Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg Language and Identity Dozent: Prof. Dr. Brigitte Halford Referent: Katrina Tupper 24/7/2013 Code-Switching in the Present Day: Spanglish Different languages have existed throughout the world for many years, but these languages did not always encounter one another regularly. Today's natural, every-day interaction of different varieties of language is a relatively new phenomenon that has been observed within the last few centuries. Before, the transfer and influence of language was a slow process. Ships and the postal service did not exactly move at the speed of light, but in today's world, interaction of different languages occur on a daily basis, and sometimes unconsciously. This is why language interaction and alternation is so interesting in today's day and age. Social media, broadcast television and the internet have raised language interaction up from a thing done between two languages, within one geographical region for communicative purposes, to a thing done across the Atlantic Ocean for identity building and even monetary purposes. In today's world, the evolution of society is happening so quickly, thanks to many technological advances, and alongside it is the evolution of language and our language use. Within this evolution of language one thing is for sure, a large driving force of the evolution is code-switching. In simple terms, code-switching is when one individual switches between two language varieties within one conversation. Although, as we know, nothing is ever that simple, especially not in the world of linguistics. Therefore, in this essay we will explore the definition of code-switching and then we will examine a few common usages of code-switching in today's society – specifically in relation to Spanish in the United States. The usages we will focus on are code-switching to build a social or national identity and code-switching as an advertisement strategy. To begin, it is difficult to pinpoint a definition for code-switching because each individual or group uses code-switching in a different way and for a different reason. Consequently, there are many different approaches to discussing code-switching. This essay will look at code-switching specifically through the markedness model of code-switching by Carol Myers-Scotton. Myers-Scotton's model of code-switching is embedded within the Social Exchange Theory of Social Psychology, which argues that “...a major motivation for using one variety rather than another as a medium of interaction is the extent to which this choice minimises costs and maximises rewards for the speaker (1993b: 100)” (Gafaranga 2007: 289). Basically, Myers-Scotton believes the reason code-switching occurs is because the group or individual using the mechanism is benefitting from its usage in some way. Furthermore, Myers-Scotton's model views code-switching in terms of situations and the benefit of code-switching usage within each situation. She calls on the markedness model when examining these situational usages and says that, “When there is congruence between language choice and the rights and obligations set, language choice is said to be unmarked and when there is no congruence between the two, language choice is said to be marked” (Gafaranga 2007: 290). Therefore, the variety or medium of conversation that is most common or natural in said situation is unmarked, whereas the uncommon or less natural is marked. Myers-Scotton's model goes much more in-depth concerning when marked uses of code-switching occur and why, but for now a basic understanding of her model will suffice for our discussion at hand. Now, with an understanding of a basic model of code-switching, we will discuss specific instances of code-switching in today's society and their implications. Many linguists have viewed codeswitching as a clear-cut switching pattern between two varieties of language – almost like a light switch being flicked on-and-off. The fact of the matter is that this is often not the case. For instance, one rather interesting case of code-switching is the usage of Spanish in the United States, as carried out by Hispanic-Americans. Rather than switching between Spanish and English, like the light blub simile portrays, Hispanic-Americans tend to gravitate towards a mixture of the two languages, which creates a new variety in-and-of itself - this variety is commonly referred to as Spanglish. Spanglish is an instance of language alteration where “the code” that is being switched to does not consist of one language. In other words, “...if participants are seen to be alternating frequently between languages, this pattern of alternating, rather than one individual language, is the code (Auer 1984: 84)” (Gafaranga 2007: 305). Gafaranga argues then that when we are talking about code-switching we are really talking about medium-switching (2007: 305). Therefore, the medium Hispanic-Americans are using, Spanglish, does not have to be monolingual, but can be bilingual and still be considered a medium or code on its own accord. With Spanglish defined as its own medium or code, then we can decide within Myers-Scotton's model whether the code is marked or unmarked. In this case, Spanglish in the United States would be considered unmarked, since the medium which is normal involves constant code-switching (2007: 305). In turn, Gafaranga's main point is that within bilingual conversation there is a preference in discourse, but