| This study was designed to find out: (1) How New York Puerto Rican bilinguals label a mixture of English and Spanish, (2) attitudes toward the mixture, and (3) how the mixture compares linguistically with other accounts of code-switching behavior. An Attitude Questionnaire was administered to 106 consultants. Ten participated in face-to-face, tape-recorded interviews and provided casual speech samples. They labeled the mixture Spanglish and held positive attitudes toward Spanglish for interaction and in the media as a symbol of identity and unity. They viewed Spanglish negatively as a result of a lack of command of either or both languages and when used in formal settings with interlocutors other than relatives and close friends. An examination of 199 code switches in terms of grammatical category, language, type, and constraints showed the results compared favorably with Poplack (1982) and Zentella (1997a). [Pedagogical implications for returned migrants in Puerto Rico were considered.]... |
