Language contact between portuguese and japanese. Functions of Code-Switching in the Speech of Brazilians Living in Japan

要旨

"Four hundred years after the Portuguese left Japan, yet again we are witness toPortuguese and Japanese language contact, this time due to the continuing migrationof Japanese Brazilians to Japan. As a result, the number of Brazilian childrenraised in a bilingual environment is increasing day by day. In this paper, we analyzecode-switching (CS) between Japanese and Portuguese realized by young Brazilianbilingual speakers in in-group conversations. We focus on the discursive and pragmaticfunctions of CS in natural in-group conversations, taking the point of viewthat CS must be seen not only as the result of imperfect language acquisition, butalso as conversational strategies used either to organize the speech or to affect thehearer in some way, or even to express more accurately the speaker’s own feelings.We believe that similar research brings new insights into the dynamics of Japanese/Portuguese bilingual language use and, also, clarify some aspects of languagechange in an immigration context."

主題