¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.?: Code-Switching in a Bilingual Sitcom

Language plays an important role in shaping a person’s identity (Myers-Scotton, 1993). In this paper, I will examine one linguistic phenomenon, namely code-switching, and how it relates to identity. I examine code-switching in a bilingual TV show shot in Miami in the 1970s, focusing on the characteristics (sex and generation) of the interlocutors who engage in code-switching and of the grammatical structure of the code-switching itself. The analysis shows that code-switching is high in the middle-aged individuals in this setting and that males engage in code-switching slightly more often than females. Furthermore, intersentential code-switching is the most common grammatical structure of code-switching, followed by code-switching at verb-phrase boundaries and on vocatives. Throughout this study, I show how code-switching and identity are profoundly connected.