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The sociology of code-switching
The Sociology of Code-Switching
Robert N. St. Clair
Guadalupe Vald6s
University of Louisville
New Mexico State University
ABSTRACT Code-switching, a phenomenon commonly found in human communication, has begun to receive greater attention it deserves in sociolinguistics, although it had been a major part of British scholarship as may be represented by scholars like J. R. I:irth. Perhaps, what is needed in sociolinguistics now is a micro-theory of code-switching in which the instrt,mental use of language and other forms of semiotic expression are readily explicated. The model described in this essay provides such a framework. It is based on research in symbolic interactionism and borrows from the rich tradition of dramaturgical sociology. It also relates to the concept of emergence and the negotiation of social reality in the field of ethnomethodology. INTRODUCTION The concept of code-switching has always played a significant role in the study of language. Within the tradition of British scholarship, the extent and manner in which code-switchings were referred to as "registers" formed a major part of the work of J.R. Firth and the London School of linguistics (Firth 1966; Palmer 1968; and Langendoen 1968). In the United States, however, the concept began to emerge in the literature with the seminal work of Charles Ferguson (1966) and his discussion of the phenomenon of "diglossia." Since then, the references to code-switching as a manifestation of synchronic variation have increased enormously (Labor 1972a, 1972b; Bailey 1973; Trudgill 1974; Fishman 1972; and Key 1975) and some discussions of code-switching have been found popularity in the mass media (Morgan and Scott 1975). These discussions of how language changes in the various contexts of social interaction tend to be merely descriptive. They either provide lists of lexical items, which are characteristically associated with a par-
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ticular social context, or tend to formalize these lists in statistical formulas. Hence, there is no coherent theoretical base upon which the phenomenon of code-switching can be systematically explicated. In this essay, we provide the initial framework for such a model. It comprises research paradigms which are currently employed in such language related disciplines as social psychology, the sociology of language, and the sociology of drama.
THE GEMEINSCHAFT MODEL OF LINGUISTICS One of the problems which linguists have not adequately addressed at a critical level of analysis is the concept of linguistic diversity. When Ferdinand de Saussure (1916) was attempting to cope with problems of linguistic diversity around the turn of the century, he divised an illustrious dichotomy between langue and parole. The former was a natural outgrowth of his earlier attempts to systematize linguistic data (de Saussure 1879); it also reflected the influence of [~mile Durkheim and his concept of collective consciousness (Doroszewski 1933). The problem that faced Durkheim was the threat of anomie. He reasoned that there must be a unique bond which unites individuals to group behavior. But the behavior of an individual in a community is of a different nature from how one acts as a member of a society. In the community (Gemeinschaft) there is a sense o f solidarity in which individuals share the same bonds. They hold the same things to be sacrosanct, share the same world view (Weltanschaung), and are united by the same values. A society (Gesellschaft), on the other hand, is fragmented. It forces one to live in a state of constant alienation tentfremdung and entausserung) characteristic o f modern industrial societies (T6nnies 1957 and 1974). Durkheim characterized the bond which unites the more tribal communities as mechanical solidarity and the one which fragily unites the modern industrial societies as organic solidarity (Durkheim 1983). His answer to alienation (Schacter 1970) and anomie was to be found in the collective unconsciousness that all members of a society shared and which enabled their common bond of Geseilschaft to continue its hold on the individual. Ferdinand de Saussure (1916) lectured on the concept of langue in his Cours de Lin-
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guistique G#nerale and attempted to model concept of language after those of Durkheim. The langue, however, was not to be equated with the Gesellsehaft or tile fragmented community but with the Gemeinsehaft or the community of speakers who are bound by a form of mechanical solidarity (St. Clair 1979). In the langue of de Saussure, then, there is an ideal community much in the same sense as Chomsky (1965) speaks of an ideal homogeneous community with its ideal speaker-hearer. But if there is an ideal homogeneous community, where are the vagaries of linguistic expression to be found? The answer, evidently, was in parole. It is at the level of linguistic use and language function. Within tile theoretical framework of transformational grammar, diversity is accounted for by a system of rules which transform langue into its dialectal variants. In doing so, it has provided a derivational link between the model and its application. When this concept is applied to the phenomenon of code-switching, similar claims are made. There is a basic underlying system of rules which provide contextual variants in different social contexts. It is by these rules that codes are switched, but it is through these rules that the variants of speech are linked to a common deep structure or systematic phonemic level. Hence, the model of codeswitching employed in sociolinguistics is inherently idealized "along the lines of the Gemeinschaft model of Ferdinand T6nnies (1957). The alternative model does exist within the framework of existential sociology (Douglas and Johnson 1977, Psathas 1973) and has many implications for coping with problems of linguistic diversity and the phenomenon of code-switching.
