The paper I propose deals with intergenerational variation in syntactic and functional patterns of code switching between the Italian language and the local dialect in Sicily. I will analyse two different kind of data: i. a corpus of spontaneous spoken language, recorded, transcribed and then submitted to conversation analysis, using a modified version of Auer’s (1984) theoretical approach (Alfonzetti 1992 and 2012); ii. a written corpus consisting of e-mails, sms, social networks, blogs, etc., where young speakers use a lot of polylanguaging, a notion elaborated within the sociolinguistics of globalization or superdiversity (cf. Blommaert 2010; Blommaert J. & B. Rampton, 2011). My main purpose is to show that the occurrence of a particular switching strategy largely depends on sociolinguistic factors interacting with age: i.e. language proficiency in the two languages; sociosymbolic values attached to them; speakers’ attitudes; their communicative functions both in the individual sociolinguistic repertoire and in that of the speaking community at large, etc. This issue is extremely important from two main standpoints: a) from a sociolinguistic perspective, age-related differences in code switching can be considered in a dynamic manner as a key to understanding an ongoing language shift (Gardner-Chloros 1991); b) on a more theoretical level, comparing code switching patterns between the same two languages within the same community but across different age-groups helps to establish the relative role of sociolinguistic vs syntactic factors underlying code switching. Results of such comparison call into question the assumption that there is only one code switching patterns per language pair and also what this assumption usually implies: i.e. that sociolinguistic factors play only a minor auxiliary role in determining the code switching mode, with respect to the dominant primary role of general linguistic principles and structural and typological properties of the two languages involved (Backus 1992). Bibliographical references Alfonzetti Giovanna, 1992, Il discorso bilingue. Italiano e dialetto a Catania, Milano, FrancoAngeli [2nd edition 2012]. Alfonzetti Giovanna, 2012, I giovani e il code switching in Sicilia, Palermo, Centro di Studi Filologici e Linguistici Siciliani. Auer Peter, 1984, Bilingual conversation, Amsterdam, Benjamins. Backus Ad, 1992, Variation in codeswitching patterns, in Code-switching Summer School (Pavia 9-12 sept. 1992), Strasbourg, European Science Foundation, pp. 251-62. Blommaert Jan 2010, The Sociolinguistics of Globalization, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Blommaert J. & B. Rampton, 2011, Language and Superdiversity. In Diversities, vol. 13, No. 2. [www.unesco.org/shs/diversities/vol13/issue2/art1]. Gardner-Chloros Penelope, 1991, Language selection and switching in Strasbourg, Oxford, Clarendon Press.
Age-related Variation in Code-switching between Italian and Dialect
ALFONZETTI, Giovanna Marina
2015-01-01
Abstract
The paper I propose deals with intergenerational variation in syntactic and functional patterns of code switching between the Italian language and the local dialect in Sicily. I will analyse two different kind of data: i. a corpus of spontaneous spoken language, recorded, transcribed and then submitted to conversation analysis, using a modified version of Auer’s (1984) theoretical approach (Alfonzetti 1992 and 2012); ii. a written corpus consisting of e-mails, sms, social networks, blogs, etc., where young speakers use a lot of polylanguaging, a notion elaborated within the sociolinguistics of globalization or superdiversity (cf. Blommaert 2010; Blommaert J. & B. Rampton, 2011). My main purpose is to show that the occurrence of a particular switching strategy largely depends on sociolinguistic factors interacting with age: i.e. language proficiency in the two languages; sociosymbolic values attached to them; speakers’ attitudes; their communicative functions both in the individual sociolinguistic repertoire and in that of the speaking community at large, etc. This issue is extremely important from two main standpoints: a) from a sociolinguistic perspective, age-related differences in code switching can be considered in a dynamic manner as a key to understanding an ongoing language shift (Gardner-Chloros 1991); b) on a more theoretical level, comparing code switching patterns between the same two languages within the same community but across different age-groups helps to establish the relative role of sociolinguistic vs syntactic factors underlying code switching. Results of such comparison call into question the assumption that there is only one code switching patterns per language pair and also what this assumption usually implies: i.e. that sociolinguistic factors play only a minor auxiliary role in determining the code switching mode, with respect to the dominant primary role of general linguistic principles and structural and typological properties of the two languages involved (Backus 1992). Bibliographical references Alfonzetti Giovanna, 1992, Il discorso bilingue. Italiano e dialetto a Catania, Milano, FrancoAngeli [2nd edition 2012]. Alfonzetti Giovanna, 2012, I giovani e il code switching in Sicilia, Palermo, Centro di Studi Filologici e Linguistici Siciliani. Auer Peter, 1984, Bilingual conversation, Amsterdam, Benjamins. Backus Ad, 1992, Variation in codeswitching patterns, in Code-switching Summer School (Pavia 9-12 sept. 1992), Strasbourg, European Science Foundation, pp. 251-62. Blommaert Jan 2010, The Sociolinguistics of Globalization, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Blommaert J. & B. Rampton, 2011, Language and Superdiversity. In Diversities, vol. 13, No. 2. [www.unesco.org/shs/diversities/vol13/issue2/art1]. Gardner-Chloros Penelope, 1991, Language selection and switching in Strasbourg, Oxford, Clarendon Press.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
