ABSTRACT

Defining bilingualism goes hand in hand with understanding what it means to be bilingual. As an interdisciplinary field, the study of bilingualism provides us with insights into every aspect of language and language use, from models of language structure and discourse, to a deeper understanding of language acquisition, brain structure and cognitive functions, to language policy and curriculum building. This chapter examines motivations behind language choice and how the bilingual’s choice of language can impact a conversation to create distance or intimacy, assert authority and status, or create solidarity with other speakers. It considers the use of mixed code in popular media as a means to signal a shift in the status of a community and its speakers, or to highlight the presence of a minority group. The chapter explores the less acknowledged yet important notion of cultural codeswitching among speakers of nonstandard varieties, and the pressure experienced by members of some minority communities to codeswitch to the standard variety.