Luận văn an investigation into code switching on facebook social network by english vietnamese bilingual users in the author’s friend list from socio linguistic approach

DECLARATION Thereby, certify the thesis entitled “An investigation into code switching on Facebook social network by Hnglish-Vietnamese bilingual users in the author's friend list fram s

VIETNAM NATIONAL, UNIVERSITY, IANGI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

DUONG TIT] MONG TIIAM

AN INVESTIGATION INTO CODE SWITCHING ON FACEBOOK SOCIAL NETWORK BY ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE BILINGUAL USERS IN TITE AUTIIOR’S FRIEND LIST FROM

SOCIO-LINGUISTIC APPROACH

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỆ HIỆN TƯỢNG CHUYỂN NGỮ TRÊN MẠNG

XÃ HỘI FACEBOOK BỞI NHỮNG NGƯỜI THÔNG THẠO HAI NGOẠI NGỮ ANII-VIET TRONG DANII SÁCII BẠN BE CUA

TÁC GIÁ THEO ĐƯỜNG HƯỚNG NGÔN NGỮ HỌC XÃ HỘI)

MLA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English linguistics Code: 60220201

HANOI - 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

DUONG THI HONG THAM

AN INVESTIGATION INTO CODE SWITCIIING ON FACEBOOK SOCIAL NETWORK BY ENGLISH-VIETNAMESE BILINGUAL USERS IN THE AUTHOR’S FRIEND LIST FROM

SOCIO-LINGUISTIC APPROACII

(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ HIỆN TƯỢNG CHUYÊN NGỮ TRÊN MẠNG

XÃ HỘI FACKBOOK BỞI NHỮNG NGƯỜI THÔNG THẠO HAI

NGOẠI NGỮ ANH-VIỆT TRƠNG DANH SÁCH BẠN BÈ CỦA

TÁC GIÁ THEO DƯỜNG HƯỚNG NGÔN NGỮ HỌC XÃ HỌI)

MLA MINOR PROGRAMME TIIESIS

Field: English linguistics

Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Dr Dé Thi Thanh Ha

TIANOI - 2016

DECLARATION

Thereby, certify the thesis entitled “An investigation into code switching on Facebook social network by Hnglish-Vietnamese bilingual users in the author's friend list fram socio-linguistic approach” is the result of my own research for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and Intemational Studies, Vietnam National University, Llanoi ‘Ihe thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes of study and

research

September, 2016

Tương Thị Hằng Thắm

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

T would like to show my gratitude to all hose who gave me the possibility to complete this thesis

Thave sincere thanks to all of the informants, or the people on my friend list

on Facebook for giving me permission to to usc, analyze as well as cile their comments and statuses specially, they were all enthusiastic, helpful, and gave me valuable answers

Tam deoply indebted to my supervisor, Dr BS Thi Thanh Ha, whose encouragement, guidance and support enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject and to accomplish the final version of the thesis as expected

This thesis would not have be possible but for my leclurers in the MLA course, namely Prof, Dr Hoang Van Van, Assoe Prof Dr Lé [hing Tién, Dr Neuyén Thay

Kj, Dr Ng@ itu Hoang, and Dr Huynh Anh Tuấn T would like to thank them for their interesting lectures, devotion, assistance and valuable hints

Especially, | owe my deepest gratitude to iny family, friends, and colleagues

whose encouragement helped me finish this work

Last but not least, I offer my regards to all of those who supported me in any respect

during the completion of the study.

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, with the outburst of computer-mediated communication (CMC)

the social network Kacebook, or ['witter, English language gets many variables One

of the most interesting phenomena is that bilingual speakers usually tend to switch some words or phrases from one language to another during conversation ar written

form, which is called code-switching, ‘his research looks at the status updates and comments which contain tokens of cade switching and are published on Facebook

site of ils users in (he author’s fend lis The thesis aims lo investigate the types of

and reasons for code-switching found in conversations between the participants, using the typology suggested by Poplack (1980) and reasons proposed by Malik

(1994) Resulls show that stances of infra-sentenlial code-swilching were

dominant and the most common reason is habitual expression

ii

LIST OF TABLES AND ABBREVIATIONS

ABBREVIATIONS L1: First language

1.2: Second language

SNS: Social nctwork sites

CMC: Computer-Mediated Communications

TABLES

Table 1: Breakdown of detected code-swilching instances according 10 Poplack’s (1980) typology S-HH HH 12 HH0 Hee ¬

‘Table 2:I3reakdown of intra-sentential code-switching by syntactie category 26

Table 3: Breskdowm oÍ otlter word classos 37

Table 4: Switched nouns and noun phrases by semantic eategory 3

‘Table 5: Switched verbs, phrasal verbs and verb phrases by semantic category 31

Table 6 Analysis of sentence-boundary inter-sentential code-switching 37 ‘Table 7: Breakdown of specific reasons for code-switching (proposed byMalik 1994) - - - 29

iv

1.4 Signifieaneo of the study cọ de eee

1.5 Scope of the study

1.6 Outline of the thesis

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1.3.2.Types o[ codo-swilching, ác series

2.1.2.3.Why do people code-switch? ác

2.1.3 Code-swilching and code-mixing

3.1.4 Codc-switching and lexieal borơwing

2.2 Linguistic constraints on code-switching

3,2, Participants scsessessersieneenenseeesneeen

4.2.3 Description of intra-sentential code-switching by syntactic category 30

4.2.3.9.1 Vocatndary transcribed from English into Vielmamese

4.2.3.9.2.The use of qualifier and to-infinitive

4.3, Research question 2; What are the reasons for the use of code-switching in

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION | cscs ee seneeenisencsnnes is, ĐỘ,

5.3 Sugaestions for Rarther studies 2n se mm

CIIAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

Li RATIONALE

English which is widely considered the international language and spoken by innumerable people has become the primary communication tool for many purposes The ISO 3166-1 code lists 83 countries and regions with English as

" olfieial language” (SO 3166-1 Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions.) At present, up to 1.8 billion people around the world speak English, thus it is the most widely used “second” and "learning" language in the world used for international communication in various fields like aviation, business, intemet, science and technology to name only some ‘Therefore, learning Linglish is now becoming more popular than ever before in Vietnam One of the most

interesting things to vole is thal for people who know English, esp

cially those studying, living abroad or using different languages other than their mother tongue

have a tendency to mix the two languages, i.e English and Vietnamese, in

conversation as well as in wrilten contexts, Code-swilching, the practice of moving back and forth between two languages or between two dialects or registers of the same language, therefore is inevitable and sometimes unconscious, especially when people, especially youngsters, join social networks For example, it is not surprising,

to see a status update on Facebook which contains switched words, phrases, or sơnlencos Moreover, the frequeney of finding code-swilchinys practice on Facebook sites is quite high and the influence of language use on Facebook users is beconung, much greater Therefore, this thesis aims to provide some background knowledge about the patterns of code switching used on Facebook, the reasons why bilinguals

code-switch and lay foundation for further studies

1.2, PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

Nowadays, when English is required as a second language in our sociely, Cade Switching occurs in every field of daily life: from daily conversation to news, interview, discussion on television, on radio as well as newspapers, magazines and

so on The special phenomenon had beon previously tesearched as the maller of bilingualism Therefore, once choosing and carrying out this study, | have two main

abjectives as follows:

1 To find out what type of eode-switching is most oommonly used by English-

Vietnamese bilinguals in the author’s friend list

2 To investigate the reasons for code-switching

13 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The study aims at seeking answers to the following questions:

1 What are the types of code-switching in bilinguals’ Facebook status updates

and comments?

