A Study Of Chinese-english Code-switching In Chinese Fashion Magazine Advertising

Code-switching (abbreviated as CS in the following) refers to the use of two ormore than two languages or language varieties in one spoken or writtencommunication. With the more and more intimate language and cultural contact andcommunication between different countries, CS appears more and more frequently inour daily life and becomes an important linguistic research focus. Since1960s, CShas been analyzed by linguists both in and abroad from various perspectives, whichmainly include sociolinguistic approach, psycholinguistic approach, grammaticalapproach, conversational analysis approach and pragmatic approach. Theseresearches contribute a lot to the study of CS. However, they mainly focus on theconversational CS while few pay attention to the CS in certain areas such asliterature or advertising and so on. The few studies based on the data within certainareas are mainly conducted from a single perspective and are not comprehensive andsystematic enough.Myers-Scotton put forward the Matrix Language Frame Model (abbreviated asMLF Model in the following) in1993, according to which, CS is mainly composedof Matrix Language island, Embedded Language island or Matrix Language+Embedded Language constituent. MLF Model contributes a lot to the analysis oftypes of CS, especially Chinese-English CS. In1999, Jef Verschueren put forward avery persuasive theory, namely Linguistic Adaptation Theory, which believes thatlanguage phenomenon should be explored from cognitive, social and culturalperspectives. This theory provides a deeper and more comprehensive research modelor method to study the CS.Based on the Press Advertising Placement Account Ranking in2010putforward by the Chinese authoritative advertising monitoring institute Huicong D&BMarket Research, the author collects135advertisements involving Chinese-EnglishCS as the data from the top three Chinese fashion magazines and conducts theresearch on them by adopting both qualitative and quantitative research methods.Firstly, based on the MLF Model, the author analyzes the main types of CS in advertising. Then, based on the statistical analysis, the author investigates thedistribution features of CS in advertising. Finally, based on the Linguistic AdaptationTheory, the author explores the motivations of CS in advertising.The present study suggests that the Chinese-English CS in advertising can bemainly divided into intra-sentential CS, inter-sentential CS and diglossia CS withrespect to their types. With respect to the distribution features, letter or letter clusterCS appears most frequently in terms of linguistic unit; noun CS appears mostfrequently in terms of part of speech; intra-sentential CS appears most frequently interms of type. These linguistic forms appear most frequently in that they arerelatively more easily to be used and understood; with respect to the motivations, theChinese-English CS in advertising happens mainly due to the adaptation to linguisticfactors, social factors and psychological factors.The present study aims to conduct a surface-deep survey of Chinese-English CSin advertising by exploring the linguistic, social and psychological motivations of CSbased on the investigation of the linguistic structures and distribution features of CS.The author of the present study hopes to make a more comprehensive and systematicexploration for the linguistic phenomenon CS as well as to contribute to theappropriate use of Chinese-English CS in advertising.