Article published in:
Space for all? European perspectives on minority languages and identityEdited by Dawn Archer, Christopher Williams and Paul Fryer
[Pragmatics and Society 4:2] 2013
► pp. 137–157
Creating a ‘new space’
Code-switching among British-born Greek-Cypriots in London
This paper, located in the traditions of Interactional Sociolinguistics (Gumperz 1982) and Social Constructionism (Berger and Luckmann 1966), explores code-switching and identity practices amongst British-born Greek-Cypriots. The speakers, members of a Greek-Cypriot youth organization, are fluent in English and (with varying levels of fluency) speak the Greek-Cypriot Dialect. Qualitative analyses of recordings of natural speech during youth community meetings and a social event show how a new ‘third space’ becomes reified through code-switching practices. By skillfully manipulating languages and styles, speakers draw on Greek-Cypriot cultural resources to accomplish two inter-related things. First, by displaying knowledge of familiar Greek-Cypriot cultural frames, they establish themselves as different from mainstream British society and establish solidarity as an in-group. Secondly, by using these frames in non-serious contexts, and at times mocking cultural attitudes and stereotypes, they challenge and re-appropriate their inherited Greek-Cypriot identity, thereby constructing the identity of British-born Greek-Cypriot youth.
Keywords: bilingualism, code-switching, third space, identity, teasing, reification, Greek-Cypriot, sociolinguistics
Published online: 21 June 2013
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.4.2.02fin
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.4.2.02fin
Cited by
Cited by 8 other publications
Ben Nafa, Hanan
Blitvich, Pilar Garcés-Conejos & Alex Georgakopoulou
Fage-Butler, Antoinette & Patrizia Anesa
Liu, Hong
Liu, Hong
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 17 april 2022. 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.