Date:  Sat, 25 Dec 1993 14:54:30 CST

From:  "Donald M. Lance" <ENGDL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MIZZOU1.BITNET>

Subject: Re: modren metathesis



It seems to me that style-shifting within a language is less likely to occur

than code-switching in socially relaxed atmospheres in which the interlocutors

have a very high degree of fluency in both languages and aren't strongly

influenced by formality hang-ups. Someone with a school-marmish attitude

toward language is less likely to code-switch than someone who "hangs loose"

("monolithism" at work). Style-shifting is driven by pragmatics, as is

exo-sentential (I like Rudy's term here) code-switching, but the CS that I

recorded and the CS I've heard on South Texas radio stations is occasionally

but not always reference-driven. I've heard the CS on only a couple of

stations; most of the verbal content in broadcasts is too formal for code-

switching to be appropriate.            DMLance