Cover not available
Article published In:
Language, discourse and identities: Snapshot from Greek contexts
Edited by Alexandra Georgakopoulou and Vally Lytra
[Pragmatics 19:3] 2009
► pp. 361–391

Doing (Bi)lingualism: Language alternation as performative construction of online identities

The purpose of this paper is to examine practices of language alternation in email communication among native speakers of Greek and to argue that such practices are a facet of the performative construction of an ‘online’ communicative identity. In the slowly-growing body of literature on linguistic practices in computer-mediated communication (CMC) or computer-mediated discourse (CMD) it is emerging that concomitant aspects of linguistic performance relate to the construction of particular sociolinguistic identities relevant to the medium, or, to adopt a less radical perspective, that sociolinguistic identities typical of face-to-face or written interaction are mediated by the social/communicative practices and norms relevant to, or accruing to, types of CMD. Language alternation features prominently among the mechanisms used in constructing such novel linguistic/social-performative identities. In this context, the research presented in this paper examines the performance of a group of six native speakers of Greek, who are also part of a relatively closely-knit social network. The analysis reveals extensive code-switching between Greek and English, both inter- and intra-sentential, with English covering around 20% of the total of words used. The qualitative analysis shows that expressions of affect and evaluative comments are mostly in English, while Greek is reserved for the transmission of factual/referential information. The data further reveal that extensive style- or register-shifting and mixing is a favored strategy among members of the group; such mixing includes shifting among dialects or sociolects of Greek, the use of other languages, and, notably, the use of constructed words and structures with humorous overtones. This complex type of language play is an overarching feature of the group’s (socio)linguistic performance in asynchronous electronic communication, which may single them out as a localized community of practice. The data highlight the theoretical and methodological necessity for fine-grained accounts of specific types of CMD, which can be tackled not in terms of overarching macro-contextual linguistic and extralinguistic variables, but as dynamic reflexes both of specific participant constellations and of the negotiation of emerging generic norms within localized communities of practice. The paper also presents and discusses a quantitative study of views and attitudes on language alternation expressed by subjects who code-switch systematically on email, in an attempt to gauge the types of metalinguistic awareness involved. It emerges from the quantitative study that users abstract away from ‘phobic’ attitudes towards the use of English and that they treat language alternation as a manifestation of balanced or functional bilingualism, which is furthermore situation-specific and ‘genre’-appropriate.
Keywords: Code-mixing, Code-switching, Computer mediated discourse, Language alternation, Ingroup, Performativity
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 1 September 2009
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.19.3.04tsi
References (90)
Anderson, B. (1983) Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Androutsopoulos, J. (2006a) Introduction: Sociolinguistics and computer-mediated communication. Journal of Sociolinguistics 101: 419-438. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. (2006b) Multilingualism, diaspora and the Internet: Codes and identities on German-based diaspora websites. Journal of Sociolinguistics 101: 520-547. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. (2001) Από dieuthinsi σε diey8ynsh. Ορθογραφική ποικιλότητα στη λατινική μεταγραφή των ελληνικών. [From dieuthinsi to diey8ynsh. Orthographic variation in the latinized transliteration of Greek]. In Y. Agouraki, A. Arvaniti, J. Davy, D. Goutsos, M. Karyolemou, A. Panayotou, A. Papapavlou, P. Pavlou & A. Roussou (eds.), Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Greek Linguistics. Thessaloniki: University Studio Press, pp. 383-390.Google Scholar
Archakis, A., and V. Tsakona (2006) Script oppositions and humorous targets: Promoting values and constructing identities via humour in Greek conversational data. Stylistyka 151: 119-134.Google Scholar
Antonopoulou, E., and M. Sifianou (2003) Conversational dynamics of humour: Τhe telephone game in Greek. Journal of Pragmatics 351: 741-769. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Attardo, S. (2001) Humorous Texts: A Semantic and Pragmatic Analysis. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Auer, P. (2005) A postscript: Code-switching and social identity. Journal of Pragmatics 371: 403-410. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
. (1999) From code-switching via language mixing to fused lects: Toward a dynamic typology of bilingual speech. International Journal of Bilingualism 31: 309-332. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. (ed.) (1998) Code-Switching in Conversation: Language, Interaction and Identity. New York & London: Routledge.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Auer, P., and L. Wei (eds.) (2007) Handbook of Multilingualism and Multilingual Communication. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Baron, Ν. (2000) Alphabet to Email: How Written English Evolved and Where it's Heading. New York & London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baym, N. (2000) Tune In, Log On: Soaps, Fandom and On-Line Community. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