MODELS AND ROOT METAPHORS All knowledge is gained and experienced from a perspective. Concepts, like individuals, have their biographical histories and in order to understand them one must divulge their underlying metaphors. They either illustrate how one can see something from a particular point of view (analogic models) or they attempt to combine and integrate numerous aspects of original contexts (iconic models). When a model or a metaphor presents a fundamental image of the world and provides the underlying
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theme from which other models are derived, then, the model creates a "root metaphor" or a Weltanschaung. These basic models are so ingrained into one's academic socialization that they become nearly invisible. They are never challenged and remain as incorrigible postulates (Gaskin 1955). In sociology, for example, there are five principal root metaphors: Society is seen as an organism; society is modeled after machines; social conduct is viewed as a communicative exchange or language; tile roles in life are seen as a social drama; or social interaction is considered a game (Brown 1978). When Thomas Kuhn (1970) discussed his model of paradigm shifts from the normal science of the status quo to the revolutionary science with its new modes of cognition, he was essentially describing the role that root metaphors play in the ever changing spiral of scientific change. It is during such times of change that old ways of looking at things are supplanted by a new vision or metaphoric perspective. There have been numerous root metaphors operating within the history of linguistics. In diachronic linguistics, for example, August Schleicher spoke of a Stambaum Theorie of Indo-European languages in which the various member languages were related to a proto-language as the various branches of a tree are joined to a common trunk and connected by underlying root systems. For Johannes Schmidt the root metaphor was embodied in the wave-like dissemination of languages as they spread from a common origin (WeUen Theorie). But, even before there was the family tree model and the wave theory, there was the basic metaphor of the language family with its mother and daughter languages united by forms of historical kinship ¢Pederson 1962). With the sllift from diachronic to synchronic linguistics there emerged another root metaphor. August Comte (1972) belonged to the famous L'6cole Polytechnique in Paris under the tutelage of Saint-Simon. He shared in the vision that sociology would some day become a science and modeled his quest after the physics of his day. He argued that knowledge must pass through three stages of growth, beginning with the mysterious external forces of religion, then moving through the search for human knowledge in personal internal understanding, and finally culminating in the universal laws of positivism. Physics, then, became the acme of emulation among positivists. Ferdinand de Saussure (1916) was a victim of his Zeitgeist. He too wanted to model the study of language after physics and searched for general laws of
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linguistic behavior in his postulation of the concept oflangue. As a matter of fact, one of the issues confronting scholars before the turn of the century was the question of whether or not the study of language qualified as a science (Sayce 1880). There were some who argued for a separation of syntax and phonology, on the basis that the latter conformed to the dictates of positivism whereas the former was the product of uniclue experiences and belonged to historical linguistics. The Gemeinschaft model (1t" linguistics is a natural outgrowth of the positivism of the 19th century. It seeks to model the science of language after the natural science model of physics with its idealized conditions of in-vitro experimentation and its mathematical f(umt, lation of general laws. This quest for making linguistics a science can he found in the taxonomy of behavioral structuralism with its emphasis on classifying data in the inductive mode: it can also be found in the generative models o f language which attempts to formalize language behavior in terms o f idealized underlying forms which are divorced from the concrete social contexts from which they emerge. In the transition from de Saussure to Chomsky. the underlying root metaphor of positivism has remained consistent. Having summarized the linguistic paradigm of positivism, with its claims about an idealized community of speakers, we would consider an alternative root metaphor.
EXISTENTIAL SOCIOLINGUISTICS Stanford Lyman and Marvin Scott (1970) provide an informative model of language in society which has many immediate implications lot a model of code-switching. They call their model "a sociology of the absurd" after Martin Esslin's The Theatre o f the Absurd {Esslin 1%1). But their nomenclature involves more than an affinity for the literature of existentialism. What they have done, in essense, is to combine labelling theory, ethnomethodology, and symbolic interactionism into an integrated theory of language in social interaction. Their choice of the term "absurd" is predicted on the assumption that the world is essentially without meaning and that all systems of belief are arbitrary. Hence, "alienation and insecurity are characteristic of the human condition. The individuals, therefore, must carve out meanings for themselves in a
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world that is capricious and abitrary. This model, it should be noted, runs contrary to tile positivistic model in which obscure global forces are assumed to manipulate and control human behavior. In place of the abstract neutral forces of human nature, Lyman and Scott (1970) have focused on such concepts as human consciousness, personal intent, and social values. These aspects of behavior are given meaning within the frame of episodes, encounters, and situations in everyday interaction. One of the root metaphors in existential sociolinguistics is the game. The arena for such forms of social action is what Erving Goffman(1961) has termed a "focused gathering" or an "'encounter." The participants in an encounter become consciously aware of each other and define each other in terms of conversational images. What they do is determined by how they define tile situation (Lauer and Handel 1977). From this definition of "selF' and "other" comes various strategies for "impression management" (Goffman 1959), "face-work (Goffman 1967), or "framing" of a situation (Goffman 1969 and ITS71). Hence, one figuratively brackets tile situation into an immediate context of awareness in which there are boundaries which establish the parameters of discourse. One of tile games discussed by hyman and Scott (1970) involves the use of social distance. When the interactants wish to decrease social distance they employ both verbal anti nonverbal forms of expression. During the initial stages of such interaction, the participants stand the risk of being rejected. Hence, the use of language as an inst,ument to feel out the limits of one's acceptability to another. It is through this negotiation of trust that such interpersonal code-switching takes place. What is significant about tiffs model is that it sees code-switching as mere instrumental forms of macro-social behavior. The mode[ does not limit codeswitching to only verbal interation, but allows interpersonal adjustments to take place both verbally and kinesically. In addition, it does not claim that there are generalized laws of statistical behavior which can be divorced from human interaction. The form of personal interaction must be negotiated between the participants and cannot be neatly categorized into predetermined classes of social behavior. There are times when social distance needs to be increased and this calls for another language game. When one feels a betrayal of trust, they no longer share the same values and hold the same things sacrosanct. They
