Proseminar Paper in ESOC

Spanglish in the cinema

Juan Ramón Abarca García
12-068-391
4th Semester juan.abarcagarcia@stud.unibas.ch 19th December 2014

Table of contents

1.-Introduction, aim and scope..........................................................................................3

2.-Literature review...........................................................................................................3

2.1.-Code-switching...............................................................................................3

2.2.-Spanish in the United States...........................................................................5

2.3.-Spanglish........................................................................................................6

3.-Data and methodology..................................................................................................8

4.-Analysis.........................................................................................................................9

5.-Conclusion...................................................................................................................13

6.-Transcription conventions...........................................................................................14

7.-Transcription...............................................................................................................15

8.-Bibliography................................................................................................................17

9.-Plagiarism declaration.................................................................................................19

1.-Introduction, aim and scope

Code-switching (CS) is a linguistic phenomenon defined by Auer as "the juxtaposition of two languages perceived and interpreted as locally meaningful by participants". For a long time this phenomenon attracted little attention from linguists. Weinreich referred to it in 1953, in his seminal Language in Contact, as a "transfer of words" from one language to another by bilinguals, but until the work of Gumperz and his associates in the 1960s and 1970s, code-switching was largely neglected by linguists (Gardner-Chloros, 2009).

Today, English is a global lingua franca and Spanish is the most-spoken foreign language in the United States, where there is a growing minority of Spanish-speaking people. As a result of the mixing of both languages in the USA, a language variety called “Spanglish” has been created. In order to understand the phenomenon of Spanglish, we first have to understand the concepts of borrowing, code-switching and code-mixing.

In this paper, I will analyze a film where Spanglish is spoken and examine how and in what situations this occurs and the motivations of the characters in using it. Firstly, I will discuse in depth the concept of code-switching and, secondly, the case of Spanglish. Finally, I will apply these concepts to the film to check if they match with the theory.

2. Literature review

2.1. Code-switching

The phenomenon of code-switching is to be found in every bilingual community, but this does not mean that all bilingual individuals code-switch (Montes Alcalá, 2009). This is one of the reasons why the phenomenon is worthy of analysis.

CS serves different functions like word-finding, self-editing, repetition, emphasis, clarification and confirmation (Li & Milroy, 1995). CS may be also used deliberately as a compromise strategy when addressing other speakers of varying competences and preferences. At a psycholinguistic level, this is less than clear. To avoid one of the languages, the speaker needs some kind of effort but the joint activation of two languages does so well (Green, 1986/2000). The mental effort required for the simultaneous or rapid successive activation of two competing systems translates into extra split seconds of time which are required in both the receptive and productive modes. (Gardner-Chloros, 2009). Borrowing is a different phenomenon and takes place when a word is incorporated into another language without any change. Patio, for example, has been borrowed from Spanish into English and means courtyard (Orsi, 2008).

According to Fishman (2002), a decisive factor for language choice is membership of a group and the choice taken will indicate intimacy, informality, equality and solidarity. Topics of conversation can be the reason for expressing concepts in one language or other. Some topics can be expressed better in one language than in another. Reasons for this can range from the speaker’s habit of expressing a concept in a particular language or because it is difficult to discuss it in that language. Another possible reason is that a language may lack the terms to express a particular concept (Orsi, 2008).

Bilinguals usually switch the same elements, such as sentences, nouns and noun phrases. When bilinguals interact with each other, they know how to manage a conversation and code-switching can be used to accomplish conversational strategies like a) footing b) clarification and c) crutch-like code mixes (Zentella, 1997).

Single-word code-switches/loans are, in many situations, though not always, the most common kind of CS. However, any aspect of a language, including its structures, can be borrowed (Boeschoten, 1998). Among single words, common nouns are the most frequently borrowed items (Poplack, Sankoff and Miller, 1988:62). Aitchison suggests that the reason for this is that nouns are freer of syntactic restrictions than other word-classes. There are examples of both loans and code-switches filling lexical gaps in the borrowing language and of their adding themselves as an alternative to the native equivalent.

In lexical-borrowing and code-switching, bilingual speakers "insert elements from one language into the grammatical frame of another because they are motivated by the need to express themselves" (Orsi, 2008), whereas monolinguals adapt phonological, grammatical and discourse features within one linguistic code.