. (1998) The emergence of on-line community. In S.G. Jones (ed.), Cybersociety 2.0. Revisiting Computer-Mediated Communication and Community. London: Sage, pp. 35-68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bauman, R. (1975) Verbal art as performance. American Anthropologist 771: 290-311.  BoP DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bauman, R., and C.L. Briggs (1990) Poetics and performance as critical perspectives on language and social life. Annual Review of Anthropology 191: 59-88. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Bhatia, V.K. (2004) Words of Written Discourse: A Genre-based View. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice. London: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buszard-Welcher, L. (2001). Can the Web save my language? In L. Hinton & K. Hale (eds.), The Green Book of Language Revitalization in Practice. San Diego: Academic Press, pp. 331-348. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Canakis, C. (2008) Γλώσσα, αρσενικότητα και σεξουαλικότητα στο διαδίκτυο [Language, masculinity and sexuality on the internet]. Studies in Greek Linguistics 28. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Institute for Modern Greek Studies, pp. 159-170.Google Scholar
Crystal, D. (2001) Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Danet, B. (2001) Cyberpl@y: Communicating Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
. (1995) General introduction. Playful expressivity and artfulness in computer-mediated communication. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 11. [URL] Accessed 8 May 2006Google Scholar
Danet, B., and S. Herring (eds.) (2007) The Multilingual Internet. Language, Culture, and Communication Online. USA: Oxford University Press. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Danet B., and S. Herring (2003) Introduction: The Multilingual Internet. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication 91 [URL] Accessed 21 January 2005Google Scholar
Danet, B., L. Ruedenberg, and Y. Rosenbaum-Tamari (1998) “Hmmm...where’s all that smoke coming from?” Writing, play and performance on Internet Relay Chat. In S. Rafaeli, F. Sudweeks & M. McLaughlin (eds.), Network and Netplay: Virtual Groups on the Internet.Cambridge, MA: AAAI/MIT Press, pp. 41-76.Google Scholar
del-Teso-Craviotto, M. (2006) Language and sexuality in Spanish and English dating chats. Journal of Sociolinguistics 101: 460-480. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Oliveira, S.M. (2007) Breaking conversational norms on a Portuguese users’ network. InDanet B. & S. Herring (eds.), pp. 256-278.
Ellis, C. (2004) The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel about Autoethnography. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.Google Scholar
Fishman, J. (2000) Who speaks what language to whom and when? In L. Wei (ed.), pp. 89-106.
Geertz, C. (1973) Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture. In The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books, pp. 3-30.Google Scholar
Georgakopoulou, A. (2004) To tell or not to tell? Email stories between on- and offline interactions. Language@Internet 11 [URL] Accessed 25 January 2008.Google Scholar
. (2003) Computer-mediated communication. In J. Verschueren, J.-O. Östman, J. Blommaert & C. Bulcaen (eds.), Handbook of Pragmatics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 1-20. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
. (2002) Narrative and identity management: Discourse and social identities in a tale of tomorrow. Research on Language and Social Interaction 351: 427-451. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
. (1997) Self-presentation and interactional alliances in e-mail discourse: The style- and code-switches of Greek messages. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 71: 141-164. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Goutsos, D. (2005) The interaction of generic structure and interpersonal relations in two-party e-chat discourse. Language@Internet 21 [URL] Accessed 25 January 2008.Google Scholar
. (2001) A discourse-analytic approach to the use of English in Cypriot Greek conversations. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 111: 194-223. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Gruber, H. (2000) Theme and intertextuality in scholarly e-mail messages. Functions of Language 71: 79-115. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Gumperz, J. (1982) Conversational code-switching. In J. Gumperz (ed.), Discourse Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 59-99.  BoP DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawisher, G., and C. Selfe (eds.) (2000) Global Literacies and the World-Wide Web. London & New York: Routledge.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Herring, S. (2007) A faceted classification scheme for Computer-Mediated Discourse. Language@Internet 41. [URL] Accessed 25 January 2008.Google Scholar
. (2001) Computer-mediated discourse. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen & H.E. Hamilton (eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 612-634.Google Scholar
. (ed.) (1996) Computer Mediated Communication: Linguistic, Social and Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Herring, S., and J. Paolillo (2006) Gender and genre variation in weblogs. Journal of Sociolinguistics 101:439-459. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hine, C. (2000) Virtual Ethnography. London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koutsogiannis, D., and B. Mitsikopoulou (2007) Greeklish and Greekness. In B. Danet & S. Herring (eds.), pp. 142-161. DOI logo
Kress, G., and T. Van Leeuwen (2001) Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication. London: Arnold.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Mackey, W. (2000) The description of bilingualism. In L. Wei (ed.), pp. 26-56.
