Code-Switching Essay

Code mixing (CM) refers to the integration of two or more languages in speech. It is frequently observed in user-generated content on various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, especially from multilingual users. This present study attempts to analyze the code-mixed text collected from various articles and papers.

Introduction

Code-Switching and its History:

Code-switching and mixing, together, have always been a global phenomenon, which mainly occurs due to lexical borrowing. In linguistics, language alternation occurs when people communicate by using two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation.

Sociolinguists and other researchers are interested in the way in which code-switching occurs in many ethnic groups around the world.

Code-Switching has dated back to the early twentieth century when the first bilingual research observation was recorded in 1913 and 1939(Ronjat 1913, and later Leopold 1939-49). However, this phenomenon was not studied for a long period. During the twentieth century, code-switching was considered something that occurred without any logical reason and hence was considered imperfect for second-language learning. Nonetheless, the studies on code-switching resumed in the early 1970s when Blom and Grumperz (1972) published an article in which they presented a survey of their studies of a Norwegian village. Blom and Grumperz discovered that members of the village spoke two lingos of Norwegian and used them according to specific situations.

In the United States, code-switching was observed predominantly between Spanish and English languages. However, various studies show that code-switching was also noticed in African Americans who used to communicate in the national norm of English and African American English(AAE). From the late seventies on, there has been continuous research going on, producing various models predicting (constraints on) code-switching.

Diglossia:

Diglossia or bidialectal refers to the union of two dialects of the same language. Usually, of the two dialects, one form is literary, and the other is a native dialect spoken by most people. This is very common in many places in the world. For example, in Greece, there exist two types of dialects, known as Classical Greek and Demotic. The former is the prestige or literary dialect while the latter is the common dialect. Similarly, in Arab, classical Arabic exists along with the colloquial Arabic which is used in Egypt and Morocco.

Bilingualism:

Bilingualism refers to the ability or capability of an individual to speak two languages effectively. The term bilingualism has originated from the Latin words, i.e.‘bi’ and ‘lingual’ which means ‘two’ and ‘tongue’ respectively.

Children may also become bilingual by learning languages in two different groups. For example, British children learned an Indian language during British rule by constantly socializing with the Indians. Other studies show that the knowledge of two or more languages speeds up to one’s learning process and increases their intellectual capacity.

Objectives

• To identify the language of the words in bilingual or multilingual sentences.
• To recognize the influence of code-switching/mixing in day-to-day conversation.
• To draw an efficient conclusion for code-mixing/switching.

Types of code-switching

Many scholars categorize code-switching (CS). Mayers-Scotton (2006), classifies code-switching into two types: ‘Classic CS’ and ‘Composite CS’. Whereas, Myusken (2009) mentions CS is of three types: insertion, alternation, and congruent lexicalization. Ronald Wardhaugh (1992) defines two types of CS: ‘Situational CS’ and ‘Metaphorical CS’. However, code-switching can be mainly categorized into the following three parts:

Inter-sentential CS: 

In inter-sentential code-switching, the language shift is done at sentence bounds—words at the beginning or at the end of a sentence.

Examples:

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In a Hindi-English mixed sentence, we have, ‘How are you, बेटी ?’

In Spanish-English mixed sentence, we have, ‘The food was great, mamá’.

Intra-sentential:

In intra-sentential code-switching, the shift is made in the midst of the sentence, with no interruptions, or pauses to indicate a shift. The speaker makes the shift unintentionally.

For example, in a Kannada-English mixed sentence, ‘Hello Soumya, ಏನಾಯಿತು, why did you throw it’?

Extra-sentential CS or Tag Switching:

It involves the insertion of a tag from one language into an expression in another language.

For example, in Hindi-English mixed sentences, we have, ‘This is the way of writing ना?’.

