Bilingualism and Code-Switching

Bilingualism is the ability to use two languages effectively. Monolingualism refers to the ability to use a single language. The ability to use multiple languages is known as Multilingualism. * Bilingual or multilingual is a person who can speak two or more than two languages with equal or less equal proficiency. * A society is called bilingual or multilingual if the people there speak more than one language. About half of the world's population is multi / bilingual. It is, in fact, very hard to find a monolingual community or society like Japan etc. While talking about sub continent in general and specially Pakistan we come to know that we are a multilingual community. We use Urdu as a medium of communication in our schools and colleges. Further it also serves as ‘lingua franca’ in our country. We use domestic languages at local level such as Punjabi, Hindko, Barahwi, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi, Saraiki, Kashmiri etc. and we use English also as a foreign language. People of Pakistan are bilingual / trilingual or generally multilingual. * If a speaker has equal proficiency in both or all the languages he can speak or write, he is called a ‘Balanced Bilingual’ or ‘Equilingual’. However, there may be some situations where a bilingual's abilities in a given language suffer due to pressure of situation etc. There may also be a situation of more receptive knowledge of one language and more active knowledge of another i.e.he may understand a language but may not speak it and he may speak and understand other language very well. There are also some situations in which a bilingual is familiar with the spoken system of one language and written system of another. There may also be a diglossic situation in which some topics and situations are considered better suited to one language over another. In a community or a society where there are bilinguals and the people interact with each other in more than one language, a situation arises which is called ‘code-switching’ and ‘code-mixing’. This situation can lead towards the language interference in which a language is influenced by another language on the levels of semantics, grammar and phonology. CODE-SWITCHING (CS)

The practice of moving back and forth between two languages or between two dialects or registers of the same language. Code switching occurs far more often in conversation than in writing. In linguistics, code-switching is the concurrent use of more than one language, or language variety, in conversation. Multilinguals—people who speak more than one language—sometimes use elements of multiple languages in conversing with each other. Thus, code-switching is the use of more than one linguistic variety in a manner consistent with the syntax and phonology of each variety. Code-switching is distinct from other language contact phenomena, such as ‘pidgin’. Speakers form and establish a pidgin language when two or more speakers who do not speak a common language form an intermediate, third language. On the other hand, speakers practice code-switching when they are each fluent in both language. Difference Between Code-Switching And Code-Mixing It is necessary to understand that unlike code mixing, code-switching refers to the switch or shift from one language to the other which involves longer stretches or units of language at the clause or sentence boundary, while generally code-mixing does not involve shift beyond smaller units of language such as words or phrases.

While discussing the three types of code-switching: tag-switching, intra-sentential and inter-sentential, Poplack differentiates between code-switching and code-mixing as well. To Poplack, 1. Tag-switching is the switching of either a tag phrase or a word, or both, from one language to the other. 2. In inter-sentential switching a switch is made on clause or sentence boundary, or between speaker’s turn. 3. Intra-sentential switching on the other hand occurs within the clause or sentence boundary as a result of the insertion of a part of a word, a word, a combination of words or a phrase. It is actually this type of code-switching i.e. intra-sentential code switching which is called ‘code-mixing’. Scholars have used a fourth term ‘Intra-word switching’ which occurs within a word itself such as at a morpheme boundary. So, code-mixing is a type of code switching which include the borrowing and hybridization of words, while code-switching refers to all these i.e. borrowing, code-mixing and code-switching. In the 1940s and the 1950s many scholars called code-switching a sub-standard language usage. Since the 1980s, however, most scholars have recognized it is a normal, natural product of bilingual and multilingual language use.