Gregori-Signes - Alcantud-Díaz 2012 - The Pragmatic Function of Code-Switching in The Interaction of Cartoon Characters

Gregori-Signes,C. & M. Alcantud-Dfaz.2012.
Handy Manny: The Pragmatic Function of Code-Switching in the Interaction

of Caroon Characters. In, Garda-Pastor, M.D (ed.) 2011. Teaching English as a Foreign Language: Proposals for the
Language Classroom. Valencia: Periferic, pp. 61-81.
HANDY MANNY: THE PRAGMATIC FUNCTION
OF CODE-SWITCHING IN THE INTERACTION OF
CARTOON CHARACTERS
Carmen Gre
g
ori-Si
g
nes and Marfa Alcantud-Dfaz
IULMA, Universitat de Valencia
1. Introduction
The so cal l ed gl oba I i zat i on, a l ong vvi t h the modern i sa
t i on of our soci ety, "have sti mu l ated the expansi on i n num
bers of people speaking nat i onal l anguages l ocated wi th i n
rel ativel y l i mi ted boundari es al ongsi de i nter nat i onal l an
guages such as Engl i s h, as Mi lroy and Muysken (1995: 1)
explai n. New mul t i l i ngua l communi t i es have been emergi ng,
mostly from the Secon d World War, and l i ngu i st i c mi
nor i t i es have become bilingual. A bi li ngual person i s a un i que
speakerhearer us i ng one l anguage_ tvvo l angu ages, or
bot h simul taneousl y, dependi ng on the i nterl ocutor, s i tua
t i on, topi c, etc. One of t he ma i n i ssues i n bil i ngual i sm re
search i s code-svvi tchi ng, vvhi ch "must be taken ser i ousl y
fi rst and foremost as a conversat i onal acti vi ty" (Wei , 2 005:
276) . The wi de use of code-svvi tchi ng i n di fferent contexts
and vi t h different l anguages i n contact makes thi s l i ngu i s
t i c devi ce one of t he most st udi ed behavi oural character i s
t i cs of bi l i nguals' speech. Code-svvitch i ng t hus seems to
have an i mportant communi cati ve funct i on. The characters i n
t he seri es anal ysed here, Manny ManitaslHandy Manny, use
code-svv i tch i ng betvveen Engl ish (the second or forei gn l an
guage i n our case, L2 henceforth) and Span i sh (the fi rst l an-
61
Gregori-Signes,C. & M. Alcantud-Dfaz.2012. Handy Manny: The Pragmatic Function of Code-Switching in the Interaction
guage, L 1 hereafter) as one of thei r mai n resources for al
ternati ng betvveen the tvvo languages as vvell as trans l at i ons
a nd expl anat i ons of some terms i n L2. The creators of t he
ser ies cl ai m that the seri es may hel p ch i l dren learn Engl i sh,
vvh i le enjoyi ng the adventures of Man ny Man i tas and hi s
tools.
Th i s articl e presents the results obtained from the analy
s i s of 20 epi sodes of the seri es to cri t i cally assess its poten
t i al i mpact on teachi ng and l earn i ng Engl i sh as a foreign lan
guage (EFL) i n a context vv here Span i s h is the L 1. Handy
Manny i s broadcast predomi nantl y i n L 1 (Engl i s h i n t he
U. S. , and Span i sh i n Spa i n) vv i th occasiona l i ncl usi on of
some expressions in L2 . The terms from L2 are ei ther s i ngl e
vvords or more complex lexi cal units . The purpose of th i s ar
ti cl e i s to explore vvhen and hovv L2 i s i ntroduced, its func
t i on, and t he i mpact t hat i ts use may have i n t he process of
EFL learn i ng for Span i s h ch i l dren under the age of ni ne, to
vvhom the seri es i s addressed. Handy Manny i s marketed to
parents and ch i l dren as a programme t hat may hel p chi l dren
l earn and i mprove t hei r Engl i s h. Hovvever, to t he best of our
knovvledge, no systemati c account of vvhat and hovv it may
do so has been provi ded. The methodol ogi cal approach
adopted i n th i s paper sets thi s study apart from others t hat
focus on code-svi tchi ng i n the real vvor l d by enter i ng the
real m of f i ct ional d i scourse.
2. Code-s\itching
Code-svi tch i ng may be understood as t he alter nat i ve use
by bili ngual s of tvvo l anguages in the same conversati on.
This al tern at i on vvill occur not onl y betvveen t he turns of di f
ferent speakers i n t he conversati on, but betvveen utterances
vv i thi n a singl e turn, and even vv i thi n a s i ngle utterance. There
are, no doubt, severa I theories on t he use of code-svvi tch-
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Gregori-Signes,C. & M. Alcantud-Diaz.2012. Handy Manny: The Pragmatic Function of Code-Switching in the Interaction
HANDY MAINY: THE PRAGMATIC FUNCTION OF CODESWrr(HlNG
IN THE INTERI\CTIOU OF (AnTOON CIARACTens
ing, and on the high potential regarding its creatIvIty in
language use. Gysels Cl 992) . for example, argues that code
switching may be used to achieve two objectives: (i) to fill
a lingui stic/conceptual gap and (ii) for other lTlultipl com
lTlunication factors. In addilion, Cook (2008) establish s the
following uses of code-switching: (i) to report what some
one has said in the other language, as in "Sara dijo que I was
cute"; or (ii) to talk about certain topics: "La consulta era
eight dollars", so that it is used to express terms which do
not exist in L 1 or are beter expressed in L2 (e.g. burger) (cf.
