grammatical constraints and motivations for - University of the ...

of proceedings throughout the show. His language use is therefore formal, as he
communicates in Standard English.
However, at times when he does choose to make a comment and address either
Suster or one of the callers, he switches to Kaapse Afrikaans. In this way,
codeswitching allows Clarence to become directly involved in the discourse.
Thus, by engaging in codeswitching, he is able to shift his identity from that of the
person in authority to that of an ordinary member of the Cape Flats speech
community who is just having a casual conversation with another member of the
community.
Therefore, both the host and the co-host manipulate their language use so that it
best portrays the identity they wish to assume at the time. Codeswitching,
therefore, enables them to claim access to a shared or common group identity, but
also enables them to achieve their communicative goals as they alter their
language use to elicit the response they wish to receive. Thus, not only does
codeswitching serve as a means of portraying various roles and identities, but also
as a means of intensifying an appeal so as to attain the response one requires to
ensure the achievement of one’s communicative goals. Consider caller 13 below
for example.
Caller 13
Turn 654 marks the beginning of a conversation between the host and the
thirteenth caller. Based on the accent with which he speaks, it appears as though
this caller is an Afrikaans mother-tongue speaker. However, he speaks English
only, aside from the use of the Afrikaans word, ‘ja’, on four occasions as well as
the use of the Xhosa phrase - “Molo. Unjani?” (turn 666). Even the use of the
word ‘ja’ need not be regarded as a switch to Afrikaans due to its incorporation
into South African English, as previously discussed.
Taking the context of this conversation into account, it appears as though the
caller has specifically chosen to speak English due to its association with upward
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