5.0: Introduction

Code Switching (CS) was initially studied in the context of second-language acquisition across the United States and was considered as a strategy which involved native speakers such as Spanish shifting from their native languages to English and vice versa(Simasiku, Kasanda & Smit, 2015). The term “code” is used to refer to a dialect, speech variety or language. Most of the sociolinguists such as John Gumperz have over the years been interested in investigating the circumstances under which members of a given dialect or community are influenced into alternating their speeches between their native language and that which is used by the majority of the population(Simasiku, Kasanda & Smit, 2015). Moreover, code-switching has also been studied amongst the African Americans who have been found to have a long history of shifting between the Standard English and the African American English (AAE)(Yıltanlılar & Çağanağa, 2015). Most of the linguists study about code-switching in the attempt of understanding which circumstances influenced bilingual to shift from one language to another while sociologists on the other hand aim at investigating how it relates to one’s belonging in the surrounding context (Yıltanlılar & Çağanağa, 2015).

The Standard English is regarded as a dialect of English which is generally recognized as the national norm across the United States while African American English is considered to be an Africanized dialect which is widely spoken by Americans who have the African descent in them(Setyaningrum, 2015). Marquez and Peralta, (2014) claim that Standard Black English, Ebonics, African American English, and Black English are also notable examples of alternative code-switching that is used in the United States(Marquez & Peralta, 2014). According to the “correctionist” approach to code-switching, the “home speech” or mother language of the students significantly contributes to poor grammar or broken English (Kelp, 2011). The contrastivist approach on the other hand emphasis on the importance of language plurality which is contrary to the correctionist approach(Kelp, 2011).

5.1: Definition of Code Switching

Code-switching entails the process of an individual or a certain group of people shifting from one dialect or linguistic code to another, and this is mostly influenced by the conversational setting or social context (Sohail & Malik, 2014). Moreover, code-switching mostly takes place when individuals are conversing rather than when they are writing and involves the practice of moving back and forth between two dialects or languages at the same time(Sohail & Malik, 2014). Code-switching is widely used in countries or societies where there exists multiculturalism or bilingual population to help the members of the minority ethnic groups maintain and shape a sense of identity and belonging to a larger community (Marquez & Peralta, 2014). An example of code switch is, “Gracias for the lovely gift. Esta awesome!”(Marquez & Peralta, 2014). In this sentence, both Spanish and English languages are used to communicate at the same time.

Moreover, in the United States, an African American student may say to the teacher the following, “My brother, he smart”(Devereaux, 2014). If the teacher is contrastivist, he or she will immediately recognize this phrase as having a West-African sentence structure generally known as topic-comment whereby “he smart” is the comment and “my brother” is the topic (Devereaux, 2014). The contrastivist teacher or educator will then show the student the inaccuarcy that exists in the phrase, “My brother, he smart” after recognizing that this phrase lacks a verb and modify that sentence in such a way that it becomes equivalent to the acceptable Standard English (Devereaux, 2014). The educator can also go a step further and explain to such a student how his or her home dialect significantly differs grammatically from the Standard English. Such an explanation may also assist the student to correctly understand the best way of code-switching (Wheeler, 2016).

In most parts of the world, the identities of the students within a school setting are significantly influenced by the ideologies of both the correctionists and contrastivists through the language that they use while interacting with each other (Devereaux, 2014). For instance, those students whose expression is influenced by the ideologies of the correctionists are likely to adopt a mainstream cultural identity that is entirely couched in Eurocentric customs, ideals and values. On the other hand, those students whose language is shaped by the ideology of the contrastivists have the possibility of adopting a cultural identity that significantly depends on the conversational setting or social context (Wheeler, 2016).

