Date: Mon, 1 Dec 1997 17:31:37 -0500

From: Beverly Flanigan FLANIGAN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]OUVAXA.CATS.OHIOU.EDU

Subject: Re: RE english-spanish radio ad



Repetition of a complete thought in two languages is very common in

code-switching, according to many sociolinguists. Was there a slight

pause between "I don't have" and "no tengo"? If so, then the utterance

is not really "Spanglish" (which implies intrasentential mixing) but a

simple code switch (i.e., intersentential or interclausal), in this

case from a completely English clause to a completely Spanish one.

Gumperz, Timm, Poplack, et al. have numerous examples like this one.

This is not to say that code-mixing might not also occur, and in the

same speech exchange (with mixed word stem + endings, varying word

order, etc.). Beth's example would appear to be of this sort.