Hiện tượng trộn mã việt anh trong các bài viết blogs về làm đẹp của một số blogger trẻ tại việt nam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ KIM CHI VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH CODE-SWITCHING IN BLOGS BY YOUNG BEA

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ KIM CHI

VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH CODE-SWITCHING IN BLOGS

BY YOUNG BEAUTY BLOGGERS IN VIETNAM

Hiện Tượng Trộn Mã Việt-Anh Trong Các Bài Viết Blogs Về

Làm Đẹp Của Một Số Blogger Trẻ

Tại Việt Nam

MA THESISMajor Thesis

Major: English Linguistics Major code: 8220201.01

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ KIM CHI

VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH CODE-SWITCHING IN BLOGS

BY YOUNG BEAUTY BLOGGERS IN VIETNAM

Hiện Tượng Trộn Mã Việt-Anh Trong Các Bài Viết Blogs Về

Làm Đẹp Của Một Số Blogger Trẻ

Tại Việt Nam

MA THESISMajor Thesis

Major: English Linguistics Major code: 8220201.01 Supervisor: TS Nguyễn Thị Thu Thuỷ

I, hereby declare that this written thesis is all my own work except where I indicateotherwise by proper use of quotes and references and has never been submitted toany other institution This thesis has been submitted for examination with approvalfrom the candidate’s supervisor

Nguyễn Thị Kim Chi

I would like to acknowledge my most sincere gratitude towards my supervisor, Dr.Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, without whose kind support and invaluable guidance, thisthesis will be in complete failure Her unfaltering encouragement and genuinemotivation have planted great inspiration in me in fulfilling this research

I am also forever indebted my most profound appreciation and gratitude to myfamily, who has not for one moment resigned faith on me I was so blessed withconstant moral support to eventually reach the end of the thesis

Finally, I would like to express my deepest thanks to the Faculty of GraduateStudies, without whose support and assistance, I would not have been able tocomplete my whole journey of MA study as well as this MA thesis

This research attempts to investigate the language behavior of Vietnamese-Englishcode-switching behavior presented in blogs, a typical mode of computer-mediatedcommunication belonging to young beauty bloggers in Vietnam Although therehave been exhaustive numbers of definition regarding the issue in question, thedefinition of code-switching in the study was adopted from Myers-Scotton’s statingthat code-switching is a term to refer to the alternations of linguistic varietieswithin the same conversation In this research it is displayed through the genre ofwritten text The first goal of this study is to describe the presentation in which thelinguistic patterns of Vietnamese-English code-switching are exhibited in journalentries written by five blog owners The second purpose aims at evaluating thesocial functions that are positioned in such switches As a result of this study, it isdiscovered that Vietnamese-English code-switched language in blogs is in fact anextension of language in spoken interaction, and there are some distinctive features

in the distribution of major parts of speech regarding noun, verb and adjectiveinsertion in the language contact Switches for idiomatic expressions are alsoevident In addition, examples on the social functions of clarification, quotation,interjection, and repetition under unmarked choices of code-switching are identifiedand explained with in-depth illustrations

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract iii

Table of Contents iv

List of Abbreviations vi

List of Figures and Tables vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the thesis 1

1.2 Aims and objectives 3

1.3 Scope of the thesis 4

1.4 Method of the thesis 5

1.5 Design and structure 6

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 8

2.1 Definitions of Key Terms 8

2.1.1 Code as Language Variety 8

2.1.2 Code-switching 9

2.1.3 Code-switching and Code-mixing 10

2.1.4 Code-switching and Borrowing 12

2.2 Literature on Code-Switching 14

2.2.1 Literature on Structural Approach 15

2.2.2 Literature on Functional Approach 17

2.2.3 The Thesis’s Theoretical Framework 24

2.3 Review on Related Studies 25

2.3.1 Studies on Code-switching in Social Network Context 25

2.3.2 Studies on Blogs and Blogging 26

2.4 Summary 29

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 30

3.1 Methods of the study 30

3.2 Subjects of the study 32

3.3 Data Collection 35

3.4 Data Analysis Procedure 37

3.5 Summary 39

Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 40

4.1 Findings 40

4.2 Linguistic Presentation 43

4.2.1 The EL noun in ML + EL constituents 45

4.2.2 The EL verb in ML + EL constituents 48

4.2.3 The EL adjective in ML + EL constituents 50

4.2.4 The entire EL islands 53

4.3 Functional Presentation 56

4.3.1 Code-switching as unmarked choice 56

4.3.2 Code-switching for clarification 58

4.3.3 Code-switching for quotation 59

4.3.4 Code-switching for interjection 60

4.3.5 Code-switching for repetition 60

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 62

5.1 Summary of Findings 62

5.2 Significance of the Research 63

5.3 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research 64

REFERENCES 66 APPENDICES I APPENDIX A: Transcription Conventions I APPENDIX B: Transcription Sample II APPENDIX C: Text Identification Sample III

List of Figures and Tables

List of figures

Figure 1: The Continuum for Levels of Borrowing in Code-switching Utterances

(Poplack et al., 1987) 13

Figure 2: Four different quadrants of blogs 28

Figure 3 Sample segmentation and en-pos run results 41

Figure 4: Summary in the total use of code-switching 42

Figure 5: Comparison in the use of total CS among five subjects 43

Figure 6: Distribution of EL nouns in ML + EL constituents 45

Figure 7: Distribution of EL verbs in ML + EL constituents 48

Figure 8: Distribution of EL adjectives in ML + EL constituents 51

List of tables Table 1 Distinction between code-switching and code-mixing 11

Table 2: Poplack’s (1980) Identification of Code-switching Based on the Type of Integration into the Base Language 12

Table 3: Description on Subjects’ Details 34

Table 4: Coded Scheme for Collected Data 34

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the thesis

The study of code-switching has been ubiquitous for over several decades and hasstill received a significant amount of attention from researchers universally now.Among major scholars working both intensively and extensively on the topic,Gumperz (1977; 1982), Poplack (1978; 1980; 1987), Myers-Scotton (1992; 1993;1995; 2002) and Muysken (2000) Milroy & Muysken (2012) are mostacknowledged and prolific authors to provide insights to the subject matter of code-switching from both structural and sociolinguistic approach Even though eachauthor has their different theories in defining and clarifying code-switching fromtheir ground approach, one universal truth is made clear: code-switching is apopular linguistic behavior occurring at either utterance level or at discourse level,towards which code-switching is familiarized with the term intra-sentential (whenthe switch is made within sentences) and inter-sentential level (when the switch isacross sentences)