it is not a preference in “language talk,” but rather a preference for “same medium talk” (2007: 305). Therefore, within the United States, when Hispanic-Americans are speaking to oneanother rather than a language preference, they share a medium preference, which is Spanglish. This is clear because Hispanic-Americans switch from either English to Spanglish or Spanish to Spanglish, but many times do not complete the full switch between the two languages. Professor Ilan Stavans states, “[Spanglish] is spoken (or broken) by many of the approximately 35 million people of Hispanic descent in the United States, who, no longer fluent in the language of Cervantes, have not yet mastered that of Shakespeare” (2000: 1). Stavans here plays with what he thinks might be an explanation for the mixing of the two languages. He jokes that Hispanic-Americans are no longer formally fluent in either English or Spanish, so instead they create their own variety to be fluent in. In many ways, this is part of their identity, because it allows Hispanic-Americans to create a kind of national identity for themselves. This is very important for Hispanic-Americans because due to economic and political influences in the United States, many times their group is placed as the “other” - even if they are natives. So, by constructing their own sense of national identity they can be part of a group, in a place where everyone else tries to separate them from the group. As Penelope Gardner-Chloros writes, “The characteristic ways in which bilinguals combine their languages in a particular community constitute a way of expressing their group identity...” (2009: 5). Most certainly then, Spanglish is a way of expressing group identity for Hispanic-Americans. Stavans says, “[Spanglish] is often an intraethnic vehicle of communication used in the United States by Hispanics to establish empathy among themselves” (2000: 6). He proved this point through a small experiment he performed at his university. He took four Hispanic-Americans from all different backgrounds, specifically from Brownsville, Tex., Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami, and introduced them to each other for the first time in a setting where he could observe them. The only instructions Stavans gave to the four participants was that they should not be formal and to communicate in the most comfortable way possible. According to Stavans, “The result was astounding: As soon as the participants familiarized themselves with one another, the conversation flowed easily, although the speakers often felt compelled to define some terms; within fifteen minutes, a sense of linguistic community was perfectly tangible” (2000: 5). The interesting thing about using code-switching, or in the case of Spanglish – medium-switching, is that individuals involved do not have to explicitly make a connection with one-another. They can simply utilize their common medium of communication, and use language to express a connection without actually using language, in the lexical sense, to express the connection directly. The same can be accounted for, daily, on the streets, in California. Bonds seems to grow instantaneously when Hispanic-Americans recognize that the other person speaks both English and Spanish, because this normally means they speak Spanglish as well. Jessica Herrera, a 23-year-old woman, from Sacramento California said, “Spanglish has helped me keep in touch with my culture and makes me proud of my roots.” For Herrera, speaking Spanglish gives her membership to a group that she cannot normally connect with in the United States. “It seems easy for my friends whose last five generations were born and raised in America. Their culture is right here. For me I have to connect to my culture in other ways,” Herrera said. Clearly, Spanglish helps Herrera create a portion of her identity and furthermore, on a larger scale, creates a kind of national identity that she can belong to. On the other hand, Herrera said she is careful which Hispanic-Americans she speaks Spanglish with. “I speak Spanish around older Spanish people. Even if they speak Spanish and English, I speak Spanish out of respect.” Therefore, it seems Spanglish is a relatively new strategy for identity building, because it would be disrespectful for her to try to connect with older generations in such a way. In this sense, it seems that the medium of Spanglish is considered less formal than codeswitching evenly between Spanish and English. This adds another level of intrigue to the usage of Spanglish because Gardner-Chloros writes that code-switching does not necessarily have to be a switch between two different language or even dialects. She says even monolinguals can code-switch in some way, for example through register, level of formality or intonation switching (2009: 4). Spanglish, then, seems to have deeper manifestations of purpose and meaning within culture and society than is first seen at face value. Most people can understand that Spanglish is used to connect Hispanic-Americans across the United States, but this also shows that Hispanic-Americans must be careful exactly who they are using Spanglish with and in what situations, because code-switching between formality is taken into account as well code-switching between language mediums for identity building. Additionally, the lexical construction of Spanglish seems to further confirm that this variety of Spanish-English bilingualism is a