2 What are the reasons for the use of code-swiiching in general and specific

instances?

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Sociolinguistics studies the relationship between language and society They are

interested in explaining why people speak differcnlly in differoul social contexts, and concemed with identifying the social functions of language and the way it is used to convey social meaning Examining the way people use language in different social contexts provides a wealth of relationships in a community and the way peaple signal aspects of their social identity through their language (Llolmes:2001) Moreover, ina bilingual or multilingual society, it is normal for people to be in the situation where a change between two or more languages has to be made ‘that

phenomenon is called code-switching For bilingual speakers, code-switching is a

valuable tool for various reasons The altemation between two languages in the form code switching is widely observcd im many scitings and in many speech

communities Ilowever, it is an under-researched and rather new issue on Facebook

which the paper allemrpts lo look inlo Thus, once completed, ils oulcome may offer

benefits to entities involved, namely English-Victnamose bilinguals, linguists and teachers in general: and Facebook users who are in favor of code-switching in particular This stndy parlly helps them lo gol better understanding of code switching, the phenomenon that they often use but have little idea about Moreover, the study helps find out the practice of switching between the two languages Vietnamese and English, how these users employ code swilching mectanism to organize, enhance and smoothen their writings More importantly, the paper helps

figure out the reasons why Facebook users code-switch

In addition, researchers of the related fields can use the current paper for reference and carry out further and deeper investigation as it will add to the existing literature

on code-switching, specifically on computer-mediated written form It is important

as bilinguals will then be aware of the phenomenon that may occur during online

communication via social net-working websites such as Facebook

15 SCOPE OF TITE STUDY

This study focuses on the phenomenon of code-switching used on Facebook sites of ten bilinguals in the author’s friend list Although there are several applications far Facebook users to communieate on this social network such as privale and public

message, status, comment, note, chat, voice and video call and so on, some of them

are hard to elicit As a result, only status updates and comments have been taken

inlo consideration, which means this work ouly cxamines paHerns of codo-

switching in written form

1.6 OUTLINE OF THE THESIS

The rest of the study consists of four chapters which are as follows

Chapter two, ‘'heoretical Background, reviews prominent literature directly relevant

to the topic being discussed

Chapter three, Methodology, presents the methods used for data collection and data

analysis as well as justification for these methods

Chapter three is followed by the fourth chapter, Results and Discussion, in which the findings of the siudy are discussed 10 answer the research questions

Finally in chapter five, recapitulation of the whole study is presented before

limitations of the stusly; suggestions Cor further slucbes and a conclusion are given.

CIIAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

this view, Holmes (2008, p.7) convedes thal:

A variety is a set of linguistic forms used under specific social circumstances,

ie., with @ distinctive social distribution which includes different accents,

different linguistic styles, different dialects and even different languages which contrast with each other for social reasons

The definitions by both authors show an emphasis on the speech community in

which a varicly is used, and on the linguislic items as components In the context of this study, the term “code” or “variety” will be taken as the first language used by

speakers of a country

2.1.2 Cade-Switching

2.1.2.1 Definitions

Thore arc many different ways to define the phonomenon as a resuli of dilferent

research interest as well as how researchers view it According to Haddock (2008),

code switching is the “consciously modifying speech to slip from one culture to another.” McCay (2006, p.24), from different viewpoint, sees the phenomenon as the “change from lexical register to another” Knestrict & Schoensteadt (2005, p.l77) refer to the “Shift in language that is guided by a shift in context” while Hughes, Shaunessy, and Brice (2006, p8) define it as the “use of complete sentences, phrases, and borrowed words from another language”

To be more specific, code switching is created by those who live in or use different

languages other than their mother tongue can switch [rom one language Lo another

during interaction

Shana Poplack (1980, p.231), a very influential linguistics, simply defines code- switching as “the alternation of two languages within a single discourse, sentence or

constituent”, often with no change of interlocutor or topic Simple as it may seem,

this definition lists in descending order the possible places at which code-switching may occur, namely discourses, sentences, and constituents Besides, Poplack only

uses the lerm “code-switching” for all cases of code allernalion, which can exist below, at, or above sentence level The author bases on this detinition to detect

tokens of code-switching

2.1.2.2 Types of code switching

Bloom and Gumperz (1972) distinguishes two types of code-switching called

situational and metaphorical code-switching on the basis of sociolinguistic factors

In Bloom and Gumporz’s (1972, p 424-425) view, silualional switching takes place

in cases where speakers switch languages due to a change in the situation, such as a change in participant, topic or setting In short, situational code-switching occurs when the choice of language depends on the situation _In contrast, metaphorical switching refers to cases when the choice of language determines the situation,

“because the speaker decides to ignore the observable external situation and focus

instead on less observable characteristics of code-switching of the people

concemed” (Iludson, 1996, p.53), Metaphorical code-switching oan be employed as

a conversational strategy to assist conversational acts such as apologizing or

requesting,

From another perspective, Paplack (1980) divided code switching into three types

including extra-senlential (lag switching), inter-sentential and intya-seutential ones

The first type, cxtra-sontontial code-switching, or tag switching relates to the inclusion of a tag phrase or a word, or both: for example, we can use “Ok”,

“Right?” “T mean” or “You know” inle an ullerance or sentence thal is olhenwise

entirely in another language ‘Chis type of code-switching is very simple and does not require a great command of both Janguages, since there is a minimum risk of violation of grammatical rules

‘The second type, inter-sentential switching, occws in clause level or between

sentences Switching at clause boundary means that one clause is in one language,

while the other clause is in another, e.g “Sometimes 1'll start a sentence in English

y termino en espanol” (“Sometimes I'll start a sentence in English and finish in Spanish") (Spanish-Finglish bilingual recorded by Poplack (1980) in the Puerto Rican community of New York city) As for sentence boundary, it is not surprising

if we experiences sentences like “What a brilliant ideatt! Oi minh sé tim mọi cách mua cái bình nước này.”

