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Code-shifting in Puerto Rican Spanish/English

Spanish and English are 'contact' languages in Puerto Rico. 'Contact' presumes that two or more languages function as communicative systems in the same geographical region, but with social and cultural constraints which cause a speaker to choose one of two or more languages on certain occasions. Code-shifting takes place in such a way that portions of discourse may alternate between Spanish and English. The units of shifting may be phonological, lexical, or syntactic in a variety of combinations. The constant interplay and interlocking of Puerto Rican Spanish with English suggests incipient creolization. The examination of the conditions of 'contact' above can provide insights into the nature of linguistic change and the role social constraints play in such change. Additionally, one can also take a new look at processes of creolization hitherto confined to static assumptions about language rather than conditions of dynamic change. Puerto Rican Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico is a language in contact with English. The result of this 'contact' is in many respects similar to that which obtains for Chicano Spanish and English. In the case of Puerto Rico, however, 'contact' dates from the period subsequent to 1898 and the North American conquest of the island. Linguists have approached the topic of language contact in Puerto Rico in various ways and from different theoretical positions (Lawton, 1971). Joe Dillard, in a perceptive and humorous article (1973), treats the outcome of this Spanish/English contact as a 'hybrid' referred to as Spanglish. Rose Nash (1970) treats the same situation as resulting in an 'autonomous' language. Neither of the two writers examines the force of social constraints in determining the conditions under which speakers shift from one language to another. It is this latter aspect of the language situation that I want to address; that is, the shifting from one 'code' to Linguistics 17 (1979), 257-265. © Mouton Publishers.