On the one hand, there is the majority of studies on code-switching situations fromsociolinguistics (or ethnographic) descriptions On the other hand is the volume ofresearch conducted on grammatical analyses of code-switching to underlieuniversal rules, models and explanations of the patterns in the switch A morerecent branch emerging in studying code-switching is the pragmatic andconversation analytic approach in which most of the researchers attempt to identifythe meanings of this language alternation in conversations (Gardner-Chloros, p.10).Scholars from the first approach, typically Gumperz (1977), believes that theoutcome of language contact situations is determined by social and economicvariables, either due to the relative prestige of one variety as opposed to another orits association with a more powerful group (Gardner-Chloros & Gardner-Chloros,

2010, p.42) Advocates of the second approach also encounter various challenges inexplaining the phenomenon from a universally acute explanation Problems with

grammar are placed centrally in the universalness of grammar itself The thirdapproach sees the rise in the accountability for the social circumstances that affectthe form of the language alternation Affluent work by Muysken (2002) as well asother projects under this branch have looked at code-switching from furthersociolinguistic determinants, specifically from 1-conversational/pragmaticmotivations; 2- social psychological influences; and 3- gender preferences (2010,p.65) Each approach would step further in providing more practical evidenceproving that their theoretical frameworks work, and with that different streams ofresearch would emerge.

However different each author may follow in their approaches, one similarityremains unchanged, that is to highlight the importance of studying code-switching

as a linguistic behavior and a social phenomenon In addressing the significance ofthis increasingly controversial issue (Gardner-Chloros & Gardner-Chloros, 2010),each researcher apparently has their major claims and proposals While theprominent author of the 1970s - Gumperz (1977) asserts that understanding code-switching helps providing insights to understand the functioning of human signs incommunication, the social symbols in verbal interaction and the role of speechvariation in human groups (Gumperz, 1977, p.31), pioneer in grammatical approachPoplack suggests that “code-switching, rather than representing a debasement oflinguistic skill, is actually a sensitive indicator of bilingual ability” (1980, p.581).Others even do further research in order to acknowledge the ideological values ofthis bilingual behavior (Salzmann & Auer, 2000) Thus, Muysken (1995) stronglyadvocates that there are significant effects related to the characteristics of thecontributing varieties and the combination of more or less closely related languages– different pairings provide different opportunities and difficulties at a linguistic,and in particular at a syntactic level

Similarly, the study of webblogs, or blogging, or blogs, has welcomed variousopportunities for novice researchers and experienced scholars alike Webblog(blogs), a social media network, is the online platform and technology that peopleuse to build social networks by communicating with others via sharing experiences,

opinions, insights and perceptions Blogging as an online activity has beenincreasing exponential since mid-1999 and fueled by reports from the mainstreammedia of the grassroots power of blogs as alternative news sources (Huffaker &Calvert, 2006) Thus, blogs are well suited to serve as on-line personal journals.Pinkman (2005) [cited in (San, 2009, p.30)] indicates that blogging becomescommunicative and interactive when participants assume multiple roles in thewriting process, as writers who write and post, as readers/reviewers who respond toother writers’ posts, and as writer-readers who, returning to their own posts, react tocriticism of their own posts Although blogs can be placed in secured environments,readers in turn can comment on what they read The act of self-publishing in blogsencourages ownership and responsibility of the writers, who may be morethoughtful (in content and structure) if they know they are writing for a realaudience It is considered ideal to create blog as a means of studying, sharing orself-expressing Alternatively, following others’ personal pages would also be moreintriguing than creating one’s own Such cases are often in evidence when blogging

is by no means a new method of communicating among young people but a sharedcommunity where people of certain expertise write about topic-related issues.Beauty bloggers, in this sense, have emerged in a follow suit

Given the fact that the majority of blog entries by beauty bloggers are inVietnamese, English can be often seen at various points Blogs’ owners are often intheir mid-20s and early 30s, which associates with the fact that they were relativelyaround 1980s and 1990s-born – the time when English has already been introduced

to Vietnam as a mandatory subject, and students are required to study English fromearly ages Apparently, throughout their blog entries, the phenomenon of languagecontacting between English and Vietnamese does frequently occur This is thereason why the research aims at investigating the behavior of code-switching in thecontext of webblogs among Vietnamese beauty bloggers community

1.2 Aims and objectives

As within the small scale of a minor thesis in applied linguistics, the research isobviously incapable of covering a large scale of every single blog and blog entry inthe beauty community in Vietnam This study, however, focuses more on generallywell-received blogs generated by widely accepted beauty writers aged 25-35 (thequality of well-received is defined by the number of followers in each page –averagely 10,000 and above) Additionally, for the collecting data of the study to beconducted thoroughly, entries with the occurrence of code-switch rather thanrandomly chronological posts are chosen as the primary material for valid andreliable linguistic analysis

This minor study aims to discover Vietnamese-English switchingperformances available in blogs created by popular and well-followed beautybloggers in Vietnam In other words, typical patterns of structurally-engaged andsocially-motivated code-switching will be investigated Therefore, the study is toanswer the following question:

How is Vietnamese-English code-switching in blogs written by selected beauty bloggers presented?

In particular, two sub-questions derived from the research question are going

to be answered and explained:

(1) What linguistic patterns do the switches present?

(2) What functions do the switches serve?