The concept of a “change in footing” was developed by Goffman to imply "a change in the alignment we take up to ourselves and others present as expressed in the way we manage the production or reception of an utterance". The second category is 'clarification' or 'emphasis'. When a bilingual person wants to clarify a phrase or concept, he/she codeswitches, whereas a monolingual will repeat the same phrase louder or slower or will use another word. 'Crutch-like code mixes' are used to fill in the conversation, perhaps due to a momentary loss of words.

2.2. Spanish in the United States Spanish has no official status in the United States but the country is home to one of the world´s largest Spanish-speaking populations. The 2010 national census reported 50.5 million self-reported "Hispanic" residents, out of a total population of 308.7 million (www.census.gov). This figure constitutes some 16.4% of the national population (Lipski, 2011) and makes the country the second largest Spanish-speaking country worldwide by number of speakers, just after Mexico. Not surprisingly, the majority of Spanish-speaking communities in the United States have their origins in nearby countries and others with strong historical ties to the USA. Mexicans have been crossing into the United States since the two nations began to share a common border (approximately at the time of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase). Some linguists trace the roots of Spanglish to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, when almost two-thirds of former Mexican territory and between 80.000 and 100.000 Mexican people were transferred to US control. The Mexican Revolution of 1910 brought approximately 1.5 million Mexicans into the USA. The next wave took place in 1942 at the time of the Bracero farmworker programme which started in 1942. This saw approximately 8 million Mexicans migrating to the USA, where most remained (Lipski 2011). The Mexican migration was seasonal in most cases and occurred during the agricultural harvesting season or during railway construction, but due to the Reagan administration’s Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) in 1986, this immigration became legal and permanent, even for entire families in many cases. Approximately 2.3 million undocumented Mexican migrants were thus legalized (J. Rothman & A.B. Rell, 2005). The second territory from which the largest number of Spanish speaking immigrants originate is Puerto Rico. Large-scale immigration from this northeastern Caribbean island started in 1948 with the Operation Bootstrap industrialization programme, with two million Puerto Ricans coming to US as a result. Cuban immigration has been ongoing since the Cuban Revolution of 1959, peaking in 1980 with the Mariel boatlift and continuing to this day. However, Spanish-speakers have not only come to be in the USA through immigration. The Louisiana Purchase brought descendents of Canary Islanders who had settled in present-day southeastern Louisiana at the end of the 18th century under US control (Lipski, 2011).

As a result of these different sites of contact, we have Spanglish. The concept expresses by the noun phrase "mock Spanish" an element of racism towards Spanish and its speakers in the USA. This contributes to giving Spanglish a bad reputation (Montes-Alcalá, 2009). As Montes-Alcalá explains, the "prominence of Spanish in mass media, political discourse, government agencies and commerce has also fueled virulent anti-immigrant and ‘English only’ campaigns, and in some communities laws attempting to restrict the use of languages other than English have been passed".

2.3 Spanglish

Spanglish is known by other names as well, such as ingañol (Stavans, 2002). Furthermore, it is not monolithic and has many varieties. These depend on factors like nationality, age, class and vary in aspects such as morphology, structure, phonology and terminology. For example, the variety spoken by Cuban-Americans is called Cubonics and that spoken by Puerto Ricans is called Nuyorican Spanglish (Orsi, 2008). It is important to note here that Spanglish is not a pidgin because its speakers are bilinguals and they have other means to communicate with each other (Orsi, 2008).

Spanglish is unsurprisingly not the only case of such a mix between languages. Stavans has compared it several times to Ebonics, a variety of English spoken in Africa, and Yiddish, the language of the Askenazi Jews based on German and Slavic languages as well as Hebrew. Although there are important differences among these, they share many characteristics, especially at the literary level (Stavans 2000, 2003). The biggest similarity between Ebonics and Spanglish is that both are an intra-ethnic mode of communication and have been used in rap music, although Ebonics does not come from two different languages and Spanglish is not marked by class as Ebonics is. There are several reasons for using Spanglish. Alberto Cañas identifies four: if a speaker cannot express himself in one language, he/she switches. A second reason can be to express solidarity with a person or a group, although this can exclude others who do not understand that language. A third reason can be when the speaker wants to convey his/her attitude to the listener. While monolingual speakers use other methods like variation in the level of formality, bilingual speakers can switch, creating in this way a special effect. Another reason is the impossibility of translation. According to Castellano, some words cannot be fully translated. For instance, the word alma is not equivalent to soul because it implies more in Spanish than soul does in English. A final reason is efficiency: Spanish is usually a multisyllabic language and words are often shorter in English. Richard Skiba provides evidence that in a conversation between bilinguals, switching occurs 84% of the time by changing words, 10% by changing phrases and 6% by changing sentences (Guerra Avalos, 2001).

