Deconstructing "mixed code"

Abstract

In this chapter I propose that the often taken-for-granted, commonsensical notion of “mixed code” as a presumably existing, stably recurring, monolithic, debased language variety is in fact a rhetorical construct. By examining a diverse range of complex language use phenomena that can all be named “mixed code”, I argue that the notion of “mixed code” as asserted in the public and official discourses plays an important role in naturalizing and normalizing a certain language ideology, which, in turn, is appealed to as a rationale for a socially inequitable language education policy. The chapter concludes with the proposal that language and education issues in Hong Kong can be seen in a clearer light only when the official and popular media notion of “mixed code” is problematized and deconstructed, and the diverse range of social interactive actions mediated by multiple language resources seen and understood in their situated contexts, and not through the hidden language ideological lens of the reifying rhetorical construct of “mixed code”.