Heteroglossia and the Construction of Asian American Identities

The use of code-switching in a videotaped conversation between a Chinese American, a Korean American, & an African American (all male, aged 23-25) is analyzed. By drawing on their heteroglossic repertoires of a vulgar register of Korean, English inflected with African American Vernacular English...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Issues in applied linguistics 1997-06, Vol.8 (1), p.47-62
Main Author: Lo, Adrienne
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The use of code-switching in a videotaped conversation between a Chinese American, a Korean American, & an African American (all male, aged 23-25) is analyzed. By drawing on their heteroglossic repertoires of a vulgar register of Korean, English inflected with African American Vernacular English, & formal English, the participants index specific ethnic identities for themselves & for each other while collaboratively constructing the ethnic identity of a woman. Yet because a single act of language can have both affiliative & disaffiliative ramifications & because participants' ideologies about even individual words can vary, the indexical meaning of the code-switching is not always shared. It is thus argued that any anaylsis of code-switching must take into account the local constitution of identities & ideologies as well as the multivocalic nature of language. 7 Tables, 2 Figures, 10 References. Adapted from the source document
ISSN:1050-4273
2379-4542
DOI:10.5070/L481005252