Language Mixing and Code-Switching in Writing: Approaches to Mixed-Language Written Discourse

After many years in which interest in language alternation has focussed almost entirely on spoken code-switching, recently there has been renewed interest in written mixed-language texts. However, at the moment there is no general agreement on what constitutes the subject area and there is no widely applicable framework for analysis. The aim of this volume is to correct the deficiency just mentioned. Contributors introduce a range of approaches applied to different types of 'multilingual texts' (this term is used as an inclusive one, which covers both 'code-switching' in a traditional sense and other types of language mixing), and the collection will cover a range of different languages (including different scripts) and research methods. New perspectives developed in this book will be: the development of approaches to analysis which are specific to written discourse rather than based on spoken discourse; the introduction of approaches from the new literacy studies, treating mixed-language literacy from a practice perspective; the drawing together of 'old' and 'new' media types, e.g. medieval manuscripts and text messaging.