Miwa Nishimura, Japanese/English code-switching: Syntax and pragmatics. (Berkeley insights in linguistics and semiotics, 24.) New York: Peter Lang, 1997. Pp. xx, 176. Hb $43.95.

Abstract

This book reminds us that code-switching is not only a classic topic, but also an important and highly challenging one. In distinction from previous studies, this work reveals that a bilingual community of second-generation Japanese Canadians (Niseis), in Toronto, has three distinct types of bilingual speech: a basically Japanese variety, a basically English variety, and a mixed variety. Nishimura analyzes these three bilingual speech varieties and provides an answer to the fundamental question in code-switching: “Who speaks what language to whom, and on what occasions?” That is, this research ascribes the motivation of this variability to the “intended audience.” These Niseis choose the basically Japanese variety when they speak to native Japanese people; when they speak to fellow Niseis who have always lived in Canada, they choose the basically English variety; and when they speak to a group comprising both native Japanese and Niseis, they use the mixed variety, oscillating between Japanese and English. They switch among these codes even in the middle of storytelling. What is important here, for the bilingual speakers, is to address two questions: “Who is present in the audience of the ongoing conversational situation?”; and more specifically, “To whom is the current production of this utterance directed?”