Code-Switching in Langland Chaucer and the Gawain Poet: Diglossia and Footing, Chaucer and the Gawain Poet: Diglossia and Footing

This essay examines L’s switches into French alongside French code-switches by Chaucer and the Gawain poet. It attempts to explain why L uses French for proverbs, and shows that in L, as in Chaucer and the Gawain poet, switches into a different language are often prepared for by switches into a different register of English. The essay argues that code-switching in Ricardian poetry can usefully be seen as a way in which speakers and authors negotiate footing (Erving Goffman), i.e., adjust their position vis-à-vis other people and vis-à-vis their own words. (AP)