Code-switching and the politics of language

Abstract

This chapter argues that the study of code-switching illuminates language politics only to the extent that it is situated in the broader study of language practices. Code-switching has to be seen as an interactional moment whose significance can only become apparent when linked to other instances of language use. The chapter aims to use code-switching in an extended sense, to refer not only to instances of inter-sentential switching, but also to less structurally integrated instances of language alternation or language choice. Code-switching becomes available as a resource for the exercise of, or resistance to, power by virtue of its place in the repertoires of individual speakers, on the one hand, and of its position with respect to other forms of language practices in circulation, on the other. More attention has been given in the literature to strategies of domination, resistance and mobilisation than to strategies adopted by formerly dominant groups in the face of successful mobilisation.