The third type, intre-sentential switching ocows within the clause boundary In Spanish-English switching one could say, "La onda is to fight y jambar." ("The in- thing is to light and steal") This is considered the most complicated type of cnde- switching, mainly because of the high probability of violation of syntactic rules, as well as the requirement of a great knowledge of both languages and how they can quap onto cach other

So far, Poplack’s typology has been regarded as the most transparent and comprehensive one that covers all cases of code-switching without causing much confusion Therefore, it will be used as the conceptual framework to classify types

of code-switching found in recorded statuses and comments in this study

2

Why do people code switch?

Code switching often happens to bilinguals As we realize, there are some reasons why bilinguals code switch, with some reasons being conscious and some being unconscious Research has found that bilinguals code swilch lo convey or clarily ameaning, learn new vocabulary, and help oreate a sense of ethnic identity and

community Since code-swilching is motivated by situalions, the speakers may use

itto identify with a particular group of people (Hughes ct al., 2006) Also, it can be

a sociolinguistic tool, used for clarification, emphasis, separation from feelings, and achievement of a dramatic effect (Hughes et al 2006) By giving the speakers more ways to communicate, code-switching is a useful tool in the bilingual community

Some researchers also found out that students code switch when their knowledge of

the target language was insufficient, or when there is a communication breakdown, {o establish infer-subjectivily or beeause the pragmatic meaning of a word carmol be

translated into the second language In this section, I will mention some research

findings for why people code switch Speakers may switch from one code to another either to show solidarity with a social group, to distinguish oneself, to

participate in social encounters, to discuss a certain topic, to express feelings and

affections, or to impress and persuade the audience

Appel and Muysken (2006) suggest that code-switching perform six main functions

as follows:

1 Referential function: code-switching stems from the lack of knowledge or facility ina language Therefore, bilingual speakers switch code when they do not know the word or when a corlain coneepL is nol available in that language Moreover, language is chosen to code-switch due to the fact that it is more suitable to be used

for a particular topic

2, Directive function: This patticipant-aelated (unetion of code-swilehing aims to include or exchide a person from part of a conversation such as by using a familiar

or foreign language to that person

3 Expressive function: Speakers use more than one language to stress their sclf- identity or feelings to others in the conversation

4 Phatic fimetion code-switching is used to show a change in tone and emphasize

important parts of a conversation

5 Metalinguistic function: Bilinguals sometimes code-switch in order to comment

on another language In other words, this function is most marked when the speaker

or wriler quoles words, phrases or senlences in another language im order to preserve the original meanings and senses of the quotations

6 Poetic function: Words, puns, and jokes im one language are swilched to another

language for the purpose of amusement or entertainment

Discussing the sociolinguisties of code-switching, Gumperz (1982, p 141) lists cxamples of situations created lo corvey meaning as given below:

- to appeal to the literate

- to appeal to the illiterate

~ lo convey precise meaning

- to ease communication, i.e., utilizing the shortest and the easiest route

- to negotiate with greater authority

- to capture attention, Le stylistic, emphatic, emotional

- to emphasize a point

- to communicate more effectively

- to identify with a particular group

- to close the status gap

From the perspeclive of sociplinguistics, Malik (1994) explained ten reasons [or

speakers to code-switch:

1 Lack of faciliiy When cerlai concepts im a language do nol exist, im another,

bilinguals switch code to express themselves and avoid umnecessary misunderstanding and loss of intended meaning, as well

2 Lack of registral competence: Bilinguals choose lo codeswiteh wher they Gad il hard to choose appropriate words in the target language for specific topics Moreover, they may not be equally competent in the two languages

3 Mood of the speaker: When bilinguals arc iu different moods such as tired, angry,

or nervous, they may employ the practice of code-switching Hven if the intended words are available in the two languages, bilinguals still choose to cade-switch when the ones in the other language scm to take less time and effort to be used

4 To amplify and emphasize a point: Speakers apply code-switching on selected parts of a speech to make sure that listeners know what to focus on and highlight in

silualions

5 Habitual expressions: Code-switching also appears in fixed phrases of greetings,

partings, commands, requests, invitation, apologies and discourse markers

6 Semantic

significance: Code-switching can deliver essential and meaningful linguistic as well as social information Hence, listeners interpret code-switching as

an indicator of the speaker’s conmuunicalive inlenis, emotions and attilude

7 To show identity with a group: To people of a same group or culture, code- switching is used to signify shared values and experiences As a result, words and phrases are kepl in their original lars

cs to express a sense of [amiliarity and

belonging to the group.

8 Yo address different audience: When targeted to different listeners or recipients, different languages are used to convey messages, just similar to Gumperz’s (1982) addressee specification,

9 Pragmatic reasons Sometimes, code-switching depends on the context of a conversation or other factors such as formality, participants and location where a

conversation lakes place Thus, code-switching may portray a varying degree of

speakers’ involvement

10 To aitvact attention: Usually, when two or more languages are used in the media

or advertisements, audiences are more sHracled lo the language thal they are

familiar with first

Although a variety of functions of and reasons for code-switching have been suggested by many linguists, in reasons described by Malik (1994) appear to be most succinct yet comprehensive In the context of this study, where participants are asked to give reasons for their code-switching, ten reasons proposed by Malik (1994) will be employed as the theoretical framework in analyzing the collected data for their comprehensiveness and intelligibility to readers

2.1.3 Code switching and code mixing

‘the distinction between code-switching and code-mixing is one of the most

intriguing issues in the study of code altemation Clyne (199t, p.161) argues that

code-switching and code-mixing refer ta the same phenomena in which “speaker stops using language ‘A’ and emplays language ‘RB’, Other researchers, however,

attempt to distinguish between cade-switching and code-mixing One approach

invesligaling this issue from a grammatical perspective is lo hase on Lhe place where

the altcrnation takes place According to Wei (1998), if code altcmation occurs at

or above clause level, it is considered code-switching, but if it occurs below clause

level then il is called cade-muixing,

Following the same approach, Muysken (2000) uses the term ‘code-mixing” to refer to “all cases where lexical items and grammatical features from two languages appear in one sertenes” (p.1), which he calls “intra

entential oode-mixig” He reserves the term “code-switching” for “the rapid succession of several languages in

a single speech event” Similarly, Bhatia and Ritchie (2004) concedes that

code-mmixing refers to the mixing of various linguistic units (morphemes, words, modifiers, phrases, clauses and sentences) primarily from two participating

grammatical systems within a sentence Tt can he inferred from the similarity in the

three definitions by Wei, Muysken and Bhatia and Ritchie that the phenomenon of code-mixing ocours within a sentence, which leaves the inter-sentential places for code-switching

