论文部分内容阅读
Abstract: This paper is intended to provide a sociolinguistic observation of the phenomenon by classifying it into different types, relating code-switching to its social meanings, and explaining the social restrictions of code-switching. By thus doing, this paper is meant to present some social implications of this interesting phenomenon and helps people to achieve a better understanding of why and how code-switching arises in our social life.
Key words: code-switching; categories; social meaning; social restrictions
1.Types of Code-switching
There are three different situations in code-switching: speakers use different languages in different occasions; speakers use different languages in one conversation; and speakers use different languages in one utterance. According to this, we divide code-switching into three types: situational code-switching, metaphorical code-switching and conversational code-switching.
1.1Situational Code-switching
In community multilingualism the different languages are always used in different circumstances, and the choice is always controlled by social rule, typically one language is reserved exclusively for use at home and another is used in the wider community (for example, when shopping). This kind of code-switching is called situational code-switching because the switches between languages always coincide with changes from one external situation (for example, talking to members of the family) to another (for example, talking to the neighbors).
1.2Metaphorical Code-switching
As the term itself suggests, metaphorical code-switching has an affective dimension to it: you change the code as you redefine the situation formal to informal, official to personal, serious to humorous, and politeness to solidarity. Gumperz(1971) cites examples of metaphorical code-switching to show how speakers employ particular languages to convey information that goes beyond their actual words, especially to define social situations. Catalans use Catalan only to each other; they use Castilian if they become aware that the other person is speaking Catalan with a Castilian. Catalan is only for Catalans. It is also never happens that one party speaks Catalan and the other Castilian even though such a conversation is theoretically possibly since all Catalans are bilingual (Ronald Wardhaugh 2000: 104).
1.3 Conversational Code-switching
It is noted that a speaker may switch codes within a single sentence, and may even do many times. John Gumerz(1971) suggests the term “conversational code-switching” for this type. There is no change in the situation in conversational code-switching, nor is there any change in the topic which might lead to metaphorical code-switching, which is discussed above. Instead, one gets the impression that the aim is simply to produce instances of the two varieties in some given, say roughly equal proportion. This balance may be achieved by expressing one sentence in one variety and the next one in the other, and so on. But it is equally possible for the two varieties to be used in different parts of a single sentence.
2.Code-switching and Its Social Meanings
Analyzing some typical examples, the following content is meant to reveal the social motives and intentional meaning behind the phenomenon of code-switching. The author concludes that code-switching conveys social meanings in three ways: reflecting interlocutors' social identity, indicating social relationship and suggesting social context to the speech participants.
2.1Code-switching and Social Identity
Language itself is a code-system, and the choice of which depends on social functions it has to serve and closely relates to culture. Therefore, widely different cultures call upon code-switching to fulfill divergent functions and endow it with various social characteristics.
In a speech situation, every speech participant plays a certain role consciously or unconsciously through his or her choice of language. From a sociolinguistic point of view, the society is structured in terms of a mufti-dimensional space. People can be classified according to the dimensions of age, region of origin, social class and sex. Language provides us a very clearly structured set of symbols that we can use in locating ourselves in the word (Hudson2000).
A good example of appropriate choice of code occurred in July 2001 during the period when China applied to the LO.C for the qualification of being a bidding city. When making presentation to the LO.C, Chinese officials used English instead of Standard Chinese. The social meaning of it lies in establishing the authority of Chinese people, winning world recognition and building up the confidence of westerners in Chinese's ability to accomplish the bidding job.
2.2 Code-switching and Social Relationships
Speech may indicate the social relations between the speaker and addressee. And code-switching is a conversational strategy used to establish, to cross or destroy boundaries, to create, evoke or change interpersonal relations with rights and obligations. Code-switching serves the function of renegotiating the social positions of interlocutors. When the speaker gives up his elaborated code and uses the restricted code of the addressee, the divergence of his original code indicates that he deliberately shortens the distance between them and attempts to seek a peaceful and friendly relationship.
However, when the speaker switches from his restricted code to the elaborated code of the addressee, his speech behavior indicates there is a low solidarity between him and the addressee and the addressee has more power than the speaker. The speaker manages to show his accommodation and respect by means of converging on the addressee's code so as to please him and subjectively elevate his own social position. For example, in a relatively small Puerto Rican neighborhood in New Jersey, some members freely used code-switching styles and extreme forms of borrowing both in everyday casual talk and in more formal gatherings. Other local residents were careful to speak only Spanish with a minimum of loans on formal occasions, reserving code-switching styles for informal talk. Others again spoke mainly English, using Spanish or code-switching styles only with small children or with neighbors.
