Pragmatic Features of Code-switches in Gender-oriented Glossy Magazines

Abstract

Linguists all over the world have conducted various research on how gender affects language. Code-switches, as one of the forms of bilingual speech, interact with many variables, including gender. This paper provides insights on the phenomenon of code-switches in mass media discourse, specifically in modern glossy magazines Elle and Gentlemen’s Quarterly. We focus our analysis mostly on pragmatic and gender aspects. The objective of the research is to illustrate how the code-switch patterns differ by gender in terms of frequency and pragmatic use. We collected the data from two gender-oriented glossy magazines. The theoretical and conceptual background of the study is the Matrix Language Frame Model by C. Myers-Scotton and the functional classification of code-switches by G. Chirsheva. Findings indicate that code-switches in glossy magazines have eight different functions: topic-related, effort-saving, quotational, self-identification, humorous, metalinguistic, addressee-oriented and emotional. One of the major research results expressed in numerical form: journalists use twice as many code-switches in Elle in comparison to Gentlemen’s Quarterly (434 and 234, respectively). The contrastive analysis has also shown that code-switches perform common and specific pragmatic functions in women-oriented and in men-oriented glossy publications. Keywords: bilingualism in media discourse, code-switch, glossy magazine, gender in language, pragmatic features of code-switches