5.1.1: Functions of Code Switching

There are various roles that code-switching performs. For instance, it helps people in effectively hiding fluency or memory problems when they are using the second language in a particular context(Castaño, 2009). Secondly, code-switching is used by people whenever they want to switch from using native or informal languages to the second languages which are relatively used in formal situations(Muhammad Malek, 2015). Thirdly, it facilitates the ability of the parents or teachers to exert a significant level of control over the children or students respectively. That enables the parent, or the teacher acquire the attention of the child or the students respectively (Muhammad Malek, 2015). Fourthly, code-switching is used by individuals who want to fit in a specific situation or context. For instance, an individual may use code-switching while in a certain ethnic group to exhibit the same identity as the rest of the group members.

Fifthly, code-switching enables people to negotiate a specific change whenever there exists a social distance between them and the other people who they are conversing with thus leading to the assumption that social conditions play a pivotal role in determining how specific languages are used in different communities (Muhammad Malek, 2015). Sixthly, code-switching helps people in conveying their messages easily and quickly especially in those situations in which they are unable to remember the information that they want to pass in their native language but luckily there exist equivalent foreign words which they can still use since they are commonly used in their society(Castaño, 2009). Furthermore, Park (2013) argues that code-switching helps speakers in achieving psychological needs(Park, 2013). For instance people belonging to the Arab community are fond of using English to evade a situation that they think is embarrassing thus Arabs would prefer to use the word “sorry”rather than (ﻒﺳآ) when they are apologizing since they highly believe that it significantly affects how other people value them and how they also value themselves at the same time (Park, 2013).

Moreover, some people use code-switching as a technique of facilitating a particular interpersonal relationship and create a specific meaning that may not be adequately understood using the original language(Jonsson, 2010). Additionally, some people have become fond of code-switching as a strategy of passing information secretly in a way that only the intended person will comprehend the actual message (Jonsson, 2010). These functions are the main reasons as to why people decide to code switch.

5.2: Types of Code Switching

It is relatively very natural for a bilingual speaker to use two languages at the same discourse across the world and tends to do so on the basis of the existing circumstances. Code-switching has proven to be one of the most specific and natural phenomena in language contact, multilingual and bilingual communities. Moreover, various researchers and scholars have provided a typological framework that gives a full account of the existing phenomena of code-switching(Gort, 2012). The below diagram illustrated the critical types of code-switching.

Figure 1: Types of Code Switching

Source: (Sebba & Wootton, 2013).

5.2.1: Tag Switching

This type of code-switching involves inserting a short phrase or a tag which is in one language in an utterance or speech in which a completely different language is used. The fact that short phrases or tags do not break syntactic rules when they are inserted into a sentence that is spoken or written using the first language and that they usually contain minimal syntactic restrictions makes tag switching to be regularly used by most of the people while conversing(Carlsen, et al., 2012). Tags are mostly composed of idiomatic expressions, fillers, and interjections. A discourse marker or sentence filler is made up of meaningless tags that help in directing or redirecting the manner in which a conversation flows although it rarely adds any significant meaning(Vyas, Gella, Sharma, Bali & Choudhury, 2014). Studies indicate that discourse markers are most common in the informal speeches rather than in the form of writing since they are syntactically independent thus removing them from the sentences has no effect but instead leaves the structure of the sentence intact(Carlsen et al., 2012).

Short phrases such as “I mean”and “right”are excellent examples of the English tags that people are fond of using (Carlsen et al., 2012). It has been discovered that tag switching mostly occurs at boundaries as one of the intensifying strategies of seeking the attention of the listener and emphasizing the utterance (Carlsen et al., 2012). Moreover, sentence filters in tag switching helps in introducing the resumption of a narrative or a change of subject, get the attention of a person before announcing something in a conversation, present an additional or supplementary idea, used to make rhetorical statements during conversation and also indicating that an individual is waiting for an explanation or answer from someone else(Vyas, Gella, Sharma, Bali & Choudhury, 2014). The fact that tags lack syntactic constraints can be inserted in discourse without violating any grammatical rules and can be easily moved makes the insertion of a tag to an utterance have virtually no ramifications for the rest of the sentence(Vyas, Gella, Sharma, Bali & Choudhury, 2014). The Turkish students are often known for using tag switching method through the use of words such as “Yani” which mean “I mean” and “ama” which means “but” while conversing in English(Vyas, Gella, Sharma, Bali & Choudhury, 2014).

