A Study On Code-switching In Chinese Popular Songs From An Adaptation Theory

Since 1970s, the scholars have conducted various researches on code-switching from different perspectives, which include the grammatical approach, the sociolinguistic approach, the psycholinguistic approach, the conversational analysis approach, and the pragmatic approach. Compared with the other approaches, the approach of pragmatics not only encompasses the linguistic, social, cultural and cognitive factors involved in code-switching in a dynamic context, but also combines the description of linguistic phenomenon with its interpretation.The present study adopts the pragmatic approach and attempts to analyze the code-switching phenomenon in Chinese popular songs by applying Yu Guodong's adaptation model on code-switching (2001), based on Verschueren's theory of Linguistic Adaptation (1999). The paper argues that the appearance of code-switching in Chinese popular songs is a realization of songwriters'or singers'adaptation to the final aim of successful communication with the audience. The focus of the study is to make a detailed analysis of the pragmatic adaptability that Chinese-English code-switching can fulfill in Chinese popular songs and verify the validity and feasibility of the Adaptation Model. Methodologically, this study is primarily a qualitative analysis with quantitative analysis as support to present a more thorough understanding of the study of code-switching.Songwriters'code-switching in the present study is defined as a kind of linguistic choice and a strategy that can be exploited by songwriters to achieve some communicative goals. The code-switching phenomenon in Chinese popular songs arises from the songwriters'adaptation to linguistic reality, social conventions and psychological motivation. In addition, code-switching can carry out multiple pragmatic functions, which often fail to be achieved by other discourse strategies. The features of code-switching in Chinese popular songs, concerning the forms, the positions, the periods and the regions, are also manifested with the help of specific statistics.Through the study on code-switching in Chinese popular songs as realization of adaptation, it is proved that the increasing number of code-switching in Chinese popular songs is a reflection of society and participants'psychology rather than a pure language phenomenon. Research on code-switching in popular music should draw the attention of researchers from various fields, including linguistics, songwriters, sociologists and psychologists.