One day a plane crashed on a lonely island. Only seven people survived: a hip hop fun teenager, his mother who is a high-school teacher, a philosopher, a secret agent, a volunteer worker, a commandeer. However, fortunately, one of the survivors was a linguist who decided to handle the situation.  So, after the first shocks, they started to speak about code-switching.

The linguist asked questions of everyone.

Dear survivors! Tell me please, why do you switch codes within a single conversation? How do you do that? What are the circumstances?

Of course, the linguist answered to his own questions first:

‘Well, I have two reasons for code-switching. I am multilingual, and sometimes it happens that when I speak a certain language, a certain word doesn’t come to my mind, therefore I have to switch to another language to pick up the missing word. The other motivation is that I use technical terms or words. The terms would lose their exact meaning if I had to translate them into the other language. I switch to maintain the exact meaning of the word.’’

The teenager answered then: ‘Because I belong to a hip hop group, I use certain expressions that other people outside the group don’t understand. Sometimes, I switch when I want to express my group-identity.

The high-school teacher replied after him: ‘I switch codes because my son could not otherwise understand my sophisticated language usage. I try to make clearer what I mean’

The philosopher said that he switches codes while quoting another person. The reason why the secret agent switches codes is because he is used to keeping secrets and speaking about particular topics which he doesn’t want others to understand. The volunteer worker switches to express gratitude, solidarity and feelings. She usually does it subconsciously to create a different atmosphere. The commander switches codes in order to strengthen commands while he speaks with soldiers and to soften commands while he speaks with his family.  

Obviously, the linguist made a conclusion:

So, we switch codes

If we have lexical needs, if we express group identity, if we want to clarify something, if we quote someone, if we talk about particular topics, if we express solidarity and gratitude, if we soften or strengthen commands.                

The linguist also explained how he switches codes.

‘Sometimes I do Intersentential switching. It occurs outside the sentence or the clause level. For example: If you are late for the job interview, işe alınmazsın. (English-Turkish code-switching).

Other times, I do Intra-sentential switching. The shift is done in the middle of a sentence. For example:

You are lazy mostanában, because you spend a lot of idő on the sofa. (English-Hungarian code-switching).

Or I also can  do Tag-switching. I switch a tag phrase or a word. For example: 

Nein er kam doch erst um neun, you know? (English-German code-switching)’

The linguist felt the need to keep on explaining:

‘I think to survive in code-switching situations, you definitely have to know two important terms: the matrix language and the embedded language. Easy. The matrix language is the dominant language used during the conversation whose grammar mostly applied while the embedded language is one from which switches originate.’

And the linguist has finally finished his explanation.

 

Do you have other examples for code-switching?