Poplack, 1980, 1988, Cartes f0renoi 2001); and (iii) to dif
ferentiate between roles: e.g. in a shop, the shop keeper
speaks in Spanish with his wife, but in English with his custom
ers. Cry stal ("1987) and I Llang (2008) add t hal, on
occasion, if speakers cannot use one lan
g
uage to express
what they intend to, due to a lack of skill, they may switch
to another language to fill that gap or difficulty; in sllch a
way that communication does not get disturbed. In addition,
a switch can often 0 cur when a particular social group de
velops solidarity and seeks to exclude outsiders (Crystal,
1987).
While Poplack and Meechan (1995: 201) base their def
inition on the syntact i element of code-switching and on
sider it "the juxtaposition of sentences or sentence frag
rents, each of which is internally consist nl 'ith the
morphological and syntactic rul s of its lexif ier kmguage",
GUnperz Cl 982: 97) deFi nes code-switchi ng as "a discours
phenolTlenun in which speakers rely on juxtaposit ion of
grammatically di stinct subsystems to generate conversa
tional inferenc s". Along the same lines, I<oppe and Icisel
(1995: 277) s'ress the pragmatic dimension of code-switch
i ng by stati ng that:
code-switching is lIsed to describe a certain skill of the
bilingual speaker lIal requires pragmatic and grammatical
6.'
competence in both languages. \Nith respect to pragmatic
competence, code-switching refers to the ability to select
the language according to external factors like the parti u
lar intedocutor, the situational context, the topic of con
versation, etc. Cone rning gramlnatical compctencc, ade
quat-' code-switching Icquircs that switchcs within one
sentence observe specific grammatical contents.
It is th pragmatic dimension of code-switching that
mai n Iy co cerns the pre ent resea rch dictated by the nature
of the data analys d, which shows a prevalence of con
textualized pragmatic expressions in L2. Thus: we coincide
\,ith Duran (1994: 72), who stat s that "if code-switch ing is
something which happens naturally in the scheme of bilin
guality, it must s rve important fun tions for the language
learner/user". This use of code-switching as a learning tool
that may help improve pragmatic competence is the hall
mark of the present study, in which code-switching fre
quently takes the form of translation or r petition to clarify
certain exr)lessions with the intention of teaching English to
children of other languages.
Regaldi ng types and functions of code-switchi ng, th re
are s veral classifications. Depending on where it takes
pia e within the utterance, codeswi tching can be intersenten
tial or intrasentential (Ennaji, 2005). In the former, it takes
place across sentences or phrase boundar ies (e.g. El quiere
agua, not Coke), in the latter, it occurs inside a sen
t nc- ( .g. jQue guapo, cute, y encantaclor es!). In our data,
code-switchi ng occurs in five different situations which wi 11
be fully accounted for in the methodology section: a) when
an expression in L"I Spanish is translated into L2 English
within the same turn; b) vvhen an expression in L2 is tr ans
lated into, or xplain d i n L 1 within the same tur; c) when
a L2 expression is part of a single utt ranee; d) when an ex
pression in L2 is translated i nto, or explained in, L 1 in two
64
HANDY HAMNY; THE PRAGMATIC FUNCTION OF CODE-SWITCHING
IN THE INTERACTION OF CARTOOtl CHARACTERS
different turns; and e) vvhen a n expressi on in L2 i s defined
and expl ained.
The analys i s focuses on vvhat Gumperz (1982: 76-84)
descr i bes as "conversati onal code-svvi tchi ng", vvhich can
appear in the fol l ovvi ng forms and contexts: (i) i n quotations
(either di rect quotati ons or indirect speech), e. g. "She doesn't
speak Engl i sh, so habla espanol con su madre"; (ii) in ad
dressee specifi cat i ons, as in "Hol a Man ny, hel l o tool s"; ( i ii )
in rei terat i ons, vvhen a message or a vvord i n L 1 i s repeated
in L2 or vi ce versa, e. g. "Necesi tamos un nlicr6fono, a mi
crophone"; (iv) vvith i nterjections and sentence f i IIers such
as "Excell ent! Lo habei s hecho muy bien". To this l i st, ve
have added (v) retadiscursive code-svvitching vvhere the
speaker uses a vvord i n L2 and then expl ai ns i ts meaning i n
L 1 ( e. g. No, Rusty, gl ue en i ngl es si gn i fi ca col a) . Metadi s
cursive code-svvi tchi ng i s often desi gned for language learn
ers and it may often be used as a consci ous strategy, e. g. i n
the classroom.