Makri-Tsilipakou, M. (1999a) E: Χρησιμοποιείτε ξένες λέξεις όταν μιλάτε; A: Never ((γέλια)). [Q: Do you use foreign words when you speak? A: Never ((laughter))]. In A.-F. Christidis (ed.), ‘Strong’ and ‘Weak’ Languages in the European Union: Aspects of Linguistic Hegemonism. Thessaloniki: Centre for the Greek Language, pp.439-447 (Gr.), pp. 448-457 (Engl.).Google Scholar
. (1999b) Νεοελληνική και ξενόγλωσσες μονάδες: Δανεισμός ή αλλαγή κώδικα; [Modern Greek and foreign language units: Borrowing or code switching?]. In A. Moser et al. (eds.), Greek Linguistics ’97. Proceedings of the 3rd International Linguistic Conference for the Greek Language, Athens, 25-27 September 1997. Athens: Ellinika Grammata, pp. 575-585.Google Scholar
Martin, J.R. (1997) Analysing genre: Functional parameters. In F. Christie & J.R. Martin (eds.), Genre and Institutions. Social Processes in the Workplace and School.London: Cassell, pp. 3-39.Google Scholar
Matsagouras, E.G., and S. Tsiplakou (2008) Who’s afraid of genre? Genres, functions, text types and their implications for a pedagogy of critical literacy. Scientia Paedagogica Experimentalis - International Journal of Experimental Research in Education XLV.11: 71-90.Google Scholar
Matsuda, P.K. (2002) Negotiation of identity and power in a Japanese online discourse community. Computers and Composition 191: 39-55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McNeill, L. (2005) Genre under construction: The diary on the Internet. Language@Internet 21 [URL] Accessed25 January 2008.Google Scholar
McSwan, J. (1999) A Minimalist Approach to Intrasentential Code Switching. New York: Garland Press.Google Scholar
Meeuwis, M., and J. Blommaert (1998) A monolectal view of code-switching: Layered code-switching among Zairians in Belgium. In P. Auer (ed.), pp. 76-100.
Miller, C.R. (1994) Rhetorical community: The cultural basis of genre. In A. Freedman & P. Medway (eds.), Genre and the New Rhetoric. London: Taylor & Francis, pp. 67-78.Google Scholar
. (1984) Genre as social action. Quarterly Journal of Speech 701: 151-167. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milroy, L. (1987) Language and Social Networks. Oxford: B. Blackwell.Google Scholar
Milroy, L., and P. Muysken (eds.) (1995) One Speaker, Two Languages: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Codeswitching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Milroy, L., and L. Wei (1995) A social network approach to code-switching: The example of a bilingual community in Britain. In L. Milroy & P. Muysken (eds.), pp. 136-157. DOI logo
Moschonas, S.A. (2004) Relativism in language ideology: Greece’s latest “language issues”. Journal of Modern Greek Studies 221: 173-206. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Muysken, P. (2000) Bilingual Speech. A Typology of Code-Mixing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Myers-Scotton, C. (2002) Contact Linguistics. Bilingual Encounters and Grammatical Outcomes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. (2000) Code-switching as indexical of social negotiations. In L. Wei (ed.), pp. 137-165.
