A Study On Code-switching In Chinese Popular Songs As Realization Of Adaptation

As a natural consequence of language contact, code-switching is inevitable in the world of today which is featured by comparatively frequent contact between different nations and cultures. Code-switching has attracted increasing attention of researchers in different fields since 1970s, and they have done extensive and profound study on this phenomenon from different perspectives such as grammatics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, conversation analysis and pragmatics. Among all the approaches to the analysis of code-switching, the approach of pragmatics is the most convincing and promising because it not only simultaneously 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. Thus it is strong and comprehensive enough to cover the complexity and subtlety of code-switching phenomenon and gives code-switching a scientific, concrete and overall explanation.Thus 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 Jef Verschueren's theory of Linguistic Adaptation (1999). Adaptation means that language user can make flexible choices among different linguistic items available, so as to achieve success in communication. The present study takes popular songs as the sample of analysis so as to probe into the importance of adaptation in language use and explore the functions of code-switching in the process of adaptation under the guidance of pragmatic theories.This dissertation is a pragmatic analysis of code-switching in Chinese popular songs, which is understood as a realization of songwriters'adaptation to the general purpose of successful communication with the audience and to the need of survival in the long term. The core of this study is to make a detailed analysis of the pragmatic functions that songwriters'code-switching can fulfill and to testify the validity and feasibility of the adaptation model. As far as research methodology is concerned, this study integrates qualitative and quantitative research methods to support the presentation of a more complete understanding of the code-switching study.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'passive adaptation to social conventions, linguistic reality and the style of popular songs as well as their active adaptation to psychological motivations. Besides, code-switching can carry out multiple pragmatic functions, which often fail to be achieved by other discourse strategies. The various pragmatic functions that songwriters'code-switching can perform are explored in the analysis of the adaptability of code-switching. The study reveals that code-switching in Chinese popular songs performs the function of drawing close social distance, elevating social status, avoiding taboos, filling lexical gap, emphasizing, facilitating, saving face, seeking fashion, gaining foreign flavor, widening the scope of acceptant and so on.The features of code-switching in Chinese popular songs, concerning the types, the positions, the forms, the regions and the periods, are also manifested with the help of specific statistics. Code-switching in Chinese popular songs takes the form of both code-switching between two languages and code-switching between language varieties, while the former has much higher frequency. Among the code-switching between different languages, the switching between Chinese and English takes up the overwhelming majority; this is determined by the dominant position of English in the world linguistic ecology nowadays. There is a great variety of foreign linguistic elements in code-switching in Chinese popular songs, such as words, phrases, sentences and even paragraphs in spite of different frequencies of occurrence. In many cases, there is more than one kind of foreign codes in a song. The phenomenon of code-switching in Chinese popular songs is subject to the great influence of social development and cultural tradition.Through the study on code-switching in Chinese popular songs as realization of adaptation, it is proved that code-switching in Chinese popular songs should be considered as a normal linguistic and social phenomenon, and no bias should be held towards it. Just as the code-switching appears in other discourses, code-switching in Chinese popular songs, with its own reasons for appearance and existence, is restricted by certain factors and performs its own social and pragmatic functions. However, not all cases of code-switching in Chinese popular songs are satisfying. Abusing code-switching or switching codes at random regardless of the internal linguistic rules can not perform any pragmatic function, nor can it help to realize communicative goals. On the contrary, this kind of code-switching will exert a negative influence on language purity and standardization, and hinder the healthy development of language. Only those examples that adapt to social conventions, linguistic reality, psychological motivations and the style of popular songs should be encouraged and advocated. Nevertheless, we should treat code-switching phenomenon with a scrupulous attitude, study it carefully, and guide it correctly in order to make it develop in a normal and positive direction.