3. Pragmatic expressions: Formulaic and appraisal
language use
In Handy Manny, among the different types of L2 target
utterances i ntroduced using code-svvitching, formulaic and
appra i sal expressions are among the most common . Despite
the fact that formulaic expressions have not yet been fully
accounted for i n the l i terature, it is novv vvi del y accepted
that the role of formulas i n the process of l anguage learn i ng
and teachi ng i s a fast-grovving research i ssue in i ts ovvn right
(Bardovi -Harli g, 2006; Wray, 2006; Ide, 2007). Withi n sec
ond l anguage acqui si tion, to vvhich our series cl aims to be
contri buti ng to, formu l ai c l anguage "has been most recentl y
blossoming as a major focus of attenti on" (Wray, 2006:
65
592), as the recent proli feration of publications on the topic
se m to indicate ':cf. Schmitt and Cart er, 2004; Spottl and
fcCarthy 2004; \I'a
y
, 2004, 2008; Corrigan et al., 2009;
Garda-Pastor, 2009a, 2009b). This is anly due to the fact
that the advances in corpus linguistics studies have de
monSlrated that '"the pattering of words and phrases l . . -]
shows far less variability that coul d be predicted on the ba
sis of gral 1mar and lexicon alone" ( Perki ns, -1999: 55-56, ci
t d in \tra
y
, 2002). It is now widely accepted that our ca
pacity for novelty is far less than we thought (c. Coul ma ,
1981). As Coulmas argued "cor v rsati on is a structured ac
t i vit
y
_ and as such "a large par-t of it onsists of enacting rou
ti nes. \e greet and say goodbye to one another, we i ntro
duce ourselves_ vve thank, we apologise vie n1ake requests,
we exchange good wishes, we give advice, we seek infor
mation, etc., all of these are conducted within a large range
of convenlionalised, pre-patlerned expressions" (de,
2007: 1). Additionally, different languages may have differ
ent patterns and routin s with regard to conv rsational
p
ractices such as requests or op ning and closing conver
sations, to mention but some (Bou-Franch and Lorenz Dus,
2008; Garcfa-Pasto, 2009b; Bou-Franch, 2011).
\Nildner-BasseH (l 9(4) estZlblishes that "routine formulae
constitute a substantial part of adult native s
p
eaker's
p
ra
g
ratic competence, and learners need to acquire a sizable
repertoire of routi nes in or er to cope efiCiently with recur
rent and expanding social situations and discours require
ments". Along the same lines, Tomasell o (2003, ited in
Corrigan et al., 2009: 309} clairns that "the schemacity and
abstr ctioll of adu It grammar arises through a develo
p
men
tal process of building an inventory of constructions. This
process is centrally influenced by' patterns of meaning and
frequency on what children hear and produce = If that
were the case, being ex
p
osed to formulas and formulaic ap
praisal expressions may help children in the process of
(6
HANDY IANIY: TH: PRAGr1ATH: FUN(TIOr- OF CODE-SWITC1NG
Hd THE INTERACTION OF CARTOON CHARACTERS
learning a language to "avoid t he difficulties associated vvith
stringing vvords and morphemes together by rule and the
risk of i nsti I I i ng our message vvith inappropriate pragmatic
overtones" (Wray, 2 004: 2 49), thus helping them increase
accuracy and fluency, and develop their pragmatic avare
ness (cf. Nattinger and Decarrico, 1992; Bou-Franch and
Gregori-Signes, 1999). Several authors also state t he rela
tionship betveen formulas and greater pragmatic compe
tence (Kasper and Schmidt, 1996), and argue in favour of
explicit teaching (cf. Garcfa-Pastor, 2009a) as a more ef
fective vvay of "facilitating the acquisition of pragmatic rou
tines" (Tateyama, 2001: 2 20).
Formulas or formulaic sequences "exist in so many dif
ferent forms that it is difficult to develop a comprehensive
definition of the phenomenon" (Schmitt and Carter, 2004:
4). This coincides vvith Wray (2008: 35), vvho admits that
these discrepancies have caused "a considerable scope for
discussion about vvhat should and should not be counted".
Formulaic expressions may be composed of single or mu 1-
ti-vvord units. The criteria used for classifying formulaic se
quences by different aut hors are "institutional ization,
fixedness, [ . .. ] non-compositionality and frequency of
occurrence" (Schmitt and Carter, 2004: 2 ). Schmitt and Car
ter pay attention to multi-vvord sequences, vvhile Wray
(2002) also includes single vvords and morphemes as exam
ples of formulaic language. Wray (2006: 593) argues that
"for most researchers, t he term 'formulaic language' refers
to tvo or more vords vhich may or may not be adjacent
and vvhich have a particular mutual affinity t hat gives t hem
a joi nt grammatical, semantic, pragmatic, or textual effect".