1.3 Scope of the thesis

First, beauty bloggers community is a huge network consisting of mostly peopleaged between 25 and 35 with determined passion and enthusiasm in creatingconfident and fashionable look This community is millions worldwide, making it alarge society influencing both locally and internationally According to roughlymade statistics, the number of bloggers worldwide have reached around 500million, among which beauty bloggers should account for a large portion A beauty

blogger would often have their own channels on several different platforms, namelyFacebook, Instagram, Youtube, or Twitter, where they update brief updates, real-time status and images to followers and a personal blog page where written formsare done more thoroughly and intensively Within the scope of this study, onlywritten entries on personal webpage are employed for research and analysis Anyvlogs (or video blogs, another form of doing blogging through Youtube channel) orstatus updates (another form of written entries carried out primarily on Facebookand Instagram) would not be considered proper for the study, which might opendoors to various other studies.

Secondly, in Vietnam, beauty bloggers, sometimes are referred to as socialinfluencers or beauty gurus, are many in number This quantity may reach as high

as hundred people In order to secure the validity and reliability that the researchercan commit, a total number of five popular candidates is considered to be feasibleand more compatible

All in all, the main subject of this study is written journals/ entries on blog pagescompleted by bloggers in beauty industry with 10,000 followers or more Acollection of posts in which the alternation between Vietnamese and English occurswill be examined accordingly

1.4 Method of the thesis

The study intends to follow the approach of qualitative orientation with discussionsand explanations being the most significant part, centering around the purpose ofproviding insights into the issue Quantitative analysis, however, also plays anindispensable role in implementing such intention

To start with, due to the small scale of the research, the subjects are five beautybloggers (criteria for selecting these five would be thoroughly considered andillustrated in chapter 3) These beauty workers are from 20 to 35 years of age,having worked intensively in the field of writing and promoting beauty products for

a certain time period; and having a large number of followers on their fan page(mainly on their Facebook page, a popular social platform as mentioned

previously) Their written (not videos or Vlog) reviews on their pages will be thekey subject of the study These five beauty bloggers, first, would have agreed inadvance as to whether they are willing to allow their entries to be collected as datafor the research; and second, would be renamed for the ethical purpose of doingresearch.

As bloggers are as productive as they could in producing at least one entry perweek, the number of posts and entries would have reached hundreds, rendering it agreat amount of data for the feasibility of the study Thus, a collection of tenwritten texts involving code-switching from each author will be retrieved regardless

of their chronological order and length Topical theme for each entry is asdiversified as the blogger could go, which means providing that there existslanguage alternation in the entry, that entry would qualify for the data analysis.This would open more room for data collection and result discussion

All of the entries collected for the study were originally produced in the form ofpersonal journals, so another important step is to code the entries accordingly withthe authors This is to secure confidentiality for the blog owners This stage would

be followed by the analyzing process by using tokenization and pos-tagging tool tocategorize switches into major parts of speech, namely nouns, verbs, adjectives,and others Tabulated data will then be converted into charts for visual illustrationsand elaboration

Results will be presented with supplementary charts and illustrations, followed byin-depth analysis and discussion

1.5 Design and structure

This thesis is organized into the following chapters:

Chapter 1 introduces the background, the aims and scope, the research method and

structure of the study

Chapter 2 focuses on the literature review of different approaches to

code-switching and its closely related term code-mixing and borrowing in the context of

bilingual and multilingual community In this chapter, the researcher also provides

a broad picture of what has been researched regarding the topic of code-switchingand blogging in the academic setting

Chapter 3 presents the methodology issues including the subjects of the study and

the subject selection criteria, data collection procedures, and the data analysisprocess

Chapter 4 describes and discusses major findings involving the presentation of

Vietnamese-English code-switching in journal blogs for the purpose of promotingand reviewing beauty products and beauty tips Underlying social functions for theemployment of such language alternation method would also be presented andexplained accordingly

Chapter 5 delivers the conclusion for the thesis including summary of major

findings, the study’s significance, followed by implications and suggestions forfurther research studies in the same area

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter discusses in detail a review of the literature on the topic of switching The first section of the chapter is assigned to clarify several keydefinitions regarding language varieties, bilingualism, and the central term of code-switching in companion with its frequently-confused counterpart, borrowing Thesecond part, which is also the emphasis of the chapter, is dedicated to describingand explaining major theoretical frameworks about code-switching from bothstructural and sociolinguistic approaches, followed by the researcher’s commentand summary on which framework is applied for the study Last section of thechapter provides a more dimensional view on the picture of researching about CSfrom various contexts and purposes A concluding segment is then drawn uponprevious frameworks and studies to close the chapter

code-2.1 Definitions of Key Terms

As with any aspect of language contact phenomena, research on code-switching isflooded by the thorny issue of terminological confusion Apparently, not allresearchers use the same terms in the very same way as their approach varies, nor

do they agree on the scope covered by terms such as code-switching, code-mixing, borrowing, or lexical borrowing In particular, there has been the perceived

distinction between the terms code-switching and borrowing on the one hand andcode-switching and code-mixing on the other Several criteria have been proposed

to distinguish between these two pairs of concepts which will be illustrated in thelater part of this chapter Thus, before looking at them more closely in the nextsection, a consideration of the definitions of some basic terms in language contactwould be of immediate necessity

2.1.1 Code as Language Variety

The term varieties, as Wei Li (2013) puts it is a catch-all term which covers

different languages, dialects, accents, registers and styles speech (Wei, p.156) The

author of the book Applied Linguistics also stated that language varieties can be

grouped into written or spoken categories, standard or non-standard ones, or can bevarieties used for communication between people who do not share a mothertongue or varieties that develop between people who have no common language atall For this research, the term of language varieties is exactly what has statedabove

It is certain that the study of language alternation, or in this case is code-switching,

has been resourceful over the past several decades In one single search-click onacademic works related to the subject, there appear over 86,000 search results inthe database of <scholar.google.com> As (Nilep, 2006, p.2) has put it in hisoverview “the term code-switching has been based on a strict identification

between the notions of code and linguistics variety, be that a language, dialect,

style, or prosodic register.” This view was also agreed upon by other authors when

the term code is described as a relatively neutral conceptualization of a linguistic

variety

In short, the term code used in this research generally refers to a specific language

variety, which in this case are Vietnamese and English language

2.1.2 Code-switching

Many attempts have been made in settling a most agreed-upon definition for theterm of code-switching To name a few are Sridhar & Sridhar (1980), Poplack(1980), Gumperz (1982), Myers-Scotton (1993), Milroy and Muysken (2000),Gardner-Chloros (2010), and Bell, A (2014) The most general definition of code-switching is “the alternate use of two languages or linguistic varieties within thesame utterance or during the same conversation” (Hoffmann, 1991, p 110) Insociolinguistic branch, each dialect can be seen as a language code In thisperspective, code-switching is identified by Gardner-Chloros (2010) as “the use ofseveral language dialects in the same conversation or sentence by bilingual people”(p 4) Similarly, code-switching is used to refer to the phenomenon in which

