Forthcoming expensive book

Language Mixing and Code-Switching in Writing

Approaches to Mixed-Language Written Discourse

Edited by Mark Sebba, Shahrzad Mahootian, Carla Jonsson

• Price: $120.00
• Binding/Format: Hardback
• ISBN: 978-0-415-87946-0
• Publish Date: June 1st 2011
• Imprint: Routledge
• Pages: 256 pages

"After many years in which interest in language alternation has focussed almost entirely on spoken code-switching, recently there has been renewed interest in written mixed-language texts. However, at the moment there is no general agreement on what constitutes the subject area and there is no widely applicable framework for analysis. The aim of this volume is to correct the deficiency just mentioned. Contributors introduce a range of approaches applied to different types of ‘multilingual texts’ (this term is used as an inclusive one, which covers both 'code-switching' in a traditional sense and other types of language mixing), and the collection will cover a range of different languages (including different scripts) and research methods. New perspectives developed in this book will be: the development of approaches to analysis which are specific to written discourse rather than based on spoken discourse; the introduction of approaches from the new literacy studies, treating mixed-language literacy from a practice perspective; the drawing together of 'old' and 'new' media types, e.g. medieval manuscripts and text messaging."

"Introduction: Researching and theorising mixed-language texts (Mark Sebba, Lancaster University) Part 1: Digital literacies 1. Linguistic and generic hybridity in web writing: the case of fan fiction (Sirpa Leppänen, University of Jyväskylä ) 2. Multilingual Texts on Web 2.0: The Case of Flickr.com (Carmen Lee, Open University of Hong Kong and David Barton, Lancaster University) 3. Multilingual web discussion forums: theoretical, practical and methodological issues (Samu Kytölä, University of Jyväskylä) Part 2: Literature, advertising and print media 4. Literary Language Mixing: (Re)Constructing Culture and Identity (Carla Jonsson, University of Stockholm) 5. Repertoires and resources: understanding code mixing in the media (Shahrzad Mahootian , Northeastern Illinois University) 6. Code-Switching in U S Latino Novels (Cecilia Montes-Alcalá, Georgia Institute of Technology) 7. "Hafa Adai… means hello!" Written Codeswitching in the Social Construction of Identity on Tourism Websites (Richard W. Hallett and Judith Kaplan-Weinger, Northeastern Illinois University)Part 3: Informal literacies 8. Analyzing multilingual text-messaging in Senegal - an approach for the study of mixed language SMS (Kristin Vold Lexander, University of Oslo) 9. Vernacular literacy practices in present-day Mali: combining ethnography and textual analysis to understand multilingual texts (Aïssatou Mbodj-Pouye, Centre d’études africaines, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris and Cécile Van den Avenne, ICAR, Ecole Normale Supérieure-Lettres Sciences Humaines, Lyon) 10. Bilingualism meets digraphia: Script alternation and hybridity in Russian-American writing and beyond (Philipp Angermeyer, York University)"

I think the price of $120 is highway robbery, even if the contents of the book look promising.  Here is where a digital book might be a better idea for Routledge, who will not have to get back the heavy investment in printing a book that will not sell too many copies (because there are so few of us interested in mixed-language literary texts).