Social stratification and patterns of code-switching in Early English letters

Abstract

The study deals with multilingualism in a historical perspective, focusing on code-switching between English and other languages in letters written in fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century England. The data is drawn from the Corpus of Early English Correspondence, a large electronic tool designed for historical sociolinguistic research. A related database containing background information on the writers makes it possible to apply the framework of correlational sociolinguistics. While testing the relationship of code-switching with many social variables, the study concentrates on social stratification. The analysis shows clear correlation between the writers' social rank and their code-switching behaviour both in terms of quantity and quality. Other interlinked variables such as gender and education are also significant. The study also confirms that for a full understanding of the phenomenon, microlevel analyses of idiolects and interpersonal relations are needed.