Analysis Of Chinese-English Code Switching In A Date With Luyu

As a natural product of language and culture contact, code switching (abbreviated asCS) is a linguistic as well as a cultural phenomenon. It refers to the linguistic phenomenonin which two different languages or language varieties co-exist. In western countries,linguists have approached code switching from various perspectives ever since itsappearance, such as grammatical approach, sociolinguistic approach, psycholinguisticapproach, pragmatic approach and conversational analysis and so on. They have madegreat achievements and brought up a great deal of valuable theories and models. In China,with the popularity of English education, English has spread to almost all the walks of ourdaily life, from the original literature and class to current mass media: TV programs,newspapers and magazines. Chinese-English code switching is unavoidable when Englishencounters the matrix language of Chinese. Based on the theories and models of westernlinguists, Chinese scholars have collected CS data extensively and carried out someempirical research. However, the Chinese-English code switching phenomenon in A Datewith Luyu is a relatively new field, and there is hardly any quantitative and qualitativestudy about this topic from the perspectives of syntactic structures, pragmatic functionsand underlying motivations.The present thesis collects and picks out312volumes of effective programs of ADate with Luyu from January,2010to August,2011. Based on Scotton’s matrix languageframe model, the syntactic structures are classified into three types: intra-sentential codeswitching, inter-sentential code switching and diglossia code switching. According toVerschueren’s adaptation theory, the code switching as a strategy of linguisticcommunication is an adaptability to linguistic reality, social convention and psychologicalmotivation. Under the three categories, the thesis further divides seven pragmaticfunctions: lexical gap-filling, conciseness, euphemism, explanation, fashion, affection andconvergence. With a corpus-based methodology, the distribution regularities of syntacticstructures and pragmatic functions are summarized by means of the tool of Concord300.And after the quantitative study, qualitative analysis is made. The research displays the distribution regularities of syntactic structures andpragmatic functions of the collected Chinese-English CS cases in A Date with Luyu.Among all the cases, intra-sentential code switching has a much higher frequency than theother two types. Moreover, the switched English is embedded into the matrix language ofChinese under certain Chinese syntactic features and constraints. As far as the pragmaticfunctions are concerned, the function of conciseness takes up the great majority; and thefrequency of fashion, explanation and euphemism are higher than that of the gap-filling,affection and convergence. It is hoped that the findings of the thesis will be helpful tobroaden the study of Chinese-English code switching in A Date with Luyu, enhance theawareness of code switching and people’s application of code switching in daily life andprovide some enlightenments for English as well as foreign language teaching.