5.2.2: Inter-Sentential Switching

This method entails switching the code at sentential boundaries in such a way that one sentence is spoken or written using one language which is different from the next one(Kebeya, 2013). It is usually argued that when using inter-sentential switching, the speaker must have fluency in both languages that are being used in constructing the sentences and must be able to effectively follow the rules of the two languages since this type of code-switching tends to take place within the same sentence or two sentences (Kebeya, 2013). Below example illustrates the use of inter-sentential code-switching between two languages that are English and Malay.

“Itula. Mama dah agak dah. Adiknidemamni. Pity you. Your voice is also different already” (Kebeya, 2013). The actual translation of this sentence is, “That is why. I knew it. You have a fever. Pity you. Your voice sounds different”(Kebeya, 2013).

This type of code-switching is widely used by fluent bilingual speakers and researchers while they are thoroughly reading and analyzing the data that they have collected. It is also used in the majority of the Indonesian novels whereby authors are fond of writing their books by code-switching between Indonesian and English languages to strengthen the intentions of the first statement. It has been revealed that inter-sentential code switching tends to take place with a new dimension whenever the bilinguals are tired, relax or stressed(Koban, 2013).

For instance, when they are in their state of mind, bilingual speakers frequently find the right expression or word in the base language since they can identify the right word that they want to use in the language that they are fond of using(Koban, 2013). On the other hand, if such bilinguals are in a disturbed mind, they may be in a better position to access the right word to use while in the specific conversational situation since it may be more accessible while using another language hence resulting to inter-sentential code-switching of clauses or sentences(Koban, 2013).

5.2.3: Intra-Sentential Switching

It is the most complicated of all the existing types of code-switching and takes place at clausal, sentential or at the word level meaning that the code-switching takes place within the same sentence (Kebeya, 2013). People tend to borrow words from other languages whenever they want to describe an object or express a concept for which there exists no visible word that is readily available in the language that they are using while speaking at that particular time.

Another factor that significantly triggers bilinguals into using intra-sentential code-switching is when they are unable to search for the most appropriate expression that they can use in a given language or in those cases in which a given concept is only available in one language, and there exist not excellent words that can help in conveying equivalent meanings while using the other language(Kebeya, 2013). An example of intra-sentential code-switching can be expressed using the below statement which involves switching from English to the Spanish language within the same sentence.

“Sometimes I Will Start a Sentence in English Y termino en Espanol” which can be translated as, “Sometimes I Will Start a Sentence in English and finish it in Spanish”(Kebeya, 2013).

5.2.4: Intra-Word Switching

This type of code-switching tends to occur within the words depending on the kind of morphs such as the character sequence, morphemes and bare nouns that have been extracted. However, intra-word switching is rarely used by people(Nguyen & Cornips, 2016). An excellent example of the use of this type of code-switching is in the sentence: “Traducier du das mal bitte?” whereby a Spanish verb is used in translating the verb, “traducir” although it is entirely conjugated to the existing German rules (Nguyen & Cornips, 2016).

5.3: Approaches to Code Switching

Various scholars have provided substantial evidence regarding the possible approaches that can be employed in discussing the issue of code-switching. Below is a comprehensive analysis of critical strategies that exist in most of the literature and which have been found to be common amongst most of the bilingual communities and countries).

5.3.1: Matrix Language Frame (MLF)

The Matrix Language Frame model is considered as a production-based approach to code-switching on the basis of observations of the speech errors and drawing on psycholinguistic research as well as aphasic production by monolinguals. This model is also known for its explanatory power of how language is supposed to be assessed and at the same time retrieved before it has eventually taken its final form.

