Ch2. Language choice in multilingual communities

What is a linguistic repertoire?

• any set of linguistic forms which patterns according to social factors.

• the process by which words are adopted into one language from another.

• the distinguishable varieties which are available for use in different social contexts.

• the switches which are very well motivated in relation to the symbolic or social meanings of one’s linguistic varieties.

When someone is making his code choice in a specific context, which factor may NOT be first put into consideration?

• the topic he plans to discuss

• the number of the addressees

• his relationship with the participants

• what kind of context he is involved in

Which is NOT the definition of Diglossia in a narrow sense?

• Two distinct varieties (H and L) of the same language are used in the community.

• The grammar of H variety is morphologically more complicated than that of L variety.

• Each variety is used for quite distinct functions; H and L complement each other.

• No one uses the H variety in everyday communication.

What are people’s attitudes to the H variety in a diglossia situation?

• worthless

• respectful

• ambivalent

• comfortable

In general, in which domain would people choose the L variety as the media for communication?

• religion

• literature

• shopping

• schooling

What is the term to describe where a number of distinct codes or varieties are used for clearly distinct purposes or in clearly distinguishable situations?

• diglossia

• polyglossia

• code-mixing

• code-meshing

Which may NOT be an actual function of code-switching?

• signal ethnic identity

• quote well-known sayings

• present one’s multilingual proficiency

• emphasize the precise message content

What are the attitudes of the majority monolingual groups to code-switching?

• neutral

• positive

• negative

• ambiguous

What is the main difference between lexical borrowing and code-switching?

• the sound adaptation of the words

• the speaker’s levels of the language proficiency

• what kind (content or functional) of words used in the utterance

• how many words of the embedded language used in the utterance

What is the effect of the equivalence constraint on code-switching?

• The forms of the switched words must look alike.

• The switched words must occur in the same context.

• The pronunciations of the switched words must be similar.

• The grammars of the switched languages must match each other.