Essay on Code-switching: an essential phenomenon of the bilingual world part 2
Essay on Code-switching: an essential phenomenon of the bilingual world part 1
Gal (1979) claims that code-switching is also used to express solidarity with certain group or emphasize certain point of view. Some scientists are of the opinion that code-switching serves a number of pragmatic purposes such as aggravating or mitigating the communicative situation or message of a person. Recent studies on the question of code-switching have shown that it takes place in both informal and formal contexts of the communicative process and has long become a norm for bilinguals. Code-switching is now an inseparable part of the bilingual world that is functionally motivated and serves to fulfill one’s communicative intents.
As for the purposes of code-switching, there should be mentioned the following:
- Code-switching serves as expressing one’s culture as any language is a direct sign of someone’s belonging to a certain cultural group.
- It serves to make one’s speech more emotional and full of certain feelings as for this or that event or situation.
- Code-switching may also perform a function of an invitation or some kind of connection to a person spoken to. It is a sign of a friendly attitude to the addressee.
- Code-switching often serves as an expression of one’s identity and relation to certain language group. It happens when a person really values his or her language and wants to show respect to the language he or she uses on a daily basis with family or friends.
- Some people, especially those who are not bilingual, use code-switching for a simple play with language, so as to diversify their speech and make it livelier. Such a trick also serves as making one’s speech more humorous; it often happens that certain jokes or sayings seem more appropriate and up to the topic in another language.
- In some cases, code-switching is an expression of resistance to the promotion of monolingualism being practiced in many countries of the world. In this case, a bilingual person tries to emphasize that he or she is against some sort of discrimination towards those using two or more languages on a daily basis.
- Finally, code-switching is known to be a widespread literary device used by many authors for different purposes, such as expressing some jokes that sound better in another language or emphasizing the cultural adherence of the author to this or that community.
It should be admitted that this phenomenon serves as means of diversifying one’s speech, making it more emotional and filling it with expressiveness. Thus, by switching from one language to another, a bilingual person does not only show his language competence, but also makes his or her speech more emotional and bright. This creates a positive impression of a person and often leads to better understanding between the parties involved in a conversation. In such a way, it can be concluded that code-switching has more positive features than negative ones. The above-mentioned aspects of code-switching and its purposes lead to a conclusion that switching from one language or dialect to another is rather a useful phenomenon that diversifies one’s speech making it more comprehensive to the parties involved in a conversation that probably belong to different age groups, professions or cultures. In this regard, it can be rightfully admitted that code-switching unites nations and serves for establishing the relationships between people.
To conclude, the above research contains a full-fledged analysis of the question of code-switching and the purposes it serves in the process of communication. It needs to be admitted that the research has covered many questions that often occur when speaking about code-switching. Thus, the research provides a deep analysis of why code-switching cannot be considered a sign of language incompetence. In fact, it is rather a sign of one’s language capability as bilingualism is a truly miraculous linguistic phenomenon that is, however, often interpreted in a wrong way. The above research has covered the most vital questions concerning code-switching on the basis of findings and investigations of a number of reputable linguists. It should be said that a lot is still to be discussed and many questions are still to be answered. The above research represents an attempt to prove that code-switching does not imply one’s language incapacity, having a number of positive sides that should be taken into account. Code-switching is clearly a useful phenomenon that fills the speech of bilinguals with emotions and encourages the two parties involved in a conversation to understand each other better.
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