Content uploaded by Shahrzad Mahootian
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Shahrzad Mahootian on Nov 21, 2014
Content may be subject to copyright.
ACTAS / PROCEEDINGS II SIMPOSIO INTERNACIONAL BILINGÜISMO
1493
SENDING A MESSAGE: CODESWITCHING AND THE
BILINGUAL IDENTITY
Shahrzad Mahootian
1
Northeastern Illinois University
1. Introduction
Language choice and codeswitching research have typically looked at spoken
discourse, with little or no attention paid to written discourse. Moreover, discussions of
bilinguals and identity have generally been in terms of which one of his/her two cultures
the bilingual is trying to affiliate with through language choice. In this paper, I
investigate the establishment of what I call the bilingual identity, an identity which is
simultaneously separate from, yet completely dependent on, the bilingual speaker’s two
cultures. As evidence I look to codeswitching in written text. My conclusion is that
codemixing serves to highlight the bilingual/bicultural identity of the participants.
The relationship between language and identity has long been established and
documented (Gumperz, 1982; Gumperz & Cook-Gumperz, 1982; Carbaugh, 1996;
Antaki & Widdicombe, 1998). Language is both a co-constructor and a mirror of social
identity. Bilingual contexts, where language choice and intentional codeswitching are
two discourse strategies that are typically used to indicate group affiliation, provide
excellent opportunities to better understand the language-identity relationship.
In his discussion of social uses of conversational codeswitching, Gumperz
(1982: 65) notes the bilingual is aware that he/she has many modes of behavior and
communication to choose from and that
[…] style of communication affects the interpretation of what a speaker intends
to communicate [and that…style] can also be imitated or mimicked for special
communicative effect. This juxtaposition of cultural standards is most evident in in-
group activities where participants are bilingual. […] in bilingual situations the
participants’ awareness of alternative communicative conventions becomes a resource
which can be built on to lend subtlety to what is said. (Gumperz, 1982: 65)
1
Dr. Shahrzad Mahootian, Department of Linguistics, Northeastern Illinois University, 5500 N. St.
Louis Ave., Chicago, IL USA 60625. Phone: 773-267-7932, email: s-mahootian@neiu.edu
SHAHRZAD MAHOOTIAN
1494
These same observations can be applied to written discourse. In the case of the
data I present, the “alternative communicative convention” is Spanish-English
codemixed discourse juxtaposed with Spanish discourse. Examination of codewitches
2
in a Spanish-English bilingual women’s magazine, Latina, reveals an interesting pattern
of premeditated switching. The format of the magazine is such that every article is
presented in both languages. However, many of the English versions are peppered with
Spanish nouns, determiner phrases, conjunctions, prepositional phrases adverbs and
adjectives. Only a small percentage of the switched utterances are words where there is
no single equivalent lexical item. The majority of the switches have common, simple
English translation equivalents and could have been rendered in English. Syntactically,
the switches are within the same categories as those found is conversational
codeswitching and are easily accounted for by the Head-Complement Principle
(Mahootian, 1996, 1999; Mahootian & Santorini, 2000)
3
.
2. Data collection
The data is culled from a popular life-styles publication called Latina. The first
issue of this magazine hit the stands in 1996
4
. Latina is a national publication with a
circulation of approximately 175,000. Many of the features are written by a pool of
staff-writers while other pieces are submitted by freelance writers. All articles and
features are translated into Spanish. However, since the Spanish versions are often
shorter, abbreviated versions of the English texts, there seems to be an assumption that
readers of Latina are fairly fluent in English. Writers are not directed to use or not use
codeswitching in the articles/features. It is interesting to note that contrary to
2
For the purposes of this analysis I use the terms ‘codeswitches’ and ‘mixed code’ interchangeably. They
both refer to the use of two languages inter- and intrasententially
3
The Head-Complement Principle states that the language of a head determines the syntactic properties
of its complements in codeswitching and monolingual contexts alike. Heads impose their syntactic
requirements on their complements, determining the phrase structure position, category, and feature
content of their complements. However, it is important to note that the language of the head does not
determine the language of its complements The Principle operates on the assumption that the same rules
and principles that apply to monolingual utterances apply to and account for codeswitched sequences.
General principals of phrase structure, rather than constraints specific to codeswitching produce
codeswitched utterances. It therefore allows for switches within DP, VP, PP, IP, etc., as well to switches
between phonologically unassimilated free and bound morphemes.
4
The publication information about Latina is taken from a phone interview between the advertising sales
manager for the Midwest and myself.