This model is commonly used in critically examining the various grammatical constraints that are present in multiple types of code-switching particularly inter-sentential and intra-sentential. One of the primary assumptions of matrix language frame model is that the participating languages tend to remain in an asymmetrical relationship to each other during the switch. According to this model of code-switching, the matrix language (ML) remains dominant and tends to supply the morphosyntactic frame of the bilingual sentence or clause while on the other hand, the remaining language performs an auxiliary function and plays a critical role in providing content morphemes. The content morphemes that are supplied by the second language are considered to be exclusively embedded in to the matric language hence resulting in the establishment of a language known as Embedded Language.

However, there exists a consensus that either the first or second langue (L1 or L2) can take the position of the matrix language depending on how conversant an individual is with the languages involved although there exist several criteria that help in determining which language best fits as the matrix language. For instance, the matrix language is often used during social interactions as stated in the sociolinguistic point of view. Moreover, the matrix language can be chosen in the psycholinguistic point of view which suggests that the language to be selected as the matrix language must be the dominant language of the speaker. Recent studies have expounded the Markedness Model which has a positive relationship with the Matrix Main Frame model. The findings obtained indicate that the unmarked language which is mostly considered to be the expected language is regularly used, unlike the marked or expected language. Thus, in a bilingual community, the matrix language is regarded as the unmarked one.

5.3.2: Sociolinguistic Approach

Most of the scholars are in consensus that sociolinguistic is one of the essential factors that is supposed to be addressed when discussing the reasons as to why code-switching tends to take place in the form that it does(Hornberger & McKay, 2010). It involves comprehensively studying the language and how it is used in a given society. The Conversational Analysis Theory can be used to analyze the social implications that are behind the use of code-switching by bilinguals while conversing. This theory focuses on attributing each occurrence of code-switching to different characteristics rather than discussing it in general. The Conversational Analysis Theory helps in examining how language alternation should be investigated from an interactional perspective rather than the use of extra-linguistic macro-social categories such as ethnicity, gender, and age of the speaker while interpreting bilingual conversations.

Moreover, the sociolinguistic approach helps in denoting the linguistic code that speakers tend to use in their linguistic choice and subsequent interactions. Consequentiality, relevance, and creation of a balance between the structure of conversation and social structure are the key aspects of the sociolinguistic approach to code-switching.One of the key models that can be used in the sociolinguistic exploration of code-switching is Code Classification which differentiates situational switching to metaphorical code-switching. The situational code switching helps in redefining a given situation hence bringing about change in governing rules of the literature.

According to situational CS, a social situation can be considered as a specific constellation of personnel who form a gathering in a particular setting over some time whereby there exists a broad range of obligations and rights which are relatively mutual. Whenever there is a change in the way the participants of such a social situation view these rights and responsibilities, a proportionate shift in language also takes place. Thus external factors such as settings, topic, and participants play a significant role in motivating situational code-switching. On the other hand, metaphorical switching tends to take place without triggering any changes in the existing external factors of the speech situation. Metaphorical code switching indicates any shift that occurs in the topical emphasis of the speech situation.

The sociolinguistic approach or perspective helps in studying the different motivations, factors, and functions that are related to code-switching. There exists different social factors that significantly influence the form that code-switching tends to take place in certain contexts.

5.3.2.1: Socio-Psychological Influences

The key concepts that are used by the socio-psycholinguists include attitude, audience and accommodation designs. One of the best ways of accommodating to the interlocutor’s linguistic preferences is code-switching. In those instances in which two languages carry different connotations or social meanings for the locators and speakers, code-switching serves as the most suitable compromise between the two. The comprise function of the code switching technique between two languages is used in the media with a key focus being on multilingual audiences for multiple purposes.

5.3.2.2: Independent Factors

Some elements are entirely independent of the speaker and the circumstances under which the different languages are used. For instance, the existing power relations and economic market forces especially those that covert prestige tends to influence the individual concerned into using more than dialects (Hornberger & McKay, 2010).

