Acceso usuarios
Stephanie M. Knouse, Renee Neves, Daria Acosta Rua
The present study explores Spanish-English speakers’ attitudes toward bilingual discourse in the Upstate of South Carolina. Implementing a mixed methods approach, survey data and socio-linguistic interviews targeting bilinguals’ attitudes toward English-origin nonce borrowings, loan-shifts, and codeswitching were examined. Quantitative analyses revealed that monolingual examples were significantly preferred over bilingual examples. Of the bilingual survey items, speakers accepted loanshifts more than nonce borrowings. Self-reported balanced bilinguals and second-generation Latinos rated lexical innovations more favorably than their counterparts. Results of the qualitative analyses indicate that the majority of participants expressed a neutral or negative opinion toward language contact phenomena, whereas a minority regarded it as an important communicative resource and a symbol of identity. It is argued that negative perceptions of bilingual discourse can be attributed to normative monolingual and monoglossic language ideologies as well as to the belief that non-standard language practices represent language degeneration. The article concludes with a call to action of informing the community of the harmful attitudes toward bilingual discourse in an effort to shift pervasive language attitudes in the Upstate and the country.
