语码转换研究述评

Researches on Codeswitching

本文首先讨论语码转换的定义问题,然后总结现有文献中几个典型的语码转换类型的分类方法以及这些分类的角度。本文把现有的语码转换研究划分为四大类:语码转换的社会语言学研究、语码转换的语法研究、语码转换的心理语言学研究和语码转换的会话分析研究,并且讨论这四种研究方法的贡献和不足。文章最后提出要寻求一个更为全面的研究方法,以便能够囊括语码转换所涉及的语言、社会、文化和认知等因素,从而加深我们对于语码转换这个语言和社会现象的认识。

Codeswitching has been an important research topic in many disciplines: sociology, psychology, linguistics and so on. And these disciplines take diversified research methodologies and discuss their respective research focuses. After years of research, rich literature on this topic has been accumulated. The present paper starts with the definition of codeswitching because of its different understanding. Generally speaking, the definition of codeswitching falls into three types: the first type maintains the difference between codeswitching and code mixing; the second type does not maintain the distinction between the two; and the third type does not take a stance as to the distinction between them. After the elaboration on the definition of codeswitching, the authors point out the different categorizations of types of codeswitching: Poplack抯 inter-sentential, intra-sentential and tag switching, Auer抯 discourse-related and participant-related alternation, Muysken抯 alternation, insertion and congruent lexicalization and so on. The distinctions among codeswitching, code mixing, diglossia, borrowing and nonce borrowing are discussed to lay a foundation for the researches from different perspectives. Then various approaches to the analysis of codeswitching are generalized and introduced, namely, the sociolinguistic, grammatical, psychological, and conversational analysis approach. Examples for each approach are presented, and their advantages and disadvantages are identified with the purpose to present an objective picture of the research. The authors hold that the sociolinguistic approach to codeswitching has led the social elements into the discussion of the relation between the performance of codeswitching and society; the grammatical approach succeeds in provoking our understanding that codeswitching is a highly systematic and structured linguistic phenomenon, and it cannot occur at any place within a sentence; the psycholinguistic approach tries to discuss the bilingual mind in the process of codeswitching, but it has not yet achieved any significant progress; the conversational analysis approach has introduced the dynamics of codeswitching through analyzing the sequencing of conversation. All those four approaches have contributed to our perception of codeswitching, but no one is strong and comprehensive enough to cover the complexity and subtlety of the specific linguistic phenomenon. We suggest a new approach should be exploited so as to cover the linguistic, social, cultural, and cognitive elements.