There are linguists who strongly oppose the term Spanglish for several reasons. First, the term falsely assumes that features that characterize popular forms of Spanish in the USA are the same as popular forms in Latin America. Second, the term leads us to think that Spanglish has an unusually hybrid conception and that, third, Spanish is not characterized by mixing in English and finally this can separate the Spanish speakers who live in the USA from the rest. To sum up such criticisms, the word Spanglish refers "only to a way of speaking (rather than to a language)" and the word Spanish "by its very nature suggests that a new language is being referenced". (Otheguy and Stern, 2005).

Zentella does not even see a division between code-switching and Spanglish and thinks that the former term is the formal (politically correct-like) label for the latter, often stigmatized term (Montes Alcalá, 2009). Spanglish has stopped being an exclusively oral phenomenon to become a literary one too. This has led to its consolidation and even legitimation. Spanglish is used in music (for example, the album “Spanglish101” by Juan Brujo of the group Brujería) and even in publications such as the magazine Latina (www.latina.com). The radio journalist Ed Gómez of the radio station KABQ of Alburquerque, New Mexico, is said to have been the journalist to have started to used it when in the 80s he started to say "hasta sun" (Guerra Avalos, 2001).

3.-Data and methodology

Ilan Stavans is the Lewis-Sebring professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amhers College in Massachusetts, USA and a world authority on Spanglish. Probably one of its great defenders, Stavans mentions in his 2010 article "El Spanglish en el cine" (Spanglish in the cinema) several films in which Spanglish has been used. One of these is Lone Star (1996), directed by John Syles, whom Stavans praises.

I watched several films suggested in the article and I finally chose Lone Star for analysis for several reasons. My second choice was Real Women Have Curves (2002), but this is a more complex film with a focus on many wider issues such as immigration and social and generational differences. Further analysis on these two topics should be done to fully assess the use of Spanglish in this film, a task too complex for a proseminar paper. I did not want to choose a very old film because of the past bad reputation of Spanglish in comparison to its still gradually evolving but more positive standing of today. Lone Star, in contrast, dates from 1996 and considering that films made in 1950s are mentioned in his article, this is not a particularly old example. Another reason for choosing the film was that the plot plays out on the border between the United States and Mexico. Therefore, it focuses on the Mexicans who are the largest group of native speakers of Spanish in the area and, as such, potential speakers of Spanglish. Stavans´ positive reviews of the film´s direction also encouraged me to explore it further.

The film is set in the 1990s in a small town in Texas, very close to the border to Mexico, in an area which had previously belonged to the Spanish-speaking country. The selection of the scene for analysis, with a total duration of just over 5 minutes, was made according to the amount of Spanglish in the film (the scene is the one with the largest amount of Spanglish in the entire film) but also as a result of a very interesting flashback that occurs in it and that divides the scene in two parts, namely one set in the 1990s – the first with a duration of one and a half minutes – followed by the second which occurs in the 1950s at approximately three and a half minutes. Spanglish occurs in both parts of the scene. One of the characters is involved in both scenes, a Mexican character called Chucho Montoya, but he only switches in the more modern part of the scene (the first). The other characters are a Mexican man called Eladio Cruz and the sheriff Charlie Wade (second part of the scene) and the sheriff Sam Dees in the first, who is the only character who does not switch in the entire scene. Both Mexicans are native Spanglish speakers and both sheriffs are English-speaking. The scene occurs from the 71st to 77th minutes of the 135-minute-long film.

I transcribed the conversations with the transcription legend proposed by Gail Jefferson (cited in Hutchby and Wooffitt, 2002, ppvi-vii) to analyze the code-switching and its functions.