2.3 Code-switching and Social Context
Besides conveying the referential meaning of language itself, code-switching can provide people with rich information about social context. Social context refers to the time and place of the speech event and includes physical settings as well as psychological boundaries or limits during the event. In addition, social context reveals much information about the feeling of the speaker, the language attitude and social relations between interlocutors. Therefore, People usually make full use of code-switching to abide by appropriate speech principle in their speech event.
3.The Social Restrictions of Code-switching
Code-switching is motivated and triggered by several factors, which includes grammatical constraints between the two codes, the external environment, the topic of the speech event, and the identities and perceptions of the interlocutors. The latter three ones are the social restrictions of code-switching.
The settings of a speech event refer to the external environment of communications, which include the time, the site, the occasion (formal or informal). In other words, it refers to the context in which a speech will occur, such as ceremonies, arguments, meals, etc. It is also influenced by psychological and cultural setting.
The interlocutors include the speaker, hearer and audience. The linguistic repertoire of a speaker includes not only a wide range of linguistic code, but also the social-cultural information necessary to select the appropriate code based on the social context. The speakers' linguistic knowledge, language attitude, sex, age, rank, social class, political and economic power, experience, psychological state and etc all could be the social parameters that influence his or her choice of codes.
The topic involved in a speech event is also an important factor restricting the code choosing and code-switching. In daily life, people often switch their topic from one to another in their conversation, which inevitably leads to metaphorical code-switching.
4.Conclusion
Code-switching, as observed above, is most often seen in bilinguals when they change the language they are sing. The selection of a language by a bilingual, especially when speaking to another bilingual, carries a wealth of social meaning.This paper, trying to demonstrate the sociolinguistic significance of code switching, has classified it into three types for respective study, and some social meaning and social restrictions have been explained.However, a comprehensive understanding of this unique linguistic phenomenon requires more efforts and future research.
References:
[1]Hudson,R.A.sociolinguistics[M]外语教学与研究出版社2000.
[2]Gumperz, J. J. Language in Social Groups [M] Stanford University press 1971.
[3]Wardhaugh,K.An Introduction to Sociolinguistics[M]外语教学与研究出版社2000.
[4]干诚,语码转换分类之社会语言学视角(英文)[J]上海电机学院学报2006年S1期.
[5]许朝阳,语码转换的社会功能与心理[J]四川外语学院学报1999年02期.
[6]赵蓉晖,社会语言学[M]上海外语教育出版社2005.
Key words: code-switching; categories; social meaning; social restrictions
1.Types of Code-switching
There are three different situations in code-switching: speakers use different languages in different occasions; speakers use different languages in one conversation; and speakers use different languages in one utterance. According to this, we divide code-switching into three types: situational code-switching, metaphorical code-switching and conversational code-switching.
1.1Situational Code-switching
In community multilingualism the different languages are always used in different circumstances, and the choice is always controlled by social rule, typically one language is reserved exclusively for use at home and another is used in the wider community (for example, when shopping). This kind of code-switching is called situational code-switching because the switches between languages always coincide with changes from one external situation (for example, talking to members of the family) to another (for example, talking to the neighbors).
1.2Metaphorical Code-switching
As the term itself suggests, metaphorical code-switching has an affective dimension to it: you change the code as you redefine the situation formal to informal, official to personal, serious to humorous, and politeness to solidarity. Gumperz(1971) cites examples of metaphorical code-switching to show how speakers employ particular languages to convey information that goes beyond their actual words, especially to define social situations. Catalans use Catalan only to each other; they use Castilian if they become aware that the other person is speaking Catalan with a Castilian. Catalan is only for Catalans. It is also never happens that one party speaks Catalan and the other Castilian even though such a conversation is theoretically possibly since all Catalans are bilingual (Ronald Wardhaugh 2000: 104).
1.3 Conversational Code-switching
It is noted that a speaker may switch codes within a single sentence, and may even do many times. John Gumerz(1971) suggests the term “conversational code-switching” for this type. There is no change in the situation in conversational code-switching, nor is there any change in the topic which might lead to metaphorical code-switching, which is discussed above. Instead, one gets the impression that the aim is simply to produce instances of the two varieties in some given, say roughly equal proportion. This balance may be achieved by expressing one sentence in one variety and the next one in the other, and so on. But it is equally possible for the two varieties to be used in different parts of a single sentence.
2.Code-switching and Its Social Meanings
Analyzing some typical examples, the following content is meant to reveal the social motives and intentional meaning behind the phenomenon of code-switching. The author concludes that code-switching conveys social meanings in three ways: reflecting interlocutors' social identity, indicating social relationship and suggesting social context to the speech participants.