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no longer participate in the same Gemeinschaft. This negative relationship game may result in several strategies such as a denial o f commitment, a closing of the sources of privileged information, ostracization, a devaluation of others, etc. These forms o f social interaction can also account for the nature o f code-switching. However, these forms of social interaction cannot be categorized by an overall taxonomic scheme as the strategies, for increasing social distance depend on the emergence of the new conversational images that people hold of one another. Exploitation games also occur within the context of social behavior and are rather common forms of linguistic behavior. They occur frequently by men who define women in terms of sexual behavior or by women who seek compliance of men by utilizing the conventions o f their society. Some have argued that whenever two people get together and instigate a conversation this naturally rest, Its in some form o f exploitation (kyman and Scott 1970). This is because of the phenomenon o f power whereby one person is either privileged by the context or by the circumstances of the encounter. In some cultures, for example, age is venerated and the older participant naturally assumes a position of power and respect over his or her conversational partner. In status oriented societies, the power and prestige comes with title and profession. In a male-oriented society, women are disadvantaged and adjust their speech into a defensive mode (Key 1975; Thorne and Henley 1975). Another kind of game arises whenever one of the participants desires to either conceal information or divulge it. This game can be conceived in terms of a sequence of moves, whereby one attempts to control the information, cover it, uncover motives or recover one's position. The use of formal language sometimes fits into this kind o f information game. Under these circumstances the message is one of mystification (Berger and Luckmann 1967) and social distance. The desire of some to control television and to set the agenda of viewing habits also fits within this framework of information games (Eiseman 1979). Another aspect of tile game metaphor in the sociology of language involves tile use of accounts. This linguistic device is employed whenever someone questions sociolinguistic behavior; consequently, it is instrumental in preventing conflicts from arising, attenuating one's expectation on the verge of action, and justifying or excusing one's behavior before
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others. Tile two bacic types of accounts discussed by Lyman and Scott (1970~ are excuses and justifications. These are invoked when a person is accused of having done something contrary to social expectation. In tile case of justifications, tile person accused accepts the responsibility for the act in question, but strongly denies the pejorative associations linked to his or her actions. Hence, when one justifies a course of action, this involves a positive assertion of value. A common form of justification is denial of injury where the person accused acknowledges the action, but argues that no harm was done because no one was injured in the process. This technique of neutralization can be found in the redefinition of stealing as merely borrowing. Another basic form of justification is denial of the victim. In this case, it is argued that tile action was justified because tile victim deserved receiving tile injury. These are usually people that society have labelled as outsiders (Becket 1966). The condemnation of those who accuse is a common strategy o f cognitive dissonance (Festinger 1967). In this case, one admits performing an act of social disgrace, but argues that others also commit these acts and are not caught, nor punished, nor condemned. Appeal to loyalty is another form of justification. It argues that the action was permissible because it served tile interests of another to whom one owes allegiance or loyalty. This appeal was used during the Watergate affair by Cuban Americans as a justification of breaking and entering. Excuses differ from justifications in that it employs socially approved lexical phrase.s, while attempting to lessen or relieve the responsibility associated with a social disgrace. A common form of excuse is to appeal to accidents. This removes the responsibility directly from tile individual and places it in the realm of unknown and unseen acts of nature. Sometimes one avoids stigmatization by acquiring the label o f clumsiness or being accident prone. Another kind of excuse is associated with an appeal to defeasibility. In this case, it is argued that the person who did the wrong doing was not fully informed or that he or she suffered from impaired consciousness and should not be held responsible. This appeal is similar in many ways to the excuse that invokes biological drives as the reason for one's behavior. Scapegoating is also a form of an excuse for social disgrace. Instead o f instigating a course o f action it is argued that the Other party caused the problem and one was merely reacting to the situation. What is said and how it is said depends on the structure of interpersonal
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interaction. In the case of justifications and excuses, there are numerous strategies available, but not all are accepted equally by all cultures. In the more traditional Mexican society, for example, the appeal to fatalism is culturally accepted as a form of verbal ritual (St. Clair and Kaprosy 1975). A similar appeal to accidents is also culturally acceptable as a justification for social disfavor in Japan (St. Clair and Koo, in press). During the rise of the Third Reich, the use of scapegoating was the dominant strategy of social behavior and it was directed against non-Aryans (St. Clair, in press), in the United States, the strategy of denial of injury was prominent as a tactic of race relations during the turn of the century. Such a form of justification for wrongs brought against those who fall outside of one's own social group has been aptly described by William Ryan (1972) in his portrayal of Blaming the Victim. in a court of law, the appeal to defeasibility is common and crimes are excused because of an impaired consciousness or a plea of temporary insanity. What is significant about this game metaphor for the phenomenon of code-switching is that it provides a theoretical framework for describing and explicating the nature of verbal exchange between participaints in social interaction. To merely state that one has switched from formal to informal English, for example, is inadequate because it omits the intent of the participants, their consciousness of the situation and the values that they place on the verbal ritual. The shift may have been prompted or motivated by an appeal to loyalty or it may have been used in a paternizing way to deny injury to the victim. Hence, the significance of the game metaphor within existential sociolinguistics.
THE DRAMATURGIC MODEL OF SOCIAL INTERACTION Another root metaphor characteristically associated with existential sociolinguistics is that of theatricality (Burns 1973). It takes as its base the often quoted saying: Totus mundus agit histrionem (The whole world is a stage), and relates this metaphor to the dramaturgical models of social interaction of Goffman (1959), and the sociology of drama of kyman and Scott (1975). The word for theatre, it should be noted, is etymologically related to the word for "theory." Both are derived from the Greek the~trou which originally meant a place for viewing. The term was also
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associated with the concept of witnessing or viewing and referred to the envoys sent to consult or witness before the oracle, and to tile ambassadors of state who were delegated to attend sacred festivals and games in other cities and report back what they had viewed (kyman and Scott 1975). Truth or aletheia was also related to theory and theatre and literally meant "Unhiddenness" that which is hidden from view and which necessitates a seer or theoria to unravel its mysteries. Hence, the m e t a p h o r of the theater as a model for social interaction is rather promising. In the distinction that Ferdinand de Saussure (.1916) made between langue and parole there was no discussion provided on those forms of parole which are random from those which are linked with systematic uses. When Chomsky (1965) sets up his dichotomy of competence and performance 1, he also fails to make this distinction, but he also fails to note that certain forms of poor performance result from a lack of experience in performing an activity and not from a lack of underlying competence. When this dichotomy is used in claims about communicative competence (Savignon 1972), or in the ethnography of speaking (Hymes 1972), there is a concomitant lack of discussion on this point. However, in their discussion of tile dramaturgical model, kyman and Scott (1970) note that sometimes one may have an abstract level of competence about a given subject but still will be unable to perform because of the newness of the situation. They refer to this phenomenon as "stage fright" and recommend that it be avoided through the strategy of "rehearsals." After one has had the opportunity of feeling comfortable in a new social role, the level of performance increases substantially. Hence, the distinction that they make is significant in clarifying between poor performance which results frorn random behavior and a lack of competence and poor performance which results from a lack of experience within the domain of abstract competence 2 . Just as there are conventions for performance on the stage, there are also conventions for performance when one is interacting in a faceto-face encounter. Goffman t 1959) refers to the phenomenon of "front stage" where one performs and ~'back stage" where one relaxes and takes off his or her mask (persona). The stage, then, defines and frames the parameters for acting just as encounters, situations, and episodes frame the "front stage" behavior of interactants.