4. Analysis

In this section I will be examining seven samples from the transcribed conversation of CS and a special case. There are several types of it in this scene which serve different functions, namely: 1. repetition, 2. clarification, 3. word-finding and 4. closeness.

The sheriff Sam Dees is investigating the murder of a previous sheriff called Charles Wade. Charles had killed a Mexican man called Eladio Cruz. In order to get more information on the murder of Eladio Cruz and the sheriff Charles, the sheriff Sam Dees goes to Mexico to see and talk to a Mexican man called Chucho Montoya. This first extract is taking from their ensuing conversation.

Extract 1:
4 Sam You own this place, huh?(0.5)
5 Chucho This place (.) the one across the street, (.) three or four others in 6 Ciudad León (0.5). SOY EL REY DE LAS LLANTAS,(0.5) "The
7 King of the Tires". (.) A lot of your people rolling over that bridge
8 on my rubber.

As we can see, here we have 'repetition', i.e. those cases in which a person speaks in one language and repeats the same in another language. According to Gardner Chloros (2009) this demonstrates that CS, and in this case Spanglish, is not always the result of an inability to find the right word or expression. "The mental effort required for the simultaneous, or rapid successive activation of two competing systems translates into extra split seconds of time which are required in both the receptive and productive modes" (Gardner Chloros, 2009). In this first case we have a whole sentence. Chucho is speaking in English, then he switches to Spanish and repeats what he has said before in English.

The second extract happens when the sheriff Charlie Wade is talking to Eladio Cruz. He is warning him of the danger of the road.
Extract 2:

50 Charles You know this road´s got a bad reputation, Eladio
51 Eladio Reputation?
52 Charles Bandidos, Injuns. Many an unfortunate soul has been ambushed 53 out on this strecht. I hope you are carrying some protection.

The code-switching here follows the same rule as in the first extract: the sheriff is speaking in English, says a word in Spanish and then repeats the very same in English immediately. However, in this case this is only a noun, which is according to Aitchison the most common word to be switched because nouns are freer of syntactic restrictions.

The third extract is taken from the dialogue between the sheriff Charles Wade and Eladio, as in the previous.

Extract 3:
55 Charles You carrying a fireman, son? (1) ( Don´t lie to me now
56 Eladio Sí, un escopeto. Just a shotgun.
57 Charles Just a shotgun ( Then let me have a look at that.

Like in the extracts 1 and 2, the characters are talking in English, then say some words in Spanish before repeating the same in English so they repeat what they are saying. However, in this case we have a noun-phrase.

The three different characters are able to produce these three kinds of CS (a sentence, a single word and a noun phrase) serving the same purpose, repetition.

The fourth extract is taking from the conversation between Chucho Montoya and the sheriff Sam Dees like in the first extract. After some questions posed by Sam, Chucho starts to feel uncomfortable especially when the sheriff asks him if he knew a man named Eladio Cruz. It is important to know that Chucho was present in the moment when Cruz was killed by the sheriff, just a meters away, hidden from the sight of the sheriffs.
Extract 4:
13 Sam Hey, you ever know a fella named Eladio Cruz?
14 Chucho You are the sheriff of Rio County, right? (2) UN JEFE MUY
15 RESPETADO. (10) Step across this line (2)

What we can find here is the function of 'clarification', one of the functions of CS described by Zentella (1997). In this case he does not repeat exactly word by word or translates what he has said before but gives explanations of what he has said and continues the conversation. He asks him if he is the sheriff and he replies switching with a "un jefe muy respeteado" which is supossed to be a logical explanation of being sheriff, to be a respected boss. In this case the CS is produced by a noun phrase.

The fifth extract is taken from the conversation between Chucho Montoya and the sheriff Sam Dees like in the extracts 1 and 4. The sheriff Sam Dees wants to know more on Eladio Cruz and asks Chucho about him.

Extract 5:
18 Chucho I don´t have to answer. (2) A bird flying south (1) you think he 19 sees this line? (1) Rattlesnake, jabalina (1) whatever you got. You 20 think halfway accross that line they start ( thinking different? 21 (0.5) ( Why should a man?

