The Reasons for Code-switching

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c. The Reasons for Code-switching

Code-switching is a language phenomenon that is considered common in many areas in the world. However, people switch their language to another language because of some reason. As Wardhaugh 1992 states in his book that there are three common reasons for people to switch their code. “A number of answers have been suggested including solidarity with listeners, choice of topic, and perceived social and cultural distance” Wardhaugh, 1992: 106. By switching the code, people are trying to include the listeners to their conversations. Moreover, the topic discussed also affects the choice of code. People might change their language depends on the discussion topic, because it would be easier to discuss particular topics in certain code rather than usual code. The different kinds of relationships are often shown by different codes that are used. For example, relation between boss and staff are more formal than friends. Therefore, the languages that they used are also different. According to Holmes 2001: 25-26, there are five reasons for code- switching: topic, social distance, status relationship, formality and function or goal of the interaction. Certain topics may commonly be discussed in one code than another, in particular, for technical topics like sports where people are more familiar to say ‘offside’ because there is no exact term in Indonesian to explain ‘offside’ term. Holmes said that some topics “... are firmly associated with a particular code and the topic itself can trigger a switch to the appropriate code” Holmes, 2001: 37. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 18 Other reasons for code-switching are presented by Hoffman 1991. She writes in her book An Introduction to Bilingualism 1991: 115 that “the reasons for code-switching are manifold. Many of them are contextual, situational and personal kind.” From examples that she provides, many reasons are contextual, situational and personal class. She describes that switching normally happens when the speaker is quoting someone else. As Holmes referred to “referentially oriented code switch” 2001: 37 which is used to emphasize precise message content. The second reason is that when the speaker is being emphatic about something. The last reason, in addition, is that when the speaker repeats their utterance for clarification. Some additional reasons for code-switching are explained by Oksaar 1974, Poplack 1980 and Calsamiglia and Tuson 1984 as cited by Hoffman 1991: 116 said that people might switch their code to express their group identity and to show solidarity with a certain group.

d. Code-switching in Language Learning