THE GRAMMAR OF INTRASENTENTIAL CODE-SWITCHING

Abstract

Many theories have been proposed to account for the phenomenon of intrasentential code-switching in multilingual societies. This Academic Exercise analyses Mandarin-English intrasentential code-switching m Singapore using the Matrix Language Frame model proposed by Myers-Scotton ( 1992). This model contends that the surface morpheme order and all system morphemes are constrained by the morphosyntax of the Matrix Language. It is with regard to the Morpheme Order and System Morpheme Principles that this thesis orientates itself. Data from informal Mandarin conversations involving English code-switches were collected in addition to acceptability or judgement tests which serves to capture possible switches. Evidence from the data collected shows that the Matrix Language Frame model is inadequate in accounting for all possible switches. Violations of the model's main hypotheses were judged to be acceptable by many respondents of the study. The findings do not suggest that the model is unreliable but rather that the rules that govern intrasentential code-switching are not entirely dependent upon the morphosyntax of the Matrix Language. Intrasentential code-switching as a communicative strategy is a dynamic linguistic phenomenon that the bilingual speaker manipulates in a variety of ways to express himself with greater flexibility. This linguistic phenomenon is a lot more complex than just dependent on a set of syntactic rules. Perhaps language interference may even lend support to the prospect that intrasentential code-switching is not subject to universal constraints but rather to the unique blending of the interacting languages.