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cbreezen

(694 posts)
Sun Feb 26, 2017, 06:27 PM Feb 2017

I'm an older gal of 51, so forgive my age, but,

Last edited Sun Feb 26, 2017, 07:19 PM - Edit history (1)

can someone explain the term "code-switch" to me? Sometimes, it is an educational thing, sometimes, it is not.



ETA: sometimes I feel like a dunce around here. Thank you for the fun and the info!

35 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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I'm an older gal of 51, so forgive my age, but, (Original Post) cbreezen Feb 2017 OP
Ummmmmmmmmm....... DFW Feb 2017 #1
I have shoes older than you both. tavernier Feb 2017 #2
Hey! DFW Feb 2017 #8
My cat needs cbreezen Feb 2017 #13
Cats often have prostrate issues, though: Ken Burch Feb 2017 #21
Awwwww! bravenak Feb 2017 #27
I figured that would get noticed sooner or later n/t DFW Feb 2017 #35
lol! cbreezen Feb 2017 #11
Lolz Hekate Feb 2017 #17
I got you by a year! (And I don't know what it means, either.) 11 Bravo Feb 2017 #30
basically means "modify how you talk depending on the audience" 0rganism Feb 2017 #3
Completely, get that! cbreezen Feb 2017 #15
is this what you're looking for? unblock Feb 2017 #4
Y once upon a time, one little mariposita Xipe Totec Feb 2017 #6
i casi understood eso! unblock Feb 2017 #10
Since I live in a multi-lingual household DFW Feb 2017 #7
Oh, no! cbreezen Feb 2017 #22
Welcome to DU!! ailsagirl Feb 2017 #5
Thanks! cbreezen Feb 2017 #9
See, right there, you're code sharing! babylonsister Feb 2017 #23
Nice to be back! cbreezen Feb 2017 #25
Technically communicating in another dialogue uponit7771 Feb 2017 #12
I enjoy communicating with others, cbreezen Feb 2017 #28
This is code switching: samir.g Feb 2017 #14
Excellent example! Thanks for sharing! Nitram Feb 2017 #16
Too, too funny... cbreezen Feb 2017 #18
:) janterry Feb 2017 #20
Welcome to DU, where we trend older than some places. DU started in 2001.... Hekate Feb 2017 #19
You don't need to apologize for your age. HeartachesNhangovers Feb 2017 #24
lol! cbreezen Feb 2017 #34
Pfft. "Older"? I have shoes older than you. The Velveteen Ocelot Feb 2017 #26
In language use code-switching means to use different styles of language for tblue37 Feb 2017 #29
I get it... cbreezen Feb 2017 #33
re: I'm an older gal of 51, so forgive my age, but, ps : allano1bear is a58. waives AllaN01Bear Feb 2017 #31
No Sunday afternoon headaches, please??? cbreezen Feb 2017 #32

DFW

(54,412 posts)
1. Ummmmmmmmmm.......
Sun Feb 26, 2017, 06:29 PM
Feb 2017

1.) I have no idea what it means, either
2.) The last time I was 51 was fourteen years ago. Who're YOU calling old?

unblock

(52,257 posts)
4. is this what you're looking for?
Sun Feb 26, 2017, 06:32 PM
Feb 2017
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching

In linguistics, code-switching occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation. Multilinguals, speakers of more than one language, sometimes use elements of multiple languages when conversing with each other. Thus, code-switching is the use of more than one linguistic variety in a manner consistent with the syntax and phonology of each variety.

Code-switching is distinct from other language contact phenomena, such as borrowing, pidgins and creoles, loan translation (calques), and language transfer (language interference). Borrowing affects the lexicon, the words that make up a language, while code-switching takes place in individual utterances.[1][2][3] Speakers form and establish a pidgin language when two or more speakers who do not speak a common language form an intermediate, third language. On the other hand, speakers practice code-switching when they are each fluent in both languages. Code mixing is a thematically related term, but the usage of the terms code-switching and code-mixing varies. Some scholars use either term to denote the same practice, while others apply code-mixing to denote the formal linguistic properties of language-contact phenomena and code-switching to denote the actual, spoken usages by multilingual persons.[4][5][6]

In the 1940s and the 1950s, many scholars considered code-switching to be a substandard use of language.[7] Since the 1980s, however, most scholars have come to regard it as a normal, natural product of bilingual and multilingual language use.[8][9]

The term "code-switching" is also used outside the field of linguistics. Some scholars of literature use the term to describe literary styles that include elements from more than one language, as in novels by Chinese-American, Anglo-Indian, or Latino writers.[10] In popular usage, code-switching is sometimes used to refer to relatively stable informal mixtures of two languages, such as Spanglish, Taglish, or Hinglish.[11] Both in popular usage and in sociolinguistic study, the name code-switching is sometimes used to refer to switching among dialects, styles or registers.[12] This form of switching is practiced, for example, by speakers of African American Vernacular English as they move from less formal to more formal settings.[13] Such shifts, when performed by public figures such as politicians, are sometimes criticized as signalling inauthenticity or insincerity.[14]

Xipe Totec

(43,890 posts)
6. Y once upon a time, one little mariposita
Sun Feb 26, 2017, 06:36 PM
Feb 2017

was flying de flór en flór.
And all of a sudden, se cayó!
Ay jíjo!, se dijo
what stupid I am!
I forgot to open my alitas!

cbreezen

(694 posts)
28. I enjoy communicating with others,
Sun Feb 26, 2017, 07:55 PM
Feb 2017

Sometimes, however, I think my words, because they are so old school, might be misinterpreted.

Hekate

(90,716 posts)
19. Welcome to DU, where we trend older than some places. DU started in 2001....
Sun Feb 26, 2017, 07:24 PM
Feb 2017

...when the Admins were all young. Now they have teenage kids. Like many others, I was in what I considered my robust middle age. Oh myyyy.

Otoh, that means a wealth of cumulative experience exists here if you know where to look.

I'm pleased to see several good responses to your query about code-switching.

24. You don't need to apologize for your age.
Sun Feb 26, 2017, 07:37 PM
Feb 2017

Especially since I'm 55. This week I had to ask what "dog whistling" means. Apparently it is a coded reference meant to have mean something specific to a specific set of listeners/readers. In other words, when you use the term "dog whistling" you are making a coded reference to a coded reference.

I would prefer if people just said what they meant without coded references. For the record, I also don't know what "gas lighting" or "swift boating" mean. I used to know what "swift boating" means, but it's kind of a lame expression, so I forgot.

Thank you in advance for explaining either "gas lighting" or "swift boating", but you shouldn't bother because I wont remember.

cbreezen

(694 posts)
34. lol!
Sun Feb 26, 2017, 08:57 PM
Feb 2017

You've been around DU too long if the phrases you hear today no longer mean they used to!

My sympathies. I suffer the same fate.

tblue37

(65,409 posts)
29. In language use code-switching means to use different styles of language for
Sun Feb 26, 2017, 07:55 PM
Feb 2017

different communication situations, but maybe you mean the term in a different context?

On Edit: I teach college English, and I have to teach this sort of code-switching to new college students.

AllaN01Bear

(18,268 posts)
31. re: I'm an older gal of 51, so forgive my age, but, ps : allano1bear is a58. waives
Sun Feb 26, 2017, 08:20 PM
Feb 2017

code-switch·ing
nounLinguistics
noun: code-switching

the practice of alternating between two or more languages or varieties of language in conversation.
"the conversational code-switching of the German-American bilingual community"

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