Distinction, Privilege and the Role of Code Switching

Abstract

Code switching is a term used to describe switching between language systems and, more specifically, between informal and formal language. Although I see code switching as a daily practice and therefore quite mundane – although with stakes always high and in various degrees – it seems that the term is preserved for some switches and not for others. In this paper I explore the taxonomic implications of naming something, and not something else, as “code switching,” by comparing to the practice of naming groups as “voluntary associations” or “mystery cults” in the Graeco-Roman world.