Basis for code-switching

• To render one’s need: A person who may not be comfortable using just a single language for communication purposes may tend to use a mix of two or more languages to overcome this inadequacy.
• Purpose of Unity: To be in harmony and maintain unity, speakers may tend to communicate using multiple languages.
• To rule out others: Code-switching may also be used to exclude others from a conversation who does not speak the second language. This may be beneficial to those who speak multiple languages as it serves as a degree of comfort and intimacy between them.

Other major reasons for code-switching may include the following:

• To convey precise meaning
• To emphasize a point
• To attract attention
• To communicate easily
• To negotiate with higher authorities

Code-switching possesses five functions, namely, (i) referential, (ii) directive, (iii)expressive, (iv) phatic, and (v) metalinguistic (http://www.glottopedia.org). Represented below are Waffle Charts which show the respective percentages of these functions.

The positive and negative impact of code-switching

Positive impacts

• It creates many opportunities for the multilingual speaker: A speaker who communicates in multiple languages may help to enable, develop and strengthen his personal, professional, and romantic relationships.
• It allows the speakers to become a cultural connectors. Code-switching effectively helps in bridging the cultural gaps between the world’s diversified ethnic groups. A code-switcher can help these distinct groups communicate and reach an agreement.
• Code-switching gives its users a more refined and unprejudiced view of world cultures: A multilingual and multicultural code-switcher quickly learns that no culture is superior and that each ethnic and traditional culture is to be respected.
• A multilingual code-switcher can access different environments without imposing a foreign culture/language: For example, if a Britisher is fluent in Spanish and is knowledgeable in Spanish or Mexican culture, she/he can interact with them without forcing them to speak English.
• Code-switching helps the speakers to express themselves and propose logical solutions.

Negative impacts

• Gumperz and Hernandez (1972) claim that those who code-switch, make a mess out of the conversation and cannot speak the language properly. Thomas (2001) states that in some communities code-switching is even seen as something unacceptable.
• Code-switching by the speaker may sometimes pose as though they are boasting.

Methodology

This work is based on conducting a survey to get the primary data for the study, while different published articles on the related topic have been the secondary input for the research.

Scope of research

The main scope of the study is to discover the impacts of code-switching in everyday life with the following issues to be more specific:

• Why code-switching?
• When do people prefer to code-switch?
• Is code-switching in children as effective as that in adults? If so, what is the age group for the same?
• Aberrations during code-switching and procedures to overcome it.
• How long do people typically code-switch?
• The percentage of code-switching is prevalent in India.
• What type of people switch their code;
• Why did they switch their code;
• Errors in the use of code-switching and its total impact on society;
• Outlining the way for code-switching

Survey on code-switching

• Is code-switching a new pattern to attract attention? 3 7 -
• Is code-switching bad? 2 6 2
• Is code switching considered flaunting? 3 5 2
• Do you think your Kannada pronunciation is accurate? 9 1 -
• Do you like the trend of this language pattern? 8 2 -
• Do you think code-switching pollutes our mother tongue? 2 3 4
• Do you have sufficient grammatical knowledge in English? 9 1 -
• Do you think that it’s a matter of age? 8 1 1
• Are you influenced by social media in this aspect? 5 2 3
• Are you confident while speaking in a bilingual language? 7 3 -

For the purpose of the survey, we prepared a simple set of ten questions that were to be answered by 10 people which included family, friends, and relatives. The participants were 40% male and the remaining 60% were female out of the candidates surveyed. They were evaluated and it was evident that they were all well-educated and fluent in bilingual languages which were English and Kannada. In the above table, the numbers denoted under each column for every question denote the number of people who have opted to answer as either yes or no or no comments for the particular query.

Conclusion

To conclude, the above research contains a detailed study of code-switching along with its history, objectives, types, and its purposes. The research has covered many queries that occur during the process of code-switching. However, many questions are still to be answered and discussed in the future. Code-switching is a useful phenomenon that fills the speech of bilinguals with emotions and encourages the two parties involved in a conversation to understand each other better and sustain harmonious relations.