| Chinese/ English code-switching in computer-mediated communication (CMC), a common, yet special language phenomenon, is analyzed from a relatively new perspective of pragmatic adaptation theory in this thesis. Verschueren's Linguistic Adaptation Theory and Yu Guodong's Adaptation Model are used as the theoretical basis to explore the adaptive issues of code-switching. Various ways of cyber communication such as forum, blog, chat room and BBS, etc., provide a rich collection of C/E code-switching examples. Based on the Adaptation Model, the research on the code-switching in CMC starts from three aspects, namely, the linguistic reality, the social conventions and the psychological motivations and explores further into the detailed types and contents of adaptation. In the context of CMC, the adaptation to the linguistic reality involves linguistic existence and linguistic features; the adaptation to the social conventions includes social taboos, curse talks and sex-related topics; the adaptation to the psychological motivations involves more contents such as explanation or emphasis, identity-concealing, convenience-seeking, face-saving, fashion-seeking and showing-off. Moreover, the specific features of code-switching in CMC are concluded as the blending of Chinese and English elements, understanding delay and emotion exposure.The study, to a certain degree, verifies and develops Yu Guodong's Linguistic Adaptation Model and also confirms that pragmatics, a new approach of research for code-switching, covers the linguistic, cognitive, and social aspects. In addition, this study helps people understand more about the phenomenon of code-switching in network language. Meanwhile, the study reflects the influence of the language of English upon the language of Chinese in the development of modern China, and it also has certain implications for people's effective use of code-switching as a communicative strategy. |
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