A Study On Uygur-chinese Inter-sentential Code-switching Among Uygur Residents Urban In Xinjiang-taking Urumqi As The Sampling Place

Code-switching is a kind of bilingual phenomenon, which refers to the alternative use of two different languages in the same or different turns. As one of the consequences of language contact, code-switching has drawn the attention of researchers both abroad and in China. The present study aims to analyze Uygur-Chinese inter-sentential code-switching of residents urban in Xinjiang in spoken discourse by taking Urumqi as the sampling place, and attempts to obtain the structural features of inter-sentential code-switching.Based on the 72 hours 53 minutes and 21 seconds oral conversations among Uygur residents in Urumqi of diverse age, gender, occupation, educational type, and educational level in different occasions of five domains: family, friend, market, education, occupation, all together 231 clauses, in which Uygur-Chinese inter-sentential code-switching are obtained from the transcription. The analysis is both qualitative and quantitative methods driven. The main results are as follows:First, there are two types of inter-sentential code-switching, in which inter-sentential code-switching between sentences occupies an absolute majority, significantly more than inter-sentential code-switching between clauses.Secondly, as for inter-sentential code-switching between sentences, it can appear both within a single speaker's turn and between the boundaries of two speakers'turns. Inter-sentential code-switching between sentences of the boundaries of two speakers'turns has two types of structures more than inter-sentential code-switching between sentences within a single speaker's turn. In the two types of structures in inter-sentential code-switching between sentences within a single speaker's turn, the structure of"Uygur simple sentence + Chinese simple sentence"takes up the most switches while the structure of"Uygur compound sentence + Chinese compound sentence"takes the lesser percentage. Among the four types of structures in inter-sentential code-switching between sentences of the boundaries of two speakers'turns, the structure of"Uygur simple sentence + Chinese simple sentence"has the most switches, and the structure of"Uygur compound sentence + Chinese compound sentence"has the fewest switches; the structures of"Uygur compound sentence + Chinese simple sentence"and"Uygur simple sentence + Chinese compound sentence"have approximately the same percentage, taking up the 3^rd place.Thirdly, as for the inter-sentential code-switching between clauses, there are mainly two types of relationships, in which left-and-right handed relationship takes up the most part, and parallel relationship takes up the rest part of inter-sentential code-switching between clauses. In left-and-right handed relationship, there are altogether seven types of relationships,in which complementary has the most switches; Purpose has the lowest. The next five types are cause and effect, supposition, turning, time, concession respectively. In parallel relationship, there are only two types, in which adaptation takes the highest percentage, and the rest are parataxis, and there is no selecting or progressing in the present study.Lastly, no matter inter-sentential code-switching is between sentences or clauses, Uygur sentences or clauses before the switched sentences all obey the grammatical rules of Uygur language and Chinese sentence or clauses switched all obey Chinese grammatical rules. This finding is contradictory with Poplack's (1981) opinion that the sentence with code-switching or code-mixing can both accord with matrix language grammar and embedded language grammar; In addition, this result is also different from Myers-Scotton's (1993b) finding based on intra-sentential code-switching, in which matrix language plays a dominant role and sentences with code-switching just obey the grammatical rules of matrix language.