The view of Poplack (1979/1981) bears little resemblance to the above-mentioned

ones Paplack only uses the term “code-switching” for all cases of cade alternation,

which can exist below, ai, or above sertcrice level Mare about this idea shall be

discussed in the next section

While the first approach rests on the point of code alteration as a criterion to

distinguish between code-switching and code-mixing, the sccond one viewing this from a sociolinguistic perspective is more concerned with extra-linguistic factors Tor example, [udson (1996, p 53) says that in cade-switching, “the point at which the languages change cotresponds to a point where the situation changes, either on its own or precisely because the language changes.” Conversely, he views code- mixing as a case “where a fluent bilingual talking to another fluent bilingual changes language without any change at all in the situation.”, and gives it the name

of “conversational code-switching”, which he finds “a rather unhelpful name”

Obviously, Hudson bases his distinction on the speakers’ code choice according to

changes i situation, which sounds fairly abstracl, smee the notion of “situatian”

and “situational changes” need further clarification What are factors determining a

siluation and what are possible situalional changes that, may alfecl one bilingual’s:

code choice?

Another extra-linguistic factor used to differentiate code-switching from code-

amixing is suggesled hy Holmes (2008, p 43) She argues thal vode-mixing suggests

“the speaker is mixing up codes indiscriminately or perhaps because of incompetence”, whereas code-switching should be identified as rapid switching in

which “switches sre very well motivated im relation lo the symbolic or social

ameanings of the two codes” She recommends the name “metaphorical switching”

for the latter phenomenon Accordingly, what Ilolmes uses as criterion of

10

distinction is speaker-related factors, such as intention or language competence Again, this viewpoint is not without weakness, mainly because speaker’s intention

or language competence is something that cannot be examined easily Even a

bilingual with limited language proficiency can still rapidly code-switch with an implication

Consequenl Lo the discussion of two approaches to distinguishing code-switching

and code-mixing, it can be concluded that the first one using point of code alteration as criterion is more clear-cut and is likely to work in examining conversations Thus, it is the first approach that this study will fellow, and the theory by Poplack (1979/1981) will be used as the framework to identify tokens of code-switching in the study In other word, this study will use the term code- switching 1o refer Lo both code-swilcling and codc-nixing, while the three teams intra-sentential code-switching, inter-sentential code-switching and extra-semtemial code-switching are adopted to determine the types of code-switching

2.1.4, Code-switching and lexical borrowing

As regard the definition of borrowing, [lamers and Blanc (2000, p 259) considers borrowing as “the adaptation of lexical material to the morphological, syntactic and, usually (but not always), phonological pattems of the recipient language” Sharing

this view, Myers-Scotton (2002, p 234) describes borrowing as an adoption of a

linguistic feature previously used in another, and also calls borrowing “loan words” Many researchers suggest thal cade-switching and borrowing are not completely

different For instance, Romaine (199, as cited in [lamers and Blane, 2000, p 259)

suggests thal: “Borrowings may look like code-swilches in that they relain a foreign status (cspecially in phonology), while code-switchos often rescmble borrowings in brevity and in being fitted into the syntax of another language.”

However, these two Tanguage contacts are often viewed as distinel phenomena thinks we can base on the level of the destination where these phenomena take place According to Iludson (1996, p 55), whereas code-mixing and code-switching involve “mixing language in speech”, borrowing involves “mixing dhe systems themselves, because an item is ‘borrowed’ from one language to become part of the other language.” Myers-Scotton (2002) views each as placed at the opposite ends of

11

a contimmm based on frequency of use She suggests that borrowings are highly frequent items while switches are relatively infrequent, although the dividing line

between the two is arbitrary This means that horrowed words tend to be used in a

variety of conversations but code-switching wards may occur only once and not in

other discourses

Holmes (2008, p 43) distinguishes code-switching from borrowing in two aspects The first one is that “Borrowing generally involves single words - mainly nouns- and is motivated by lexical need It is very different fram switching where speakers have @ genuine choice about which words or phrases they will use in which language.” ‘This distinction focuses on the motivations behind borrowing and cade- switching, and the linguistic items occurring in each phenomenon The second criterion bases on form: “Borrowed words are usually adapted to the speaker's List language pronounced and used grammatically as if they were part of the first speaker's language By contrast, people who are rapidly code-switching tend to switch completely between two linguistic systems -sounds, grammar, and vooabulary”

In short, this study bases on Myers-Scotton (2002)'s views regarding the frequency

of use to differentiate these two phenomena As a result, cases of lexical borrowing

are not taken into account

2.2 Linguistic constraints on code-switching

A growing number of cods-swilching studics have dealt with the linguistic factors

that operate to constraint code-switching (Gumperz 1976; Plaff 1976, 1979; Poplack

1980, 1981) From these studies, some general linguistic constramts have emerged,

which have becn explained as follows

The first one called equivalence constraint and suggested by Poplack (1980) can be

atatcd most simply im this way: “Stface struckues common to both languages arc

favored for switches” (Plaff, 1979, p 314) The principle is explained more comprehensively by Paplack (1980, p 586):

Code-switches will tend to occur at points in discourse where juxtaposition

Sƒ L1 and L2 elements does not violate a syntactic rule of either language,

ie., at points around which the surface structures of the two languages map

12

onto each other According to this simple constraint, a switch is inhibited from occurring within a constituent generated by a rule from one language

which is not shared by the other

In other words, in the case of intra-sentential code-switching, switches only occur within sentences at points where the grammars of both languages match each other Therefore, you may switch belween an adjective and a noun, or between a verb and

an object, if both languages use the same order for these elements

Furthermore, the sise-of-constitwent constraint says that higher-level constituents

like senternices or clauses tend to be switched more frequently than lower-level ones,

which are one-word categories such as nouns, verbs, detenminers, adverbs,

adjectives) (Gumperz & Hemmmdez-Chaivez 1975; Poplack 1980) The one

regularly found exceplion to this coustraint is the calegory of noun Below the sentence level, nouns consistently have been found to account for the greatest

soumber of switches (Pfaff 1979, Poplack 1980, 1981)

The third linguistic constraint on code-switching, the free morpheme constraint, states that code-switching is prohibited between a free and a bound morpheme In Poplack’s (1980) terms, “Codes may be switched after any constituent in discourse provided that constituent is not a bound morpheme.” ‘Yo be more specific, an item

such as *HAT-iendo ‘eating, which consists of a Spanish bound morpheme —iendo

‘ing’ affixed onto an English root ‘eat’, could not occur in the speech of a Spanish/Fnglish bilingual (Berk-Scligson, 1986), “uriless one of the morphernes has

