Chinese-English Code-switching Research Articles

A Study about the Causes of Chinese-English Code Switching of Chinese Second Language Learners’ Oral Conversation in a Natural Environment

A Study about the Causes of Chinese-English Code Switching of Chinese Second Language Learners’ Oral Conversation in a Natural Environment

Internet Memes In China: Cultural Image Macros of Code-Switching and Homonymy

Since China joined the Internet in the late 1980s, production and consumption of online cultural merchandise has been proliferating and permeating every section of society, exemplified by Internet literature, animation, comic and game. Meanwhile, there has emerged a veritable kaleidoscope of memes in China’s cyberspace, which are deployed on social media platforms to convey stances, emotions, humorousness, etc. Nonetheless, as a multi-faceted phenomenon, Internet memes fail to attain deserved academic scrutiny, so in this paper, I investigate one subcategory of memes in China’s cyberspace, viz. cultural memes, focusing on image macros that dynamically integrate visual effects and textual information. The text of cultural image macros can be generated via Chinese-English code-switching in the form of alphabetic words that are either idiomatic or related to Internet buzzwords. Alternatively, cultural image macros in China can be generated via homonymy: the vast majority of homonyms are homophones, while a small proportion of them are homographs. The corresponding images in the memes pertain to the inserted English words or constituents that are substituted, thereby complementing the text and strengthening humorous effects.

Syntactic differences of the probabilistic valency of nouns in Chinese–English Code-switching

Based on a Chinese–English code-switching (CS) treebank, this study analyzes the probabilistic valency of nouns for the holistic examination of the syntactic features and functions of Chinese and English nouns in CS. It shows that: (1) Chinese or English nouns mainly head four types of monolingual or mixed syntactic relationsrespectively, among which attributives make up the biggest share. (2) Chinese or English nouns as dependents are mainly involved in six types of monolingual or mixed syntactic relationsrespectively. With Chinese noun dependents, objects and subjects are the top dependencies in monolingual and mixed dependencies, respectively. With English noun dependents, attributives and objects are the top dependencies in monolingual and mixed dependencies respectively. (3) Syntactic differences are found in dependency distance. Specifically, all mixed dependencies present longer mean dependence distances than the corresponding monolingual dependencies, except for dependencies headed by Chinese nouns. (4) The major causes for syntactic differences are syntactic transference, syntactic convergence, differences in placements of adverbials or attributives between Chinese and English, and switched chunks. These findings indicate that syntactic differences between Chinese and English nouns in CS are a consequence of language contact. However, their “specific” syntactic functions are still constrained by the grammar involved in CS.

Attitude-Behavior Relation and Language Use: Chinese-English Code-Switching and Code-Mixing Among Chinese Undergraduate Students

The socio-psychological variables that affect bilinguals’ choices of code-switching (CS) and code-mixing (CM) as a verbal strategy make prediction of their occurrence almost impossible. This research investigates the social motivations and socio-pragmatic aspects of Chinese-English CS/CM among Chinese undergraduate students. Using a questionnaire survey and interviews, the paper investigates attitude-behavior relations by considering patterns of language use and CS/CM patterns between Chinese and English in this group. The results demonstrate that the participants’ highly positive attitudes toward English and the CS/CM process play a major role in CS/CM use in their daily interactions. Chinese-English bilingual students draw on their proficiency and knowledge of the two language systems to precisely and effectively convey their thoughts, intentions, experiences, solidarity, emphasis, and other aspects that affect interaction outcomes.

Individual variation in attitudes towards Chinese-English code-switching

AbstractThis paper aims to improve our understanding of the social psychology of code-switching by investigating societal attitudes towards two types of Chinese-English code-switching, insertions of English words in Chinese sentences and switching to English at clausal boundaries in Chinese. It examines how subjects’ evaluation of code-switching is influenced by their general language attitudes and language use associated with network exposure. The subjects were recruited from four different cities in mainland China. They participated in an online perception experiment and completed a socio-biographical questionnaire. Quantitative analyses show that clausal switching was rated as the least likable CS mode, but at the same time was considered as having high status as an indication of high English proficiency. Their evaluation was mainly influenced by their general attitudes towards English language and culture. Network exposure also played a marginal role, affecting their judgement of the speaker’s English proficiency.

