Inter-individual differences in Hindi–English code-switching: A quantitative approach

Abstract

Aims and objectives: Variationist studies on code-switching (CS) have focused on community-level differences driven by variables such as age, ethnicity, and socio-economic status. Studies on inter-individual variation that make use of naturalistic speech need to be prioritised, especially in countries with large, diverse populations, such as India. This article presents a quantitative analysis of the Hindi–English CS (HECS) patterns among speakers of comparable socio-economic status and clusters them based on similarities in their CS strategies. Methodology: Television interviews of Hindi movie (Bollywood) personalities were transcribed and coded for Hindi and English lexemes. Bespoke software in Python was used to calculate five numerical indices to describe each speaker’s CS pattern. Data and analysis: The interviews from 28 speakers ranged between 20 and 40 minutes each. Cluster analysis was carried out in SPSS to produce a typology of CS strategies. Findings/conclusions: A total of six CS strategies were identified, with five being employed by both older and younger speakers and only one being used only by a single age group. Most CS strategies are therefore not age-specific. A number of hypothetical scenarios are presented, to demonstrate how individual CS strategies might change with time. Originality: This is the first study to systematically and quantitatively investigate inter-individual differences in HECS, using naturalistic speech in semi-controlled conditions. It is also the first to propose a typology of HECS strategies. Implications: There was significant variation in CS strategy even within the relatively homogeneous group of speakers investigated in this study. The overall variation in the whole of Hindi-speaking India must therefore be far greater. This suggests that certain predictions regarding the predictability of CS patterns from the contact situation (e.g., that postcolonial contexts result in insertional CS) may need to be refined.