“speakers switch backwards and forwards between distinct codes in their

repertoire” (Bell, 2014, p 111) This author also considered code-switching to be acomplex and skillful type of language choice, which involves the accomplishedhandling of two or more languages simultaneously – structurally, psychologicallyand socially By means of juxtaposition, i.e., elements of different languages putnext to each other, Gumperz (1982) defines conversational code-switching as “thejuxtaposition within the same speech exchange of passages of speech belonging totwo different systems or subsystems” (Gumperz, 1982, p 59) Muysken (2000)prefers using other terms, “insertion” and “alternation” to refer to the process ofmixing elements from different languages (p 1), whereas refers to code-switching

as “the rapid succession of several languages in a single speech event” Scotton (1993) believes that insertion is one form of borrowing, in which thedifference, if any, between mixing and borrowing is the size and type of theelement inserted Meanwhile, Poplack (1980) views alternation as the switching ofcodes between turns or utterances

Myers-This research adopted Poplack’s 2001 revisited definition of CS in her review on

the linguistic study of code-switching included in the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences as follow:

“the alternation, by bilinguals (or multilinguals), of two or more languages

in discourse, often with no change of interlocutor or topic And that suchalternation may take place at any level of linguistic structure, but itsoccurrence within the confines of a single sentence, constituent or evenword.”

(Poplack, 2001, p.2062)

2.1.3 Code-switching and Code-mixing

Code-switching (CS) and code-mixing (CM) are most important features and studied speech processes in multilingual communities A frequently madedistinction between code-switching and code-mixing has been conducted over andover through decades, though the line has been drawn in different ways Definitions

well-may vary, but both adopt the term “code” which was accepted by linguists from thefield of communication technology, referring to “a mechanism for the unambiguoustransduction of signals between systems”, similar to what switching of languagesignifies a system used by bilingual speaker-hearer in everyday communication.Therefore, term “code” is frequently used nowadays by the linguists as an

“umbrella term for languages, dialects, styles etc” (Gardner-Chloros, 2010, p.11)

In addressing these two terms, two popular schools of distinction have beendeveloped The first one viewed CS and CM from the involvement of linguisticfeatures Specifically, some reserved code-switching for cases where the two codesmaintain their monolingual characteristics and used code-mixing for those wherethere is some convergence between the two (Gardner-Chloros & Gardner-Chloros,

2010, pp 12–13) In other words, code-switch exists when there are no changes inthe linguistic units of any language varieties in the speech event Code-mix,however, requires the cases where lexical items and grammatical features from twolanguages appear in one sentence The second view was proposed by Sridhar andSridhar (1980) and Bokamba (1989) when they used code-mixing for alternationwithin the sentence and code-switching for alternations going beyond the sentenceborders

In terms of linguistic features preservation

Code-switching

maintains monolingualcharacteristics

Tớ thấy vô cùng confused với hướng

dẫn sử dụng mới của sản phẩm

Code-mixing

contains convergence oflinguistic units

Hướng dẫn sử dụng sản phẩm mới

thật quá hoang mang-ing.

In terms of sentential boundary features

Table 1 Distinction between code-switching and code-mixing

Since more recent work has not focused on differences between these two terms,this research will refer to the all the switching between languages (i.e., whether it

be within topics, paragraphs, sentences, etc.) as code-switching In other words, the

term code-switching (with a hyphen in between) will be used as an umbrella term in

the remainder of this paper to cover the phenomena of alternating between twolanguages or dialects of the same language within the same conversation

2.1.4 Code-switching and Borrowing

On the one end of the spectrum is Poplack (1980) with her argument that lone other-language items are fundamentally different from longer stretches of switches They proposed morphosyntactic and phonological integration of foreign words into

the recipient language as criteria for establishing the status of such single words

On the other end, other researchers (Bentahila & Davies, 1983; Myers-Scotton,1995), on the other hand, have chosen to deal with the problem by claiming that theperceived distinction between the two processes is not really critical to analyses ofbilingual speech ((Boztepe, 2002) Moreover, unlike the former, theyacknowledged single-word (i.e., insertions) and multiple-word (i.e., alternations)occurrences as two forms of CS, rather than as distinct processes to bedistinguished from each other

Table 2: Poplack’s (1980) Identification of Code-switching Based on the Type of

Integration into the Base Language

the bilingual Puerto Rican community in New York City (Poplack et al., 1988), sheproposed three types of criteria to determine the status of non-native material inbilingual utterances These include whether or not single lexical items from a donorlanguage in code-switched utterances were (1) phonologically, (2) morphologically,

and (3) syntactically integrated into what she called the base language She

identified four possible combinations of integration as shown in Table 1, which isoften referred to as the table for identification of code-switching In this table, theterm code-switching is as the language alternation between two language varieties,

or two codes

At the other end of the continuum are those who claim that assimilation may not

always be the defining criterion to distinguish borrowing from CS Myers-Scotton

(1992, 1995) rejects morphosyntactic integration as a basis for distinguishingbetween CS and borrowing because she sees them as universally related processessuch that both concepts are part of a single continuum She therefore argues that acategorical distinction between CS and borrowing need not be made, yet sheproposes frequency as the single best criterion to link borrowed forms more closelywith the recipient language mental lexicon She also disagrees that one of the majorcharacteristics of borrowed items is to fill lexical gaps in the recipient language.Instead, she argues that not all established borrowings actually occur due to theperceived absence of an equivalent term in the recipient language culture

Figure 1: The Continuum for Levels of Borrowing in Code-switching Utterances

(Poplack et al., 1987)

