Language crossing as a form of polylingual communicative behavior

The paper turn its focus towards a practice it calls "language crossing" and a number of related issues. This article looks at how sociolinguistic analysis can contribute to sociological discussions about race, ethnicity, socialisation and language identity. Language crossing is an important phenomenon in human history and the development of culture. Ben Ramp-ton describes language crossing as the practice of using a language variety that belongs to another group. Crossing includes a wide range of sociolinguistic practices and intersects with notions of "stylization", "code-switching" and "mixed code". This paper links language crossing with Turner's theory of liminality, Bourdieu's discussion of heretical discourse and Gumperz's idea of metaphorical code-switching. The general aim of the article is to understand how and why individuals are motivated to employ the language variety of another group. This paper is based on recent detailed sociolinguistic research on crossing among young people in multi-ethnic urban areas of Britain and USA and describes how groups of multi-racial adolescents in a different communities mix their use of Creol, Pendjabi, Asian English and Black English. This article focusing on the functions of a crossing in multilingual groups. The young people used the mixed codes to contest racial boundaries and assert a new ethnicities. Language crossing constitutes an antiracist practice and is emblematic of young people striving to redefine their identities. This article states that at present there is a significant turn in the estimation of crossing. Crossing and stylisation were strongly linked to speech practices of young people. But now the practices of crossing can all be considered as part of contemporary polylangual urban vernacular.

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