“Whenever we pull the race card, they can be like: ‘De quoi vous parlez?’”

Abstract

This research focuses on code-switching in reported speech as a tool to construct stance. It has been argued that reported speech can never be recontextualized (i.e., removing fragments of a discourse from its original context to insert it in another one) without changing the meaning of it, thus creating intertextual gaps—discrepancies between the original meaning of a speech event and the meaning of the reported speech in its new context. Speakers can insert their own stance in a quoted speech using a variety of linguistic features such as code-switching, i.e., shifting languages within utterances. My data is drawn from a podcast episode hosted by two women who code-switch between French and English. My results show that the language choice and the code-switching are motivated by their attitude towards the person quoted, more specifically whether they support them or not.