She acknovvledges the discrepancies betvveen child lan
guage acquisition, sociolinguistics, literary style, phraseology,
grammar, discourse and psycholinguistics, each vvith a dif
ferent conception of t he purpose of formulaic language; and
proposes a holistic definition:
67
of Cartoon Characters. In, Garda-Pastor, M.D (ed. ) 2011. Teaching English as a Foreign Language: Proposals for the
Formulaic language is a generic strategic solution to a
recurrent challenge for us as hunlans: hov to promote our
ovn interests. The rationale for this proposal resides in the
vay that humans use language to manipulate others. Ma
nipulation entails persuading another person to think, feel,
or act in some vay that you desire. Selecting linguistic ma
terial that enables you as a speaker to fluently express your
message and enables your hearer(s) to easily decode it sup
ports this self-promotional goal. (ibid.)
Formulaic expressions in Handy Manny may help chil
dren improve their conversational skills and pragmatic com
petence in English, as "automatic retrieval of vvords and
fixed expressions undoubtedly contributes significantly to
smooth performance and normal paced del ivery [ . . . . ]
[si nce] [t] he extremely high frequency of occurrence of such
chunks in native-speaker and expert-user conversation re
veals their regular, fixed forms and the pragmatically spe
cialised functions they have acquired over many millions of
utterances" (McCarthy, 201 0: 4).
Many of the formulaic expressions in our corpus may be
classified as appraisal or evaluating devices, vvhich should
be vievved as belonging to the field of interpersonal seman
tics (Eggins and Slade, 1997). Appraisal refers to the attitu
dinal colouring of talk among dimensions like certainty,
emotional response, social evaluation, and intensity. As re
ported by these authors, appreciation, affect, judgement,
and amplification are four main categories that should be
included in appraisal analy sis. Eggins and Slade (1997: 125)
define each as follovvs: appreciation indicates "the speaker's
reactions and evaluation of reality", vvhile affect is "the
expression of emotional states both positive and negative".
Judgement includes "the speaker's judgements about the
ethics, moral ity or social val ues of other people". Finally,
amplification is "the vvay speakers maximize or minimize
68
HANDY MANNY, THE PRAGMATIC FUIHTlON OF (ODE-SWI,OG
It I THE INTERACTION OF CARTOON CHAlACTERS
the intensity and degree of the reality they are negotiating".
Formulas and formulaic appraisal expressions in our corpus
perform the pragmatic function of helping to regulate the re
lationship between the fictional characters. Appraisal ex
pressions mainly convey positive emotional states and judg
ements of the situations they get involved in, thus creating
solidarity, friendship and group membership, as illustrated
in the following section.
4. Analysis
Quantitative and qualitative methods have been combined
to provide an account of the use of code-switching in
Handy Manny. Quantitative measures address the presence
of L2 (English) in the analysed episodes broadcast mainly in
L 1 (Spanish), while the qualitative analysis comprises an as
sessment of the pragmatic function of the different types of
units that code-switching is made of in the corpus which,
broadly speaking, fall into two different categories: perma
nent and context units. Permanent lexical items are present
in most of the episodes and are the hallmark of the series
(e.g. its song, the song characters sing every time they go to
work and the names of the characters). Context lexical items
are more episode-related and can be classified as: a) non
formulaic units (i.e. vocabulary or expressions that are rela
ted to the topic of the episode); b) formulaic and evaluative
expressions, which work on the pragmatic level and help
express the attitude of the characters towards the situation,
and towards the other characters. Our aim has been to cla
rify the function of these items that emerge from code-switch
ing to evaluate their contribution as potential language
teaching material.
69
Quantitative analysis
First, we counted the number of target words i n L2 per
episode to assess how much vocabulary was i ntroduced .
Secondl y, we anal ysed each i nstance of L2 accordi ng to the
order of appearance of L 1 and L2 i n code-swi tchi ng, si nce
L2 expressi ons are often transl ated i n the next t urn . The pos
si bl e variati ons are:
a) Type 1 = L 1 +L2 ( e. g. si lenci o/qu iet, Ep. Unas vaca
ciones bien rnerecidas);
b) Type 2= L2+L 1 (What's thi s?/lQue es esto?, Ep. Ob
jeto Perdido)
c) Type 3= L2 without any transl ation ( e. g. Oh my!, Ep.
The Lost Object).
d) Type 4= Tra nsl ation (L 1 +L2) in two d i fferent turns by
two different speakers (e.g. Man ny: yes, grandpa, aca
bamos de arregl ar tu ' boat'. Grandpa: mi 'barco', ex
cel l ent. Ep. Unas vacaciones bien merecidas)
e) Type 5= metadiscursi ve code-switchi ng (L2+L 1). The
term i s expl ained by usi n g a defi n i t i on for mu l a, whi ch
is not used as such i n the other types ( e. g. Herra
mi enta: lUna l avadora y una washi ng machi ne? Si
que ten emos trabajo; Man ny: No, u na washi ng ma
chi ne es una lavadora, vamos herrarnientas).
Qualitative analysis
The qual itat i ve analysis i ncludes a cl assifi cat i on of the L2
terms i nto permanent or context dependent l ex i cal i tems.
