Code-mixing, style repertoire and language variation: English in Hindi poetic creativity

// World Englishes. 1989. Vol. 8 (3). P. 311-319.In studies on code-mixing considerable attention has been paid to certain genres of writing in prose. However, there is a paucity of studies on how code-mixing and the resulting code variation may be exploited in various types of poetic creativity. This paper examines the Hindi poetry of the last three decades to determine the effects-aesthetic and other of such language and dialect mixing in which English is one partner. This programmatic study focusses on the following: style repertoire in the context of Hindi literature; functions of code-mixed varieties in Hindi literary works in general; analysis of illustrative texts with mixing from English in poetic works by Madan Vatsyayan, Muktibodh, and others; and finally, the implications for sociolinguistics of such investigations from linguistic and stylistic perspectives.