A Study On The Structures And Motivations Of Chinese-English Code-switching In Chinese Advertising Discourse

This thesis investigates the structural features and motivations of Chinese-Englishcode-switching in Chinese advertising discourse. This investigation is based on twotheories: the Matrix Frame Language model from Myers-Scotton and the AdaptationTheory proposed by Verschueren. The data were mainly collected from Chinesenewspapers, magazines, flyers and TV programs. Most of them are printed version ads;and only a few are recordings from TV. Although the means of realizing code-switchingare different, they will not challenge the validity of the research results.Several findings generated through this research can be summarized as follows:(1)Based on Muysten’s (1995) categorization of code-switching, the Chinese-Englishcode-switching which appears in the Chinese advertising discourse collected can begrouped into three types:: insertional code-switching, alternational code-switching anddiglossia code-switching. The insertional code-switching can be subdivided intophonological insertion, lexical and phrasal insertion, clausal insertion and discourseinsertion. According to Myers-Scotton’s MLF model, the Chinese advertising discourse,in which the Chinese-English code-switching occurs, consists of both ML and EL. Inthis case, Chinese often acts as ML while English serves as EL.(2) for advertisers, thereasons of using Chinese-English code-switching in ads are to adapt to the linguisticreality, social conventions and the psychological motivations. The Chinese-Englishcode-switching as adaptation to the linguistic reality means the advertisers mustconform to the linguistic existence and features. The Chinese-English code-switching asadaptation to the social conventions refers to the advertisers’ adaptation to social culture.In order to make communication process smoothly, advertisers’ should bear certaincultural characteristics and social norms in mind. The last strategy which the advertisersemploy is the adaption to the psychological motivations. This adaptation largely affectsthe construction of the receivers’ identity whereby the ads can fit into receivers’perceptions.