The nature of both is different, as expl ai ned bel ow.
a) Type 6 permanent u n i ts ( e. g. the song of the seri es,
the son g they s i n g every t i me they go to work, the
70
HANDY MANRY: TH PRAGMATIC FUNCTION OF (ODE-SWITCHING
IN THE INTERACTION OF CARTOOf CHARACTERS
names of the characters) recur in all or almost all ep
isodes. These terms help identify the series for the au
dience;
b) Type 7 & Type 8= context units. These are contex
tually dependent on the topic of each episode and/or
the progress of the conversation. They have been clas
sified according to the nature of the expression itself,
and its pragmatic function vvithin the interaction. Tvvo
main categories emerge: non-formulaic and formulaic
expressions, vvhich are combined vvith the categories
establ ished in section 4.1, as exemplified belov. They
can be single- or multi-vvord strings.
5. Results and discussion
Quantitative analysis: Presence of L2 in the corpus
A total of 853 terms in L2 vvere found in the corpus, i.e.
an average of 42 . 65 L2 vvords are introduced per chapter.
In this estimation, vve have not included the proper names
of the characters. Hovvever, vve have paid attention to some
other characters' names like Grandpa or Cute, since they al
so have lexical meaning, thus counting as target L2 expres
sions for children to learn. We have also included terms of
address (Mr., Miss, etc.) for the same reasons. Graph 1 illus
trates the percentages of L2 terms accord i ng to the catego
ries described above.
71
Graph 1. Percentages of L2 terms according
to the categories described in the method.
4
0
0 +- ----------------------------_
300 --- ------------------------
2
0
0 +--------------
100
16
o
L 1 +L2 L2+L 1 L2 L 1 +L2 (2 L2+L 1 (2
!
turns) turns)
i
L ___________________________________________________________ 1
Type 3, where code-switching into L2 appears without
translation, has the highest percentage. Although it seems
that there is a high quantity of L2 terms introduced in the
series; in fact, this is not truly so in qualitative terms, as most
of them are repetitions of the same word_ For instance, the
greeting 'hello' appears 89 times in type 3; or the affirma
tion particle 'yes', which appears 44 times in this same cat
egory. Besides, there are expressions which are repeated se
veral times in most of the chapters: various greetings (e.g.
good morning, thank you, bye), some orders encouraging
the tools (e.g. come on, let's go) or evaluating expressions
of a process or action by another character (e.g. excellent,
wonderful). Type 3 is also used to carry out pragmatic func
tions like accepting or agreeing (e.g. "That's great Grandpa"
in Como una herramienta en una cacharrerfa), greeting (e_g.
" Hello Grandpa, how are you?" in Grandpas tomatoes), giv-
72
HANDY MAHNY: THE PRAGMATiC fUNCTIOt or; CODE-5\HCHING
IN THE IIlTERACTlON OF CARTOOM (HlnACTE'S
ing orders (e.g. "Herramientas: si, let's go" in Feria de cien
cias) and apologizing (e.g. "I'm sorry" in Philip tiene hipo);
as vvell as reinforcing vocabulary (e.g. "No creo que qui
sieran secar la coin, la meterfan sin querer" in Objeto per
dido); and evaluating (e.g. "excellent" in Musica).
Type 2 (L2 + translation into L 1 vvithin the same turn) is
the second in highest percentage. Its function overlaps vvith
the functions of type 3 above. Some examples are: giving
orders and thanking (e.g. "Light on, enciende la luz, light
off, apaga la luz", "Julieta's Grandpa: Thanks a lot Manny y
gracias tambien a vosotras, herramientas" in El monstruo de
julieta). There are also examples of type 5, metadiscursive
code-svvitching, vvhere the speakers - mainly Manny - trans
late and explain the meaning of the term in L2 (e.g. "No,
una vvashing rachine es una lavadora, vamos herramientas"
in La pequefa Squeeze). In other occasions, L2 introduces
semantic fields (e.g. "Bueno, aunque no quede yel lov pin
tura teneis ruchos otros colores, teneis red, blue, green,
montones de colores" in Grandpa's tomatoes).
Qualitative analysis
Permanent lexical terrs
Tvvo songs in the series appear in all the chapters. The
first song is played as Handy Manny and his tools are leav
ing to go to vvork. The second one occurs vvhen they start
vvorking on the task. These songs intersperse L 1 vvords and
expressions vvith L2 ones (e.g. A trabajar, go quickly go",
in the first song, and "novv vve vvork together, nos gusta tra
bajar" in the second).
Some names of the tools are also in English: Dusty, Pat,
Philips, Rusty, Squeeze, Stretch, Turner. They serve the pur
pose of introducing three types of lexical items in L2. Tvo
73
of t hem are proper nouns (Pat, Phi l i ps), vhile the others
make reference to their chara teristi s: Pliers (Squeeze) are
operated by squeezi ng the handl s, whi l you have to
Stretch a lTleasuring tape if you vant to n.easur . t, Dusty
and Rusty are of a different nature. Dusty (a saw) lakes r f
erence to the wood dust, wh ich resu Its from usi ng the saw.
