A Study On Adaptation Of Chinese-English Code-switching In TV Entertainment Programs

Code-switching is a kind of conversational strategy, which refers to the speaker’stransformation from one language to another language to better achieve the purpose ofcommunication. Code-switching phenomenon is a natural product of cross-culturalcommunication and language contact in the world. In recent years, it has attracted muchattention of linguists, domestic and foreign scholars have studied this phenomenon from adifferent direction in different breadth and depth. Among them, the research direction ofpragmatic has strong explanatory power and broad applicability.From the perspective of pragmatics, the author applies Yu Guodong’s Adaptation Modelof Code-switching which is based on the Linguistic Adaption Theory of Jef Verschuren, tohave a systematic study on the Chinese-English code-switching which appeared in theChinese television entertainment programs. This paper mainly uses the qualitative method tohave a detailed study on the Chinese-English code-switching by the program participants, andto verify whether Yu Guodong’s Adaptation Model of Code-switching can effectively explainthe Chinese-English code-switching in the Chinese television entertainment programs.Research shows that, the participants of the program use Chinese-English code-switching inorder to achieve better communication, and to better integrate into the active atmosphere ofthe program. The study can be summarized into two aspects:1. passive adaptation ofCode-switching (Code-switching of language users in TV entertainment program in order toadapt to linguistic reality and social conventions);2. active adaptation of Code-switching(Code-switching of language users in TV entertainment program in order to adapt topsychological motivations and programming style). Yu Guodong holds that code-switching isthe result of the speaker’s language choices in the process of communication, and thelanguage choice is to adapt to the linguistic reality, social conventions and psychologicalmotivations.Through this study, we can find that: The passive adaptation of code-switching in TVentertainment programs is to adapt to the Chinese-English linguistic reality in the Chineseenvironment and its social conventions, while the active adaptation is to adapt to thepsychological motivations and the style of the entertainment program. Meanwhile, as acommunicative strategy, code-switching fulfills many pragmatic functions such as filling vocabulary vacancy, keeping convenience, making emphasis, improving social status,avoiding taboos, expressing implicitly, drawing close social distance, keeping face and easingthe mood, seeking fashion, releasing psychological pressure, and create humorous feeling toattract audience.This study provides new instance for the study of code-switching in the Chinesetelevision entertainment programs, and it also verifies that Yu Guodong’s Adaptation Modelcan be well applied to the code-switching studies of Chinese television entertainmentprograms. What’s more, this study can help people to have a deeper understanding of thecode-switching phenomenon, and to adapt to the cross-cultural communication upsurge.