Comparison of code-mixing between English and Mandarin speaking young Chinese adults in Malaysia

Code-mixing is a sociolinguistic phenomenon in Malaysia where people integrate words of other languages into their dominant language. Chinese Malaysians can be generally divided into two sub-groups: English and Mandarin speaking Chinese. Previous studies mostly have focused on code-mixing between different ethnic groups and generations, as well as in second language situations. However, there is a lack of information on code-mixing among Chinese Malaysians with different language dominance. This study aimed to compare the occurrence of code-mixing in informal conversations among English and Mandarin speaking young Chinese adults in Malaysia. These were the objectives in this case study. First, to identify the patterns of code-mixing occurring in informal conversations among English and Mandarin speaking young Chinese adults in Malaysia. Second, to analyze the syntactic elements in mixed phrases found in their conversations. Third, to investigate the reasons for code-mixing in informal conversations among them. To obtain more accurate results, four English and four Mandarin speakers were selected as the sample population for this study. To identify the language dominance of the participants, a questionnaire was given to each of them to be categorized into two groups of English speaking and two groups of Mandarin speaking participants. Their conversations were audio recorded and transcribed to answer the first and second research questions. Interviews were also conducted to identify the reasons for code-mixing to answer research question 3. Muysken’s (2000) code-mixing typology consisting of insertion, alternation, and congruent lexicalization was used as the theoretical framework to identify the patterns of code-mixing in the conversations. Furthermore, the framework of Callahan’s (2004) tabulation of code-mixed syntactic categories was used to categorize the syntactic elements consisting of single lexical items, phrases, and clauses. Lastly, the framework outlined by Bhatia and Ritchie (2004), Grosjean (1982), and Hoffman (1991) was employed to analyze the reasons for code-mixing in the conversations. The results showed that insertional code-mixing was the most frequently used in the English and Mandarin conversations. Congruent lexicalization code-mixing was only found in the English conversations. Noun phrases were the most frequently used in the English conversations, followed by adjective phrases and verb phrases. However, the syntactic elements most frequently mixed in the Mandarin conversations were single nouns, followed by noun phrases and single verbs. There were eight reasons discovered for code-mixing in the English informal conversations: lack of equivalent and appropriate translation, participants’ roles and relationships, talking about a particular topic, quoting someone else, being emphasize about something, expressing emotions, using repetition for clarification, and expressing group identity. Only six reasons were found for code-mixing in the Mandarin informal conversations: lack of equivalent and appropriate translation, participants’ roles and relationships, talking about a particular topic, using repetition for clarification, habitual expressions, and expressing group identity. The results showed that although there were differences between English and Mandarin code-mixing in the informal conversations, there were also similarities. The findings in this study revealed that the English and Mandarin young Chinese adults code-mixed to a different extent.

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