A Study Of Syntactic Constraints On Uyghur-Chinese Intraclausal Code-switching Of Urumqi Uyghur People

It aims to analyze the Chinese constituents embedded in Uyghur-Chinese intraclausalcode-switching and focus on syntactic constraints on them at word order and morphology by Uyghur language, then attempt to reveal the underlying syntactic rules of the two languages.Based on the 26 hours recording of daily conversations of Urumqi Uyghur people of diverse age, gender, occupation, educational type, educational level, in different occations of five domains: family, friend, market, education, occupation, 1209 clauses in which Uyghur-Chinese intraclausalcode-switching occurs are obtained from the transcription. The analysis has been done with a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to reveal the syntactic constraints on embedded Chinese constituents by Uyghur. The main results are as the following:Firstly, among the Chinese constituents embedded in intraclausalcode-switching, single word accounts for an absolute majority, which is significantly higher than phrase and clause, for Uyghur and Chinese have corresponding word class. And noun is the most frequently switched in single word, but no single switching of preposition, particle, interjection, Quantifiers and Onomatopoeia. The second frequently switched is phrase, with NP much higher than other phrases. The least switched is clause.Secondly, the results also show embedded Chinese constituents can switch at any position of Uyghur sentence, but with different frequency. Object position has the highest switching frequency of Chinese constituents, it is determined by its rheme status and Uyghur specific syntactic structure; the second are subject and predicate positions, for they are primary constituents in sentence and realize vital syntactic functions; the least is attributive, for it is a secondary constituent in sentence. Thirdly, as for morphology of intraclausal Uyghur-Chinese code-switching, embeded Chinese constituents from an initially isolating language, function importantly in Uyghur sentences, and their morphology are not static, but constrained by the Matrix language-Uyghur. Embedded Chinese noun or noun phrase follow the morphological changes as to number, case and possessee; embedded Chinese verb or verb phrase change morphologically in terms of tense,voice, aspect and person; embedded Chinese adjective has morphological change with comparative meaning to conform to Uyghur morpbo-syntax.The results above show single word is the most frequently switched among embedded Chinese constituents, and Chinese sentence is the least. The Uyghur-Chinese intraclausal code-switching is not random mixture of elements from the languages, but constrained by Uyghur basic order SOV. And also in the Uyghur-Chinese intraclausal code-switching, the Matrix Language-Uyghur is dominant in the grammatical status, and it determines morphology of embeded Chinese constituents'to follow Uyghur syntax. It also further improves the correctness and adequate explanatory power of Myers-Scotton's Matrix Language Frame model.