End of ADS-L Digest - 25 Dec 1993 to 26 Dec 1993

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There are 4 messages totalling 76 lines in this issue.



Topics of the day:



 1. Code-Switching

 2. Regional variation in BE

 3. modren metathesis (2)



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Date:  Sun, 26 Dec 1993 13:03:55 CST

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

Subject: Code-Switching



Today I watched the entire mass from San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio TX.

The theme of the service was the family, and in the extemporaneous sermon

the priest extended his remarks to include a discussion of the tv and radio

coverage they have in the U.S., Central America, the Caribbean, and South

America. When he was reading letters from Chicago, Washington DC, and West

Virginia he introduced the letter in the language in which it was written,

always switching inter-sententially. But when he was somewhat excitedly

listing the cities where they had considerable audiences he switched intra-

sententially four times. Only with the first switch to English did he mark the

switch ("For our radio audience who listen to us in English"); each switch

except the first one was smooth, with no intonational marking. The choice of

language tended to be geographically determined, but not absolutely: greetings

 to Chicago in Spanish, to Washington DC and West Virginia in English, to

California in both languages, New Mexico in English, comments on West Virginia

and Missouri in Spanish. The intra-sentential switching seemed to be the

same phenomenon as the inter-sentential switches, but with the former made

while he was more excited and talking faster. This is a small sample, but

at least for Spanish-English code-switching n Texas the location of the

switch is not necessarily determined by content but may be determined by

something like level of formality.

Similarly, style-shifting within a language correlates with formality.

                       DMLance