Social Motivations for Codeswitching: Evidence from Africa

TLDR

Codeswitching is the use of multiple linguistic varieties in one conversation, viewed as a skilled performance and stylistic choice rather than a lack of proficiency. The study aims to provide a general theoretical explanation of the motivations behind codeswitching using data from multilingual African contexts. The authors develop a theoretical framework grounded in multilingual African data to explain codeswitching motivations. Speakers use codeswitching to negotiate social distance by leveraging the socio‑psychological values of different linguistic varieties. No additional information provided.

Abstract

Codeswitching may be broadly defined as the use of two or more linguistic varieties in the same conversation. Using data from multilingual African context, Carol Myers-Scotton advances a theoretical argument which aims at a general explanation of the motivations underlying the phenomenon. She treats codeswitching as a type of skilled performance, not as the 'alternative strategy' of a person who cannot carry on a conversation in the language in which it began. Speakers exploit the socio=psychological values associated with different linguistic varieties in a particular speech community: by switching codes speakers negotiate a change in social distance between themselves and other participants in a conversation. Switching between languages has much in common with making stylistic choices within the same language: it is as if bilingual and multilingual speakers have an additional style at their command when they engage in codeswitching. _