The important point in Myers-Scotton’s argument is that, unlike Poplack, she doesnot see CS and borrowing as two distinct processes, nor does she see such a

distinction to be critical Indeed, there seems to be very little reason to distinguishborrowing from code-switching for purposes of formulating grammaticalconstraints on the surface syntactic level After all, there are more similarities thandifferences between the two concepts This does not of course mean thatmorphological and syntactic integration are not reliable criteria to distinguish thetwo processes However, it may be impossible to systematically categorizeinstances of foreign elements as either CS or borrowing

All in all, this study is bound to follow the trend stating that efforts to distinguishcodeswitching, codemixing and borrowing are unnecessary, and that it is crucialthat we free ourselves of the need to categorize any instance of seemingly non-native material in language as a borrowing or a switch if we want to understand thesocial and cultural processes involved in CS

2.2 Literature on Code-Switching

Over the past decades, the study of code-switching, henceforth CS, or the alternateuse of two or more languages in conversation has developed in two distinct but

related directions: Structural and Sociolinguistic While the structural approach to

CS is primarily concerned with its grammatical aspects (Poplack, 1980; Sankoff,Poplack, & Linguistic Research, 1981; Bentahila & Myers-Scotton, 1995;

MacSwan, 2005), the sociolinguistic approach constructs their theories on attempts

to explain why bilingual speakers produce their utterances the way they do (Blom

& Gumperz, 1972; Nishimura, 1995; Salzmann & Auer, 2000) It should be noted

at the outset, however, that these approaches are not in contradiction, butcomplementary to each other (Nilep, 2006, p.2) The structural approach tries toidentify the structural features of morphosyntactic patterns underlying the grammar

of CS, whereas the sociolinguistic approach looks beyond formal interests, to thesocial and cultural functions and meanings of language use

Others, most prominently (Milroy and Muysken, 1995; Muyksen, 2000) seeks toexplain the phenomenon from a more pragmatic point of view In the scope of this

study, some of the major theories will be chronologically discussed with theirframework on how CS is built and developed.

2.2.1 Literature on Structural Approach

Myers-Scotton: Code-switching and the Matrix Language Model

2.2.2.1 Key terms

Matrix language

The second thing needing clarifying in Myers-Scotton theory is matrix languageand embedded language definition In identifying the matrix language (ML),Myers-Scotton proposed that ML is the language that projects the morphosyntacticframe for the utterance in question (1993, p.486) However, this is more operational

in terms of the ML Hypothesis and the Blocking Hypothesis, which will bediscussed later in this section In this sense, ML might be recognized as the firstlanguage of the speaker or the language in which the morphemes or words are morefrequently produced in speech Matrix language is also considered to be thelanguage that determines the syntax of a code-switching instance and its presence isobligatory in the instance In another summarizing report, the ML was originallydetermined by a quantitative criterion It was said to contribute the greater number

of morphemes in a discourse sample consisting of more than one sentence(Gardner-Chloros & Gardner-Chloros, 2010, p 101) After certain criticism andrevision, the ML is identified under the morpheme-type criterion in which the MLwas said to provide the function words, except within EL “islands”

Embedded language (EL)

The embedded language in the alternation of code-switching, on the other hand, can

be either one language variety or more This is identified as the code of a lesserdegree of contribution in the CS instance According to Myers-Scotton, EL helps tofulfill the code-switching instance in the formula of the MLF framework

2.2.1.2 The MLF model

Prior to Myers-Scotton, many researchers had tried to determine whether therewere structural constraints on the point in a sentence to which a switch might occur.The scholar herself and colleagues also developed a grammatical theory to state thestructural constraints for CS, which is called the Matrix Language Frame (MLF)model The following section is dedicated to explaining the major conceptsconstructed in this theory.

The three constituents’ classification

To start with, in assigning the participating languages as the MLF status, Scotton categorized intra-sentential code switching into the three different kinds ofconstituents:

Myers-(a) the Matrix Language island, which consists of only the ML; they show

internal structural dependency while meeting ML well-formednessconditions

(b) the Embedded Language island, which consists of only the EL; and must

meet EL well-formedness conditions

(c) the mixed ML+ EL constituent, which consists of items from ML and EL,

categorizing into two patterns: (1) a singly occurring lexeme from the ELembedded in any number of ML lexemes, or (2) an EL island (typically anoun + modifier) within a larger ML frame

(Myers-Scotton, 1993, p 486)

It should be noted that the first two are called “islands” because the codes are

strictly from one language while the third constituent is called “constituent” ratherthan “island” because the morphemes from two languages are mixed in onesegment

Myers-Scotton’s (1995) technical definition of CS captures the very aspect ofasymmetry: “CS is the selection by bilinguals or multilinguals of forms from anembedded language (or languages) in utterances of a matrix language during thesame conversation” (p.4) The central assumption behind Myers-Scotton’s model is

that code-switched utterances have an identifiable matrix language, and that there isalways an asymmetrical relationship between the ML and EL

2.2.2 Literature on Functional Approach

A Gumperz: Code-switching and Contextualization

John J Gumperz, in the field of sociocultural linguist, has been immenselyinfluential in the study of code switching His work on code switching andcontextualization in particular, has also been significant in the fields ofsociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and the sociology of language

As abovementioned, in defining code-switching (CS), Gumperz (1977)acknowledged the “juxtaposition of passages of speech belonging to two differentgrammatical systems or sub-systems, within the same exchange” (1977, p.1) In hisargument, the scholar asserted that the situation in which a speaker use code-switching is due to the fact he is inclined to reemphasize the message or response tohis partner in exchanging information The phenomenon occurs within a singlesentence of two distinct grammatical systems, but the messages remain clear andunderstandable to whosever receives the them

