Hey, baby, ¿Qué Pasó?: Performing bilingual identities in Texan popular music Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • © 2018 Elsevier Ltd This study analyzes Spanish-English code-switching in the music of the Texas Tornados, a bilingual-bicultural San Antonio band. Their entire repertoire was transcribed and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively to ascertain the form and functions of code-switching. We found that 39% of songs included language mixing, with English being the most frequent matrix language and Spanish lexical insertions and inter-sentential switches prevailing. Lexical insertions are used to exoticize songs and for humorous effect, while inter-sentential code-switching presents similar ideas in sequence demonstrating high poetic virtuosity. Such artistic use of language represents the subaltern status of Spanish, reflecting the sociolinguistic reality of Texas.

published proceedings

  • Language & Communication

altmetric score

  • 2.85

author list (cited authors)

  • Loureiro-Rodrguez, V., Moyna, M. I., & Robles, D.

citation count

  • 1

complete list of authors

  • Loureiro-Rodríguez, Verónica||Moyna, María Irene||Robles, Damián

publication date

  • May 2018