As a first general observation we can see that Chucho inserts a noun in the middle of the sentence. We have here another function of CS described by Li & Milroy as word-finding. Chucho is talking in English and seems not to able to provide the same word in English. This is the moment in which he switches to Spanish and then he is able to continue in English. The CS is produced by a noun.

The last analyzed extract of CS occurs when the sheriff Charles Wade meets and addresses Eladio Cruz for the first time on the road. Charles Wade is driving in his car with a colleague. He stops and meets Eladio who is having problems with his car. Both sheriffs cannot see Chucho Montoya because he has hidden outside after sighting the sheriff´s car. There are several men in the back as well. This extracts happens in a change of scene which is a flashback after the conversation between the sheriff Sam Dees and Chucho Montoya.

[Change of scene]
Extract 6:
38 Charles ( Hola amigo. ( (0.5) ¿Problemas de llantas?
39 Eladio No hay de qué (.) tengo otra.
40 Charles What´s in the back?

Following Green (1986/2000) we can say without no doubt that Charles W. is using Spanglish deliberately as a compromise strategy when addressing other speakers. He cannot speak Spanish but he can say several sentences like the ones above. The CS is produced here by a noun-phrase, hola amigo, and a sentence where the verb 'to have' has been omitted. Eladio replies in Spanish and then Charles continues talking in English.

The next case of CS follows the same pattern like in the extract 6. During the conversation between both characters Charles addresses Eladio again in Spanish.
Extract 7:
45 Charles That person´s been ( bragging all over the county how he doesn´t 46 have to cut that gringo ( sheriff in on it. Run his own operation 47 without any help.
48 (2) ¿Cómo se llama, amigo?
49 Eladio Eladio Cruz

In order to show his closeness, Chales asks Eladio his name in Spanish adding even the word "amigo", friend to show him sympathy. In this case the CS is provided by a whole sentence.

Although this is not a proper case of CS, I think it is very interesting to highlight that in the second part of the scene, which is in fact previous chronologically speaking because it takes place in the 1950s, the character Chucho Montoya does not switch at all despite the fact that he is the character who switches the most in the other part of the scene.
Extract 8:
31 Eladio ¡Híjole Chucho, tienes que quedarte
32 escondido!
33 Chucho Se me van a romper los riñones si no hago wiwi. (1.5)
34 Los demás están tan espantados
35 que prefieren mearse en los pantalones. (8)
36 ¡Mira, Eladio!

Chucho tells us in the beginning of the 5 minute-scene, the one that happens in the 90s, that he has spent fifteen years living in the United States. After such a long exposition to English he has learnt it and now he can speak English, his native Spanish, and has become even a speaker of Spanglish as we can see in other parts of the scene.
Montes Alcalá (2009) affirms that the phenomenon of code-switching is to be found in every bilingual community, although it does not automatically means that all bilingual communities switch. This can be the reason for not switching in the part of the scene that occurs in the 50s apart from that fact that he is having a conversation in Spanish with his native speaker of Spanish and friend Eladio Cruz. As he is supposed not to be able to speak English in the 50s when the first scene happens, he does not provide a single word in English in that part but in the second. He is replying here to a warning made by his friend Eladio Cruz to stay hidden and after eight seconds warns Eladio when he sees the sheriff´s car coming towards them.

5.-Conclusion As explained above, the use of Spanglish in Lone Star serves several functions described in the theory of CS and provided by different characters which makes it a very interesting portrayal from the point of view of such a linguistic analysis. There are also several types of CS in the scene. Such a short extract from the film serves as a good example but is not sufficient for a deeper analysis. Throughout the film there are more examples of Spanglish which can be theorized, while more films like the ones I mentioned in the data can be analyzed. One of the issued not explored in the analysis because it is not shown in the chosen part of the film is an example of the CAT theory. A character called Mercedes insists on speaking in English, while the person who is talking to her speaks in Spanish. "In English, in English, we are in the United States", she repeats in the 47th, 70th, and 114th minutes. Even though she switches throughout the film, she wants the others to speak only in English – perhaps because she wishes to hide her Mexican roots. In addition to this, I can prove through analyzing the film that we can in fact analyze CS in normal and everyday conversations and that this can be applied to real-world situations and naturally-occurring data to find out how CS and Spanglish occur. The task of writing this assignment has awoken my interests in both code-switching and Spanglish. Although I knew that Spanglish was an important variation of Spanish, I was not completely aware of its importance, origin and development. Because of the growing minority of Spanish-speaking people in the USA, its importance will grow and further studies should be done on this topic. Languages do change and all languages derive from others (one of the very few exceptions is Esperanto which was created artificially by Zamenhof at the end of the 19th century). This proseminar paper has also changed my point of view on Spanglish. I now regard it as a very important and interesting linguistic phenomenon which is not unique and for which its development must be accounted.

