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Code-switching Among Young Female Shanghainese

Posted on:2007-04-28Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:Y HuangFull Text:PDF
GTID:2155360185961542Subject:English
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
The interchangeable use between Putonghua and the Shanghai dialect of Shanghainese has always been the researcher's interest. Why do they switch from the Shanghai dialect to Putonghua? And why do they change from Putonghua to the dialect? The researcher believes there must be some linguistic regulations overruling this phenomenon.By observing and researching language habits of female college students from 20 to 25 the researcher tried to explain the linguistic principles in code-switching along with qualitative research methodology. All the data were collected through questionnaires and observations. The researcher sent out questionnaires to 50 female Shanghainese and they were all retrieved. Besides, the researcher participated in some conversations among them and recorded them for further analysis. Next, the researcher carried out further discussions and analysis about the manifestation, classification and functions of code-switching, and summarized various factors that affect code-switching. For instance one of the factors is topic, that is what the conversation is about. If the topic of the conversation is about study or work, or some serious and formal issues, politics for instance, the speakers tends to switch to High Variety, i.e. Putonghua. On the contrary if it's only casual chatting, about daily life they are more likely to switch to the Shanghai dialect. Apart from the topic, other factors of code-switching includes addressee, locale and language deficiency of the conversationalists, etc. In a word code-switching is determined by the identity, status, social role and changes between different social roles of the conversationalists. The Speech Accommodation Theory of Gules and Marked Model of Myers-Scotton were used in the research. They served as great support and guidance for the research from the theoretical point of view add more details of substantial content to the abstract.It is hoped that this paper can heighten people's awareness of the importance of code-switching and help them achieve better communication with each other.
Keywords/Search Tags:code-switching, Shanghai dialect, Putonghua, Shanghai female from 20-25, motivations and factors, Speech Accommodation Theory and Marked Model
PDF Full Text Request
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