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    Code switching and ethnicity in a community of practice

    Cover for Code switching and ethnicity in a community of practice
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    Creator
    De Fina, Anna
    Bibliographic Citation
    De Fina, Anna. "Code switching and ethnicity in a community of practice." Language in Society 36 (3):371-392.
    Abstract
    In the past twenty years the existence of a sense of ethnic belonging among immigrant groups of European ancestry in the United States has become the focus of frequent debates and polemics. This article argues that ethnicity cannot be understood if it is abstracted from concrete social practices, and that analyses of this construct need to be based on ethnographic observation and on the study of actual talk in interaction. This interactionally oriented perspective is taken to present an analysis of how Italian ethnicity is constructed as a central element in the collective identity of an all-male card playing club. Linguistic strategies, particularly code-switching, are central in this construction, but their role becomes apparent only when language use is analyzed within significant practices in the life of the club. Code-switching into Italian is used as an important index of ethnic affiliation in socialization practices related to the game and in official discourse addressed by the president to club members through the association of the language with central domains of activity.
    Permanent Link
    http://hdl.handle.net/10822/559318
    Date Published
    2007-05-19
    Subject
    ethnicity; community of practice; immigrant communities; Italian Americans--Ethnic identity; Italian language--Social aspects; Code switching (Linguistics);
    Type
    text
    Publisher
    Cambridge University Press
    Collections
    • Faculty Scholarship - Italian Department
    Metadata
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    Georgetown University Seal
    ©2009 - 2023 Georgetown University Library
    37th & O Streets NW
    Washington DC 20057-1174
    202.687.7385
    digitalscholarship@georgetown.edu
    Accessibility