A Study Of Grammatical Constraints On Kazakh-chinese Intraclausal Code-switching Of Kazakh People In Urumqi

The research aims to explore what the constraints on the embedded Chineseconstituents are in Kazakh-Chinese intraclausal code-switching. In detail, the threefollowing aspects are analyzed: firstly, it explores what Chinese constituents are ableto be switched in code-switching. Secondly, it explores the Kazakh morphologicalconstraints on Chinese constituents. Thirdly, the linear order constraints on Chineseembedded constituents are analyzed.120hours’ natural recordings are gained based on the recording of Kazakhpeople’s daily life in Urumqi in five domains, family, friend, education, employmentand market fields, with diverse age, gender, occupation and education background ofKazakh people. The data consist of1348clauses with1621switchings according tothe definition of clause. Employing the combination of qualitative method andquantitative method, the study explores the constraints on the embedded Chineseconstituents in Kazakh-Chinese intraclusal code-switching from the above threeaspects. The main results are the following:Firstly, there are three kinds of constituents among1621switchings, that is,single words, phrases and sentences, which indicates that the three constituents are notconstrained in Kazakh-Chinese intraclausal code-switching. With being the mostconstituents, there are1318switchings in single words. The switchings of phrasesrank the second (297times) and the switchings of sentences rank the last (9times). Insingle words, the switched categories involve nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs,numerals and qualifiers with nouns as the most ones and qualifiers with least ones.Compared with previous studies, there are some switchings in numerals andquantifiers in the present study. Based on analysis, they might be switched oncondition that they function as nouns in Kazakh-Chinese intraclusal code-switching.As for phrases, noun phrases, verb phrases and adjective phrases are switched in thewhole data. Noun phrases rank the first, followed by verb phrases and adjectivephrases. All the sentences involving switching are simple sentences, among whichsubject-predicate sentences make up the majority.Secondly, the embedded Chinese constituents experience morphological changesto conform to Kazakh grammatical rule. Chinese single nouns and Chinese nounphrases are added case, plural form, possessee suffixes and so on, which are addedafter Kazakh nouns and noun phrases. Verb and Verbs phrases experience aspect,tense, voice, adjectivalized, nominalized suffixes and so on. Adjectives and adjective phrases, adverbs, numerals and quantifier are all added certain suffixes after theyexperience normalization.Thirdly, on the syntactic level, due to differences between the Kazakh linearorder and Chinese one, the former sets constraints on the embedded Chineseconstituents so that the embedded Chinese follow the Kazakh linear order. In addition,all the embedded Chinese constituents can be switched in subject, predication, object,adverbial and attributive positions except in complement position, which means thecode-switching is constrained in complement position.According to the above results, it can be seen that the embedded Chinese inKazakh-Chinese intraclusal code-switching are constrained by Kazakh language, butthe degrees of code-switchings are various. In the embedded Chinese constituents,single words are switched most frequently. As for morphological constraints, all theembedded Chinese constituents experience morphological changes. At the syntacticlevel, the embedded Chinese conform to the Kazakh linear order, and codes areswitched in any syntactic position except in complement.