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Social roles are similar in form to the roles on stage. One must follow the ideal model of behavior while at the same time allowing one's personality to emerge and modify that role or performance (Hewitt 1976). Those who play a role without personal involvement do not involve themselves. This is sometimes referred to as an " e m p t y self." But regardless of how one's self influences or affects the performance, the fact remains that social behavior has become typified and has created a set o f social expectations which others demand whenever they witness a performance (Wagner 1970). The fact that code-switching occurs speaks clearly to the fact that people tacitly perform a multiple of social roles during the course of their daily interaction with one another. They have learned to associate these roles in some instances with the context in which they were learned. What this means, in essence, is that they are not fully cognizant of their multiple forms of social behavior. A common postulate in the sociology of knowledge is that social reality is constructed in accordance with the context in which it was encountered (Berger and kuckmann 1966). This dislocation of multiple selves emerge in more or less complementary distribution and determines the kinds of strategies that one uses in playing verbal games or staging an account. What is a justification in one context is not acceptable in another and what is given as an excuse in one social gathering is frowned upon in another. Finally, this disparity of social roles are tied inherently to cultural scripts which dicate the overall patterns of front stage behavior. Language is just one of the many parameters involved in the transition from one role to another or from one social game to another, Linguists, however, view the whole phenomenon as a linguistic one. What is needed in this instance is a micro-theory of code-switching in which the instrumental use of language and other forms of semiotic expression are readily explicated. The model described in this essay provides such a framework, it is based on research in symbolic interactionism and borrows from the rich tradition of dramaturgical sociology. It also relates to the concept o f emergence and the negotiation of social reality in the field of ethnomethodology (Mehan and Wood 1975).
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CONCLUDING REMARKS The concept of code-switching in linguistics is basically a descriptive task. Most studies are taxonomic and merely provide all illustrative array of patterns of expression. What is missing from the literature is a sociology of code-switching, i.e. a coherent theoretical framework in which tile various forms of verbal ritual can be fully explicated and empirically formulated. The dramaturgic model of Erving Goffman (1959) provides a host of rich theoretical concepts on the performance of self in everyday life. Similarly, the sociology of drama model of Stanford kyman and Marvin Scott ( 1970 and 1975) also creates a coherent framework for the study of social interaction. Other concepts that relate to "impression management" are "defining the situation" (Hewitt 1975; Lauer and Handel 1977) and the "authentication of conventions" (Burros 1973). The game model of social interaction also relates directly to the use of language behavior (kyman and Scott 1970). This field has already been developed into sophisticated mathematical models and could be readily incorporated into a more positivistic model of the sociology of language. Nevertheless, it does allow one to explain the structure of code-switching and the levels of formality employed in the process. In essence, it goes beyond the mere descriptivism of linguistic models of social interaction.
NOTES 1.
Chomsky's distinction is superficial, to say the least, and must not be equated with de Saussure's distinction of langue and parole, as was pointed out long ago in Peng (1969:93 8). For one thing, Chomsky"rejects langue on the one hand, and retains parole on the other oil the grounds that de Saussure's analysis of langue was merely a systematic inventory of items" (Peng 1969: 93). For another thing, Chomsky's discussions ( 1 9 6 5 : 4 - 1 8 ) "seem" to indicate that performance is subordinate to competence . . ." (Peng 1969: 96), a claim that is not at all parallel to de Saussure's langue and parole. Because "'langue, to many followers of de Saussure, appears to be a far more abstract concept than competence, almost a theoretical c o n s t r u c t . . . " (Peng 1969: 1 2 2 ) . - Editor
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2.
A clear distinction must be made between a speaker-hearer and a person with certain skills or talents, say, a musician, when terms such as "stage fright" etc. are drawn upon to explain competence and performance. It is quite true that the level of the musician's performance will differ substantially, whether he can feel comfortable on a stage and get over the stage fright or not. In this case, the distinction of competence and performance is useful. Because the musician always faces the same kind of audience; that is, when the musician's concert or recital is over, he is no longer in a context and does not have to face the audience again until the next time. In the meantime the musician can practice for improving the level of performance through the strategy o f rehearsals. It is a different matter, however, with regard to the speakerhearer's interaction (or communication) with others. He constantly faces differing types of audiences; that is, there is no vacuum (or rest) that he can escape into in the hope that he be allowed to practice. If he practices at all, he does it in a live but entirely new context where he must face a different audience who will judge and evaluate his speech act nonetheless, unless he shuts himself in a closet. In other words, getting used to differing contexts (i.e., practice in order to gain experience), as far as the speaker-hearer is concerned, is tantamount to acquiring (communicative) competence; his failure in one context, therefore, cannot be attributed to poor performance which results from a lack of experience, a privilege that may be enjoyed by the musician, but from random behavior and a lack of competence. In other words, in human communication (verbal as well as nonverbal interaction) the notions of competence and performance are trivial and their distinction, superfluous; in real life, one is either communicatively competent in a situation or he is not; if he is better the next time (a new situation, of course) he has become more competent, his speech act being the manifestation of his newly acquired competence. - Editor
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vania Press. Langendoen, D. Terence 1968 The London School of Linguistics." A Study of the Linguistic Theories of B. Malinowski and J.R. Firth, Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press. Lauer, Robert and Warr,en Handel 1977 Social Psychology: The Theory and Application of Symbolic Interactionism, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin. Lyman, Stanford and Marvin Scott 1970 A Sociology of the Absurd, Pacific Palisades, California: Goodyear Publishing Co. 1975 The Drama of Social Reality, New York: Oxford University Press. Mehan, Hugh and Housloll Wood 1975 The Realio, of Ethnomethodology, New York, John Wiley and Sons. Morgan, Paul and Sue Scott 1975 The D.C. Dialect: How to Master the New Language of Washington in 10 Easy Lessons, New York: Washington Mews Books. Palmer, F. R. (ed.) 1968 Selected Papers of J.R. Firth, 1952-1959, Boomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. Pedersen, Holgar 1962 The Discovery of Language: Linguistic Science in the 19th Century. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. Peng, Fred C.C. 1969 "'Review of Chomsky's Aspects of the Theory of Syntex," Linguistics 49.91-128. Psathas, George (ed.) 1973 Phenomenological Sociology: Issues and Applications, New York: John Wiley and Sons. Ryan, Williams 1972 Blaming the Victim, New York: Vintage Press. St. Clair, Robert N. 1979 "Applied Sociolinguistics," in R. St. Clair (ed.), Perspectives
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in Applied Sociolinguistics: From the Language Medium of Education to the Semiotic Language of the Media, Lawrence, Kansas: Coronado Press. n.d. a "Defining Cross-cultural Situtations," in Jang Koo and Robert St. Clair (eds.), Bilingual Education for Asian-Americans: Problems and Strategies, Hiroshima, Japan: Bunka Hyoron Publishing Co. n.d. b "Language Planning: The Case of the Third Reich," Journal of History and Political Science. St. Clair, Robert N. Kaprosy, Geraldo n.d. "Conflicts of Value in Language," Educational Resources Information Clearinghouse (1975), microfiche Number ED 126 817. Also ( in press), English Language Journal. Schahter, Richard 1970 Alienation, New York: Anchor. Savignon, Sandra J. 1972 Communicative Competence." An Experiment in Foreign Language Teaching, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Center for Curriculum Development. Sayce, A. H. 1880 Introduction to the Science of Language, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Saussure, Ferdinand de 1968 Mamoire sur le system primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-~uropennes, (1879), Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlgsbuchhandlung. 1916 Coursde linguisticg#n#rale, Lausanne, Switzerland: Payor T6nnies, Ferdinand 1957 Community and Society, New York, Harper Torchbooks. Trudgill, Peter 1974 Sociolinguisties: A n Introduction, Baltimore, Maryland : Penguin Books. Wagner, Helmut (ed.) 1970 Alfred Schutz: On Phenomenology and Social Relationships, Chigaco, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.
