A Pragmatic Study Of The Code-switching In BBS Discourse

With the development of science and technology, computer and network have become a necessity of people's daily life. At the same time, the study of cyber conversations is attracting to many scholars. BBS is the terrace of the information exchanges where bilingual or multilingual code-switchings often happen. Taking BBS discourse as the data source and Linguistic Adaptation Model as theoretical base, the present thesis conducts a qualitative and quantitative study of the Chinese/English code-switching in the discourse from the pragmatic perspective. The aims of the study are to explore the motivations triggering BBSers to switch and the pragmatic functions the code-switching operates, to describe the characteristics in this kind of discourse and to verify the validity and feasibility of Yu Guodong's Linguistic Adaptation Model.Since 1970s, it has been drawing more and more attention from different perspectives such as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, grammar, conversation analysis and pragmatics. Researchers have made great achievements in these fields. Whether as a social phenomenon or as a linguistic phenomenon, code-switching is an important and valuable research topic which deserves greater effort and needs more profound work from fresher perspectives. Among all the approaches to the analysis of code-switching, the pragmatic approach is the most convincing and promising because it simultaneously encompasses the social, cultural, psychological and linguistic factors in a dynamic context and gives a scientific, concrete and overall explanation to the phenomena of code-switching.Jef Verschueren advances a Linguistic Adaptation Theory which is a new perspective in pragmatic study. It has been widely applied in fields of pragmatic study. A ready and successful example can be found in the Chinese scholar Yu Guodong's pragmatic Adaptation Model for CS study, which, based on Verschueren's theory, categories the phenomena of CS into three kinds: CS as adaptation to the linguistic reality, CS as adaptation to the social conventions, and CS as adaptation to the psychological motivations.Under this theoretical framework, this thesis conducts a careful research in the adaptability, negotiability and variability of code-switching in the BBS discourse through questionnaire investigation, data collection, extracts collecting and theoretical discussion. The main findings are:In the BBS discourse, most of the code-switchers are of high educational background. The most common switching form is inserting words at the beginning and ending in the conversation, and next is the alternating words and phrases between Chinese and English in the process of conversation. The alternation of a sentence or a clause in the conversation occurs less. The code-switcher in the BBS switch codes in order to adapt to the linguistic reality (including seeking convenience, accurate quotation etc.), the psychological motivations (such as showing off, achieving humor effects, seeking fashion, etc) and the social convention. To a certain degree, it is verified that Yu Guodong's Linguistic Adaptation Model is valid and feasible.