jeffjarvis

SteveMcCarty , 8 hours ago

@jeffjarvis Thank you for calling attention to linguistic issues. As a longtime bilingualism researcher, I was surprised to see code-switching mentioned in a political context, as it means switching languages syntactically in a conversation, which I often do between English and Japanese strategically.

The video you shared clarifies that people switching ethnic dialects, registers, or accents should not be called code-switching but rather some alternative like style switching. As she emphasizes, everyone does it. Here in Japan where identity forefronts a person's role more than what they identify with, someone like my wife can have a different voice with each individual or type of interlocutor, like a bicycle with 50+ gears.

My publications on bilingualism are accessible and easy to understand, with my educational background also in journalism: https://japanned.hcommons.org/bilingualism

#bilingualism #language #languages #linguistics #syntax #politics #Japan

@linguistics @academicchatter

elysegrasso , 2 hours ago

@SteveMcCarty @jeffjarvis @linguistics @academicchatter I have seen 'code-switching' used for more than 30 years to refer to dialect and register switching based on social contexts. I think that ship has sailed long ago, and trying to narrow the meaning is just going to cause confusion in non-academic contexts where the broader use is general.