Language Choice, Mixed Inner Speech, and Code-Switching in Putonghua-Dialect Speakers

Abstract

Inner speech is usually treated as private cognition, yet its language may reflect socially organized repertoires. This mixed-methods study examined language choice, mixed inner speech, and within-episode code-switching among Putonghua–dialect users in China. Phase 1 involved 360 adults completing a fully crossed 2 × 3 × 2 vignette task manipulating formality, imagined interlocutor, and emotional intensity; 90 entered a seven-day experience-sampling phase, 79 met the confirmatory compliance threshold, and 30 completed interviews. Formal contexts reduced dialect dominance (OR = 0.50), whereas hometown-intimate interlocutors strongly increased it relative to institutional authorities (OR = 25.82). High emotional intensity (OR = 1.78), productive dialect access, habitual dialect use, and dialect identity also increased dialect availability. Hometown-intimate contexts, emotion, and productive access predicted mixing, while identifiable switching was more likely in episodes containing multiple remembered or imagined voices. Cross-method correspondence was very strong for dominance (r = .943), weaker for mixing, and absent for switching. Interviews showed that dialect often appeared as remembered voices, recurrent phrases, or lexical fragments. The findings support a contextualized account in which social cues interact with speaker-specific repertoire conditions and show that dominance, mixing, and switching are distinct outcomes.