younger-generation's construction. Herrera said she knows a lot of Spanish and English vocabulary, but that depending on the context she might know more in one language than the other. For instance, she said within the home she knows more Spanish vocabulary, and in sports topics she knows more English vocabulary. This is interesting because, of course, most lexical items involved with the home are well established and passed on from older generations, whereas lexical items associated with sports are constantly evolving and are passed on via media. Stavans gives a few examples of Spanglish lexical items that have been created within the sporting world. These lexical items include: los doubles (tennis), el corner and el ofsait (soccer), el tuchdaun (football) and el nokaut (boxing). For those of us that cannot understand Spanglish, the translation of these words into English are as follows: doubles (tennis), a corner kick and offsides (soccer), a touchdown (football) and a knockout (boxing) (2000: 7). Another branch of this younger-generation's lexical development has to do with online language, which has been called Cyber-Spanglish. Lexical items here include: chatear (to chat), forwardear (to forward) and el maus (computer mouse) (2000: 7). As we can see, many of these lexical items can be considered more of lexical borrowing than code-switching, but within the concept of Spanglish, these items help to create a new medium of communication, which is switched into by Hispanic-Americans regularly, across the United States. Furthermore, in almost all cases the lexical item is not completely adopted from English, but rather molded into Spanish grammar or pronunciation patterns. Code-switching on the internet is another rather new phenomenon, which proliferates language change and alternation rapidly thanks to its hyper-accessibility. Lars Hinrichs writes about codeswitching on the internet, specifically in regards to English and Jamaican Creole code-switching. While his research strays a bit from our topic here, which has been focused on Spanglish, it still serves to make valid, overriding points that also apply to Spanglish. Hinrichs acknowledges that prior studies to code-switching on the web addressed and searched for only clear cut distinctions between dialects or strongly differing varieties. In this study though, the Third Wave study shifts “...the focus from dialects to styles, it shifts the focus from speaker categories to the construction of personae (Eckert 2005)” (2006: 3). It could be argued that perhaps the reason for the switch in approach was that the nature of the language that Hinrichs is now looking at has evolved into something more like Spanglish – where the mixture of two languages, in combination with its style and register, helps to create a persona or national identity for the person involved. Rather than simply as a communication strategy to get a point across. As Hinrichs writes: “This new view of social meaning as being transported by styles, which in turn are used to construct personae, does more than open up the view to a kind of language use that was long outside of the reach of sociolinguistics: speech events such as role play and ironic use of codes were simply not captured in Labovian approaches to speech communities” (2006: 3). Which brings us back to the main point, that because we are living an such an exciting and innovative time, we are seeing how language interacts within communities and within the world in very different ways. Especially in this case, since, as Hinrichs writes, what we see on the world wide web is “computer-mediated communication” (CMC) (2006: 1). Furthermore, CMC “...is a much more planned type of language use” and can in fact be considered metaphorical in nature (Hinrichs 2006: 4). For example, a 25-year-old Hispanic-American woman from San Francisco, California utilizes Spanglish quite often on her social networking sites. Her name is Lina Blanco-Ogden and one of her Facebook status updates reads, “Xican femme realness on the last day of classes of my undergraduate career. Como se acuesta, se levanta. Even if that means I'm wearing what I went to sleep in.” The question we must ask ourselves here is why did she decide to switch to Spanish in the middle of her English sentence? Some might argue it is because reflexive verbs in Spanish like “se acuesta” and “se levanta” are easier to produce and say than English – because the sentence, in English, would read something like “The way I woke up, I got up.” But, according to Hinrichs, many times the codeswitching being carried out on the internet is pre-planned and much less unconscious than normal, everyday code-switching. Therefore, “In such cases, the sequentiality of switches is of little importance, i.e. the mere code contrast is more relevant in the creation of additional meaning through code-switching than what part of the referential meaning is delivered in which code” (Hinrichs 2006: 4). Especially with this particular young woman - it seems after looking back at her newsfeed, the only time she uses Spanglish or Spanish-English bilingualism is when she clearly wants to express and highlight her heritage. In fact, in most of the posts that Spanish or Spanglish is used the specifically refers to the fact that she is Mexican or “Xican.” For instance, in another post she writes, “You know you're Mexican when you've washed your pinche uniforme a mano with Zote.” Here Blanco-Ogden seems to use