'Nous autres c’est toujours bilingue anyways': Code-Switching and Linguistic Displacement Among Bilingual Montréal Students

Code-switching is a linguistic phenomenon in which a bilingual speaker switches freely between their languages (codes) within a single utterance, conversational turn, or conversation. The author points out that linguists can often pinpoint a "we" code and a "they" code based on the speaker's respective comfort levels with the two languages. This categorization is more complex in bilingual Quebec, she argues, where English and French could be either "we" or "they" codes depending on whether the speaker is natively Francophone or Anglophone, or on the speaker's national or political identity. The author presents an examination of code-switching patterns among Francophone students enrolled in Anglophone institutions and Anglophone students enrolled in a Francophone institution. These students' (voluntary) linguistic displacement illuminates the way this phenomenon manifests among speakers outside of their linguistic comfort zone. She maintains that this provides insight into more profound Quebec identity issues, such as the ways that English- versus French-speakers view their linguistic role in the province's bilingual fabric.

American Review of Canadian Studies

Vol. 44

no. 3

279-292

September 2014

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