Code-switching research has focused on spontaneous conversation, and code-switching has often been seen as a consequence of bilinguals attending to and extending the "macro" status and functions of the two languages in society, attitudes towards these languages, and their cultural connotations, for instance, the "we-code" vs.…

Cued American English (CAE) is a visual variety of English derived from a mode of communication called Cued Speech (CS). CS, or cueing, is a system of communication for use with the deaf, which consists of hand shapes, hand placements, and mouth shapes that signify the phonemic information conventionally conveyed through speech in spoken…

As one of the best known linguistic constraints on code switching, Poplack (1980) has proposed the "free morpheme constraint," which predicts no switching between free morphemes and bound morphemes. It is argued that this theory is not supported by linguistic data, and that semantic content, rather than morphology, must be considered. An…

Reports on a small scale project on language choice in reflective discussions by a group of teachers participating in a teacher education program at the University of Witwatersand in Johannesburg, South Africa. While required to demonstrate aspects of "reflexive competence" in English only, the participants long for opportunities for…

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) is a term widely used in Europe to refer to different forms of content based education, often conducted in English. Earlier research on CLIL has tended to focus on matters of language learning or content mastery rather than on details of classroom interaction. This paper investigates how English is…

Examines the English-language motif in five non-English-language films in the context of the cultural background of each film and its overall thematic concerns. In each case, the use of English is shown to be integral to the film's meaning. (28 references) (GLR)

Examines the simultaneous development of two linguistic competences in the bilingual child. Special attention is devoted to the role of functional categories in the development patterns attested, and a position is taken that is intermediate between two hypotheses: the strong hypothesis and the weak hypothesis. Childhood bilingualism is viewed as a…

Addresses the issue of whether there exists a matrix language to a code-mixed (CM) sentence, or whether no feasible linguistic analysis can reliably assign a matrix language to a CM sentence. The examination draws on natural conversations involving Chinese-English CM in Singapore. (41 references) (GLR)

Describes some aspects of "interlingual contagion" between siSwati and English in Swaziland, focusing on borrowing and code switching and the derived "Englishization of siSwati and Swazification of English. These phenomena are examined via a mode of bilingualism that presumes that all languages carry indexical meanings both on…

Explores an Optimality-Theoretic approach to account for observed cross-linguistic patterns of code switching that assumes that code switching strives for well-formedness. Optimization of well-formedness in code switching is shown to follow from (violable) ranked constraints. An argument is advanced that code-switching patterns emerge from…

Provides a critical review of the syntactic study of code mixing, discussing data drawn from African and South Asian languages, and focuses particular attention on the syntactic constraints paradigm. An examination of seven major surface constraints, deemed to have universal applicability, shows that none of these constraints is universal. (53…

Demonstrates code mixing as a cross-cultural phenomenon and mark of modernization. Three points are considered: the functional uses of code mixing, attitudes toward code mixing, and language change as a result of code mixing. (27 references) (Author/OD)

Code-switching (CS) patterns of bilingual English-Mandarin speakers underwent structural and functional analysis to reveal the interrelationship between form and function in bilingual CS discourse. Results indicate that certain syntactic forms are utilized to express certain functions in CS discourse and that interlocutor participation helps…

Examines a particular "style of speech" used by a farming community in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, which is characterized by code-switching with Xhosa and by prevalent terms of address. The social significance of the speech style in terms of the identity communicated is explored and discourse features are discussed. (Author/JL)

Explores verbal strategies involving code-switching (English terms used in Chinese-based interactions) in the speech community of a Taiwanese teacher's college. Code-switching is described in terms of the fulfillment of language functions and is shown to express a linguistic style concerned with communicative appropriateness and social identity.…