基本説明
The book is a sociolinguistic case study of district Six, an inner-city neighbourhood in Cape Town characterized by language mixing and switching of English and Afrikaans.
Full Description
The book is a sociolinguistic case study of District Six, an inner-city neighbourhood in Cape Town characterized by language mixing and switching of English and Afrikaans. Its early inhabitants included indigenous people, freed slaves of African and Asian origin, and immigrants from Europe and elsewhere. The ravages of apartheid affected the residents' attitudes towards their languages in various ways, which are described. The book examines the norms and practices regarding language choice for various functions and domains in the only surviving sector of District Six. It also contains detailed analyses of extended bilingual conversations showing a range of social, linguistic and discourse features. Of particular interest is the paradoxical polarization and blending of the two languages. They are strongly polarized symbolically and functionally, yet they are also habitually blended in vernacular speech through lexical borrowing and intrasentential language switching. This paradox has interesting implications for the construction of individual, community and language identity.
Contents
1. Introduction; 2. A history of language contact in the Cape Town area; 3. Perceptions of District Six: the place and its people; 4. Field work in the focal neighbourhood; 5. The Chapel Street neighbourhood and its codes; 6. Code choices in the family, the neighbourhood, the workplace; 7. Language in the schools; 8. Bilingual dialogue; 9. Conclusion
