On principles and conditions underlying code-switching

In the current state of language-contact research, code-switching (CS) studies have been mainly concerned with clearly separated, often typologically distant, pairs of languages. One question that has been insufficiently explored is whether both syntactic models and pragmatic functional models which are intended to account for code-switching patterns can straightforwardly be applied to situations where the languages in contact are the standard language and a genetically related dialect. It is reasonable to assume that conditions and constraints may be shaped differently depending on different contact situations. This could lead us to claim that different models of CS can be selected heuristically on the basis of types of contact situations to be accounted for.

As a case in point, I shall focus on the Italian situation because I assume that investigating this specific situation might provide us with broader insights into a range of comparable cases. So far, contact phenomena in Italy have attracted the attention of traditional dialectologists interested in the process of italianisation of dialects or, conversely, in the influence of dialects on Regional Italian. Indeed, switching behaviour between Italian and dialects has scarcely been investigated, either empirically or theoretically.

The structure of this chapter is as follows: I will first discuss some general issues by relating them to the Italian situation (section 1), and will later describe at some length the presence and uses of varieties in the Italian repertoire (section 2).