5.3.2.3: Speaker as a Member of a Group and as an Individual

Moreover, there are those factors that tend to be firmly attached to the speakers both as members of a variety of subgroups and at the individual level. For instance, their self-perception and that of others, their attitudes, and ideologies and lastly their social networks and relationshipssignificantly influence how speakers as group members and at an individual level normally code switch between two langauges (Hornberger & McKay, 2010).

5.3.2.4: Context in which Conversation is taking Place/ Pragmatic Motivations

Additionally, there exists those factors are strictly within a given conversation in which code-switching is taking place. According to the study conducted byLantto (2015),code-switching enables the bilinguals to have access to the tools that they need to effectively structure their discourse in such a manner that is beyond those tools that are currently available to the existing monolinguals(Lantto, 2015). The social structure in which a conversation is being held significantly influences the kind of language behavior that an individual uses in making rational choices that are aimed at achieving specific goals and objectives.

5.3.2.5: People’s Attitude towards Code Switching

According to the sociolinguistic approach to code-switching, the kind of attitude that is exhibited by a particular person or group of people within a given social context significantly influences the frequency and manner in which code-switching takes place. For instance, individuals with negative attitudes towards code-switching consider it to be the inability to speak two different languages properly while those individuals with positive attitudes towards CS view it as a natural linguistic phenomenon that can be used to convey a message.

5.3.3: Contextual Cues

One of the notions that have unanimously received a lot of recognition in the recent literature on pragmatic motivations of code-switching is contextual cues. A contextual cue has defined as a cluster of various indexical signs that are typically produced in the process of speaking a language jointly. Moreover, contextualization cues are mainly composed of different means which are used by speakers to signal to the audience a particular message whereby in return the listeners are expected to interpret the message that has been indicated. The accuracy of the listeners in understanding the message that has been passed dramatically depends on how well the speaker has signaled it. Contextual cues help in creating a frame of interpreting the entirely linguistic content that has been uttered by an individual. While communicating using code-switching, two processes must be followed that is signaling or indexing a set of contextual presuppositions and conveying meaning through using these presuppositions. The contextualization cues help in highlighting certain background assumptions that are present within a given context which otherwise would not have been effectively highlighted if a different strategy was used.

Most of the linguistics have come into a consensus that code-switching has a pragmatic function and can also be regarded as an excellent example of the contextual cue which is at par with other existing paralinguistic devices such as lexical choice, intonation and use of gestures. However, it is important to note that code-switching does always end up contextualizing. It has been established that code-switching is not motivated by the act of cuing the listener on how he or she is supposed to interpret the message that has been code-switched but is instead triggered by other reasons which can be considered to be non-pragmatic and this considered as one of the existing shortcomings of contextual cues.

The meaning that is embedded in the contextual cues is implicit and is only instinctively and tacitly understood by listeners. Misjudgment of the speaker tends to accrue whenever the listeners misinterpret the contextual cues. It is therefore imported for the speaker to ensure that the contextual cues that he or she uses during code-switching are extensively customized to fit within a specific social context. There are various situations in which code-switching is used as an instrument of contextualization cue. They include those instances in which the speaker has switched his or her nuances in such a way that it perfectly suits the internal state of the audience. Others are when the speaker diverts his or her context of speech or nuances in such a way that it conforms with the altered social situation and lastly where the speaker uses code-switching to convey inferences.

5.3.4: Linguistic Approach

The object of investigation in the linguistic approach to code-switching is the language itself. An examination of code-switching using the linguistic approach primarily involves dealing with the structural characteristics and internal constraints of the language. This approach focuses on the forms or structures of the code-switching, where CS can occur and where it cannot. The linguistic approach helps in determining those instances in a sentence where a speaker can have the freedom of changing the language from first to second or vice versa. Scholars and researcher have in the past three decades been studying code-switching from the standpoint of its role in organizing discourse sequences while others have started reconsidering specific types of code-switching structures as key components or organizing devices in the discourse of code.

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