Code switching and code mixing as a communicative strategy in multilingual discourse

Abstract

ABSTRACT: While the formal characteristics of codes switching and mixing, such as free morpheme constraints and equivalence constraints, have been well documented accross aa varity of languages, relatively little is known about how codw switching and mixing are used as communicative strategies in a multilingual community. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap. It examines various spoken texts which involve code switching and mixing between some of the main languages spoken in Singapore, such as English, Mandarin, Hokkien and Toechew. The analysis demonstrates how code switching and mixing are used as a communicative strategy, as a device for elucidation and interpretation, to establish solidarity and rapport in multilingual discourse. Despite differences in the formal characteristics of the languages concerned, common communicative strategies have evolved as a results of languages in contact. This paper also discusses the linguistic, psychological and sociolinguistic implications of studies on code mixing and switching. It argues that such studies help us to better understand the functions and forms of language used in a dynamic, multilingual community. This paper concludes with a plea to look at languages in multilingual communities as independent systems instead of as merely deviant or different forms of native English.