In his analysis, Gumperz tried to separate conversational code-switching from situational code-switching from his earlier work (1972) The latter one is

recognized when distinct varieties are employed in certain settings such as home,school, work, and is largely associated with separate bounded kinds of activities,namely public speaking, formal negotiations, special ceremonials, verbal games.This type of CS is also indicated by being spoken with different categories ofspeakers, ranging from friends, family members, strangers to social inferiors orgovernment officials (1977, p.3) One comment for this type of CS is that incarrying on the daily affairs, only one code is used at one time It is also noted that,

in some cases of situational alternation, passages in the two varieties may bepreceded by the other within a relatively short lifespan When such cases happen,norms of code selection tend to remain relatively stable In another remark, Blomand Gumperz (1972) in their co-written work with Hymes, posited that social

events, defined in terms of participants, setting, and topic, “restrict the selection oflinguistic variables” in a manner that is somewhat parallel to syntactic or semanticrestrictions That is, in particular social situations, some linguistic forms may bemore appropriate than others Among groups of men greeting each other inworkshops along the fjord (inlet), the variety of language used differed from thatused by teachers presenting text material in the public school, for example It isimportant to recognize that different social events may, for example, involve thesame participants in the same setting when the topic shifts Once again, this type ofshift, wherein a change in linguistic form represents a changed social setting,

situational switching

Conversational switching, however, as in the example of the professionals in

California, the items in the chunks form part of the same minimal speech act, andthe message elements are tied by syntactic and semantic relations which areidentical to those joining the passages (Gumperz, 1977, p.4) The implication here

is that the relationship of language usage to social context is much more complex.Rather than concerning with highly salient grammatical systems, Gumperz is moreconcerned with the communicative effect of what the speakers are saying Hepointed out that the social norms of rules which governs language usage may seem

to belong to grammatical rules on the surface, but under the tip of the iceberg, thespeakers presumably build on their own and the audience’s abstract understanding

of situational norms to communicate metaphoric information And that is how

Gumperz concludes the message is conveyed through CS

Since conversational code switching is not agreeable to intuitive methods, and notstrictly relatable to macro-sociological categories, Gumperz (1982) argued thatclose analysis of brief spoken exchanges is necessary to identify and describe thefunction of code switching On the basis of his analyses of several speech

communities, the scholar suggested a list of six code switching functions which

“holds across language situations” but is “by no means exhaustive”

Function 1: Quotation

Code-switched passages can be clearly identified as direct or indirect speech.

At some points, the switch can be in full quotation (Gumperz, 1977, p.14)

Function 2: Addressee Specification

Code-switched passages are performed to direct the message to one ofseveral possible addresses in the audience

Function 5: Message qualification

Code-switched passages are used in sentences where switches consist ofqualifying construction as sentences and verb complement or as predicates

Function 6: Personalization versus Objectivization

Code-switched passages occur when the code contrast relate to such thingsas: the distinction between talk about action and talk as action, the degree ofspeaker involvement in, or distance from, a message, whether a statementreflects personal opinion or knowledge, refers to specific instances orwhether it has the authority of generally known fact

Notably, Gumperz contributed a significant job in providing a list of functions forcode-switching in general, however, this fails to identify the relationship betweenforms and functions The list is helpful in understand the conversational purposes

of the alternation, but to understand why switching occurs as it does, furtheranalysis is required

B Myers-Scotton: Code-switching and the Markedness Model

Another affluent theory in the sociolinguistic approach, Myers-Scotton’s

Markedness Model is a heavily academic theory which arguably attempts to

incorporate the micro- and the macro- perspectives into CS research According toMyers-Scotton, [originally 1993, revised in Lipski & Myers-Scotton (1998)], eachlanguage in a multilingual community is associated with particular social roles,which she calls rights-and-obligations (RO) sets By speaking a particular language,

a participant signals her understanding of the current situation, and particularly herrelevant role within the context By using more than one language, speakers mayinitiate negotiation over relevant social roles Myers-Scotton assumed that speakersmust share, at least to some extent, an understanding of the social meanings of eachavailable code If no such norms existed, interlocutors would have no basis forunderstanding the significance of particular code choices (Nilep, 2006) Following

Grice’s (1975) cooperative principle, she formulated a negotiation principle as

underlying all code choices in bilingual speech, for which she claims universalityand predictive validity: “Choose the form of your conversation contribution suchthat it indexes the set of rights and obligations which you wish to be in forcebetween speaker and addressee for the current exchange” (1998, p.21)

The Markedness Model (MM) is based on the assumption that both speakers andanalysts are able to distinguish between marked and unmarked codes or choices.Myers-Scotton (1998, p.22) explained that all speakers have a ‘markednessevaluator’ which consists of a cognitive capacity to evaluate markedness In order

to be able to conceptualize markedness speakers need to develop two abilities:

(1) the ability to recognize that linguistic choices fall along amultidimensional continuum from more unmarked to more marked and thattheir ordering will vary, depending on the specific discourse type;

(2) the ability to comprehend that marked choices will receive differentreceptions from unmarked choices (Myers-Scotton, 1998)

Speakers acquire these abilities through contact with both marked and unmarkedcodes Consequently, speakers need to be exposed to the use of marked and

unmarked codes in community discourse in order to learn which codes are expected

to be used under which circumstances The markedness evaluator can be regarded

as an additional filter which occurs in between the structural constraints of the firstfilter and the rationality of the second filter (Myers-Scotton, 1998, p.34) In order to

be able to decide which code will have the best overall outcome in a particularsituation (second filter) a speaker must first know whether the code is marked orunmarked (markedness evaluator) MyersScotton also claims that the markednessevaluator further biases ‘the selection of alternatives from the initial, structurallydetermined opportunity set, this time in terms of ‘‘successes’’ or ‘‘failures’’ based

on the actor’s previous factual experience, facts previously categorized in anunconscious cost-benefit analysis’

In order to elaborate for the model, Myers-Scotton proposed several related maxims

to account for such switching phenomena In her article (Myers-Scotton, 1993),four maxims are proposed as below:

(a) The Sequential Unmarked Choice Maxim: Switch from one unmarked

code to another when situational features change during an interaction suchthat the unmarked choice changes

(b) The CS as an Unmarked Choice Maxim: Maintain a pattern of switching

between codes when the unmarked rights and obligations balance forparticipants is that indexed by both codes, not one alone

(c) The Marked Choice Maxim: Switch to a marked choice in order to

negotiate a different rights and obligations balance than the one indexed bythe unmarked choice

(d) The Exploratory Choice Maxim: In the less conventionalized exchanges

where an unmarked choice is not obvious, use CS to propose one or morecodes, each the unmarked index of a possible rights and obligations balancefor the interaction

(Myers-Scotton, 1993, p 480)

As in (b), as the author claimed, such CS happens in many bilingual communities,but by no means in all as a universal pattern While unmarked CS is reported tooccur when speakers have social profiles encompassing the identities associatedwith two languages, and have the desire to signal these identities, marked CS isbelieved to be negotiations to change the social distance Very often, marked CS isemployed as certain moves to increase social distance, expressing anger byinvoking the authority associated with the code to which the switch I made (1993,p.484).

