A study on code switching as displayed in the informal home situations by members of the Gek Indonesian families - Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya Repository

CHAPTER

I

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the Study

Tr1 Tr1donesian society,
one

most people know more

langtJage and they use them in accordance

they

speak

defines

to_

a

speech

1 i ng u is tic

languages
s~,Jitch

AlthotJgh the
commrJnity

var-iet:y,

most

or' va.rieties of

(M;-ua~dgn

main
is

most:

mul t:i lingua 1

different
thrcei radds

characteristic

that:

sharing

commtJnities

one

which

they

i,c~

or:'~

;u·f~

var1et1es

of

i~

es,

peop 1 e

langrJages in

lingrJistic repertoires (Holmes

When

there

swi t:ch
order

:'c;i t:Ui:1t_i on,

srJch

as the arrival

betwE~n

to

or

change

Holmes
social
in

of a

be tJsed.

of

one's code happens when a speaker

Most freqrJently,

the

alternation
tJses

second langtJage in order to reiterate his/her message
h1

n~ply

t:o someone else's st:atement (Gwnper'Z

Few exarnp l e,

someone says "Ma, aku

be~'ok

the

code

switching will
switchir1g

exploit

199?:370).

is some obviotJs

that:

mul t_i lingua 1 _

b-i 1 i ngua 1 or· even

communi

natural

He goes on saying

that people switch code within a domain

tuai~

of

have

languages betvJeen

on_

si

whom

198:'):1?)_ And this ,,,ituation

of t:he nat-_1

In

with

the

as i t 1s said by Hornby (1977:1).

than

Qi'!J_~-s".

a
or

198?:59).
("Mum,

2

I

have

an exam tomor-row") showing that

switching
this

from

case,

there

Indonesian to Chinese. The

reiterates

his

message

is

code

speaker,

tJsing

the

second

langrJage, Chinese. Someone may also switch code to
to other's statement, for example
I: