Code-switching and Code-mixing

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics grade: 2.3 University of Stuttgart (Institut für Linguistik) language: English abstract: The aim of this paper is to provide a complete overview over the phenomenon ofcode-switching and code-mixing. The history of the research of code change hasundergone various periods that have shown how complex the phenomenon of codeswitchingand code-mixing are.In the course of research of code change it has become clear that code-switchingand code-mixing can be investigated from different perspectives. Researchersfocused on code change after they had realized that linguistic forms and practicesare interrelated. And code-switching/-mixing in their turn embodies not only variationbut the link between linguistic form and language use as social practice. Researchfrom a linguistic and psycholinguistic perspective has focused on understanding thenature of the systematic of code change as a way of revealing linguistic andpotentially cognitive processes. Research on the psychological and socialdimensions of code-switching/-mixing has largely been devoted to answering thequestions of why speakers code change and what the social meaning of codechange is for them. The sociological perspective later goes on to attempt to use theanswer to those questions to illuminate how language operates as a social process.Throughout the history of research on code-switching/-mixing it has been proposedthat it is necessary to link all these forms of analysis and that indeed it is thatpossibility that is one of the most compelling reasons for studying code-switching/-mixing since such a link would permit the development and verification ofhypotheses regarding the relationship among linguistic cognitive and socialprocesses in a more general way (Heller Pfaff 1996). As with any aspect of language contact phenomena research on code- switchingand code-