6.-Transcription conventions

Originally developed by Gail Jefferson (cited in Hutchby and Wooffitt, 2002, ppvi-vii) I have used the following signs to transcribe the film.

(0.5) Number in brackets indicates a time gap in tenths of a second.

(.) A dot enclosed in brackets indicates a pause in the talk of less than two-tenths of a second.

= ‘Equals’ sign indicates ‘latching’ between utterances.

[ ] Square brackets between adjacent lines of concurrent speech indicate the onset and end of a spate of overlapping talk.

(( )) A description enclosed in a double bracket indicates a non-verbal activity.

- A dash indicates the sharp cut-off of the prior sound or word.

: Colons indicate that the speaker has stretched the preceding sound or letter.

(inaudible) Indicates speech that is difficult to make out. Details may also be given with regards to the nature of this speech (eg. shouting).

. A full stop indicates a stopping fall in tone. It does not necessarily indicate the end of a sentence.

? A question mark indicates a rising inflection. It does not necessarily indicate a question.

↑↓ Pointed arrows indicate a marked falling or rising intonational shift. They are placed immediately before the onset of the shift.

Under Underlined fragments indicate speaker emphasis.

CAPITALS Words in capitals mark a section of speech noticeably louder than that surrounding it.

° ° Degree signs are used to indicate that the talk they encompass is spoken noticeably quieter than the surrounding talk.

< > ‘Less than’ and ‘More than’ signs indicate that the talk they encompass was produced noticeable slower than the surrounding talk.

7.-Transcription

1 Chucho Down here we don´t throw everything away like you gringos do. 2 (0.5) Recycling, right? (0.5)We invented that. (0.5) The
3 government doesn´t have to tell people to do it (0.5)
4 Sam You own this place, huh?(0.5)
5 Chucho This place (.) the one across the street, (.) three or four others in 6 Ciudad León (0.5). SOY EL REY DE LAS LLANTAS,(0.5) "The 7 King of the Tires". (.) A lot of your people rolling over that bridge 8 on my rubber.
9 Sam ( You lived in the States for a while? 10 Chucho Fifteen years.
11 Sam Made some money, came back here?
12 Chucho Something like that.
13 Sam Hey, you ever know a fella named Eladio Cruz?
14 Chucho You are the sheriff of Rio County, right? (2) UN JEFE MUY 15 RESPETADO. (10) Step across this line (2). AY, ¡QUÉ 16 MILAGRO! (0.5) You are not the sheriff of nothing 17 anymore (2). Just some tejano with a lots of questions (0.5) 18 I don´t have to answer. (2) A bird flying south (1) you think he 19 sees this line? (1) Rattlesnake, jabalina (1) whatever you got. You 20 think halfway accross that line they start ( thinking different? 21 (0.5) ( Why should a man?
22 Sam ( Your government´s been pretty happy to have that line (1.5) 23 The question´s just been where to draw. 24 Chucho My government can go fuck itself (1) and so can yours. ( I am 25 talking about people here (0.5) Men (3) Mi amigo Eladio Cruz 26 is giving his friends a lift one day in the back of his camión (1) 27 But because they are on one side of this invisible line and not the 28 other (0.5) They got to hide in the back como criminales (0.5). 29 And because over (.) there he´s just another Mex bracero (0.5) 30 any man with a badge is his jefe.