Finally, Turner (a screwdriver) is given this name du to the
action that is carried out in using it, since a turner is an item
that turns. Turner vvoul d t hus be an exalTpl e of onomato
poei a.
Th hoi of addr ss terms in the seri es also alternates
betwe n the us of L 1 and L2. Thus, Grandpa Cabuefo) is
one of th p rmanent L2 terms and has never appeared in
L' in the data. Som character- su h as Sr. apart are al ways
in L 1, whi le oth rs ar always in L2, e.g. tr. Lawrence. The
objective in introduci ng both t rms of address in L 1 and L2
(e.g. Sri Mr.) is to force learn rs to make an ilplici t con
nection betveen the two, vvhil in exan.ples such as Grand
pa, L2vocabulary is expected to be learned by association
\ith the characteristics of the character himself (old, \hite
hair, Manny's only relative). Hovvevcr, there are no clear rea
sons or patterns emergi ng from the alternation b tveen the
tvvo. Some other permanent terms belong to fonTlulaic con
versat i onal rout i nes such as "Hello, Ianny Manitas", every
time he answers the phone, or the alternation bet'veen
L 1/L2 vvh n Grandpa greets them all: "Hola tanny, hello
tools". The affi r mation 'yes' - vvhich may be consid red as
being half\ay between formul aic and non-formulaic - is al
so C permanent L2 term that alternates \ith other formulaic
xpressions such as 'of course':
(2) Mrs. Rose: yes, Rusty. lQU' opinas Manny, puedes haeerlo?
Manny: of ourse, .'iss Ros . El cart I va a quedar
genial. lVerdad, h rramientas?
La rentrii//a de Rusty
74
Context lexical iterns
fAtpr nANNY: l'Hf PRAGMATIC fU<tl ON or CODESWITCHiNG
H THE ItTerA(710r OF CARTOON CHAIlA(,f'ER$
For mu l a i c and f i xed express i ons and/or for mu l ai c ap
pra i sa l xpr s si ons - wh i ch hel p establ i s h t he rel at i ons h i p
betvveen t h characters, t h e si tuati on, cmd, i ndi rect l y, the au
di enc- - are promi nent i n the seri es. Greet i ngs such as ' hel
l o/h i ' (9 exam
p
l es; , 'goodbye' ( "1 3 exa ITlpl es), 'good mor
ni n
g
' or ' cheers' , a re among the most common. Other
formu l ai c expressi ons i nc l ude: d i rect i ves ( be qu i et, b care
fu l l et's go') , quest i ons (vvhat happened? 'vhal-'s vrong?i , apol
ogi es ( I ' m sor ry) , express i ons for agreei ng and d i sagreei ng
( tha 's r i
g
ht, you' I'e ri ghl) , and eva l uati ng or appra i sal ex
pressi ons of appreci at i on :that's perfect, terri fi c, that's good,
wonderfu l ! , fa nt a s t i c! ) and j udgement ( we l l done) . Wi th
regards to non-formu l a i c i tems, nouns ale t he most common
wi th arou nd 40 nouns i n the epi sodes, fol l ovved by adject i ves
and verbs . Most of them are exanl pl es of COlnmon everyday
vvords ( e. g. nouns such as ' boat', ' coffee Inugs' , ' potato',
' sal esn, an' , 'gi r l ' , ' \ash i ng mach i ne' , ' hat' , or ver bs s uch as
' u nderstand', ' l i sten' , ' knovv' , ' are gone' ; .
Di scussion and i Il pl i cati ons for l anguage l earni ng
Thi s st udy anal ysed code-swi tch i n g focusi ng on t he pres
ence of L2 t erms i n 2 0 epi sodes of t he ser i es Jandy
/anny, 'i t h t he a i m of eval uat i ng vvhct her th i s ser i es may
be a s ui tabl e tool for leari ng E ngl i - h/Span i s h . Resu l ts i ndi
cate t hat, i n fact, there's d presence of L2 terms i ntroduced
t hrough code-swi tchi ng i n each epi sode. These i nc l ud a
wi de va r i ety of basi c fOI mul a i c a nd non-for mu l a i c expres
si ons i n E ngl i s h. These express i on s ar i ntrodu ced usi ng
code-swi tchi ng vv i t h a d i rect swi tch i nto L2 E ngl i sh, often
fol l owed by a trans l at i on for each of them, Previ ous st ud i es
(SpoUI a n d McCarthy, 2004; Schrn i dt a nd Carter, 2004;
75
Wray, 2 006; McCarthy, 2 0 1 0) h ave demonstrated t he i m
portance of for mu l ai c l anguage i n appl i ed l i ngui st i cs and
pragmati cs (cf. Tateyama, 2001 ); and hovv l earn i ng formu l ae
may hel p i mprove pragmat i c competence among l ear ners
(Tateyama, 2001 ; Garcfa- Pastor 2 009a, 2 009b) . As can be
observed from t he exampl es above, pragmati c fu nct i ons a re
expressed predomi nant l y by formu l a i c l anguage vvh i ch i s
i ntroduced i n chun ks, a n d may t herefore be l earn ed as s uch.