Distance and word order between lexical heads and noun dependents in Chinese–English code-switching

This paper investigates the effects of code-switching on the dependency distance and the word order of the dependencies with lexical heads and noun dependents, using data from a Chinese–English code-mixed treebank. It is found that (1) except the object relation, mixed dependencies with English lexical heads and Chinese noun dependents present shorter dependency distances than monolingual ones; (2) mixed dependencies with Chinese lexical heads and English noun dependents present longer dependency distances than monolingual ones; (3) word order differences are mainly found in the adverbial dependencies with verb heads and noun dependents, or with English preposition heads and Chinese noun dependents. These findings suggest that: (1) the heads, either the first language or the second language, tend to have greater influence on the dependency distance of the mixed dependencies; (2) the word order of the mixed dependencies is greatly influenced by the first language and the dependents tend to play the greater role.

A Study on Chinese-English Code-switching from Register Perspective

Chinese-English code-switching is getting more and more usual in both written and spoken forms as China carries out international exchanges and cross-culture communication. The analysis is done on the basis of previous research achievements and register theory in Halliday’s Systemic Functional linguistics (1978) employed as a theoretical framework with the purpose of analyzing the code-switching in People’s Daily. By means of study and analysis, it is found that the linguistic structure of the Chinese-English code-switching is mainly insertional code-switching, with phrasal insertion and lexical insertion taking up over the half; and that the register is realized by code-switching in newspaper and code-switching consists of register. Register variables restrict language choice in code-switching. Field governs code-switching on the purpose and subject-matter.

Examining the Functional Category in Chinese-English Code-Switching: Evidence from the Eye-Movements.

To investigate the grammatical constraints of code-switching (CS hereafter) under the disputes of the constraint-based account versus the constraint-free account, the effects of functional category on CS have long been investigated in the existing studies. Thus, the present study, by asking 47 participants to take part in an eye-movement experiment, examined the potential effects of functional category on Chinese-English CS. We found that differential switch costs at varying code-switched conditions as well as robust switch effects that last from the early to the late stage. The findings could tentatively give rise to the theoretical predictions of the minimalist program, a representative of the constraint-free account rather than the functional head constraint, a typical representative of the constraint-based account. Moreover, such switch effects might initiate from the early to the very late stage in terms of time-course of CS processing.

Intra-speaker variation in Chinese–English code-switching: The interaction between cognitive and contextual factors

Aims and objectives: This study examines intra-speaker variation in code-switching (CS) by comparing the frequency and pattern of CS across two different interaction modes (interview speech and online posting) based on the same individuals. This study also explores the reasons why these speakers exploit their linguistic repertoire variably in different modes. Methodology: I interviewed 40 Chinese–English bilinguals based in London and collected their speech data by recording the semi-structured interviews. Written data were obtained by collecting the participants’ posts on Sinaweibo, a popular Chinese social media. A detailed questionnaire was also administered among the participants to gather information on their language attitudes and other social backgrounds. Data and analysis: For each participant, 30 minutes of the interview were analyzed and 50 posts were chosen for written CS analysis. Quantitative analyses were performed to describe the frequency and pattern of CS. The use of CS across interaction modes was further compared and analyzed against the specific characteristics of each mode and also against the participants’ language attitudes. Findings: Results of quantitative analyses show that these participants used significantly more amount and more complex pattern of CS in their online posting. The suggested reason points to an elevated processing demand which is related to the nature of bilingualism and the level of synchronicity of interaction mode. Results of qualitative analyses also suggest that the participants’ positive attitudes towards CS and English language, both overtly expressed and covertly implied, contributed to the varying degree of CS use. Originality: This study is among the first attempts to compare CS data across different interaction modes based on same individuals. Comparative data of this kind are quite scarce in the international literature. Significance/implications: The findings highlight and provide insights into the dynamic interactions between social, cognitive, and situational factors under the surface of linguistic practice.

Syntactic differences of adverbials and attributives in Chinese-English code-switching

Based on a Chinese-English code-mixed treebank, this paper investigates the effect of code-switching on dependency distance and dependency direction of two major grammatical relations (adverbials and attributives). It was found that (1) mixed dependencies generally present longer dependency distances than monolingual ones, especially the adverbial dependencies with preposition or adverb dependents and attributive dependencies with pronoun dependents; (2) mixed adverbial dependencies with English verb heads and Chinese adverb and noun dependents and mixed attributive dependencies with Chinese noun heads and English noun dependents present shorter dependency distances than monolingual ones; (3) word order differences are largely found in adverbial dependencies with adverb, noun or preposition dependents and potentially in attributives with preposition dependents. These findings suggest that: (1) code-switching is constrained by the grammars involved in it; (2) the syntactic properties of dependents mainly determine the word order of adverbials and attributives.

