Book contents
- The New Cambridge History of the English Language
- The New Cambridge History of the English Language
- The New Cambridge History of the English Language
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Maps
- Contributors to Volume I
- General Preface
- Abbreviations
- General Editor’s Introduction
- Introduction to Volume I
- Part I The Context of English
- Part II Contact and External Influences
- 6 Early Contact with Celtic
- 7 Latin in the Early History of English
- 8 Scandinavian Influence
- 9 Anglo-Norman, Its Dictionary and the Study of English Vocabulary
- 10 Code-Switching and Language Mixing
- 11 Early Standardisation
- 12 Neoclassical Borrowings: ‘Hard Words’ in English
- 13 Typological Reorientation in the History of English
- Part III The Long View by Levels and Areas
- Appendix: Recommended Reading
- Index
- References
10 - Code-Switching and Language Mixing
from Part II - Contact and External Influences
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 October 2025
Book contents
- The New Cambridge History of the English Language
- The New Cambridge History of the English Language
- The New Cambridge History of the English Language
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Maps
- Contributors to Volume I
- General Preface
- Abbreviations
- General Editor’s Introduction
- Introduction to Volume I
- Part I The Context of English
- Part II Contact and External Influences
- 6 Early Contact with Celtic
- 7 Latin in the Early History of English
- 8 Scandinavian Influence
- 9 Anglo-Norman, Its Dictionary and the Study of English Vocabulary
- 10 Code-Switching and Language Mixing
- 11 Early Standardisation
- 12 Neoclassical Borrowings: ‘Hard Words’ in English
- 13 Typological Reorientation in the History of English
- Part III The Long View by Levels and Areas
- Appendix: Recommended Reading
- Index
- References
Summary
The numerous multilingual texts from medieval to modern times have only recently received the recognition as serious linguistic data that they deserve. They provide important testimony of medieval and early modern multilingualism and have increasingly been seen as written records of early code-switching and language mixing, which can be analysed on the basis of modern code-switching theories. This chapter discusses this assumption with historical data from England, addressing questions like syntactic, functional and visual approaches to the data, the distinctiveness of languages in multiligual texts. A related, but special type of multilingualism is attested in medieval mixed-language administrative texts which show a principled but variable use of Latin, French and English. Other issues are the increasing use of manuscripts and electronic corpora as data for linguistic analysis. The chapter finishes with a small selection of multilingual historical texts from England with brief comments to illustrate some of the issues discussed.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The New Cambridge History of the English LanguageContext, Contact and Development, pp. 275 - 299Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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Structural and Technical Features
ARIA roles provided
You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.
You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.