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Robert N. St. Clair
Guadalupe Vald6s
University of Louisville
New Mexico State University
ABSTRACT Code-switching, a phenomenon commonly found in human communication, has begun to receive greater attention it deserves in sociolinguistics, although it had been a major part of British scholarship as may be represented by scholars like J. R. I:irth. Perhaps, what is needed in sociolinguistics now is a micro-theory of code-switching in which the instrt,mental use of language and other forms of semiotic expression are readily explicated. The model described in this essay provides such a framework. It is based on research in symbolic interactionism and borrows from the rich tradition of dramaturgical sociology. It also relates to the concept of emergence and the negotiation of social reality in the field of ethnomethodology. INTRODUCTION The concept of code-switching has always played a significant role in the study of language. Within the tradition of British scholarship, the extent and manner in which code-switchings were referred to as "registers" formed a major part of the work of J.R. Firth and the London School of linguistics (Firth 1966; Palmer 1968; and Langendoen 1968). In the United States, however, the concept began to emerge in the literature with the seminal work of Charles Ferguson (1966) and his discussion of the phenomenon of "diglossia." Since then, the references to code-switching as a manifestation of synchronic variation have increased enormously (Labor 1972a, 1972b; Bailey 1973; Trudgill 1974; Fishman 1972; and Key 1975) and some discussions of code-switching have been found popularity in the mass media (Morgan and Scott 1975). These discussions of how language changes in the various contexts of social interaction tend to be merely descriptive. They either provide lists of lexical items, which are characteristically associated with a par-
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ticular social context, or tend to formalize these lists in statistical formulas. Hence, there is no coherent theoretical base upon which the phenomenon of code-switching can be systematically explicated. In this essay, we provide the initial framework for such a model. It comprises research paradigms which are currently employed in such language related disciplines as social psychology, the sociology of language, and the sociology of drama.
THE GEMEINSCHAFT MODEL OF LINGUISTICS One of the problems which linguists have not adequately addressed at a critical level of analysis is the concept of linguistic diversity. When Ferdinand de Saussure (1916) was attempting to cope with problems of linguistic diversity around the turn of the century, he divised an illustrious dichotomy between langue and parole. The former was a natural outgrowth of his earlier attempts to systematize linguistic data (de Saussure 1879); it also reflected the influence of [~mile Durkheim and his concept of collective consciousness (Doroszewski 1933). The problem that faced Durkheim was the threat of anomie. He reasoned that there must be a unique bond which unites individuals to group behavior. But the behavior of an individual in a community is of a different nature from how one acts as a member of a society. In the community (Gemeinschaft) there is a sense o f solidarity in which individuals share the same bonds. They hold the same things to be sacrosanct, share the same world view (Weltanschaung), and are united by the same values. A society (Gesellschaft), on the other hand, is fragmented. It forces one to live in a state of constant alienation tentfremdung and entausserung) characteristic o f modern industrial societies (T6nnies 1957 and 1974). Durkheim characterized the bond which unites the more tribal communities as mechanical solidarity and the one which fragily unites the modern industrial societies as organic solidarity (Durkheim 1983). His answer to alienation (Schacter 1970) and anomie was to be found in the collective unconsciousness that all members of a society shared and which enabled their common bond of Geseilschaft to continue its hold on the individual. Ferdinand de Saussure (1916) lectured on the concept of langue in his Cours de Lin-
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guistique G#nerale and attempted to model concept of language after those of Durkheim. The langue, however, was not to be equated with the Gesellsehaft or tile fragmented community but with the Gemeinsehaft or the community of speakers who are bound by a form of mechanical solidarity (St. Clair 1979). In the langue of de Saussure, then, there is an ideal community much in the same sense as Chomsky (1965) speaks of an ideal homogeneous community with its ideal speaker-hearer. But if there is an ideal homogeneous community, where are the vagaries of linguistic expression to be found? The answer, evidently, was in parole. It is at the level of linguistic use and language function. Within tile theoretical framework of transformational grammar, diversity is accounted for by a system of rules which transform langue into its dialectal variants. In doing so, it has provided a derivational link between the model and its application. When this concept is applied to the phenomenon of code-switching, similar claims are made. There is a basic underlying system of rules which provide contextual variants in different social contexts. It is by these rules that codes are switched, but it is through these rules that the variants of speech are linked to a common deep structure or systematic phonemic level. Hence, the model of codeswitching employed in sociolinguistics is inherently idealized "along the lines of the Gemeinschaft model of Ferdinand T6nnies (1957). The alternative model does exist within the framework of existential sociology (Douglas and Johnson 1977, Psathas 1973) and has many implications for coping with problems of linguistic diversity and the phenomenon of code-switching.
