Reviewed by Anastassia Zabrodskaja, Tallinn University
An investigation of the discourse functions of Jamaican Creole, this volume compares new text types of computer-mediated communication (CMC) with oral communication. This book is comprised of seven chapters and a substantial appendix that contains the primary corpus data.
In an introductory Ch. 1 (1–32), Lars Hinrichs reviews theoretical concepts in Jamaican sociolinguistics and clearly describes the compilation and structure of the corpus. The data include e-mails and postings on internet discussion forums and message boards.
Ch. 2, ‘The creole continuum and CMC’ (33–42), explores the written data. H discusses whether the written data and the speech data reflect the Jamaican creole continuum to the same extent. Additionally, here H explains the new variety of Jamaican English (i.e. Patois) that has emerged through the medium of CMC.
In Ch. 3, ‘How the situation determines code choice: A “simple, almost one-to-one relationship”’ (43–60), the notion of situational codeswitching (CS) is analyzed. Following the work of John Gumperz (Discourse strategies, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), H highlights the more reliable and predictable connections between code choice and aspects of the situation. Supporting his hypothesis, H finds a clear correlation between personal style and the relative position of the addressee to the writer.
Ch. 4, ‘Giving contextualization cues: How writers provide context information through code choice’ (61–84), deals with metaphorical CS. H continues the discussion of Gumperz’s (1982) work as well as of Gumperz’s followers and critics. Moreover, H analyzes CSs in his data, arguing that the baseline code in the e-mails is clearly some form of English. However, Patois is used in CS strategies, which contrasts with English in some very standard contextualization cue functions.
In Ch. 5, ‘CS and identity: How writers describe themselves through code choice’ (85–132), H provides an excellent overview of Acts of identity: Creole-based approaches to language and ethnicity (Robert B. LePage & Andrée Tabouret-Keller, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985) as well as the Labovian view of variation and the responses it has generated. H explains that identity construction involves the use of Patois in CS to create socially recognized personae. In this chapter, H also examines the correspondence between the social meanings and local discourse functions of Patois.
Ch. 6 (133–38) provides a summary of the analysis and discussion. H points out that Jamaican Creole and English are in a clear functional distribution of unmarked and marked code. He notes that the problems of we– and they-code designation are pervasive in the data. Ch. 7 (139–56) presents general conclusions, compares language use in the Jamaican diaspora and in CMC, and proposes a new direction for the study of English as a world language. Finally, H makes explicit how other researchers might be able to draw on his methods and reasoning in their own CMC research projects.
The primary corpus is included in its entirety in the appendix (169–278). This study is a comprehensive and reader-friendly contribution to CMC and CS studies.