[Change of scene]

31 Eladio ( ¡HÍJOLE, CHUCHO! ( ¡TIENES QUE QUEDARTE 32 ESCONDIDO! (Dammit, Chucho! You have to stay hidden!) 33 Chucho Se me van a romper los riñones si no hago wiwi (I´m gonna bust 34 my kidneys if I don´t pee.) (1.5.) Los demás están tan espantados 35 que prefieren mearse en los pantalones.(The others are so scared 36 they´d rather wet their pants.) (8) ( ¡Mira, Eladio!(Eladio, look!) 37 Eladio ( ¡MUCHACHOS, ESCÓNDASE!(Guys! Hide yourselves!) 38 Charles ( Hola amigo. ( (0.5) ¿Problemas de llantas? (Hey, friend, flat tire?)
39 Eladio No hay de qué (.) tengo otra. (No big deal, I have another)
40 Charles What´s in the back?
41 Eladio Not much, jefe. (.) Some watermelons. I´m driving them up to the 42 market. They could bring a good price.
43 Charles I heard somebody´s been hauling wets on this road.
44 Eladio I haven´t seen anybody ( doing that
45 Charles That person´s been ( bragging all over the county how he doesn´t 46 have to cut that gringo ( sheriff in on it. Run his own operation 47 without any help.
48 (2) ¿Cómo se llama, amigo? (What´s your name, friend?)
49 Eladio Eladio Cruz
50 Charles You know this road´s got a bad reputation, Eladio
51 Eladio Reputation?
52 Charles Bandidos, Injuns. Many an unfortunate soul has been ambushed 53 out on this strecht. I hope you are carrying some protection.
54 Eladio Protection?
55 Charles You carrying a fireman, son? (1) ( Don´t lie to me now
56 Eladio Sí, un escopeto. Just a shotgun.
57 Charles Just a shotgun ( Then let me have a look at that
58 2nd sheriff Jesus!
59 Charles Little greaser son of a bitch is running a goddamn bus service. 60 Thinks he can make a fool out of Charlie Wade. ( GETS THEM 61 WED OUT OF THE BACK. SEE WHAT WE´VE GOT. 62 2nd sheriff You killed him! 63 Charles You got a talent for stating the obvious, son. (1) Muchachos, 64 ¡venga afuera! ¡Manos arriba! (Come on out, boys! Hands up!)

8.-Bibliography

Cañadas, Alberto 2001 Spanglish. The Third Way in Bulletin of Hokuriku University Vol. 25, pp. 209-218

Gardner-Chloros, Penelope 2009 Code-switching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Guerra Avalos, E. Angelica 2001 Surgimiento y características del Spanglish. Cultura e intercultura en la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera. Universidad de Barcelona.

Lipski, John M. 2011 Part four: English and Spanish in the Americas. English and Spanish in the United States. English and Spanish in the United States: Language and Immigration/ Parte cuatro: el inglés y el español en las Américas. El inglés y el español en los Estados Unidos: lengua e immigración in Word for word: the social, political and economic impact of English and Spanish in the world/ Palabra por palabra: el impacto social, económico y político del español y del inglés. Madrid: Instituto Cervantes and British Council, 2011, pp. 245-255.

Montes Alcalá, Cecilia 2009 Hispanics in the United States: More than Spanglish in Camino Real 1:0 pp. 97-115.

Orsi, Liliana 2008 Spanglish: identifying some motivations a group of bilingual adolescents had to code-switch in informal social interactions. Hamline University.

Otheyguy, Ricardo & Stern, Nancy 2010 On so-called Spanglish in International Journal of Bilingualism. 15(1), 85-100

Rothman, Jason & Rell, Amy Beth 2005 A linguistic analysis of Spanglish: relating language to identity in Linguistic and the Human Sciences, Vol. 1, No. 3 (2005), 515-536

Wei, Li & Milroy L. 1995 Conversational code-switching in a Chinese community in Britain: A sequential analysis. Journal of Pragmatics 23, 281-299.

Zentella, Ana Cecilia 1997 Growing Up Bilingual. Puerto Rican Children in New York. Blackwell Publishers.

9.-Plagiarism declaration

"Hiermit bestätige ich, dass ich vertraut bin mit den von der Philosophisch-Historischen Fakultät der Universität Basel herausgegebenen "Regeln zur Sicherung wissenschaftlicher Redlichkeit" und diese gewissenhaft befolgt habe.

Basel, 19. December 2014

Juan Ramón Abarca García