Spanish consciously highlight her connection to her heritage and culture. So while neither code-switching in person or on the internet is entirely unconscious, Hinrichs argues that code-switching on the internet is a bit more skewed, mostly because the language of the internet is a whole other world in itself. Regardless of why the code-switching is occurring on the internet, the fact that code-switching or medium-switching is occurring affects all parts of the world, since information provided on the internet is shared so easily and so quickly. Nonetheless, some view code-switching, such as Spanglish, in a negative light. This is because societal groups feel that part of their identity, specifically their language, is being muddled with. As Joseph Gafaranga states, “These attitudes translate a deeply rooted monolingual linguistic ideology” (2007: 279). Stavans provides an example of Spanglish that some might scoff at because of its informality and slang. The example is this: “Don't turn your back on a vato like me Cuz I'm one broke [expletive] In need Desperate! What's going on in the mente Taking from the rich not from my gente Look at that gabacho slipping Borracho from the cerveza He's sipping No me vale, madre Gabacho pray to your padre This is for the time you would Give me the jale” (2000: 5). In this excerpt of Spanglish, the individual is speaking out about social injustice he feels and is certainly using less formal language, but normally we do not expect for middle class people, who are dealing with social injustice, to be speaking at a very high, formal level of English. So why do we have these negative feelings towards this speaker simply because he is mixing English and Spanish into his own national identity of Spanglish? Some do not have negative feelings - and this is because Spanglish is becoming more and more prominent, and more and more salient in our society. For others, this type of communication is looked down upon. The reason for this is that older generations, who speak both Spanish and English do not necessarily participate in this medium-switching we call Spanglish – as Herrera pointed out earlier. Additionally, because Spanglish is a relatively new construction, not all societal groups have opened their minds to the language shift yet. What we are observing is a difference is attitude towards code-switching between two generations. Attitude towards code-switching is a very important variable when considering the usage and acceptability of code-switching. “Bilinguals generally possess a negative [attitude towards code-switching], even when codeswitching is a widespread practice in the bilingual community (Hidalgo 1986; Ramirez, Milk, and Sapiens 1983). This negative predisposition toward code-switching is likely moderated by several factors, such as level of education or degree of integration into the dominant majority language group” (Luna 2005: 46). This assumption can certainly be applied to older generations of Hispanic-Americans. It seems that they would rather hold strong to their Hispanic language and culture, or switch entirely and assimilate into American culture. Furthermore, this attitude of theirs is likely fed by external societal influences like education and group-belonging. One the other hand, younger generations of Hispanic-Americans seem to have looked these external societal influences in the face and said, “You're not going to change me.” Instead, the younger generations of Hispanic-Americans embrace their multiculturalism, and express their roots through their own medium, Spanglish - which again, further shows how Spanglish creates a kind of identity for these younger generations. The identity being referred to is that of a Hispanic-American. Hispanic-American in the sense that “...many Hispanics view themselves as both Hispanic and American and desire that others recognize their complex identities (Koslow, Shamdasani, and Touchstone, 1994)” (Bishop 2011: 1). Regardless of society's attitude toward Spanglish, Stavans points out, “...language cannot be legislated. It is the most democratic form of expression of the human spirit. Every attack serves as a stimulus, for nothing is more inviting than that which is forbidden” (2000: 3). So regardless of the negative energy that may have been felt in the past and is still residual today, Spanglish will carry on. It will be passed down from generation to generation just as English is passed down. In fact,: “The day may even come when a masterpiece of Hispanic identity, in order to be fully appreciated by millions of people, not only in the United States, but around the world, shall be composed in the vernacular: Spanglish. Then it will be translated into English for the uninitiated reader” (2000: 10). In line with this development, we are fortunate that in today's society we are moving away from monolingual practices and are utilizing bilingual practices to our advantage. The main reason that bilingual practices are now beneficial and less frowned upon in society is because of the strong pull towards globalization. This globalization is happening for a number of reasons, but the driving force behind it is technology and the internet. Never before has our planet been so easily able to communicate across the globe. Some communication that provokes globalization is ignited by a need for social change or justice, whereas other catalysts are economic gain and capitalism. When we are talking about globalization