MODELS AND ROOT METAPHORS All knowledge is gained and experienced from a perspective. Concepts, like individuals, have their biographical histories and in order to understand them one must divulge their underlying metaphors. They either illustrate how one can see something from a particular point of view (analogic models) or they attempt to combine and integrate numerous aspects of original contexts (iconic models). When a model or a metaphor presents a fundamental image of the world and provides the underlying
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theme from which other models are derived, then, the model creates a "root metaphor" or a Weltanschaung. These basic models are so ingrained into one's academic socialization that they become nearly invisible. They are never challenged and remain as incorrigible postulates (Gaskin 1955). In sociology, for example, there are five principal root metaphors: Society is seen as an organism; society is modeled after machines; social conduct is viewed as a communicative exchange or language; tile roles in life are seen as a social drama; or social interaction is considered a game (Brown 1978). When Thomas Kuhn (1970) discussed his model of paradigm shifts from the normal science of the status quo to the revolutionary science with its new modes of cognition, he was essentially describing the role that root metaphors play in the ever changing spiral of scientific change. It is during such times of change that old ways of looking at things are supplanted by a new vision or metaphoric perspective. There have been numerous root metaphors operating within the history of linguistics. In diachronic linguistics, for example, August Schleicher spoke of a Stambaum Theorie of Indo-European languages in which the various member languages were related to a proto-language as the various branches of a tree are joined to a common trunk and connected by underlying root systems. For Johannes Schmidt the root metaphor was embodied in the wave-like dissemination of languages as they spread from a common origin (WeUen Theorie). But, even before there was the family tree model and the wave theory, there was the basic metaphor of the language family with its mother and daughter languages united by forms of historical kinship ¢Pederson 1962). With the sllift from diachronic to synchronic linguistics there emerged another root metaphor. August Comte (1972) belonged to the famous L'6cole Polytechnique in Paris under the tutelage of Saint-Simon. He shared in the vision that sociology would some day become a science and modeled his quest after the physics of his day. He argued that knowledge must pass through three stages of growth, beginning with the mysterious external forces of religion, then moving through the search for human knowledge in personal internal understanding, and finally culminating in the universal laws of positivism. Physics, then, became the acme of emulation among positivists. Ferdinand de Saussure (1916) was a victim of his Zeitgeist. He too wanted to model the study of language after physics and searched for general laws of
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linguistic behavior in his postulation of the concept oflangue. As a matter of fact, one of the issues confronting scholars before the turn of the century was the question of whether or not the study of language qualified as a science (Sayce 1880). There were some who argued for a separation of syntax and phonology, on the basis that the latter conformed to the dictates of positivism whereas the former was the product of uniclue experiences and belonged to historical linguistics. The Gemeinschaft model (1t" linguistics is a natural outgrowth of the positivism of the 19th century. It seeks to model the science of language after the natural science model of physics with its idealized conditions of in-vitro experimentation and its mathematical f(umt, lation of general laws. This quest for making linguistics a science can he found in the taxonomy of behavioral structuralism with its emphasis on classifying data in the inductive mode: it can also be found in the generative models o f language which attempts to formalize language behavior in terms o f idealized underlying forms which are divorced from the concrete social contexts from which they emerge. In the transition from de Saussure to Chomsky. the underlying root metaphor of positivism has remained consistent. Having summarized the linguistic paradigm of positivism, with its claims about an idealized community of speakers, we would consider an alternative root metaphor.
EXISTENTIAL SOCIOLINGUISTICS Stanford Lyman and Marvin Scott (1970) provide an informative model of language in society which has many immediate implications lot a model of code-switching. They call their model "a sociology of the absurd" after Martin Esslin's The Theatre o f the Absurd {Esslin 1%1). But their nomenclature involves more than an affinity for the literature of existentialism. What they have done, in essense, is to combine labelling theory, ethnomethodology, and symbolic interactionism into an integrated theory of language in social interaction. Their choice of the term "absurd" is predicted on the assumption that the world is essentially without meaning and that all systems of belief are arbitrary. Hence, "alienation and insecurity are characteristic of the human condition. The individuals, therefore, must carve out meanings for themselves in a
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world that is capricious and abitrary. This model, it should be noted, runs contrary to tile positivistic model in which obscure global forces are assumed to manipulate and control human behavior. In place of the abstract neutral forces of human nature, Lyman and Scott (1970) have focused on such concepts as human consciousness, personal intent, and social values. These aspects of behavior are given meaning within the frame of episodes, encounters, and situations in everyday interaction. One of the root metaphors in existential sociolinguistics is the game. The arena for such forms of social action is what Erving Goffman(1961) has termed a "focused gathering" or an "'encounter." The participants in an encounter become consciously aware of each other and define each other in terms of conversational images. What they do is determined by how they define tile situation (Lauer and Handel 1977). From this definition of "selF' and "other" comes various strategies for "impression management" (Goffman 1959), "face-work (Goffman 1967), or "framing" of a situation (Goffman 1969 and ITS71). Hence, one figuratively brackets tile situation into an immediate context of awareness in which there are boundaries which establish the parameters of discourse. One of tile games discussed by hyman and Scott (1970) involves the use of social distance. When the interactants wish to decrease social distance they employ both verbal anti nonverbal forms of expression. During the initial stages of such interaction, the participants stand the risk of being rejected. Hence, the use of language as an inst,ument to feel out the limits of one's acceptability to another. It is through this negotiation of trust that such interpersonal code-switching takes place. What is significant about tiffs model is that it sees code-switching as mere instrumental forms of macro-social behavior. The mode[ does not limit codeswitching to only verbal interation, but allows interpersonal adjustments to take place both verbally and kinesically. In addition, it does not claim that there are generalized laws of statistical behavior which can be divorced from human interaction. The form of personal interaction must be negotiated between the participants and cannot be neatly categorized into predetermined classes of social behavior. There are times when social distance needs to be increased and this calls for another language game. When one feels a betrayal of trust, they no longer share the same values and hold the same things sacrosanct. They
