abilities. Inclusion in the sample of non - fluent bilinguals requires modifying our previous de- finition of code-switching. In the speech of non-fluent bilinguals segments may remain unintegrated IntO L2on one or more linguistic levels, due to transference of patterhs from Ll. This combin.4tion of features leads to what is commonly known as a 'foreign accent', and is detectable even in the monolingual L2 speech of,the . speaker, as in (3) below! whichwas rendered wholly in Puertd Rican Spanish phonology: 4 3. That's what hp said. [da 'wari se] (58/100) In order to consider an utterance suchas (3), which occurs in an otherwise entirely Spanish co ?text, as a code-switch from Spanish into EngliAh, we have refined the criteria for identifying a code-switch interms of . the type of integration as in Table 1. ttt 4 8 sy I j 4 4-1 - Levels of jntegration . ( Type Into Base Language 'CS? Example phon' morph syn L. 6 1 No Es posible que to MOGUEEN. 4. (They might mug you.), (002/1) -... A 2 - Yes Las palabras HEAVY-DUTY, bien grandes, se me han 41vidado. (I've forgotten the real big, heavy-duty, - words.) (40/485) 1 r . 3 -- Yes [da 'wari se (58/00) ,, 4 - - Yes 'No creo que son FIFTY- DOLLAR SUEDE ONES. (I, . \ don't think they're fifty- dollar suede ones.) (05/271) I . V Table Identification of code-switching accordingto 'type pf integration into the base language. -A., . t The example of Type 1,- mogueen, is phonologically, morphologically and syntacticsglly integated'into the base language, although etymologically a Than word from English mug. It is here considered an instance of mono- . lingual Spanish discourse. In contrast, Type 4 segments are totally unintetrated into thepatterns of the base language. This sort of tide switch occurs most typical- ly in the speech of balanced bilingual&. Type 2 follows English phonological aid morphological patterns,
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