Language Mixing and Code-Switching in Writing: Approaches to Mixed-Language Written Discourse. Mark Sebba, Shahrzad Mahootian and Carla Jonsson (eds) (2012) New York: Routledge. Pp. x + 280 ISBN: 978-0-415-87946-0 (Hrdbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-13613-3 (eBook)

Abstract

Language Mixing and Code-Switching in Writing: Approaches to Mixed-Language Written Discourse. Mark Sebba, Shahrzad Mahootian and Carla Jonsson (eds) (2012) New York: Routledge. Pp. x + 280 ISBN: 978-0-415-87946-0 (Hardback) ISBN: 978-0-203-13613-3 (eBook)Reviewed by Aleksi MakilahdeIn the past few decades, studies on multilingualism have become central especially in the field of sociolinguistics. The majority of the earlier studies have focused on spoken language and code-switching in conversation, but it is clear that for millennia and even today multilingualism is present also in written discourse. Some researchers have previously applied theories of multilingualism and code-switching to written data, but the theoretical and methodological discussion has centred especially on spoken data. To some extent, the existing theories and models can be applied to written material, but the written medium itself poses questions and problems that the researchers have to take into consideration.Language Mixing and Code-Switching in Writing: Approaches to Mixed- Language Written Discourse sets out to answer some of these questions, but more importantly it takes as its goal to draw attention to them and the multiple methods and data sources available for researchers. The book consists of thirteen articles (or chapters), each presenting one type of data source for written multilingualism. The first chapter is a theoretical and methodological introduction, and each chapter includes specific discussion on these topics. I shall briefly summarise the contents of each article and conclude with an overall review of the book.The first chapter by Mark Sebba (pp. 1-26) discusses some of the methodological and theoretical issues in studies on multilingual texts. Sebba argues that there should be a coherent framework for researchers working with multilingual written data, but since one of the aims of the book is to present several different research methods, the framework relates mostly to questions of how multilingual texts are produced and read, or in other words the literary practices which form the context for the texts. In addition to the well-established features of written discourse (e.g. its permanence compared with spoken interaction), Sebba dedicates a major part of the chapter to the discussion of the visual features of mixed-language texts and texts as images. This move from text as merely text to text as a written whole seems especially fruitful, and it has been adapted in many of the following chapters.Chapter 2 by Herbert Schendl (pp. 27-43) is one of the two historical studies in the book. Schendl presents a survey both of the general phenomenon of medieval mixed-language texts and of previous research. His case study comprises of analyses and comparison of two very different genres: Old English charters and Middle English sermons (both surviving in manuscript format). The analyses include discussion on both formal and functional features of the texts, but the main contribution of this chapter is that it shows how multilingualism in writing was a widely used and non-stigmatised discourse strategy in medieval Britain.Chapter 3 by Arja Nurmi and Paivi Pahta (pp. 44-67) is the other historical study. Even though they, too, analyse multilingualism in historical English (between the years 1400 and 1800), they focus on one specific text type: correspondence written by women. The chapter includes a lengthy discussion of the socio-historical context of the texts and the corpus methods that were used in the analysis. However, the main part of the text is dedicated to the analysis of the functions of the switched passages with qualitative methods. Nurmi and Pahta show that code-switching has several different functions, some of which are more textual (e.g. genre-specific conventions) and some more pragmatic (e.g. expressing identity).In Chapter 4 (pp. 68-88), Cecilia Montes-Alcala studies code-switching in three U. …