L’effet de la séquentialité dans le parler bilingue Algérien : Quelques procédés conversationnels productifs dans les codes mixtes

Abstract

The effect of sequentiality in Algerian bilingual speech: Some productive conversational processes in mixed codes

This paper deals with some conversational strategies operating in bilingual speech as illustrated in some occurrences drawn from Algerian Arabic/French Code-Switching in the two directions. The idea that shapes this paper is mainly based on Alfonzetti assumption viewing Code- Switching (CS) as a contextualization strategy, independently from grammatical and macro- sociolinguistic contexts. In this sense, the contrast created by CS will be exploited by bilingual speakers to mark constant changes of footing. Henceforth, these theoretical conceptions will be supported by empirical evidence drawn from the analysis of some instances of CS characterizing the bilingual speech of some Algerian students in different settings. Furthermore, our attention will be directed mainly towards the conversational and pragmatic significance of code-alternations. Our reflection on CS led us to implement two theoretical models, the markedness theory and the conversational model. According to the first model, CS can respond to several motivations: it can be part of a normative framework characterized by the marking of linguistic choices in relation to a previously predefined context, it targets in certain cases the communicative function, and the negotiation of social distance in other cases. We concluded that the social motivations set up in the theory of negotiation in relevance to the interlocutors’ roles explain only partially the choices of the languages in interaction because they reduce the linguistic behaviors of bilingual speakers to a contextual determinism which completely denies their role in the code selection. The conversational analysis of CS, on the other hand, allowed us to identify the functions of CS isntances and their communicative relevance, even if they are socially non-significant. In this perspective, CS is considered as a linguistic resource in the interactive construction of the bilingual speakers’ discourses, it largely depends on the sequential structure of their verbal exchanges as well as their participation. We insist on the fact that the structural conversational dimension is sufficiently independent of the morphosyntactic rules and social norms associated with the alternating codes, turns out to be relevant in a given conversational episode. Indeed, what is important in this conversational perception of CS is the notion of contrast generated by the juxtaposition of the two codes within the same discourse. However, it seems impossible to us to assign a semantic, or even a symbolic, value to each Switch. In this regard, we have proposed a diagram with the aim of explaining the fluidity of the transition from French to Arabic, and vice versa, in the bilingual speech of our informants by putting them at the center of all the underlying processes relevant to bilinagual speech production.