CODE SWITCHING

AND CODE MIXING

TERMS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
1. CODE

• Language peculiar to a specific group.

• Codes1 are particular "grammars" of
specific tongues: rules for constructing and
deriving words and sentences, inventories
of sounds to convey meaning, rules for
uttering those sounds, rules for translating
those sounds into graphic symbols (writing)
etc.
2. MONOLINGUAL

• Is the condition of being able to speak

only a single language.
3. BILINGUAL

• being bilingual means being able to

communicate effortlessly in two languages,
even if one was learned later in life and
communication takes an occasional detour

bilinguals are ‘people who need and use two (or

more) languages in their everyday lives
(Grosjean 1992:51)
4. MULTILINGUAL

• A person that speaks more that three

languages.
5. LEXICAL: Relating to the word or
vocabulary of language

6. UNPREDICTABLE:
likely to change suddenly and
without reason and therefore notable to
be predicted (= expected before
it happens) or depended on.

7. PHONOLOGY: the study of how

sounds are organized and used in
natural languages. The phonological
system of a language includes an
inventory of sounds and their features,
FACTORS THAT MODIFY CODE
CHOICE
• Participants
• solidarity and status
• Social Distance
• Status Relationship
• Formality
• Function
CODE SWITCHING (CS)
WHAT IS CODE SWITCHING?

• Is the practice of *unpredictably changing

one’s language, dialect or speaking style to
better fit one’s environment which
• Also a universal language-contact
phenomenon that reflects the grammars
of both languages working simultaneously.
• code switching is possible in *bilingual or
*multilingual environment but not in
monolingual.
CONTINUE…….

• code-switching occurs when a speaker

alternates between two or
more languages, or language varieties, in
the context of a single conversation
• Multilinguals, speakers of more than one
language, sometimes use elements of
multiple languages when conversing with
each other.
• Also Style, Register and Voice, whether in
spoken or written language, can then be
included in a broad definition of code-
switching.
 Language/dialect
code-switching

Style code-
switching
 REASON FOR CODE
SWITCHING
• No similar words in English
• Did not know the English word
• To fill the gap in speaking
• Easier to speak in own language
• To avoid misunderstanding
• To convey intimacy
• So others would not understand
(Privacy)
• To add emphasis
• Other reasons
INTRA-SENTENTIAL SWITCHING

• Is possibly the most complex type among

the three, as it can occurs within the
boundaries of a clause or a sentence.
• In Spanish-English switching one could
say, "La onda is to fight y jambar. We can
see in this example the speaker uses ‘is to
fight’ (phrase) instead of using the
ENG-GER
Spanish equivalent of it which is ‘par
Move der
pelear’.
bleistift (the
pencil) to the
pencil case on
the desk.
INTER-SENTENTIAL SWITCHING
• It happens between a sentence boundaries where one
clause or sentence is in one language and the next
clause or sentence is in the other.
• inter-sentential CS takes place within the same
sentence or between speaker turns, it entails fluency
in both languages such that a speaker is able to follow
the rules of the two languages
• In Assyrian-English switching one could
ENG-SPA
say:
Ani Move the
st wideili nd
what happened?" ("Those, I did them what
1 clause 2 Clause pencil to the
1st
happened?") blue pencil
case on the
Sentence
table.
Ya lo hiciste? 2nd
(did you do Senten
TAG-SWITCHING
• Is the switching of either a tag
phrase or a word, or both, from one
language to another, (common
in intra-sentential switches). SPA-ENG
I saw the
• In Spanish-English switching one game last
could say, "Él es de México y así los night and it
was chingon!
criaron a ellos, you know." ("He's from (awesome)
Mexico, and they raise them like Chingon is
popular
that, you know.") Spanish tag
phrase.
• The example below is speaking
Spanish but at the end of his/her
sentence decides to use a tag phrase
which is ‘you know’.
CODE MIXING
 WHAT IS CODE MIXING

• Code mixing is possible in bilingual or multilingual

environments
• Is also a language contact phenomenon that doesn't
reflect the grammars of both languages working
simultaneously.
• Words are borrowed from one language and adapt it in
other language and it is usually without a change of topic.
• It often occurs within one sentence, one element is
spoken in language A and the rest in language B.
• This term is usually found in mainly in informal
interaction
 REASONS FOR CODE MIXING

• Interjection
• Quoting somebody else
• Expressing group identity
• Because of real lexical need
• Talking about a particular topic
• Repetition used for clarification
• Being emphatic about something
• To soften or strengthen request or command
• Intention of clarifying the speech content for interlocutor
• To exclude other people when a comment is intended for
only a limited audience
INTRA-SENTENTIAL CODE MIXING
This kind of code mixing occurs within a phrase,
a clause or a sentence boundary.
INTRA LEXICAL CODE MIXING

This kind of code mixing

occurs within a word
boundary involving a change
in pronunciation.

Example of this is when

Spanish/Latino people say an
English word, but modify it to
Voice Clip
Spanish phonological
structure. Listen to the voice
clip , it gives an example of
how a Latino would pronounce
For
watchin