This book reminds us that code-switching is not
only a classic topic, but also an important and highly
challenging one. In distinction from previous studies,
this work reveals that a bilingual community of second-generation
Japanese Canadians (Niseis), in Toronto, has three distinct
types of bilingual speech: a basically Japanese variety,
a basically English variety, and a mixed variety. Nishimura
analyzes these three bilingual speech varieties and provides
an answer to the fundamental question in code-switching:
“Who speaks what language to whom, and on what occasions?”
That is, this research ascribes the motivation of this
variability to the “intended audience.” These
Niseis choose the basically Japanese variety when they
speak to native Japanese people; when they speak to fellow
Niseis who have always lived in Canada, they choose the
basically English variety; and when they speak to a group
comprising both native Japanese and Niseis, they use the
mixed variety, oscillating between Japanese and English.
They switch among these codes even in the middle of storytelling.
What is important here, for the bilingual speakers, is
to address two questions: “Who is present in the
audience of the ongoing conversational situation?”;
and more specifically, “To whom is the current production
of this utterance directed?”