A Sociolinguistic Study On Chinese-English Code-switching In Chinese Network Chat

With the rapid development of science and technology, modern communicationmeans are emerging in endless. Therefore, instead of only relying on face-to-facecommunication, human beings can exchange messages of all kinds with the aid ofComputer-Mediated Communication (shortened as CMC hereinafter) through variouschannels, such as chat-room, Blog, E-mails or BBS and the like. Because of thepopularity of English learning, human beings use Chinese as well as English in CMC.This mixed language phenomenon is called code-switching in linguistics. Code isused to refer to both language and language varieties, while the phenomenon ofswitching from one code to another in communication is called code-switching.So far, the domestic and foreign scholars who have put forward and verified somecode-switching models mainly study code-switching from the perspectives ofsociolinguistics, grammatical linguistics, psycholinguistics, conversation analysis andpragmatics. Code-switching is an important subject of sociolinguistic research and itsresearch contents have broadly included three aspects: function, structure andmotivation. However, the study of function is imperfect, so it is necessary to have afurther study on it. As a unique and unconventional language form, the networklanguage is different from any existing style. It has its own convenient and vividcharacteristics, therefore, code-switching in CMC will present distinctive functions.Based on Mayers-Scotton’s revised Markedness Model, this thesis aims to furtherstudy the functions and motivations of Chinese-English code-switching in Chinesenetwork chat from the perspective of sociolinguistics, which will provide us preciousmaterials to have a further discussion on the social functions of code-switching.The network language involved in this study refers to the natural language usedin CMC, and the survey objects are the author’s classmates and friends. The data arecollected from the chat records of instant messaging software QQ (except voice andvideo chat). In accordance with the requirements of simple random sampling and theprinciple of voluntary participation, the author asks for the chat records from10pairsof QQ users, and analyses the1387times of code-switching occurring in the records with the quantitative and qualitative methods.After conducting a detailed analysis of the chat records, seven major functions ofChinese-English code-switching in Chinese network chat are obtained. To be morespecific, they are gap-filling, fashion, quotation, euphemism, economy, language skillshowing and humor-creating. Besides, it is found that there are some differencesbetween males and females in terms of these functions, and it is the rationality andoptimization that mainly inspire communicators to switch one code to another. As forthe differences, they are mainly caused by different ways of expressing.This thesis provides a new perspective for code-switching study, which enrichesthe empirical research of code-switching in sociolinguistics. At the same time, it hascertain practical significance for teaching Chinese as a foreign language andcross-cultural communication.