Nettle, D., and S. Romaine (2000) Vanishing Voices. The Extinction of the World's Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Nishimura, Y. (2007) Linguistic innovations and interactional features in Japanese BBS communication. In B. Danet & S. Herring (eds.), pp. 163-184. DOI logo
Paolillo, J.C. (2001) Language variation on Internet Relay Chat: A social network approach. Journal of Sociolinguistics 51: 180-213. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. (1996) Language choice on soc.culture.punjab. Electronic Journal of Communication/La Revue electronique de Communication 61 [URL] Accessed January 21 2005Google Scholar
Panopoulos, P. (2005) Retour au village natal. Associations locales et renouveau culturel. Ethnologie française 21: 243-253. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Papataxiarchis, E. (1991) Friends of the heart: Male commensal solidarity, gender, and kinship in Aegean Greece. In P. Loizos & E. Papataxiarchis (eds.), Contested Identities: Gender and Kinship in Modern Greece. Princeton, NJ: University Press, pp. 156-179. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Phillipson R., and T. Skutnabb-Kangas (1999) Englishization: One dimension of globalization. In R. Jacobson (ed.), Codeswitching Worldwide. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 125-150.Google Scholar
Poplack S. (2000) Sometimes I’ll start a sentence in Spanish y termino en español: Toward a typology of code switching. In L. Wei (ed.), pp. 221-256.
. (1980) Sometimes I’ll start a sentence in Spanish y termino en español: toward a typology of code switching. Linguistics 181: 581-618. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Siebenhaar, B. (2005) Die dialektale Verankerung regionaler Chats in der deutschsprachigen Schweiz. In E. Eggers, J.E. Schmidt & D. Stellmacher (eds.), Moderne Dialekte – Neue Dialektologie. Stuttgart: Steiner, pp. 691–717.Google Scholar
Sifianou, M. (1992) Politeness Phenomena in England and Greece: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Oxford: Clarendon Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Swales, J.M. (1990) Genre Analysis. English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tseliga, T. (2007) “It’s all Greeklish to me!” In B. Danet, & S. Herring (eds.), pp. 116-142. DOI logo
Tsiplakou, S. (2003/in press) Linguistic attitudes and emerging hyperdialectism in a diglossic setting: Young Cypriot Greeks on their language. In C. Yoquelet (ed.), Berkeley Linguistic Society 29. Special Volume: Minority and Diasporic Languages of Europe. Berkeley, CA: University of California at Berkeley.Google Scholar
. (2004) Στάσεις απέναντι στη γλώσσα και γλωσσική αλλαγή. Μια αμφίδρομη σχέση; [Attitudes towards language and language change: a two-way relation?] In G. Catsimali, A. Kalokairinos, E. Anagnostopoulou & I. Kappa (eds.), Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Greek Linguistics. Rethymno: Linguistics Lab. CD-Rom.Google Scholar
. (2006) Cyprus: Language situation. In K. Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. 2nd Edition.Oxford: Elsevier, pp. 337-339. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. (2009) Code-switching and code-mixing between related varieties: Establishing the blueprint. The International Journal of Humanities 61: 49-66.Google Scholar
Tsiplakou, S., A. Papapavlou, P. Pavlou, and M. Katsoyannou (2006) Levelling, koineization and their implications for bidialectism. In F. Hinskens (ed.), Language Variation – European Perspectives. Selected Papers from the 3rd International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 3), University of Amsterdam, 23-25 June 2005.Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 265-276. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (ed.) (2005) Measuring Linguistic Diversity on the Internet. Paris: UNESCO. [URL] Accessed 14 December 2007Google Scholar
Warschauer M., G. Said, and A. Zohry (2002) Language choice online: Globalization and identity in Egypt. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication 71 [URL] Accessed 5 May 2005.Google Scholar
Wei, L., L. Milory, and P.S. Ching (2000) A two-step sociolinguistic analysis of code-switching and language choice: The example of a bilingual Chinese community in Britain. In L. Wei (ed.), pp. 188-209. DOI logo
Wei, L. (ed.) (2000) The Bilingualism Reader. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wright, S. (ed.) (2004) Multilingualism on the Internet. International Journal on Multicultural Societies 61 [URL] Accessed 17 December 2007Google Scholar
Yang, G. (2003) The Internet and the rise of a transnational Chinese cultural sphere. Media, Culture and Society 251: 469-549. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Yates, S.J. (1996) Oral and written linguistic aspects of computer conferencing. In S. Herring (ed.), pp. 29-46. DOI logo
Cited by (26)

Cited by 26 other publications

Karpava, Sviatlana
2024. Multilingual linguistic landscape of Cyprus. International Journal of Multilingualism 21:2 ► pp. 823 ff. DOI logo
Romanowski, Piotr
2023. Digitally mediated code-switching in transnational families in Australia: Fathers and children. New Media & Society DOI logo
Dickinson, Jennifer A.
