3. Nature of Code-Switching
According to Wardhaugh 1992: 103 the term ‘code’ refers to any dialect or language used by a speaker to build communication with others. He asserts that
a person may use more than one code in his speech instead of just employing only a single code. People may switch or mix the codes that they use. And a term
‘code-switching’ is used to name this language phenomenon. There are a number of definitions of code-switching according to some
linguists. Every linguist has various arguments about it and employs different way to explain it.
Stockwell 2002: 135 states that “Code-switching is often the specific mechanism through which the borrowing of words and constructions happens.”
From these two arguments, it can be understood that there are, at least, two languages involved in a code-switching phenomenon which are used together by
the speaker. As a result, there is a kind of alteration within a language utterance which involves language elements of those two languages by the process of
borrowing and constructing or combining. The speaker may borrow a certain language element from another language and combine it with the language
elements of his or her native language. The language elements here can be a matter of words, phrases, clauses or even the whole sentences. But of course code-
switching pursues a number of requirements such as the speaker language competence of the two languages in order to construct together the language
elements of those both languages appropriately. The construction needs match combination of the grammatical rules of the languages involved in the code-
switching as it has been explained by Chana 1984 that code-switching is the juxtaposition within the passage of one speech utterance involved items of two
different languages. The items are tied together according to the rules of both languages so that the speaker is obliged to put much respect on both language
rules. Since code-switching is the study of sociolinguistics, social context is also
important to be put in the discussion. The setting that enables code-switching to happen may be described. Wardhaugh 1992: 103-104 elaborates where code-
switching may happen. First, code-switching may happen in a multilingual country. It is a country
which employs more than one language as media of communication among the citizens. Singapore, for instance, has five languages which are English, the
Mandarin variety of Chinese, Tamil, Malay, and Hokkien, another variety of Chinese. The educational activity in formal school is held in formal Singapore
English and Mandarin. Meanwhile, people tend to bargain something with either Hokkien or informal Singapore English in traditional market.
Second, code-switching may also occur where there are multilingual people meet each other in a foreign setting. For example, Indonesian students who
live in the United State have a tendency to use not only English language all the time but they may also speak with their mother language or dialect in a certain
occasion. When they discuss academic work they may use English language, but when they want to share daily activities in their spare time, they may choose
Indonesian language.
4. Types of Code-Switching
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