2.1Code-switching and Social Identity
Language itself is a code-system, and the choice of which depends on social functions it has to serve and closely relates to culture. Therefore, widely different cultures call upon code-switching to fulfill divergent functions and endow it with various social characteristics.
In a speech situation, every speech participant plays a certain role consciously or unconsciously through his or her choice of language. From a sociolinguistic point of view, the society is structured in terms of a mufti-dimensional space. People can be classified according to the dimensions of age, region of origin, social class and sex. Language provides us a very clearly structured set of symbols that we can use in locating ourselves in the word (Hudson2000).
A good example of appropriate choice of code occurred in July 2001 during the period when China applied to the LO.C for the qualification of being a bidding city. When making presentation to the LO.C, Chinese officials used English instead of Standard Chinese. The social meaning of it lies in establishing the authority of Chinese people, winning world recognition and building up the confidence of westerners in Chinese's ability to accomplish the bidding job.
2.2 Code-switching and Social Relationships
Speech may indicate the social relations between the speaker and addressee. And code-switching is a conversational strategy used to establish, to cross or destroy boundaries, to create, evoke or change interpersonal relations with rights and obligations. Code-switching serves the function of renegotiating the social positions of interlocutors. When the speaker gives up his elaborated code and uses the restricted code of the addressee, the divergence of his original code indicates that he deliberately shortens the distance between them and attempts to seek a peaceful and friendly relationship.
However, when the speaker switches from his restricted code to the elaborated code of the addressee, his speech behavior indicates there is a low solidarity between him and the addressee and the addressee has more power than the speaker. The speaker manages to show his accommodation and respect by means of converging on the addressee's code so as to please him and subjectively elevate his own social position. For example, in a relatively small Puerto Rican neighborhood in New Jersey, some members freely used code-switching styles and extreme forms of borrowing both in everyday casual talk and in more formal gatherings. Other local residents were careful to speak only Spanish with a minimum of loans on formal occasions, reserving code-switching styles for informal talk. Others again spoke mainly English, using Spanish or code-switching styles only with small children or with neighbors.
2.3 Code-switching and Social Context
Besides conveying the referential meaning of language itself, code-switching can provide people with rich information about social context. Social context refers to the time and place of the speech event and includes physical settings as well as psychological boundaries or limits during the event. In addition, social context reveals much information about the feeling of the speaker, the language attitude and social relations between interlocutors. Therefore, People usually make full use of code-switching to abide by appropriate speech principle in their speech event.
3.The Social Restrictions of Code-switching
Code-switching is motivated and triggered by several factors, which includes grammatical constraints between the two codes, the external environment, the topic of the speech event, and the identities and perceptions of the interlocutors. The latter three ones are the social restrictions of code-switching.
The settings of a speech event refer to the external environment of communications, which include the time, the site, the occasion (formal or informal). In other words, it refers to the context in which a speech will occur, such as ceremonies, arguments, meals, etc. It is also influenced by psychological and cultural setting.
The interlocutors include the speaker, hearer and audience. The linguistic repertoire of a speaker includes not only a wide range of linguistic code, but also the social-cultural information necessary to select the appropriate code based on the social context. The speakers' linguistic knowledge, language attitude, sex, age, rank, social class, political and economic power, experience, psychological state and etc all could be the social parameters that influence his or her choice of codes.
The topic involved in a speech event is also an important factor restricting the code choosing and code-switching. In daily life, people often switch their topic from one to another in their conversation, which inevitably leads to metaphorical code-switching.
4.Conclusion
Code-switching, as observed above, is most often seen in bilinguals when they change the language they are sing. The selection of a language by a bilingual, especially when speaking to another bilingual, carries a wealth of social meaning.This paper, trying to demonstrate the sociolinguistic significance of code switching, has classified it into three types for respective study, and some social meaning and social restrictions have been explained.However, a comprehensive understanding of this unique linguistic phenomenon requires more efforts and future research.
References:
[1]Hudson,R.A.sociolinguistics[M]外语教学与研究出版社2000.
[2]Gumperz, J. J. Language in Social Groups [M] Stanford University press 1971.
[3]Wardhaugh,K.An Introduction to Sociolinguistics[M]外语教学与研究出版社2000.
[4]干诚,语码转换分类之社会语言学视角(英文)[J]上海电机学院学报2006年S1期.
[5]许朝阳,语码转换的社会功能与心理[J]四川外语学院学报1999年02期.
[6]赵蓉晖,社会语言学[M]上海外语教育出版社2005.