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no longer participate in the same Gemeinschaft. This negative relationship game may result in several strategies such as a denial o f commitment, a closing of the sources of privileged information, ostracization, a devaluation of others, etc. These forms o f social interaction can also account for the nature o f code-switching. However, these forms of social interaction cannot be categorized by an overall taxonomic scheme as the strategies, for increasing social distance depend on the emergence of the new conversational images that people hold of one another. Exploitation games also occur within the context of social behavior and are rather common forms of linguistic behavior. They occur frequently by men who define women in terms of sexual behavior or by women who seek compliance of men by utilizing the conventions o f their society. Some have argued that whenever two people get together and instigate a conversation this naturally rest, Its in some form o f exploitation (kyman and Scott 1970). This is because of the phenomenon o f power whereby one person is either privileged by the context or by the circumstances of the encounter. In some cultures, for example, age is venerated and the older participant naturally assumes a position of power and respect over his or her conversational partner. In status oriented societies, the power and prestige comes with title and profession. In a male-oriented society, women are disadvantaged and adjust their speech into a defensive mode (Key 1975; Thorne and Henley 1975). Another kind of game arises whenever one of the participants desires to either conceal information or divulge it. This game can be conceived in terms of a sequence of moves, whereby one attempts to control the information, cover it, uncover motives or recover one's position. The use of formal language sometimes fits into this kind o f information game. Under these circumstances the message is one of mystification (Berger and Luckmann 1967) and social distance. The desire of some to control television and to set the agenda of viewing habits also fits within this framework of information games (Eiseman 1979). Another aspect of tile game metaphor in the sociology of language involves tile use of accounts. This linguistic device is employed whenever someone questions sociolinguistic behavior; consequently, it is instrumental in preventing conflicts from arising, attenuating one's expectation on the verge of action, and justifying or excusing one's behavior before
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others. Tile two bacic types of accounts discussed by Lyman and Scott (1970~ are excuses and justifications. These are invoked when a person is accused of having done something contrary to social expectation. In tile case of justifications, tile person accused accepts the responsibility for the act in question, but strongly denies the pejorative associations linked to his or her actions. Hence, when one justifies a course of action, this involves a positive assertion of value. A common form of justification is denial of injury where the person accused acknowledges the action, but argues that no harm was done because no one was injured in the process. This technique of neutralization can be found in the redefinition of stealing as merely borrowing. Another basic form of justification is denial of the victim. In this case, it is argued that tile action was justified because tile victim deserved receiving tile injury. These are usually people that society have labelled as outsiders (Becket 1966). The condemnation of those who accuse is a common strategy o f cognitive dissonance (Festinger 1967). In this case, one admits performing an act of social disgrace, but argues that others also commit these acts and are not caught, nor punished, nor condemned. Appeal to loyalty is another form of justification. It argues that the action was permissible because it served tile interests of another to whom one owes allegiance or loyalty. This appeal was used during the Watergate affair by Cuban Americans as a justification of breaking and entering. Excuses differ from justifications in that it employs socially approved lexical phrase.s, while attempting to lessen or relieve the responsibility associated with a social disgrace. A common form of excuse is to appeal to accidents. This removes the responsibility directly from tile individual and places it in the realm of unknown and unseen acts of nature. Sometimes one avoids stigmatization by acquiring the label o f clumsiness or being accident prone. Another kind of excuse is associated with an appeal to defeasibility. In this case, it is argued that the person who did the wrong doing was not fully informed or that he or she suffered from impaired consciousness and should not be held responsible. This appeal is similar in many ways to the excuse that invokes biological drives as the reason for one's behavior. Scapegoating is also a form of an excuse for social disgrace. Instead o f instigating a course o f action it is argued that the Other party caused the problem and one was merely reacting to the situation. What is said and how it is said depends on the structure of interpersonal
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interaction. In the case of justifications and excuses, there are numerous strategies available, but not all are accepted equally by all cultures. In the more traditional Mexican society, for example, the appeal to fatalism is culturally accepted as a form of verbal ritual (St. Clair and Kaprosy 1975). A similar appeal to accidents is also culturally acceptable as a justification for social disfavor in Japan (St. Clair and Koo, in press). During the rise of the Third Reich, the use of scapegoating was the dominant strategy of social behavior and it was directed against non-Aryans (St. Clair, in press), in the United States, the strategy of denial of injury was prominent as a tactic of race relations during the turn of the century. Such a form of justification for wrongs brought against those who fall outside of one's own social group has been aptly described by William Ryan (1972) in his portrayal of Blaming the Victim. in a court of law, the appeal to defeasibility is common and crimes are excused because of an impaired consciousness or a plea of temporary insanity. What is significant about this game metaphor for the phenomenon of code-switching is that it provides a theoretical framework for describing and explicating the nature of verbal exchange between participaints in social interaction. To merely state that one has switched from formal to informal English, for example, is inadequate because it omits the intent of the participants, their consciousness of the situation and the values that they place on the verbal ritual. The shift may have been prompted or motivated by an appeal to loyalty or it may have been used in a paternizing way to deny injury to the victim. Hence, the significance of the game metaphor within existential sociolinguistics.
THE DRAMATURGIC MODEL OF SOCIAL INTERACTION Another root metaphor characteristically associated with existential sociolinguistics is that of theatricality (Burns 1973). It takes as its base the often quoted saying: Totus mundus agit histrionem (The whole world is a stage), and relates this metaphor to the dramaturgical models of social interaction of Goffman (1959), and the sociology of drama of kyman and Scott (1975). The word for theatre, it should be noted, is etymologically related to the word for "theory." Both are derived from the Greek the~trou which originally meant a place for viewing. The term was also
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associated with the concept of witnessing or viewing and referred to the envoys sent to consult or witness before the oracle, and to tile ambassadors of state who were delegated to attend sacred festivals and games in other cities and report back what they had viewed (kyman and Scott 1975). Truth or aletheia was also related to theory and theatre and literally meant "Unhiddenness" that which is hidden from view and which necessitates a seer or theoria to unravel its mysteries. Hence, the m e t a p h o r of the theater as a model for social interaction is rather promising. In the distinction that Ferdinand de Saussure (.1916) made between langue and parole there was no discussion provided on those forms of parole which are random from those which are linked with systematic uses. When Chomsky (1965) sets up his dichotomy of competence and performance 1, he also fails to make this distinction, but he also fails to note that certain forms of poor performance result from a lack of experience in performing an activity and not from a lack of underlying competence. When this dichotomy is used in claims about communicative competence (Savignon 1972), or in the ethnography of speaking (Hymes 1972), there is a concomitant lack of discussion on this point. However, in their discussion of tile dramaturgical model, kyman and Scott (1970) note that sometimes one may have an abstract level of competence about a given subject but still will be unable to perform because of the newness of the situation. They refer to this phenomenon as "stage fright" and recommend that it be avoided through the strategy of "rehearsals." After one has had the opportunity of feeling comfortable in a new social role, the level of performance increases substantially. Hence, the distinction that they make is significant in clarifying between poor performance which results frorn random behavior and a lack of competence and poor performance which results from a lack of experience within the domain of abstract competence 2 . Just as there are conventions for performance on the stage, there are also conventions for performance when one is interacting in a faceto-face encounter. Goffman t 1959) refers to the phenomenon of "front stage" where one performs and ~'back stage" where one relaxes and takes off his or her mask (persona). The stage, then, defines and frames the parameters for acting just as encounters, situations, and episodes frame the "front stage" behavior of interactants.