‘been integrated phonologically into the language of the other” (Poplack, 1980), that

is, unless the word has altamed the status of a borrowing In a word, the free-

sorpheme constraint would be best detined as the “impossibility of code-switching

at a point of morpheme binding” (Berk-Seligson, 1986)

However, [rom sociolinguistic point of view, many scholars clair that it is unlikely

that there are untversal and absolute rules as such It is more likely that these rules simply reflect the limited data which have been examined so far These

soviolinguists argue for grealer attention (o social, stylistic and contextual factors

‘The points at which people switch codes are likely to vary according to many

different factors such as which codes are involved, the functions of the particular

13

switch, and the level of proficiency in each code of the people switching ‘hus, it is suggested that intra-sentential code-switching will only occur among very proficient bilinguals, whereas inter-sentential switching, short fixed phrases or tags in one language at sentence-ends in the other language tend to be used more frequently by less proficient ones (Ilolmes, 2008)

Controversial as these issues may seem, tl is generally acknowledged thal the

linguistic constraints on code-switching discussed above have provided a conceptual framework for studies in language mixing especially for those aiming to

find out tokens of code-switching Therefore, this research paper also makes full use

of these constraints to determime switches and non-switches among the data

2.3 Bilingualism

Bilingualism is a concep! oflen associaled wilh code-swilching as a spoaker must be able to perform more than a language in order to code switch In other words, a bilingual speaker is the person who can communicate in more than one language According to Spolsky (1998, p 45), when people “develop some knowledge and ability in a second language”, they become bilingual Ile continues defining a bilingual: “The simplest definition of a bilingual is a person who has some (functional ability in second language This may vary from a limited ability in one or

more domains, to very strong command of both languages (which is sometimes

called balanced bilinguatism).” (Spolsky, 1998, p 45)

Tn Spolsky’s view, as long as a porsou can communicate i a second language, he or she is considered “bilingual”, regardless of his or her proficiency level in that language Tn contrasi, Bloomfield (1933) broadly defined bilingualism as the

“native-like control of two languages.” The definition raised some questions on the degree of mastery or competency of a speaker in the languages in order ta be

considered 1o have nahive-like control Haugen (1953) further explained that

bilingualism only exists when a speaker of one language has the ability to produce complete meaningful utterances in another language

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2.4 Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics is the study between language and society, of language variation,

and of attitudes about language In other words, it is a branch of both linguistics and

sociology Inin introduction to Sociolinguistics (2013), Rubén Chacon-Leltran

observes that in sociolinguistics "the stress is placed on language and its role within communication, The basic notion underlying sociolinguislivs is quile simple Language use symbolically represents fundamental dimensions of social behavior and human interaction The notion is simple, but the ways in which language

reflects behavior can often be complex and subtle Furthermore, the relationship

between language and society affects a wide range of encounters from broadly

‘based intomational relations lo narrowly defined interpersonal relationships

2.5 Facebook

Facebook is a social network website that provides an extensive number of features

for tis usors to sucialive and share information about themselves Users can sign up

on the website with a valid e-mail address and create a profile page, allowing them

to keep updated with friends’ social activities, upload photos, share links and videos and comecl with peuple Tn January 2011, the network was estimmaled lo have more

than 600 million monthly active users worldwide (Carlson, 2011) One of the main

features is ihe News Feed where users can publish and share (heir stalus updates

with users in their network The status updates posted on users’ profiles pages will then available to be replied or commented on at any time by other users Moreover, Vietnam is considered the country which has the highest growing, rale (146%) of Fagebook users within six months of 2012 and Facebook is also the most popular SNS in this country, which intensified the significance of the study which aims to investigate the code-switching phenomenon on Facebook pages of Enplish- Vietnamese bilinguals

2.6 Langnage on Facebook

The social network Facebook is the place for both spoken and written

communication Llowever, due to the scope of the study that only concentrates on the applications of status and comment, written English haa been under

investigation.

“The nature of the written language is the medium and slower sentence-planning

environment with the construction of longer sentences in comparison with speech.” (Huddleston & Pulm, 2002, p.13)

Noticeably, non-verbal communication provides bilinguals with different conditions

for code-switching The mediated nature of online conversations allows bilinguals

the time and opporlunity lo edit the content before publicizing, a fealure thal is not

available in verbal interaction as conversation is spontaneous

B-PREVLOUS STUDIES

Vietnam is not a multiracial country and the language mostly used in daily communication is mainly Vietnamese Besides, English-Vietmamese bilinguals in our nation only account for a small number and are usually subordinate bilinguals Subordinate bilingualisin is a lype of mediated bilingualism whore the lexical and conceptual representations of a speaker’s first language play a role in facilitating the lexical representations of a speaker's second language Dominant in the first language, meanings and concepts in the sccond language arc understood with the help of words in the first Janguage In other words, we can say that Unglish- Vietnamese bilingualism stems from formal education In the past few years, there have been a number of papers relating to the matter in spoken as well as in written

form Towever, with the outburst of Facebook today, there left many gaps to fill in

terms of code-switching practice on social networking sites in Vietnam but there are

some research concerning this practice in multiracial countries such as America,

Malaysia, Singapore and Korea as follows

1 Ignoring the types of code-swilching, Choy Wai Fong (2011) focused only

on investigating the functions and reasons for code switching on Facebook by Utar English-Mandarin Chinese bilingual undergraduates In Choi's paper, Appel and

Muysken’s (2006) six functions of code-swilching for spoken discourse and Malik’s

(1994) review on ten reasons for code-switching were used to discuss the occurences of code-switching in online communication As regards to participants,

the number of female paricipards outnumbered that of males, with 31 out of the

total 38 participants ‘They are aged between 21 to 25 years old and currently in their

final semesier of different majors in their studies such as Public Relations,

16

Advertising, Broadcasting, Psychology and English Language from Petaling Jaya and Kampar campus As for data collected, 80 messages dated between September

2010 and February 2011 were collected by the researcher through participants’ profile pages based on participants’ activity on the website and the occurrence of code-switching in the specified languages, English and Mandarin Chinese but only

63 messages were analyzed On average, each parlicipant had nearly lwo code- switched messages in a 5-month period, which is insufficient, thus may lead to unreliability In addition, unlike this study, data in Choy Wai Fong’s research was aralyved qualilatively and not calculated and tabulated

However, the findings of this study would be compared to those of Choi Wai Fong

in the sense that code-switching does occur in online written discourse with the

functions and reasuns sumilar lo those of verbal communication Specifically, out of

the six fimctions of code-switching proposed by Appel and Muysken (2006), five functions which can be used to categorize the occurrence of onde-switching in

online written discourse are the referential function, expressive function, meta-

Inguistic function, directive function and phatic function Mor Malik’s (1994) ten reasons for cods-switching, seven of which can be used to explain the phenomenon

of code-switching, which are lack of facility, lack of registral competence, habitual

expressions, to amplify and emphasize a point, mood of the speaker, to show identity with a group and to address different audience

2 This study also bears much resemblance to that of Katrin Urback (2007), which investigated on Swedish-Fnglish code-switching in a bilingual online discussion forum called Motheringdotcommune (MDC), a form of asynchronous CMC A total of seven participants of American, Swedish and Canadian nationality were selected based on their activily and language usage in the forum Data was obtained from a thread in the MDC discussion forum from the period of August

2003 until February 2007 The research aimed to find out whether Swedish speakers use English extensively in online communication and the reasons for using the language ‘the research also examined the types of Swedish-English code-switching,

used by bilingual users in online communication and determined the most commen

types of code-switching in the observed forum Using mixed method, data was first tabulated according to Romaine’s (1989) and Klinthorg’s (1999) classifications of

code-switching into tag-switching, intra-sentential and inter-sentential switching

‘The findings showed that 14 out of 26 switches were intra-sentential while inter-

sentential and tag-switching both occurred six times in the research material

Then, data was analyzed in delail to reveal the reasons for code-swilching Lo occur

Interestingly, English is a preferred language of communication in the online discussion forum for many reasons as some feel more comfortable with using Faglish aller spending long time in English-speaking countries, others fecl more appropriate because the official language of MDC is English, and finally, many use

English to show identity to the group

3 Tn the research “Code switching in social media TWITTER”, Raris Desmia

Sihombing focused on the types of code switching and reasons why people code

switch their language in social media Twitter The main aims are to discover

contextual type and grammatical type of code switching which is mostly used in

‘Iwitter Descriptive qualitative method is used when conducting the research ‘The way the data was collected is problematic and asynchronous Specifically, the primary data was collected by tweets from the timelines of 10 Twitter users from

friend list of the writer's account during a week from February 21° to February 27",

2014, while the secondary date was gained thanks to questionnaires distributed to

25 students of Facully of Languages and Arts sturlents in Stale University of Medan

on February 19", 2014 to ask about the reasons for code switching Unlike other

works on the same area, lhe resull indicates (hat inter-sentential 1s the dominant type

of grammatical types used by Twitter users, followed by tag and intra-sentential code switching, respectively More importantly, the study reveals that there are

cighl reasons why people code swilch in Twiller, and the most commor reason is

due to the lack of equivalent lexicon in the target language Unlike the findings of

Riris Desnia Sihombing’s research, this study sees the dominance of intra-sentential

code switching and Ihe most common reason is of habitual expression

Clearly, research on code-switching on social network sites have just had

been conducted to find out what the most common type of code-switching is and

18

the general reasons for code-switching Kew studies have a deep look on the

specific reasons for each code-switched instance Lesices, switched words and

phrases have not been analyzed syntactically yet Therefore, this smdy was carried out to fulfill the gap Moreover, except for the work by Choi Wang Fong, papers on the topic of cade-switching on Facebook have been limited in number This reality,

as clanfied im the introduction, has constituted a good reason for the conduct of this

study Moreover, the language pair and the corpuses for investigation in the three

studies above are much different from those of this study With the same access to

the mothod of collecting data, this sLucy is an allempl lo further the work of Kain

Urback in different context with different corpus

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CIIAPTER IHLMETHODOLOGY

3.1, Research Lypothesis

Firstly, I inquire whether bilmgual Faccbook users would switch languages when

posting comments and status on Facebook Subsequently, assuming that those

individuals do code-switch, T alismmpl to explain how they emplay the types of code-

switching and the reasons why they code-switch Moreover, I intend to uncover the nature of code-switching from the perspective of sociolinguistics

3.2 Participants

‘This study was carried out on the author’s Facebook News Feed Selective sampling method is employed by the researcher The participants are a cohort of ten people,

three males and seven females, all of whom are friends in the author's friend list

and are bilinguals who are able to express themselves fully in either language and regularly engaged in code-switching when communicating with the recipients The

selection of parlicipants is mainly based on the authentic relationship between them

and the researcher ‘he criteria used to choose the qualified participants are their formal education, profession, and more importantly, their formal qualifications relating to Fnglish and ycara of exposing to Fnglis

peaking onvironment As a smatter of fact, three out of ten are high school students but they have been leaming English with native speakers since their childhood Another five participants had at leash (wo years sludying in Finglish-speaking countries such as America, Australia and England, and they are now working in Non-governmental sector, Knvironment

and Ranking & Finance OF the resi two respondents, one is working for an

international cooperation and one has been living and working in Australia for 10

years now

The study was conducted only on Facebook pages of the participants To be more specific, only their comments and statuses are taken into account ‘the subjects’ ages ranged from 17 to 30 years old at the time of the study To protect participants’ privacy, their names and Facebook accounts are anonymous Moreover, the purpose

of this research was explained Lo all parlicipants and permission was sought through

the messaging service available on Facebook before data was analyzed

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3.3 Data corpus description

The primary source of this study is taken from participants’ time line on Facebook

where they can share information by posting status updates These status updates

are available for other users to reply or comment on, but this research only analyzes

‘the replies or comments of the subjects which attach to their code-switched statuses

if any

In the seven-month period from January Ist to July 31st, 2015, the ten informants

provided 316 code-switched statuses and 134 attached code-switched comments It

is noteworthy thal there were a large number of status updates nol containing

switched comments, while others followed by more than one switched comments

Besides, there were a lot of statuses without tokens of eode-switching but those are

followed by switched comments As @ resull, only code-swilched staluses and attached code-switched comments were taken unto account and each status and its

attached comments were grouped into an entry, which means there are 316 entries

in the corpus The topic of cach entry varied duc to the fact that the participants

were of different careers, sexes and interests

These 316 entries comain 1033 instances of code-switching which inchide 134

inter-sentential, 32 extra-sentential and 867 intra-sentential code-switches

4 Methods of data collection

As mentioned above, the study is an effort to describe the nature of code switching

by people in the aullior’s [riends list, thus descriptive qualitative method secms to

‘be the most suitable methodology The study was conducted by means of participant

observation and unstructured interview accompanied by a self-report form as two

rescarch instruments The information gained from interviews will be recorded,

analyzed and used for reference in making recommendations to improve the quality

of the material,

One of the main problems in producing reliable data for this type of sociolinguistic study is the high sensitivity of linguistic behavior to contextual features Obtaining data refleclive of natural bilingual performance is exccedingly difficult per so, especially when dealing with a socially stigmatized linguistic phenomenon such as

code-switching In this case, several status updates and comments exchanged

21

between Vietnamese-English bilingual speakers where code-switching took place

were collected Ilowever, the subjects were not aware that their linguistic behavior

would be analyzed Therefore, none of the data presented here are either prompted

or elicited in any way

The author decided to group both statuses and comments together under the

assumplion thal, they constitute a sinnlar way of written imleraction between

‘bilingual individuals in social network It is worth mentioning that all of the statuses

and comments are informal texts whose main purpose is to communicate or exchange ideas, rather than narrative passages

5 Coding scheme

The names of ten participants were coded into letters from A to J to guarantee the

confidentiality of their identilics and personal information

Examples from the transcripts were used for the discussion of results, each of which

was followed by an English translation while switched words and phrases were indicated with underlining,

In order to answer the first research question, the oode-switching instances were categorized into three types suggested by Poplack (1980), namely inter-sernential

switching, extra-sentential switching (or tag switching), and intra-sentential

switching Also, each instance of a switch was coded as to its syntactic function in

the utterance Breakdown of switching according to Paplack’s typology and by

word classes were then tabulaled) Thal means belore analyzing, all the eases of

intra-sentential codes embedded are highlighted, recorded and then categorized into noun, verb, adjective, adverb, ele ax well as noun phrase, verb phrase, adverbial phrase, prepositional phrase and sentenec Noticeably, nouns in the noun phrases

were not counted as noun For example, informant A (May 9, 2015) wrote: “Meat

lovers di Gn chay” Tn this casc, meat and lovers were nol counted as twa soparala

nouns and analyzed as a noun phrase only The same principle was applied to other categories Also, the frequency of patterns is calculated to see which phenomenon is the most commonly used

So as to answer the second research question, an informal interview to each

participant was carried out in form of a short chat through Facebook’s message tool

22

In this interview, each participant was informed of the study, asked for permission

of using and analyzing his/her statuses and comments; as well as asked to give the general reasons why he/she usually code-switched on Facebook After the informants had given their answers or even if they had not come up with any reasons, they were provided with the list of reasons by Malik (the reasons were

coded imto number From one to Lert) to decide which ones seemed right to (hem

Finally, the self-report form with the list of code-switched statuses and conunents

that the participant posted on his/her Facebook site was sent to the awner In this sell-reporl form, cach vase of code-switching was bolded, ilalicived, highlighted and numbered in order of appearance ‘Ihe participants were asked to give reasons for each numbered case by putting a tick on one reason from Malik’s list or giving hisor own reason Lor every single case

it was assumed that different respondents would think of different situations and therefore give different reasons for their choice of code-switches if they were

amerely asked to list the general reasons Therefore, the self-report form onabled the informants to think about the actual reason for their context-specific code-switching instances Possible reasons according to Malik (1994) for code-switching were provided for the respondents’ convenience and for the convenience of data analysis

Besides, they can also give other reasons not including in Malik’s(1994) list Apart

from the title, introduction and definition of key terms, the main part of the self-

reporl [orm consists of two columns The first column provided mstances of code-

switching that the recipient made are italicized, underlined and numbered in order

of appearance from one (01) The second colurm which was titled “Reasons for

code-switching” was divided into columns so that participants could put a tick in the reason columns numbered 1 to 10 proposed by Malik (1994) If the informant might think of different reasons, they just needed lo specil’y ia the “olhor reasons”

cohumn

The self-report form is provided in Appendix A

Tustanices of code-switching were calculated avcording lo the reasons lor which they

were uttered and subsequently presented in tables in descending percentage order

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3.6 Methods of data analysis

The qualitative data obtained from interviews was synthesized and summarized based on the aims of the research which are also specified through the research questions The data cbtained from the observation was calculated and transferred into numerical form All the answers to close-ended questions were analyzed and

presented in fons of pie-charl, bar charl while the answers for open-ended questions were summarized according to the research questions The qualitative data obtained from interviews and self-report forms was synthesized and

sumunarized based on the aims ol’ the research which were also specified through

the research questions

3.7 Procedure

Stage 1: Preparation

In this stage, the researcher had a look at all contacts in the friend st of her own

Facebook account to classify and group friends The criteria for classification are

‘based on formal qualifications and careers The research focused on people with qualifications or certificates which can prove their proficiency in LUnglish and those who studied abroad or are working with foreigners The researcher could easily decide who would be the appropriate subjects thanks to her relationship with the

subjects because most of them are her former classmates, schoolmates, students, relatives and colleagues Then the author made a list of potential subjects After

if they often post slatuses

and comments containing factors of code-switching This process is really important and lakes Lime Finally, a list of subjects was made

Stage 2: Data collection

First of all the participants’ Facebook pages were observed day by day All statuses and comments of code-switching were recorded aril saved in separate document files named the subjects’ accounts After asking for participants’ permission to record and analyze their status updates and comments, the author recorded all the code-switehed staluses and atlached comments in the period of seven months Tr each transcript, instances of code-switching were highlighted and numbered in order

of appearance from one (01) The transcripts were then copied to self-report forms

14

Hach status and its attached comments (if any) were grouped into the same entry After collecting pieces of comments or status which the participants code switched

between English and Vietnamese, the researcher held unstructured interviews and a

self-report form through private messaging service on Facebook ‘'he main aim was

to ask for the reasons why they code switch on Facebook in general and in each

Stage 3: Data analysis

‘The data recorded were used to analyze the phenomena of code-switching used on Facebook by the participants The entire language phenomena collected through observation were grouped in order to make the analysis procedure casier The

results were transcribed into charts, tables and diagrams

To answer the research questions, qualitative data was collected based on the occurrence of codo-switching and thon analyzed in terms of the types of codc- switching commonly used and the reasons that they serve in the online written discourse Hach example that was used for discussion was followed by an English

translation while words, phrases or sentences that were switched would be

underlined

3.8, Recapitulation

The purpose of this chapter is to give a clear depiction of how data was collected and analyzed Both qualitative and quantitate methods were employed in order to

find answers to the research questions First, all status updates and comments posted

on the subjects’ wall were all recorded and analyzed to identity instances of code- switching, which then were grouped according to Poplack’s theory (1980) This

qualitative method was used to draw findings Lo the first and second research

question concerning types of Viemamese-Bnglish code-switching found in the recorded written language among Facebook users in the author’s friend list

Next, shor! interviews would be held, followed by self-report forms in order ta

obtain participants’ reflection on what caused them to code-switch Collected data

were then calculated and grouped Employing the quantitative method at this stage,