ACTAS / PROCEEDINGS II SIMPOSIO INTERNACIONAL BILINGÜISMO
1495
conversational codeswitching, in this modality, switching is unidirectional, occurring
only in the English texts
5
. All switched items are rendered in italic typeface. On the
cover of the magazine, titles of feature articles are typically codeswitched phrases:
“Seduce him en la cocina”, “Dinner in 29 minutos”, “ Tienes Lupus? You may not
know”. In the table of contents, most titles are in a single language, usually English,
although some titles may include codeswitching into Spanish. Subtitles describing the
articles appear in English or English-Spanish mix, followed by the Spanish version:
“The sky’s the limit? Despite barriers, workplace advancement is up to you. Hay
barreras para el avance profesional de las latinas”.
However, in the body of the articles the titles sometimes appear in both English
and Spanish. For example, “Maxwell bares all” is translated as “Maxwell al desnudo”.
In other instances the translation is less literal. Sometimes, an English title serves for
both the English and Spanish texts. And often a single codeswitched title is used:
“Novelas with heart”. Advertisements may appear in Spanish, English or both. There
isn’t a magazine policy directing the language used in the ads.
Given these observations, we are compelled to ask, who is the target audience
for Latina? It’s clearly not monolingual Spanish speakers, since the Spanish version of
the articles are in condensed form. It’s also not monolingual English speaking Latina-
Americans, since there are enough codeswitches to make it tiresome for someone who
doesn’t speak Spanish. The target audience appears to be a subset of bilingual Spanish-
English speakers whose dominant language may be English, at least in written contexts,
and who continue to identify with their Latino heritage.
Two Spanish-English bilingual graduate students, one male (non-hispanic), one
female (Mexican-American), created a database containing all codemixed utterances.
Page numbers, literal translations, syntactic category and grammatical function were
provided for all utterances. Notes were also included when the utterance was either
idiomatic or culturally loaded without a one–word translation equivalent (for example,
la musica tejana). The students were then asked to provide an explanation for the
codemix (use of Spanish in otherwise English text). Based on their explanations, the
utterances were marked as 1) idiomatic, 2) attention-getting, 3) emotionally/culturally
5
One might speculate that the unidirectional switching taken together with the fact that the full-length
version of the articles are in English is indicative of assumed dominance in English.
SHAHRZAD MAHOOTIAN
1496
evocative/bonding. A subset of the data (a total of 56 tokens out of 435) that included
all three types of switches was emailed to three Spanish–English bilinguals of Hispanic
descent (two females one of Puerto Rican and the other of Cuban heritage, one male of
Puerto Rican heritage). As it turned out all three were familiar with the magazine. The
following directions were given:
1) Attached please find 56 English sentences with Spanish words in them.
These are sentences taken from Latina. Latina is a magazine akin to Glamour or
Cosmo, whose target audience is Latinas between the ages of 15-40. All articles and
features are in English with a condensed Spanish translation. For each sentence, indicate
why you think the word or phrase has been rendered in Spanish.
2) What is difference between the term Latino/a and Hispanic?
For question (1) all three agreed on the idiomatic usages. As for the other
switches, there was a general consensus that they were “more meaningful” in Spanish,
that they carried “more emotional power”, (“emotional statements will be said in
Spanish. English is not sufficient”) that they were used to “create solidarity”, that they
were “much stronger” when said in Spanish (la revolucion).
For question 2, all three agreed that the term Latina/Latino, designating
individuals of Hispanic heritage, is favored by younger, more socially/politically active
individuals “seeking equality and opportunities”. One of my informants noted that,
Hispanic is a more old-fashioned term associated with the Hispanic heritage.
My mother is more comfortable with that term. Young people see
themselves more as Latinos. More closely related to Latin Americans who
live in the USA. Latino in closer to the use of African-Americans instead of
Blacks.
3. The data: Analysis and discussion
We’ve already seen a number codeswitched examples in section II above.
Following, are more examples from the English version of the features. The examples
are taken from two issues of Latina: February 1999 and May 1999.
(1) Lately, you’d be hard-pressed to find a mainstream show without hermanos in it.
[brothers]
(2) It helps to know which items are worth the sticker shock, y cuales not.
[and which]
(3) Even if you are the kind of mujer who thinks…
[woman]
ACTAS / PROCEEDINGS II SIMPOSIO INTERNACIONAL BILINGÜISMO
1497
(4) Ropa íntima for every body.
[clothes intimate]
(5) Forget those flaca cover girls! What Latinos love most about Latinas son las
curvas. [skinny] [are the
curves]
(6) But piensa before you pounce.
[think]
(7) Start your new business before quitting your full-time trabajo.
[job]
(8) Say your words softly and slowly in español.
[Spanish]
(9) The only time I stayed indoors was when it was raining or when I’d been bad
y estaba castigada.
[and was being punished]
(10) Send him una carta de amor.
[a letter of love]
Linguistic necessity, such as lack of lexical equivalence, is not driving the
codeswitches in the English version, since clearly there are simple equivalents to the
Spanish terms used in the examples given above. Nor can we use the psycholinguistic
argument of the ‘most common word phenomenon’, which is certainly relevant when
speakers are in conversation and need to keep the flow of conversation going. Here, in
written discourse, where the writers have time to choose their words, the
psycholinguistic argument does not hold.
