Code Switching Case Study

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ABSTRACT This case study sets to define code-switching from a sociolinguistics point of view and how it is used in personal blogs of adolescents in Malaysia. The phenomenon of code-switching has been ever present in Malaysia especially as most people here have the ability to speak more than one language or even perhaps more. The traditional view of code-switching between one language and another is that it is usually associated with speaking. However code-switching is also present in writing and it is safe to conclude that the functions and purpose that code-switching serve are the same. Therefore the reason why this case study decides to focus on personal blogs as the entries are usually unregulated and uncensored as opposed to official media…show more content…
This usually happens when the person concerned speaks or fluent in more than one languages Therefore the act of code-switching usually occurs in the context of multilingualism. Linguists have long observed that the act may occur consciously or subconsciously. However, the practice of code-switching may not be an unconscious behavior as believed before as they may serve certain linguistics function with the objective of communicating the message across. There is not a universally-agreed definition of code-switching as they are broadly discussed and researched in branches of linguistics therefore this paper will be looking at it from the sociolinguistics perspective with regard to its usage in personal blogs. This paper will also be looking at why the code-switching happens and the reasons behind the practice. It should also be noted that this paper considers that the way the bloggers code-switch in their blogs is also reflective on how they code-switch in real-life speaking situations. Cecilia Montel-Alcala (2007) in her article on code-switching in blogging concluded that ‘when bilingual bloggers switch language, it has been proved that their writing exposes specific social and stylistics functions similar to those attested in oral code-switching and the answer why they do it because they…show more content…
society, many adolescents spend considerable amounts of time in online interactions (Subramanyam, Greenfield, Kraut, & Gross, 2002). David Crystal in his article stated that blogs are the new medium in which it is reviving the dying art of diary writing, thought to be dying out in the literary domain. He further stated that in blogs, you can see the language at its most pure, or as he terms it the most ‘naked’ form, without the interference of outside factors or editing that may render it to be standardized to the point of its originality affected and become bland. David Crystal declared that writing blogs is the ‘new stage in the evolution of the written language, a new motivation for child and adult literacy’ (Crystal,

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