The vari ety of formul as i s consi derabl e (53 di fferent formul ai c
expressi ons over 20 epi sodes) , and t hey fu l fi l a number of
pragmat i c functi ons such as greeti ng, thanki ng, apol ogi zi ng,
request i ng, i dent i fyi ng and eva l uati ng t hrough appreci ati on,
j udgement, a nd a mp l i fi cat i on. Ot her for mu l a s a re a l so
i nterj ect i ons and di scourse mar kers, and storytel l i ng open i ng
formu l ae ( e. g. Once upon a t i me) . Al l of t hese formu l ae are
uttered vvi th i n a comprehens i bl e s i tuati onal context, vvhi ch
certai nl y may hel p cl ari fy thei r functi on for potenti al l anguage
l earners, so t hat they may understand hovv t hey are used.
Qual i tati vel y, t here i s a preva l ence of posi t i ve over neg
ati ve pragmat i c expres s i ons . Eva l uat i ve pos i t i ve express i ons
contr i bute t o hel p mai nta i n and strengt hen comrades h i p
a n d fr i endshi p betvveen Manny an d h i s tool s . Most of these
express i ons are i ntroduced by the ma i n character Manny.
Consequent l y, h i s rol e i s rat i f i ed t hrough di scu rs i ve means:
Manny i s t he teacher ( expl a i ns L2 vvords vvh i ch t he tool s
may not be fami l i ar vvi t h) , t he boss, and a good fri end vvho
has a very pos i t i ve atti tude tovvards hi s fri ends, and vvho fos
ters comrades h i p an d team-vvor k. Manny's di scourse i s a l so
pol i te, al vvays us i ng greeti ngs vvhen appropr i ate ( hovv a re
you? , see you, have a good day) , an d thank i ng other char
acters for t hei r hel p ( than ks, you're vvel come, I ' m very grate
fu l ) as vvel l as apol ogi s i ng i f necessary ( I ' m sorry) . Al l t hese
p ragmat i c f u n ct i on s a re exp l i c i t l y i nt roduced i n t he con
ver sat i ons betvveen t he charact er s i n t he ser i es t h rough
code-svvi tch i ng i n t he di fferent patter ns speci fi ed above.
76
HADr MAlfY: THE PRAGIAT!( FIlN<TION OF CODESWITCHING
IN THE I!ITERACTION OF CARTOoJ (HARA<TERS
We f i rml y beli eve that pragmat i c fu ncti ons can hel p pro
mote the l earn i ng of speci fi c rout i nes that l earners shou l d
start master i ng from an earl y stage i n the process of lan
guage l earn i ng. The s i mpl i ci ty of the expressi ons i ntroduced
i n Hand
y
Mann
y
i s i n accordance wi th t he age group whi ch
the seri es is mai nl y addressed to ( i . e. chi l dren under ni ne years
ol d), thus favour i ng t he devel opment of pragmati c compe
tence. The seri es, however, does have a few drawbacks:
mai n l y careless pronunci ati on of L2 terms (the voi ces of the
Spani sh versi on are by nati ve Spani s h speakers, and t hei r
pronunci at i on refl ects many mi stakes t hat are the product of
L 1 transfer) , and some mi nor pragmat i c errors, whi ch are
caused by t he process of dubbi ng the seri es i nto Spani s h. I n
s uch context, the seri es s houl d provi de for t he most correct
pronunci ati on, so that chi l dren can l earn from i t .
Another drawback i s the fact that exposure t o these ex
press i ons is most probabl y i ns uff i ci ent . A l ongi tudi nal i nter
pretati on of the resul ts proves that along 2 0 epi sodes cho
sen at random, t he i nput may be i nsuff i ci ent. Most of t he
expressi ons appeared onl y once or twi ce i n the epi sodes
analysed, wh i l e other i tems such as ' yes' (44 t i mes) , ' hel lo'
(89 ti mes) , and 'than k you' (2 7 ti mes) appear more often. In
suffi ci ent exposure i s a handi cap for l earn i ng a l anguage,
unless the chi I d watches t he epi sode several t i mes (an ac
t i on pretty common among chi l dren) . However, one may
doubt whether chi l dren are aware of the i mpl i cati ons of code
swi tchi ng or not, s i nce many authors cl ai m t hat "learn i ng
requ i res awareness at the t i me of l earn i ng target features"
( Schmi dt 1 993, i n Takahashi , 2001 : 1 98; Tateyama, 2001 ) .
As for t he non-formul ai c express i ons i n our corpus, t he
verbs are common verbs ( e. g. s i ng, l i sten, know, wai t) and
they are i ntroduced i n the ri ght context. There i s al so an
exampl e of a modal auxi li ary (must), whi ch i s also contex
tual ized, and hel ps i ntroduce the idea of obl i gat i on . The ad
j ect i ves and nouns al so bel ong to basi c semant i c f i el ds t hat
77
/
would correspond with what chi l dren start [ arning at school
at an ea rly age ( e. g. colours) . Other adj ecti ves may be
c l a s sifi ed as bel ongi ng to the eval uat i ve category of appre
ciati on ( Eggi ns and Slade, 1 99 7) : ' good ' , ' h a ndsome' ,
' beauti ful' , ' new' , I i ftl " 'in c redibl e' , ' srna rt' . ' pretty' .