2022. Introduction. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) ► pp. 507 ff. DOI logo
Pérez-Sabater, Carmen
2022. Mixing Catalan, English and Spanish on WhatsApp. Spanish in Context 19:2 ► pp. 289 ff. DOI logo
Karatsareas, Petros
2021. From village talk to slang: the re-enregisterment of a non-standardised variety in an urban diaspora. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 42:9 ► pp. 827 ff. DOI logo
Gardner‐Chloros, Penelope
2020. Contact and Code‐Switching. In The Handbook of Language Contact, ► pp. 181 ff. DOI logo
Lising, Loy, Pam Peters & Adam Smith
2020. Code-switching in online academic discourse. English World-Wide. A Journal of Varieties of English 41:2 ► pp. 131 ff. DOI logo
Ndlangamandla, Sibusiso Clifford
2020. Language Alternation in Online Forums: English Monolingual Normativity and Multilingual Practices. Scrutiny2 25:1 ► pp. 43 ff. DOI logo
Pérez-Sabater, Carmen & Ginette Maguelouk Moffo
2019. Managing identity in football communities on Facebook: Language preference and language mixing strategies. Lingua 225 ► pp. 32 ff. DOI logo
Dailey-O’Cain, Jennifer
2017. Language Ideologies, Multilingualism, and Social Media. In Trans-National English in Social Media Communities, ► pp. 23 ff. DOI logo
Fotiou, Constantina
2017. English–Greek code-switching in Greek Cypriot magazines and newspapers – an analysis of its textual forms and functions. Journal of World Languages 4:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Fotiou, Constantina
2019. Debunking a myth: The Greek language in Cyprus is not being destroyed. A linguistic analysis of Cypriot Greek–English codeswitching. International Journal of Bilingualism 23:6 ► pp. 1358 ff. DOI logo
Georgalou, Mariza
2016. ‘I make the rules on my Wall’: Privacy and identity management practices on Facebook. Discourse & Communication 10:1 ► pp. 40 ff. DOI logo
Bucher, Claudia
2015. Code-switching in SMS communication. In Language Variation - European Perspectives V [Studies in Language Variation, 17], ► pp. 43 ff. DOI logo
Hillewaert, Sarah
2015. Writing with an Accent: Orthographic Practice, Emblems, and Traces on Facebook. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 25:2 ► pp. 195 ff. DOI logo
Hillewaert, Sarah
2022. Digital Orality? Reimagining and Reclaiming Vernacular Pronunciations Through Digitally Mediated Communication. In Digital Orality, ► pp. 33 ff. DOI logo
Themistocleous, Christiana
2015. Digital code-switching between Cypriot and Standard Greek: Performance and identity play online. International Journal of Bilingualism 19:3 ► pp. 282 ff. DOI logo
James, Allan R.
2014. English as a visual language. English Text Construction 7:1 ► pp. 18 ff. DOI logo
Jaworska, Sylvia
2014. Playful language alternation in an online discussion forum: The example of digital code plays. Journal of Pragmatics 71 ► pp. 56 ff. DOI logo
Seargeant, Philip & Caroline Tagg
2014. Introduction: The language of social media. In The Language of Social Media, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Seargeant, Philip, Caroline Tagg & Wipapan Ngampramuan
2012. Language choice and addressivity strategies in Thai‐English social network interactions. Journal of Sociolinguistics 16:4 ► pp. 510 ff. DOI logo
Tagg, Caroline & Philip Seargeant
2012. Writing systems at play in Thai-English online interactions. Writing Systems Research 4:2 ► pp. 195 ff. DOI logo
Androutsopoulos, Jannis
2010. Localizing the Global on the Participatory Web. In The Handbook of Language and Globalization, ► pp. 201 ff. DOI logo
Androutsopoulos, Jannis
2015. Networked multilingualism: Some language practices on Facebook and their implications. International Journal of Bilingualism 19:2 ► pp. 185 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2016. Second-language Discourse in the Digital World [Language Learning & Language Teaching, 46], DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2018. Bibliographie. In Textos : assemblages hétérosémiotiques [Champs linguistiques, ], ► pp. 297 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.