An Analysis Of Code-Switching In Fortress Besieged

Code-switching, the alternate use of two or more languages or language varieties in the same utterance or conversation, is a quite common occurrence in the modern life. As a research topic, since 1970s, code-switching has been studied from grammatical, sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic, conversational analysis and pragmatic approaches and great achievements have been obtained.This paper sets out to provide a tentative analysis of code-switching between Chinese and English or French in Qian Zhongshu's famous work-Fortress Besieged. In this novel, some characters frequently engaged in code-switching in their conversation. The thesis is to carry out a tentative study of the grammatical constraints and pragmatic functions of code-switching in the original Chinese version of this great novel. Two major code-switching models, that is, Matrix Language Frame Model by Carol Myers-Scotton and Pragmatic Model of code-switching by Yu Guodong are employed as the main theoretical reference for the analysis and discussion. Through the study and analysis of several typical code-switching instances in this novel, two conclusions are reached: (1) The matrix language Chinese plays a dominant role in the mixed constituents, lexically, morphologically and syntactically while in the matrix language islands and the embedded language islands, constituents respectively follow the grammatical rules of the matrix language-Chinese and the embedded language-English or French. (2) The occurrence of code-switching in this novel is influenced by many factors, such as linguistic, social and psychological factors and generally speaking, code-switching functions as an effective communicative strategy used by the communicators to meet their communicative intentions. In this novel, it mainly has the three functions: making the communication more convenient, helping communicators avoid social embarrassment and helping communicators fulfill their psychological needs.Code-switching is not only used by the "imagined" characters in novels but also used more frequently by common people in their daily life. So the study intends todevelop a better understanding of code-switching in this novel as well as arouse language learners and language users' awareness of this linguistic phenomenon in order to understand and use it properly in the daily life.