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Abstract
The present study is a large-scale quantitative analysis of intra-individual variation (linked to type of interlocutor) and inter-individual variation (linked to multilingualism, sociobiographical variables and three personality traits) in self-reported frequency of code-switching (CS) among 2116 multilinguals. We found a significant effect of interlocutor (friends, family, colleagues and strangers) on self-reported CS. Participants who grew up and work in a multilingual environment, know many different languages, which they learnt from a young age, have advanced proficiency in various languages reported more frequent CS. Sex, extraversion and cognitive empathy, but not tolerance of ambiguity, are linked with higher self-reported CS. We conclude that the frequency of self-reported CS depends not just on situational, complex sociobiographical and environmental factors, but it is also mediated by the personality of the multilingual.
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank our friends and colleagues who forwarded the call for participation in this study, as well as all those who participated. Many thanks also to the anonymous reviewers for their excellent comments.
Notes
1. Extraversion, neuroticism, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness.
2. Extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism.
3. We do not report the smaller groups.
4. Dewaele and Li (Citation2013b) found that the sample of participants on which the present study is based had a mean score of 3.85 on a 5-point scale measuring positive attitudes towards CS.
5. For a more detailed discussion of this instrument, see Dewaele and Li (Citation2013a).
6. For a more detailed discussion of this instrument, see Dewaele and Li (Citation2012).
7. We are aware that this is an abstraction, as some may use more CS with specific individuals, but we feel that the categories reflect typical behaviour within particular language domains (Grosjean, Citation2010). Moreover, personality questionnaires ask even more decontextualised questions: the item ‘are you a talkative person?’ does not specify the presence of particular (types of) interlocutors or situations. Personality psychologists do not see this as posing a problem.
8. Unfortunately there is no non-parametric equivalent of multiple regression analysis which would have allowed us to measure the relative impact of all independent variables together.
9. Our sample had too few adolescents and older people (only 8 aged over 70) to carry out a comparison. We also suspect that self-reported data lack the degree of accuracy to investigate this phenomenon.