Others, which ma
y
at fi rst sight look less common, are j ustified
due to the topic of the
p
i sode and the situational context
(e.
g
. wi ndy, sharp) . Th nouns i ntroduced (arou nd 98) ar
al so contextual i sed and corr spond with items that can b
retri 'vable from the context: the physi cal context ( i . e. t he
obj ects ca n be visualized) or t he topi c under discussion .
6. Concl usion
The starti ng point for t his st udy was to i nvestigate t h e
possibilities t hat the cartoon seri es Iandy Manny may offer
for ch i l dren 'ho are I arning En
g
l ish. The anal ysi s of L2 (En
glish), wh i ch was introduced thlough code-s'i tch i ng, l ed us
to establ i s h different categori s according to the order i n
which L 1 and L2 'vV ere combined. Res u l ts indi cate that there
is a prevalence of formu l ai c expressions with a pragmatic
fun tion i n the conversation . Th i s is a pos i tive feat ure of the
seri s, si nce expos ure to for mulaic s qu nces at an early
age can hel p improve ch i l dren's pragmati com
p
etence i n
si t uations where the use of such formu l a i s adequate or even
required . We bel i eve that introduCing vocabu l ary i n L2, and
pragmat i c express i ons wi th a cl ear soci al fu nction at an
eal'ly age i s certai n ly a good idea .
Not'vi thstandi ng t he uti l ity of L2 terms in a series for
ch i l dren, t here are sev ral drawbacks: a) l ear ners do not
have enough exposure and input; b) the input is unsysterati c
ally organized, and t here seems to be no rational e behi nd
most of the choi ces of L2 expr ssions when looking i n d pth
to what the lea r ner i s being " taught"; c) the carel ess pro-
78
/fAIDY [AMiY: THE PRAGfAllC U.Cfl Ot er <OPtSWiT(HI NG
IN THE ! tTIpA(TmN OF (APToJ OIMA(TEGS
nunci at i on of the L2, \vhi ch often reproduces the Span i s h
phonol ogi cal system rather t han t he Engl i sh one. Thi s stud
y
,
hovvev r, has not tested the i mpact t hal t he ser i es may have
h ad on a regu l ar spectator. Further research i s thus needed
to see whet her t here i s any i mpact on the chi ldren or not,
and whether u s i ng code-swi tch i ng i s fu l l y comprehended by
t he chi l d
79
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|OV|C a response lO th i s Qu6S|OOfrom uI\ U1 6|Cu1?^_|63,and,
at present, stil 0UCh !60| lSto UCGOt.The present vC' UUC | 5a
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classroom
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(IHHENTS
E F L teaching with a view to the classroom
Maria Dol ores Garcfa-Pastor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1
Using a corpus to enhance pragmatic awareness
Bri an Cl ancy and Anne O' Keeffe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Handy Manny: The pragmatic function of code-switching i n the
interaction of cartoon characters
Carmen Gregori-Si gnes and Maria Al cantud-Diaz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Interpersonal pragmatic competence: Developing communicative
choices in EFL interaction
Gerrard Mugford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Mitigating the force of criticism i n student peer reviews
Barry Pennock-Speck and Begona Cl avel -Arroi ti a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 07
A pragmatic study of peer-tutoring and peer-assessment practices
i n onl i ne literary forums
Anna Brfgido-Corachan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3 1
The use of suggestion formulas by non-native speakers of English
i n an EFL context
Yasemi n Bayyurt and Leyl a Marti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 5 7
Suggestions and advice in English: Considerations for foreign lan
guage learners
Ana Maria Borderia-Garcfa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 83
References . . . .
Contributors .
. 205
. . . 237
The series Est r<ltegies i s sponsored by the Di dacti cs of Language and
Li terature lep.lflment of the Universitat de Val enci a
Series edi tor: Josep 1al lester Roca
Advi sory board: J esus Fi guerol a, Manllel Garcfa, Pascual a Morote,
Mateo del Pozo and PLul i na Ri bcra.
Fi rst edi ti on: June 201 2
Copyri ght 201 2
Maria Dolores GarcfaPaslor, and the authors of i ndi vi dual chapters.
Copyri ght C 201 2
Periferic Edi ci ons
c. Scqu i a de Montcada, 1 3
46470 Catarroja (Val enci a)
e-mai l : periferic@periferic.ps
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Cover design: Paco Gi menez
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Al l ri ghts reserved. I\O part of lhis book tltly be reproduced i n any form 1 by any means,
el ectronic Of mechani cal , i ncl udi ng photocopy, recordi ng, o any informanon storage and
retrieval system, without permi ssi on i n \lri ti l 1g from the publ isher.
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Gregori-Signes - Alcantud-Díaz 2012 - The Pragmatic Function of Code-Switching in The Interaction of Cartoon Characters

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