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Social roles are similar in form to the roles on stage. One must follow the ideal model of behavior while at the same time allowing one's personality to emerge and modify that role or performance (Hewitt 1976). Those who play a role without personal involvement do not involve themselves. This is sometimes referred to as an " e m p t y self." But regardless of how one's self influences or affects the performance, the fact remains that social behavior has become typified and has created a set o f social expectations which others demand whenever they witness a performance (Wagner 1970). The fact that code-switching occurs speaks clearly to the fact that people tacitly perform a multiple of social roles during the course of their daily interaction with one another. They have learned to associate these roles in some instances with the context in which they were learned. What this means, in essence, is that they are not fully cognizant of their multiple forms of social behavior. A common postulate in the sociology of knowledge is that social reality is constructed in accordance with the context in which it was encountered (Berger and kuckmann 1966). This dislocation of multiple selves emerge in more or less complementary distribution and determines the kinds of strategies that one uses in playing verbal games or staging an account. What is a justification in one context is not acceptable in another and what is given as an excuse in one social gathering is frowned upon in another. Finally, this disparity of social roles are tied inherently to cultural scripts which dicate the overall patterns of front stage behavior. Language is just one of the many parameters involved in the transition from one role to another or from one social game to another, Linguists, however, view the whole phenomenon as a linguistic one. What is needed in this instance is a micro-theory of code-switching in which the instrumental use of language and other forms of semiotic expression are readily explicated. The model described in this essay provides such a framework, it is based on research in symbolic interactionism and borrows from the rich tradition of dramaturgical sociology. It also relates to the concept o f emergence and the negotiation of social reality in the field of ethnomethodology (Mehan and Wood 1975).
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CONCLUDING REMARKS The concept of code-switching in linguistics is basically a descriptive task. Most studies are taxonomic and merely provide all illustrative array of patterns of expression. What is missing from the literature is a sociology of code-switching, i.e. a coherent theoretical framework in which tile various forms of verbal ritual can be fully explicated and empirically formulated. The dramaturgic model of Erving Goffman (1959) provides a host of rich theoretical concepts on the performance of self in everyday life. Similarly, the sociology of drama model of Stanford kyman and Marvin Scott ( 1970 and 1975) also creates a coherent framework for the study of social interaction. Other concepts that relate to "impression management" are "defining the situation" (Hewitt 1975; Lauer and Handel 1977) and the "authentication of conventions" (Burros 1973). The game model of social interaction also relates directly to the use of language behavior (kyman and Scott 1970). This field has already been developed into sophisticated mathematical models and could be readily incorporated into a more positivistic model of the sociology of language. Nevertheless, it does allow one to explain the structure of code-switching and the levels of formality employed in the process. In essence, it goes beyond the mere descriptivism of linguistic models of social interaction.
NOTES 1.
Chomsky's distinction is superficial, to say the least, and must not be equated with de Saussure's distinction of langue and parole, as was pointed out long ago in Peng (1969:93 8). For one thing, Chomsky"rejects langue on the one hand, and retains parole on the other oil the grounds that de Saussure's analysis of langue was merely a systematic inventory of items" (Peng 1969: 93). For another thing, Chomsky's discussions ( 1 9 6 5 : 4 - 1 8 ) "seem" to indicate that performance is subordinate to competence . . ." (Peng 1969: 96), a claim that is not at all parallel to de Saussure's langue and parole. Because "'langue, to many followers of de Saussure, appears to be a far more abstract concept than competence, almost a theoretical c o n s t r u c t . . . " (Peng 1969: 1 2 2 ) . - Editor
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2.
A clear distinction must be made between a speaker-hearer and a person with certain skills or talents, say, a musician, when terms such as "stage fright" etc. are drawn upon to explain competence and performance. It is quite true that the level of the musician's performance will differ substantially, whether he can feel comfortable on a stage and get over the stage fright or not. In this case, the distinction of competence and performance is useful. Because the musician always faces the same kind of audience; that is, when the musician's concert or recital is over, he is no longer in a context and does not have to face the audience again until the next time. In the meantime the musician can practice for improving the level of performance through the strategy o f rehearsals. It is a different matter, however, with regard to the speakerhearer's interaction (or communication) with others. He constantly faces differing types of audiences; that is, there is no vacuum (or rest) that he can escape into in the hope that he be allowed to practice. If he practices at all, he does it in a live but entirely new context where he must face a different audience who will judge and evaluate his speech act nonetheless, unless he shuts himself in a closet. In other words, getting used to differing contexts (i.e., practice in order to gain experience), as far as the speaker-hearer is concerned, is tantamount to acquiring (communicative) competence; his failure in one context, therefore, cannot be attributed to poor performance which results from a lack of experience, a privilege that may be enjoyed by the musician, but from random behavior and a lack of competence. In other words, in human communication (verbal as well as nonverbal interaction) the notions of competence and performance are trivial and their distinction, superfluous; in real life, one is either communicatively competent in a situation or he is not; if he is better the next time (a new situation, of course) he has become more competent, his speech act being the manifestation of his newly acquired competence. - Editor
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