Language serves to identify and unite speakers of the same language as part of a
community or nation (Fishman, 1972). The idea of using code-mixed utterances as a
speech variety or mode to create unity among bilingual Spanish-English speakers seems
to provide the most intuitively satisfying account for the codeswitches in this data.
Take, for example, the use of hermanos in example (1). In the sentences preceding this
sentence, the article was talking about the appearance of Latinos in recent Broadway
productions. The word hermanos captures the same sense of solidarity as the word
‘brother’ does in English when used by African-Americans to refer to other African-
Americans. And although the writer could have used ‘Latino actors’ or Hispanic male
actors’, the use of the codeswitched hermanos has a greater psychological impact and
more immediate appeal to ethnic identity. Examples (8-10) also seem to fall within the
category of codeswitching to evoke an emotional response. The words español, y estaba
castigada and una carta de amor are not rare or difficult words and could have been
SHAHRZAD MAHOOTIAN
1498
expressed easily in English. Yet their appearance in Spanish in an otherwise English
context creates an intimate or personal domain that non-Spanish speakers or
monolingual speakers of either English or Spanish language could not share. The
juxtaposition of English and Spanish seems to be an attempt to appeal to this very
special community, the bilingual Spanish-English community.
I believe that these intentional switches are meant to create a sense of
community among bilingual Spanish-English speakers. Examples (2-7) follow suit. The
switches seem to be there only to evoke a sense of espirit de corps between writer and
readers, to continue the rapport between bilingual writer and bilingual readers, to
consciously promote, or at the very least acknowledge, a bicultural identity.
Sociolinguistic research has demonstrated how similar strategies work among
speakers of a dialect. Intralanguage style-shifting is attributed to such factors as group
identity and accommodating one’s speech to an intended audience. Wolfram &
Schilling-Estes (1998) cite their own research in North Carolina and William Labov’s
(1972) work on Martha’s Vineyard as evidence for variation that is used by some
speakers to accentuate their identity with a certain speech community. Allan Bell
(1984), among others, presents a model to account for the fact that speakers modify
their speaking style to accommodate the expectations of their audience. Clearly, these
theories not only apply to monolingual situations but also to bilingual settings.
4. Conclusion
The fact that mixed code appears in a popular magazine with a national
distribution provides further evidence that the code is used to add a further dimension to
the message.
Neither the title nor the language of the content is an accident. Both serve to
emphasize or perhaps to promote an identity which falls somewhere between ethnic
group and what Fishman (1972: 3) describes as a nationality: “sociocultural units that
have developed beyond primarily local self-concepts, concerns, and integrative bonds”.
It seems that conventionalized use of mixed Spanish-English code is another
means for Latinos in the USA to a) show unity among themselves as a subset of all
Hispanic-Americans, b) identify themselves as a group separate from their
ACTAS / PROCEEDINGS II SIMPOSIO INTERNACIONAL BILINGÜISMO
1499
predecessors’ generation c) continue to maintain strong emotional ties with their
heritage.
Gumperz (1982: 65) notes that it is “the overtly marked separation between in
group and out group standards which perhaps best characterize the bilingual
experience”.
We can extend this observation to include the bilingual identity: the overtly
marked choice of mixed code rather than monolingual code serves to separate a subset
of bilinguals whose bilinguality is not merely the ability to function in two separate
groups with two separate languages. Rather it signals a bilingual identity separate from
their monolingual ones.
Bibliographical references
Antaki,C. & S. Widdicombe (eds.) (1998). Identities in talk. London: Sage Publishers.
Bell, A. (1984). “Language style as audience design”. Language in Society 13, 145-204.
Carbaugh, D. (1996). Situating selves: The communication of social identities in
American scenes. New York: SUNY Press.
Fishman, J. (1972). Language and nationalism: Two integrative studies. Rowley, MA:
Newbury House.
Gumperz, J.J. (1982). Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gumperz, J.J. & J. Cook-Gumperz (1982). “Introduction: Language and the
communication of social identity”. In J.J. Gumperz (ed.), Language and social
identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press.
Mahootian, S. (1996). “A competence model of codeswitching”. In J. Arnold, R. Blake,
B. Davidson, S. Schwenter & J. Solomon (eds.), Sociolinguistic variation: Data,
theory, and analysis: Selected papers from NWAV23 at Stanford University.
Stanford: CSLI Publications, 387-400.
Mahootian, S. (1999). “Codeswitching and universal grammar”. Paper presented at the
Second International Symposium on Bilingualism, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Mahootian, S. & B. Santorini (2000). “Implications of codeswitching for lexical TAG”.
In A. Abeillé & O. Rambow (eds.), Tree adjoining grammar. Stanford: CSLI
Publications, 271-82.
Wolfram, W. & N. Schilling-Estes (1998). American English: Dialects and variation.
Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
