Code-switching in South African townships

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511486692.013

12 - Code-switching in South African townships

from Part II - Language contact

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009

S. Slabbert and

R. Finlayson

Edited by

Rajend Mesthrie

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S. Slabbert: Affiliation:
Honorary Research Associate Modern Languages, University of the Witwatersrand
R. Finlayson: Affiliation:
Department of African Languages, University of South Africa
Rajend Mesthrie: Affiliation:
University of Cape Town

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

Language contact, including contact within the Bantu language family, is not a new phenomenon. However, switching languages or linguistic varieties within the same conversation, or code-switching (CS) as it is termed, is a dynamic and growing phenomenon as contact between speakers of various languages throughout the world continues to increase. This chapter offers an introduction to the relationship between social history and linguistic studies on CS in South African townships, as well as some contexts within which CS is practised in South African townships. Thereafter, a sociohistorical overview of a variety of perspectives on CS research will be given.

The term ‘code-switching’ will be used in this chapter to include full constituents as well as single lexemes. No distinction will be made between ‘noun switching’ (Poplack 1981: 171), ‘nonce borrowings’ (Sankoff and Vanniarajan 1990), code-mixing (CM) (Kachru 1978) and code-switching. Myers-Scotton (1993b: 24) notes in this regard that many CS researchers do not make clear how they classify single lexemes. In particular they are not willing to label as borrowed forms all singly occurring forms drawn from another language, so ‘code-mixing’ becomes a compromise designation. The distinction between CS and borrowing is also still unresolved. In this chapter the term ‘code-switching’ will include references to singly occurring forms as well as to intrasentential and intersentential CS within, as well as across, conversational turns.

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Type: Chapter
Information: Language in South Africa , pp. 235 - 257

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486692.013 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2002

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