Syntactic variations in Chinese–English code-switching

Based on a Chinese–English code-mixed treebank, this paper reports the probable syntactic consequences of code-switching. Compared with monolingual Chinese and English corpora, in the mixed corpus there are syntactic variations: variation in dependency distances and word-order variation in dependency direction. In the mixed corpus, there are two types of dependencies: monolingual and mixed dependencies. Mixed dependencies present longer dependency distances than monolingual ones. Major grammatical relations (subject, object, attribute and adverbial) and certain properties of code-switching (peripherality, flagging and dislocation) contribute to the variability of dependency distances. It is the distributions of major grammatical relations with different dependency directions in monolingual and mixed dependencies that cause the word-order variation.

A Study of Chinese-English Code-switching in Chinese Sports News Reports

This paper reports a study of Chinese-English code-switching in Chinese sports news reports with an aim to provide a better understanding of the linguistic features of Chinese-English code-switching. Based on the data collected from Titan Sports–the most influential comprehensive sports newspaper in China, the study finds that the switched constituents vary from singly occurring letters and lexemes to embedded phrases and sentences, with each carrying its own features. Adopting Myers-Scotton’s Markedness Model to the discussion of code-switching occurrences, this study relates the linguistic features observed to the sense of markedness which can account for the features found in the study. Key words: Chinese-English code-switching; Matrix language; Embedded constituent; Markedness Resume: Cet article presente une etude sur l'alternance de codes du chinois en anglais dans les nouvelles sportives chinoises dans le but de fournir une meilleure comprehension des caracteristiques linguistiques de l'alternance de codes du chinois en anglais. Basee sur des donnees recueillies aupres de Titan Sports, le plus influent journal de sport en Chine, l'etude constate que les constituants alternes varient des lettres et des lexemes qui apparaissent seul a des phrases integrees, et que chacun porte ses propres caracteristiques. En adoptant le modele de caractere marque de Myers-Scotton, cette etude relie les caracteristiques linguistiques observes au sens du marquage, qui peut expliquer les caracteristiques trouvees dans l'etude.Mots-cles: alternance de codes du chinois en anglais; matrice de langue; constituants integres; caractere marque

Code-Switching in Trigenerational Family Conversations among Chinese Immigrants in New Zealand

This is a study of Chinese-English code-switching (CS) by grandparents, parents, and grandchildren in family conversations. Based on a 30,000-word corpus of New Zealand Chinese family conversations, 1,091 tokens of CS were retrieved and coded as “ betweenturns” CS and “within-turn” CS on the basis of structural form. The results generally supported three hypotheses proposed on the bases of Communication Accommodation Theory and the contrasting bilingual competence across the three generations. Between-turns CS occurred more often than within-turn CS (Hypothesis 1), and the ratio of between- to within-turn CS was higher for grandchildren than for either parents or grandparents (Hypothesis 2a). Parents used more within- than between-turns CS, and their propensity for within-turn CS was significantly greater than that of grandchildren but not of grandparents (partial support for Hypothesis 2b). The interpretive function of CS was then examined to identify tokens of CS that facilitated family members communicating with each other despite language barriers. Parents were found to be the main users of interpretive CS. Four tokens of interpretive CS (from a total of 69) were presented to illustrate the kinds of communication problems that occasioned the use of interpretiveCS, and the turnby-turn dynamics in which the interpretive function was collaboratively enacted.

Comprehension of non-technical words in science: The case of students using a ‘foreign’ language as the medium of instruction

This paper reports on an investigation into Hong Kong students' comprehension of English non-technical words used in science. The investigation was conducted in a context in which English, a foreign language to students, is the medium of instruction, in that textbooks and examinations are all in English but the classroom language used is mainly Chinese, with frequent Chinese-English code-switching. A total of 4644 Secondary 4, 5 and 6 students participated in the study. Many students did not correctly comprehend a large proportion of the words, confused them with words that were graphologically or phonetically similar, and even took them for their antonyms. Such poor performance raises doubts as to whether the majority of Hong Kong students have attained a ‘threshold level’ of competence in English to benefit from learning science in English.