Hip hop identity in a township reality. - Poppunt

For example somebody can be a strict and serious person at his workplace, but if
he comes home he becomes the clown of the house. He can indicate and display
these separate personalities or roles to his surrounding environment by using
different types of speech. When he has to give out orders at work, he will use short
sentences and an authoritative style but when he is at home he makes jokes and he
uses diminutives to talk to his kids. Speakers have the ability, demonstrated by
their interactional behaviour, to choose a section of their linguistic repertoire for a
variable time span, to accomplish speaking activities. Throughout the course of an
interaction the focus can change several times, and speakers can play different
roles. The focus is thus variable, it can be functionally controlled and it can be used
to give meaning in a specific social context. When one produces monolingual
speech, that is called having a monofocus of attention. When one uses codeswitching,
that is a dual focus (Franceschini: 61-62).
The matter of identity does not only refer to the identity of one sole person.
Language and the phenomenon of code-switching can also be used to express group
identity. We need to mark here that the reference to the peer group is more
important than the reference to a national, ethnic or linguistic defined identity.
When you speak a certain sort of slang or jargon, that is some kind of proof that
you belong to a specific group from which that slang or jargon is a feature. For
example when somebody uses a lot economical terms, that person is most likely to
have a job in that particular sector.
For which function our interviewees use code-switching, will be discussed in the
practical part of this chapter. We will conclude the theoretical section with a short
account on the phenomenon of ‘crossing’.
Crossing
The term ‘code-crossing’, or simply ‘crossing’ was introduced by Rampton in the
first edition of his book ‘Crossing. Language and ethnicity among adolescents’
(1995). To start our explanation about crossing, we refer to the definition Rampton
provides:
“The term ‘language crossing’ (or ‘code-crossing’) refers to the use of a
language which isn’t generally thought to ‘belong’ to the speaker. Language
crossing involves a sense of movement across quite sharply felt social or