Code-switching in francophone text messages as a tool of affiliation in modern society

In today's realities of expanding language contacts in the general movement of globalization, when everyday language practice is increasingly multilingual and the use of some languages is sometimes perceived as a threat to others, plurilingualism deserves attention in all its manifestations.

These SMS communications data provide special access to everyday communication practices. Their analysis can make a significant contribution to knowledge about the diversity of multilingual communicative practices. Based on the material of texts of mobile-mediated SMS-communication, forms and functions of code switching (CS) in written communication with using a mobile device are investigated. The main results of CS research in SMS communication are presented; analysis of CS characteristics of analyzed messages in French is given as basic. We are talking about linguistic hybridization, addressing to certain standard forms of CSs, using internationalized formulas, connections of CSs with a certain number of fashionable or cosmopolitan tone reference areas. The CS is a means of demonstration of the belonging the communicants to the modern translinguistic globalized community. The article proposes a systematic description of multilingual practices in written communication mediated by mobile devices, and raises the question of their social significance. The research is based on an extensive body of messages collected empirically, the main language of which is French. The following results are consistent with code switching studies, demonstrating that language choice is connected with practical aspects. They emphasize the emergence of new multilingual spaces, pointing to the transformation of the traditional nature of communicative exchange, which erases the boundaries between monolingual and multilingual practices.

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