with monetary interests in mind we are talking about the global market, and within this global market we have a number of things going on. We have producers. We have consumers. And we have advertisers. It is the advertisers that are of interest to our discussion, because they have learned how to exploit code-switching for monetary gain. Code-switching has therefore become a kind of advertising strategy in the global market. Therefore, when we talk about code-switching in advertising we are looking at, “A shift from political identities based on citizenship to economic ones based on participation in a global consumer market” (Piller 2006: 153). As was mentioned before, the world, as a whole, is conforming to a more bilingual sense of being, specifically with English as the guiding second language. English leads at the natural choice in code-switching as an advertising strategy because English is viewed as “the international language.” If a German person is in France and finds that they cannot communicate their message to a French speaker the automatic code-switching that occurs is into English. Cleverly, advertisers have taken note of this unmarked use of code-switching and are utilizing it. When they use English codeswitching in their advertisements, they are attempting to instill different visions of identity that consumers may want to try on for themselves. For example, in one advertisement done by Goldpfeil, a manufacturer of leather handbags, the signature line reads “GOLD PFEIL GERMANY 1856.” (Piller 2006: 154). By using the English word for their country, Germany, Goldpfeil instills in the minds of their consumers that their company is international and worldly. Furthermore, if the consumer would like to buy one of their hand bags then they too could be international and worldly, because the assumption is that the identity created by this company is really what the consumer is buying. In addition, Piller argues that the word “Germany” taps into this notion of “Made in Germany,” and because of this, “The intertextual allusion to the phrase 'Made in Germany' suggests high quality...the implication of this linguistic choice is that the implied reader is constructed as bilingual in German and English” (2006: 154). There are, of course, other instances and usages of English code-switching within advertisements worldwide, but for now the basic idea of how code-switching can be made a monetary advancement will suffice. We will not delve too far into the use of English code-switching in advertisements, because the interesting question here is what kind of code-switching goes on in the place where the international language, English, is already spoken? Code-switching does still occur, but the difference is that when code-switching occurs within the United States the minority group is the consumer being targeted, rather than the majority group. For instance, in Sacramento, California there is a radio station called 103.5 “The Bomb.” This radio station has several different hosts, but one in particular stands out because she is referred to as Pattie Moreno, The Latin Diva. Every time Moreno comes on air her introduction plays, which goes like this, “Hermosa y intelligente...Pattie Moreno...The Latin Diva!” The code-switching that occurs in a place where the international language, English, is already spoken is the minority – and in this case, Spanish. It can be assumed that the reason Moreno's introduction is in Spanish is because The Bomb is attempting to appeal to Hispanic-Americans in California. By regularly airing a Latina radio host, The Bomb is saying to Hispanic-Americans, “Listen to our radio station. We get you.” The most interesting facet of this particular usage of code-switching as an advertising strategy is that once Moreno starts talking, on-air, you lose this facade of “Latin Diva.” Moreno instead sounds very Californian. Even after checking Moreno's social networking sites, it was found that she, herself, does not use Spanish ever in her day-to-day life. Even when a fan commented on her status in Spanish, she always responded back in English. So it seems obvious that The Bomb is creating an identity for Moreno that benefits their company, by appealing to other social groups, specifically minority groups, besides the majority group of born-and-raised Californians. While both, English code-switching around the world and Spanish code-switching in California, exist for monetary gain, two researchers, David Luna and Laura A. Perrachio argue that one kind of code-switching in advertising brings in more money than all the rest (2005). They feel that “...majorityto-minority slogans should generally lead to lower product evaluations than slogans switching from the minority language to the majority language” (Luna 2005: 46). In other words, The Bomb's usage of Spanish in their radio advertisements is the most profitable thing they can do. This is because the entire introduction or “slogan” used is in Spanish, the minority language, and then only when the actual show starts does the host, Moreno, switch into the majority language, English. On the other hand, Luna and Perrachio would argue that Goldpfeil's use of code-switching is less profitable because they instead use a majority-to-minority slogan. The entirety of Goldpfeil's slogan is in German and only the usage of “Germany” in describing their location is written in English. The argument behind this hypothesis, that minority-to-majority