Further example of marked and unmarked codes can be exemplified with Scotton’s [2002a: 209 in (Redinger, 2010, p 63)] analysis of code-switchingbetween English and Chichewa in a Malawi family living in the United States.Chichewa is identified as the parents’ unmarked code during home conversations as

Myers-it constMyers-itutes the most frequently spoken language by the parents Only 6 percent ofthe father’s and 7 percent of the mother’s utterances are English-only (Myers-Scotton, 2002b, p 210) Myers-Scotton (2002b) explains that this identification ofChichewa as the unmarked code based on simple frequency counts is supported bythe parents’ language attitudes, which were assessed in a follow-up interview Theparents described their conscious efforts to speak Chichewa at home with theirchildren in order to maintain their indigenous language The children, on the otherhand, largely speak English at home as approximately 70 percent of their utterancesare English-only The identification of English as the children’s unmarked code isnot only supported by these frequency counts but also by the children’s attitudestowards English as the language awarding them independence from their parentsHowever, both children switch to Chichewa at various points during familyconversations in order to fulfil temporary goals For example, during an argumentbetween the two children one of them addresses their father in Chichewa, thefather’s unmarked code and preferred language of communication, when seekingsupport from the father This temporary switch to the marked code constitutes anexample of a speaker abandoning their prior attitudes (i.e preference for English)

in order to achieve a temporary goal (i.e receiving support)

Although socio-psychological factors such as language attitudes and speakeridentity are incorporated in the Markedness Model, critics of this model argue thatthe Markedness Model is based on the assumption that all speakers have an innate

‘markedness evaluator’ which allows them to evaluate which codes are marked andunmarked in any given interaction Which means the Markedness Model requiresthe analyst to make assumptions about each individual speaker’s knowledge andunderstanding of the speech situation Code-switching is then explained on thebasis of the analyst’s assumptions about speakers’ internal states (including sharedjudgments about rights and obligations) rather than its effects on the conversation athand Further, he points out that empirical studies have failed to reveal the strongcorrelations between particular languages and speech activities that the MarkednessModel predicts (Redinger, p.65)

Both Myers Scotton’s Markedness Model and Gumperz’s distinction between ‘wecodes’ and ‘they codes’ in bilingual interactions form part of what Cashman [2008:

276 in (Redinger, 2010, p.64)] terms the ‘symbolic approach’ to languagealternation Symbolic approaches employ speakers’ macro-level identities in order

to explain language choices Macro-level identities are defined as the speaker’s

‘membership in social categories such as sex-based, racial or ethnic groups.Symbolic approaches are based on the idea that speakers exploit the socialconnotations attached to the various codes in order to make meaning in interaction.Researchers employing this alternative approach to codeswitching refrain frombasing any interpretations of multilingual language behavior on socio-psychological factors such as attitudes and identity or on theoretical constructs such

as rationality

2.2.3 The Thesis’s Theoretical Framework

It is without doubt each theory has expanded its significance on its own merits Inother words, each theory, whether structural, conversational analysis (CA), orsociolinguistic all has distinctive strength and weaknesses Some may focus heavily

on the linguistic features that seemingly ignorant of the contexts while others may

talk so majorly from CA perspective that may be unable to provide a universallygeneric structure Apparently, one theory cannot address and satisfy one behaviorentirely and universally As formerly discussed, there have been two majorapproaches, namely structural and sociolinguistic, to the study of CS universally:First framework is MLF by Myers-Scotton in relation to classifying the codes in thecode-switched behavior into three categories:

(a) the Matrix Language island, which consists of only the ML; they show

internal structural dependency while meeting ML well-formednessconditions

(b) the Embedded Language island, which consists of only the EL; and must

meet EL well-formedness conditions

(c) the mixed ML+ EL constituent, which consists of items from ML and EL,

categorizing into two patterns: (1) a singly occurring lexeme from the ELembedded in any number of ML lexemes, or (2) an EL island (typically anoun + modifier) within a larger ML morphosyntactic frame

In this theory, the researcher adapted the categories, but chose to analyze on the

lexeme or word level instead of the characteristics of morphosyntactic features

mentioned due to the nature difference of isolating and inflected languages betweenVietnamese and English

Second framework is Scotton’s Markedness model in terms of unmarked choices and Gumperz’s six groups of social functions, namely quotation, addressee specification, interjections, repetition, message qualification, and personalization.

2.3 Review on Related Studies

There have been innumerable studies on the subject of code-switching between thetwo languages or two language varieties (could be three or multi-languagesalternation) Within the small scope of this research, it would be difficult to discussthe essence of such a wide range of studies related to code-switch Several broadcontexts in which code-switching is frequently recorded in multilingual

communities may include daily situational settings, classroom setting, and socialnetwork establishment Thus, in this research, a review of the last group wasconducted to form a more direct link to the topic of the thesis statement.

