Chinese-English Code-switching In A Local Newspaper

Code-switching,a common and complex language phenomenon in language contact,has been a hot research topic of linguists since the 1950s and 1960s. Researchers have done much work on code-switching from perspectives of sociolinguistics,syntax,psycholinguistics,and discourse analysis and so on.Fruitful achievements have been made already.Since reform and opening-up,China has carried out an increasingly frequent international exchanges and cross-cultural communication.Chinese-English code-switching is becoming more and more common in both written and spoken forms.Newspaper is an important media of public communication,and is greatly influenced by the economic and cultural development,which is reflected on its language choice.The reflection manifests itself in the large amount of code-switching.The study is carried out on the basis of the previous research achievements and register theory in Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics is employed as a theoretical framework.It aims to analyze the code-switching in a typical local newspaper in Hangzhou-Dushi Kuaibao.The analysis will be conducted from the angle of three register variables,namely field, mode and tenor.This study answers two questions:(1) what are the linguistic and distributional features of code-switching in the newspaper? And(2) how do the register variables construe code-switching? The finding of problem(1) is the research base of problem (2).The analysis process is as follows.First of all,a statistical classification has been done through a quantitative approach,and an initial discussion has been carried out on linguistic and distributional features of code-switching.Secondly,the correlation between context and language use has been discussed from the angle of register variables.Finally,implications have been put forward for newspaper editors,writers, readers,language policy makers,as well as language teachers.Additionally,the limitations of the study and suggestions for follow-up study have also been discussed.Through the research,the author has found:(1) In terms of the linguistic structure,the Chinese-English code-switching is mostly insertional code-switching, with phrasal insertion and lexical insertion taking up over the half.With regard to distributive features,code-switching predominantly occur in genres such as fashion, entertainment and sports news,but rarely in international and domestic news. Additionally,it is pointed out that the immense occurrence of code-switching in leisure-related news mirrors the prosperity of Hangzhou's leisure industry.(2) There exists a mutually-forecasting relation between context and language use.Context is exemplified in language choice in the news discourse,and in turn language choice constructs the context.Register variables have strong constraining functions on language choice.Field constrains code-switching on subject matters,for code-switching occurs rarely in serious news like political news but frequently in professional news like technological and financial news.Mode controls code-switching on the medium of the discourse,as the frequency of code-switching in spoken form is much higher that that of written form.Tenor's constraining function is reflected mainly on four aspects,namely role relationship,power,social distance and degree of formality.It is clearly shown that code-switching occurs mainly in informal news but seldom in formal news;and more than often the occurrence caters to the tastes of the targeted readers as in technology news and entertainment news. Meanwhile,the study shows that whether code-switching is used appropriately or not has great influence on readers' understanding.