Hip hop identity in a township reality. - Poppunt

together in our findings, where we will demonstrate how crossing is put into
practice.
1. Introduction
For several decades now, code-switching has been an interesting and fertile field of
research in linguistics. Scholars constructed many different theories about codeswitching,
but not everybody agreed on them. It is difficult to find ones way
amongst all the different terminologies and explanations, but eventually we
recognise that two tendencies of thinking can be distinguished concerning the
viewpoint on code-switching. The first one looks at the phenomenon of codeswitching
from a very narrow angle and restricts it to something only perfect
bilinguals are able to do. The second one puts code-switching in its correct position,
and proves that it is more than a mere usage of two languages in one conversation.
We will discuss both of them, but we must point out that we are advocates of the
latter one. The information we gathered during our fieldwork gives an explanation
as to why we support the second theory. These empirical findings prove that the
second viewpoint is much more realistic and accurate than the first one.
We must also emphasise that the information we provide about the ‘general
accepted opinion and definition’ is information we found in articles and books about
code-switching, so it is not our viewpoint and not everything that is written below
on that point is correct. That is why we criticise this first opinion later on. Note that
the survey is done by ourselves, and that the findings only serve as an illustration
for the point given there.
Throughout this chapter, we will explain all that is relevant concerning codeswitching
for our research. Of course there is much more to know and to clarify
about this topic, but since the amount of literature is so extensive, we need to pick
out the most relevant information. We will start by describing both viewpoints, and
we will try to improve the first one where necessary. Since it is important to know
why speakers reach for code-switching, we will also briefly discuss the functions
and the contexts in which it needs to be situated. This theoretical part will end with
an explanation about the phenomenon of ‘crossing’, since this kind of codeswitching
will be very relevant in the interpretation of our data.
2. What is code-switching? Striving for a definition