Do We Codeswitch or Codemix in Sri Lanka?

Sri Lanka has three languages, Sinhala, Tamil and English, and among bilinguals, codeswitching is common. Research for many years has focused on the sociolinguistic and grammatical aspects of codeswitching. However these two traditions leave a gap in research as analyses of language selection revolve around participants, topics or settings and not the place within the interactional episode in which languages alternate. Conversations instead should be analysed for patterns of codeswitching between conversational moves or intonation units. Also, though codeswitching is used synonymously with codemixing, recent research has given new meaning to the expression codemixing: using two languages such that a third, new code, emerges, in which elements from the two languages are incorporated into a structurally definable pattern. This paper uses a discourse analytic approach to explore the possibility that in conversations, codeswitching between Sinhala and English is in transition to ‘codemixing’, signalling a new cultural pattern of discourse in Sri Lanka.