2.3.1 Studies on Code-switching in Social Network Context

On the platform of electric-mediated writing, Halim & Maros (2014) conductedtheir research on code-switching on Facebook, a popular social site Their reason isthat many studies on code-switching over the past decades have focused on itsspoken context, but few on its written production And by investigating theoccurrence of CS on electric writing (which is on social network), the tworesearchers aimed to examine the code-switching functions performed by fiveMalay-English bilingual users in their Facebook interactions within one year fromstatus updates posted by the bilingual users on their Facebook wall As presented,this study primary purpose is on the functions of code-switching rather than how it

is formulated or the distinctive features of written CS, how CS in written text isdifferent from spoken recorded one

On another virtual platform, Kosoff, Z (2014) studies the use of code-switching inEgypt when Twitter users switch multilingually among Modern Standard Arabic(MSA), Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA), English, and Arabizi In the findings,among the selected Twitter users, Arabizi is less likely to be employed as it isconsidered to be a very informal writing system and is consequently associatedwith ECA, another considered-informal language On the contrary, MSA isreported to be acknowledged as a formal and traditional language of highereducation In other words, the results of the study showed that Twitter user’s tweetscan reflect the socioeconomic and educational background of the Twitter user’starget audience A shortcoming of the research is the small and indistinctive group

of participants, which in this case include a primary group of prominent activists,bloggers famous venues and restaurants, and other followers of the first initialgroup Again, this study helps to illustrate a snapshot in the use of code-switching

over social networking sphere, and such research is an essential contribution to thewhole bigger picture.

Still on the use of alternation in Arabic languages, Eldin (2014) conducted asociolinguistic study of code-switching among Arabic language speakers in socialnetworks His study attempted to examine the concept and functions of code-switching in electronic contexts as used by Arabic-English bilingual universitystudents in their Facebook interactions The study showed that participantsswitched codes for several reasons, such as showing solidarity with a social group,distinguishing themselves, participating in social encounters, discussing certaintopics, expressing feelings and affections, and impressing and persuading theaudience Eldin (p.82-83) outlines 10 reasons for code-switching: (1) lack offacility; (2) lack of registral competence; (3) mood of the speaker; (4) amplifyingand emphasizing a point; (5) habitual expressions; (6) semantic significance; (7)showing identity with a group; (8) addressing a different audience; (9) pragmaticreasons; and (10) attracting attention His finding corresponds to Blom andGumperz (1972) that code-switching requires speakers to be fully competent in thetwo languages In summarizing his report, Eldin points out that code-switching is anatural phenomenon that not only occurs in bilinguals’ speech, but also in theirelectronic discourse It can be concluded that code switching not only apparent inspoken discourse but also in online written discourse and the reasons for switchingcodes are similar to those of verbal communication (2014, p.85)

2.3.2 Studies on Blogs and Blogging

A blog (a contraction of the term ‘weblog’) is a web application which allows users

to compose and edit their posts at convenient time Before 2010, the number ofinternet users writing blogs in Vietnam was more than three million, accounting for31.7% of the whole population (Cimigo Netcitizens’ report, 2010) It is alsoreported that Vietnam is rapidly moving online, with the Internet penetration of49,063,762 people, accounting for 52% of the population (Internet Live Stats2016) The young generation seems to be the most active group, since 95% of the

population in the 15-24-year age group being counted as internet users (Evans2015) This number may have fallen over years after the emergence and rise topopularity of other social platforms such as Facebook or Instagram On thecontrary, writing more professional journals sharing knowledge and experienceabout beauty products, beauty routines or lifestyle has risen to attract moreattention in recent years While previously, people chose to write blogs for sharingpersonal stories and circumstances or viewpoints on topic of general interest, afterthe peak time, mainly blogs dealing with more expertise requirements remained Inaddition, 54% of Internet users have a habit of reading blogs and reviews when

looking for a needed product This is exceptionally true with beauty blogs

Blogging, the act of maintaining a weblog, is more preferred to diary-writing orbulletin-posting as the posts are listed in a reverse chronological sequence (Herring,

2005, p.142) As Blood (2002) suggested, blogs have a considerable number ofuses: at one end of the spectrum there is the personal blog, a vehicle for self-expression and self-empowerment as well as a record of an individual’s daily life,thoughts and feelings; at the other there is the corporate blog which is maintained

by an institution While Blood categorizes blogs into basically three types: filters,personal journals and notebooks, other authors have different approach to thegrouping For Herring et al (2005), blogs are a hybrid of genres; many blogs are acombination of public and private, personal and professional A personal blogcovers various kinds of linguistic activity (Crystal, 2006, p.242) It can be adiary/journal, or it can be used to catalogue creative writing In order to explain thewriting style used in personal blogs, Crystal (pp.243-4) indicated that the styleemployed in blogging lies between standard and non-standard English Hecomments that the language used in personal blogs (what he calls ‘free prose’) is akind of written language in its most naked form as there is completely no copy-editing undertaken in the writing process Thus, blogs are a new variety of writingwhich showcases linguistic peculiarity Furthermore, blogging can also be seen as anew medium through which adolescents present themselves, and it can particularly

be seen as a method for self-expression or a method of building peer group

relationships (all related to the construction of identity) (Huffaker and Calvert,2005).

Different from Blood (2002) or Crystal (2006), Krishnamurthy (2002) proposed aclassification of blogs into four basic types according to two dimensions: personal

vs topical, and individual vs community His schematic representation isreproduced as in the figure below where type 1 refers to online dairies or personaljournals; type 2 is related to support group; type 3 concerns enhanced column,which is another term for column of expertise; and type 4 is the collaborativecontent creation in which Metafilter is an example

Figure 2: Four different quadrants of blogs

From these observations that the blog as a form of mediated human expression andblogging as a human activity is of interest to academics from a variety of scientificdisciplines In this study, blogs serve as the medium to analyze and explain thelinguistic behavior of code-switching between Vietnamese and English languages

2.4 Summary

This chapter has served to provide insights into different frameworks constructed

by major authors and scholars in the research field of language contact and

bilingualism Among those, Myers-Scotton and Gumperz are the two key figures incontributing theoretical scaffold for this study By using Scotton’s MLF model forstructural analysis, Gumperz’s conversational situation and Markedness model forfunctional analysis of the switches

Another goal that has been achieved through the chapter is a brief review ofprevious research and studies to understandi the nature of code-switching indifferent contexts, from global cases to local situations, and from differentapproaches, structural, conversational analysis (CA) and socio-linguistic approach.Thanks to these grounding work, this research finds its immediate urge tounderstand CS in blogs which is a new and modern text genre rather thanconventional types

The final part in the chapter has proved blogging to be a resourceful channel forexamining the phenomenon of language alternation This means of communicationwill also provide researchers with data to study CS pattern and the linguisticcomponents or social motivation involving in the use of CS