中国留学生在新加坡的语码转换现象 = Code-Switching of P.R.C Students in Singapore

Abstract

As Singapore is a multiracial, multicultural and multilingual society, each individual speech community has its own native language or mother tongue. On top of that, each individual needs to know English, the lingua franca of Singapore. Due to the multitude of languages present, many language contact phenomena arise due to complex interactions between these different speech communities. Code-switching is an example of a typical language contact phenomenon and is the main focus of this paper.

By recording and analysing English code-switching instances in Mandarin conversations amongst P.R.C students in Singapore tertiary institutions, this paper has arrived at a conclusion, the longer a P.R.C student lived in Singapore and the more contact he/she had with local Singaporeans, the more a P.R.C student?s code-switching behavior will converge towards that of a local Singaporean. This convergence is reflected in two areas: 1) The frequency and complexity of code-switching. The longer a P.R.C student lived in Singapore, his/her frequency of switching to English code will be higher. Moreover, the morphology and word classes being code-switched will also be more varied. 2) The domains in which code-switching occur. For P.R.C students, the main domain in which code-switching occurs is the school domain. Other domains include ICT (Information and Communications Technology) and everyday life. As before, the longer a P.R.C student lived in Singapore, his/her code-switching will increasingly expand towards the domain of everyday life.

Furthermore, this paper also looked at the motivations behind code-switching amongst P.R.C students. Code-switching motivations can be sub-divided into two kinds, psychological and pragmatic motivations. A switch to English code during Mandarin conversations can be used when quoting someone, for emphasis, repetition, or to induce certain emotional effect (different communicative strategies). Psychological motivation for code-switching is to conform to the language habits of local Singaporeans and is thus a form of language convergence. Code-switching behavior of P.R.C students is language accommodation in action and shows an assimilation of P.R.C students into Singaporean society in the aspect of language style.