A Study Of Code-switching In Fortress Besieged: A Reister Perspective

As a natural consequence of language contact, code-switching simply refers to thealternations of two or more linguistic varieties in the same conversation. Since1970s researchersfrom home and abroad have made an extensive and profound study on code-switching fromdiverse perspectives including grammatics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics conversationalanalysis and pragmatics, etc. Code-switching not only occurs in real life but also frequentlyoccurs in some literary works.Ch’ien Chung-shu ranks among the foremost twentieth-century Chinese novelists and hisnovel Fortress Besieged has been acclaimed as one of the greatest twentieth-century Chinesenovels. In this novel, there are110code-switching cases and this language phenomenon is highlypraised as a unique writing technique. However, among differing views on the merits of thislanguage phenomenon, few studied it from the register perspective. Code-switching is a kind oflanguage variety and language variety is a topic which can be discussed under register theory. Asa common field between systemic-functional linguistics and sociolinguistics, register theorypoints out a new direction for code-switching study.In this light, the present study adopts the register theory to analyze the code-switching inFortress Besieged. The core of this study is to make a detailed analysis of the impact of field,tenor and mode upon the occurrence of code-switching in this novel. In general, the presentstudy focuses on three aspects:(1) The situation of the code-switching in Fortress Besieged;(2)The register analysis of the code-switching in Fortress Besieged;(3) The motivation ofcode-switching in Fortress Besieged.The present study finds that most of the switches are intra-clausal code-switches rather thaninter-clausal code-switches. Besides, the intra-clausal code-switching are mainly nouns ornominal groups. Through the investigation of code-switching instances, it shows out thatcode-switching in this novel is subject to the influence of the three factors of register, field, tenorand mode. These three variables of register have a restrictive impact on the occurrence of theswitched codes according to different situations in Fortress Besieged. Besides, code-switching inthis novel motivated by several factors, the social background of China in1930s, the linguisticand sociolinguistic influences. There are two research purposes of this study. On one hand, this study intends to reveal thesituation of code-switching in the novel Fortress Besieged and develop a better understanding ofthis unique language phenomenon in this great work. On the other hand, this tentative study ishoped to testify the applicability and feasibility of register model as a theoretical framework inthe research of code-switching in literary works. Finally, this thesis is only a tentative study toexplore some implications for both cross-cultural communication and foreign language teaching.