Code Switching and Authority in Late Medieval England.

In this essay approaches adapted from studies of multilingualism in linguistics are applied to the analysis of patterns of mixed-language speech in The Chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft, The Canterbury Tales, and PPl. Cases of multilingual communication in each text demonstrate that social motivations characterize why speakers strategically select or integrate languages. In interactions between interlocutors whose identities and status differ, mixed-language speech serves to construct authority and restrict membership across social and literate groups.