slogans are more profitable than majority-to-minority slogans, is that, “...majority-to-minority slogans...generally have a negative impact on consumers' responses because of the salience given to the minority language” (Luna 2005: 46). Hence, the determining factor in slogan profitability is salience. The reason for this is because if an advertiser attempts to utilize code-switching to their advantage, as an advertising strategy, then they must make sure they are using the minority language, or less salient language, the majority of the time. If they use the minority language sparingly, they run the risk of consumers ignoring that code-switching is even happening at all. In other words, in order for code-switching to a minority language to be useful, the consumer must be made aware it is happening. Although for English code-switching in Goldpfeil's advertisement, it can be argued that English is relatively salient in German's working memory. This is because Germans learn English from a very young age and most Germans have a least some working knowledge of the language. Therefore, it should be noted that the relationship between the majority and minority language in question should always be taken into account. Finally, when looking at code-switching as an advertising strategy one must take into account the attitude that the target audience has towards code-switching. As was mentioned before, the younger generation of Hispanic-Americans in the United States seem to have a pretty positive attitude towards code-switching since they utilize Spanglish as their own medium of communication. On the other hand, older generations of Hispanic-Americans seem to have a more negative attitude towards codeswitching. Melissa Bishop and Mark Peterson took a particular interest in this facet of code-switching as an advertising strategy and performed an experiment, focusing on attitudes towards code-switching, to add to this growing pool of data (2011: 648-57). From their research, they identified that, “...Spanish/English code-switched print advertisements [are] more effectively placed within an English-language print medium rather than a Spanish-language print medium among MexicanAmerican young adults” (2011: 657). One argument for this result could be that younger generation Mexican-Americans are comfortable with code-switching within an English-language setting, because they live in the United States, where English is spoken, and they code-switch regularly when using their preferred medium of communication, Spanglish. Whereas, if they were in a Spanish-language setting, let's say Mexico, they are not as comfortable switching into English, or for that matter Spanglish. Furthermore, as Bishop and Peterson were more interested in the advertising side of their experiment, they concluded that by placing code-switching in an environment that younger generation Hispanic-Americans are comfortable with, the overall attitude towards code-switching, as a whole, seems to improve. All in all, code-switching in the 21st century is multifaceted and revolutionary. Thanks to the development of the worldwide web and the globalization of our world, language varieties are being shared freely and effortlessly on a daily basis. Attitudes towards this language sharing vary, but the bottom line is: it is happening, and rapidly – and furthermore, it is changing the way we interact with one another and within society. It changes the way we interact with one another because we can use code-switching as a conversational strategy, in which we create and mold parts of our personal, group and national identity - like with younger generation Hispanic-Americans and their usage of Spanglish. It also changes the way we interact on a larger scale, specifically within society. As we saw above, the usage of code-switching as an advertisement strategy within society is one great example of how codeswitching is influencing the way we view ourselves against the world. Moreover, because the study of code-switching in the 21st century is relatively new there is a large amount of research that can, and should, still be completed. As Luna writes, “Very little research has been conducted to understand how bilingual consumers process information. This is surprising given that demographic trends indicate that bilingual populations are increasingly important around the world” (2005: 54). Bilingual populations are being valued more today because bilingualism holds much more weight than it may have in the past, and because bilingualism holds more weight so does code-switching. Sources Bishop, Melissa and Mark Peterson. “Comprende Code Switching?” Journal of Advertising Research. 2011. Gafaranga, Joseph. “Code-Switching as a Conversational Strategy.” In Peter Auer & Li Wei (eds.), Handbook of Multilingualism and Multilingual Communication, 219-313. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter: 2007. Gardner-Chloros, Penelope. Code-Switching. Cambridge University Press. New York, New York: 2009. Hinrichs, Lars. “Codeswitching on the Web.” John Benjamins Publishing Company. Freiburg: 2006. Luna, David and Laura A. Peracchio. “Sociolinguistic Effects of Code-Switched Ads Targeting Bilingual Consumers.” M.E. Sharpe, Inc. 2005. Piller, Ingrid. Identity Constructions in Multilingual Advertising. University of Sydney. Australia: 2006. Stavans, Illan. “The Gravitas of Spanglish.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Amherst, MA: 2000.