Codeswitching in the comedy of George Lopez
Wells, M. (2011). Codeswitching in the comedy of George
Lopez. Apples – Journal of Applied Language Studies
Vol. 5, 1 , p. 65-76
Published in
Apples - Journal of Applied Language StudiesAuthors
Date
2011This paper explores the intersectionality of language, culture and identity in the
performance of a U.S.-born bilingual Spanish-English speaking comedian, George
Lopez. Codeswitches in his comedy are examined through the speaker’s
relationship to the audience using Bell’s (1984) theory of audience design. Two
specific performances with two distinct audiences are compared using the
following questions: How does a bilingual comedian, Lopez, use language mixing
to underscore his Latino identity? How does he construct his audience through his
choice of codes? How and when does he accommodate monolingual English
speaking audiences? I conclude that Lopez intentionally matches his code choice to
connect more deeply with his audience. In the first performance he codeswitches as
a way to mark solidarity with his presumed bilingual/bicultural audience while in
the second performance he consciously maintains his discourse in English to
accommodate a perceived monolingual audience.
Publisher
Centre for Applied Language Studies at the University of JyväskyläISSN Search the Publication Forum
1457-9863Keywords
Original source
http://apples.jyu.fiMetadata
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