35

the researcher sought to find out the answers to the last research questions on reasons for the participants’ code-switching

Tn the following chapters, findings of the research will be provided and fallowed by

further discussion and conclusion to the study

26

CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

4.1, Introduction

The focus of this chapter is on the nature and frequency of code-switching in the

corpus The chapter will be divided into five main sections Apart from the chapter

introduction, the second and third sections serve to present the findings of data

analysis to find the answers to the two research questions The fourth section provides a thorough discussion of the results, Finally, a brief chapter summary will

Based on the definition of code-switching proposed for this study, there are 1033

instances of code-switching in the corpus The detected code-switches were divided

into three types according to Poplack’s (1980) typology, namely extra-sentential code-switching (or tag switching), inter-sentential code-switching, and intra-

sentential code-switching which can be seen in table 1 below:

Table 1 Breakdown of detected code-switching

instances according to Poplack's (1980) typology

Extra-sentential

27

The pie chart shows that intra-sentential code-switching accounts for approximately

four fifths cases of code-switching, which serves to reinforce the common

viewpoint that only very proficient bilinguals will switch within sentences (Holmes,

2008, p 46) In the second place, inter-sentential code switching takes up 13% of

the detected cases The least common type of switching comes to extra-sentential,

Table 2 Break down of intra-sentential code-switching by syntactic category

According to Table 2, the most frequent syntactic category of intra-sentential

code-switches is the noun, with 46.1% of the total switches This finding is similar

to that of other studies regarding the switching of nouns In her study on Spanish-

English code-switching, Poplack (1980) reports that single nouns were most likely

to be switched than other word classes Furthermore, when added together, switched

nouns and noun phrases in this study account for nearly 62% of the total switches

28

Another word class that is frequently involved in code-switching is the verb with 15.8% of the total switches, together with 1% of verb phrases and 1.5% of phrasal

verb It is also noticeable that instances of switched adjectives make up 7.6% of the

detected cases, followed by adverbs with nearly 2.3%

Together, preposition and prepositional phrase take up a small proposition, only

1.1% Accounting for only 5.8% in tolal, or fifty out of eight hundred sixty seven

intra-sentential switched tokens, the other word classes such as interjection,

sentence and exceptional cases are categorized into the same group titled “Others” anid the specific figures are prescnied in the below table

‘Table 3 Break down of other word classcs

‘As can be seen in table 3, sentences occupy 1.6%, followed by interjection and rules violated cases, wilh the same percentage of 1.2% Vietnamese transcribed and special cases occur with almost the same frequency — 0.9%

Example for rules vi HES:

Informant G (Feb 21", 2015): Bot nay bận quá, việc nhiễu khiến ai cũng, sfress

(G: Such busy time, too much work makes everyone stressed)

Tn the example above, the word stress should have been an adjective — stressed

In this study, cases of rules violation mean the wrong, application of word fons Specifically, a noun may be used instead of an adjective or a verb This practice is nol uncommon as Vietnamese is one of the languages in which adjectival meanings

are expressed primarily by nouns or verbs (Dixon, 1997)

Example for Vietnamese transcribed cases:

Informant D (March

015): “Sau ral nhiéu lan phải tuyển dụng, mình có 1 số

com men vuvo sau.”

29

(D: After a lot of recruitment, | have some following comments)

In this example, the original word “comment” changed itself to look like

Vietnamese and was added tones so that it has the same pronunciation with English

Example for special cases:

Informant II (April 12, 2015) “U made my #7 night”

(H: You made my Saturday night)

‘Usually, English-Vietnamese bilinguals code from Vietnamese to English, but in the above example, the informant did the opposite thing, which makes this case special

Besides, special cases include instances where ‘lo-mnfinitive plays a role of a subject and a code-switched qualifier as in the following examples

Eg: F (March 13, 2015): Tui hay ham vui, ai cho chỉ tụi luôn hoan hỗ, ae kêu cal

(#: 1 usually indulge in pleasures; | appreciate being given things, no complaints!)

Tig: E (July 14, 2015): “Te share end to be shared cho đời thanh thân ”

(E: To share and to be shared makes life peaceful.)

In short, unlike other studies on code-switching whose results show mainly cases of switched nouns, verbs, and adjectives, this study provides much greater diversity of syntactic category recorded That is of little surprise as people are free to express

themselves on social networks

4.2.3 Description of intra-sentential code-switching by syntactic category

TL should be noted bere thal the examples given below are extracted from the

recorded status updates and comments; therefore they will serve as examples only 4.2.3.1 Nouns and noun phrases

When investigating the tokens of switched nouns and noun phrases, all the proper names, places, streets, building are excluded It is apparent from Table 3 that the ingidence af code-swilching lo Fnglish noms and noun phrases, which conslilules amore than 60 percent of the total switches, is higher than that of any other syntactic categories

The majority of nouns and noun phrases switched are words which reler to participants’ interests or career Different informams have a tendency to talk about different topics such as self, food, shopping, cosmetics, work, hanging-out and

30

pregnancy However, they all share some common words regarding social network terms The detected switched nouns and noun phrases can be generally grouped according to the same semantic categories as specified in the following table

Semantic Nouns and noun phrases

category

Food Salmon, steak, fish, chips, burger, bacon, pub, beef, spinach,

sauce, base, thyme, rosemary, courses meal, beer pub, banana bread, meat lovers, lamb chop, olive oil, creamed spinach, tomato sauce, lunch, fixed price, Bucket list item No, tip, list, beer club, yellow wine, hardcore, shots, beans, tea, buffet

Travel tour, agent, visa, plan, Tibet Permit, bus, Book of the trip, day

tour, safari, road trip, tour, America, passport, valise, holder,

postcards, bus

Shopping Sale, store, promotion, shopping, brands, department store, deal,

brands, shopeholie, size, fee, style, list, voucher

Cosmctics srub, scrum, morslurize, lone, HHÚOXICAHL X2, loner x2, scrum

x5, skincare, moisturizer, tester, contraction, olive oil, sweet

almond oil, hot girls, miracle water, serum advanced night repair, gift pack x2, gift sct x2, sct anti aging, full sizex2, advanced night repair, radiance set, travel size, Gift With

Purchase, mini size, miracle water travel set, fake, fav setting

powder, beanty bloggers, powder face, makeup, lens, sample

Work career path, file templates, designer / agency, emails, mail, jobs,

sponsor, events, meetings, conferences, market, event,

ceremony, guidelines, file, coaching, deadline, workshop, business, experience, team, Marketing, report, office, training,

surveys, senior position

Pregnancy hicks, "birth plan, bomb stress, babyoenter, headband,