CODE MIXING AND CODE SWITCHING AMONG MARKET WOMEN IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF ILORIN KWARA STATE)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Code-switching and code-mixing are popular characteristics in the speech pattern of the average bilingual in any human society the world over especially in
the African society. The first contains the definition of concepts. It is in the second that the previous investigations of scholars on code-switching and codemixing
are examined. The entire procedure for the current research constitutes the third section, while the fourth one contains the conclusion in which the afore-mentioned implication is explicitly stated. Code-switching is a linguistic behaviour that arises as a result of languages coming into contact with each other and the need for individuals to effectively
communicate. Generally, it simply means mixing of words, phrases or smaller units of one language into the structure of another language in other to effectively
communicate. Hymes (1962) defines code-switching as a common term for alternative use of two or more languages, varieties of a language or even speech styles. Code-switching which is oen times referred to as ‘code-mixing’, ‘code-shining’ or ‘code-changing’ has also been defined as the act of “alternation of two languages within a single discourse, sentence or constituent” (Poplack, 2008) While Bokamba (2009) defines code mixing and shiing
as the mixing of words, phrases and sentences from two distinct grammatical (sub) systems across sentence boundaries within the same speech event… codemixing is the embedding of various linguistic units such as aixes (bound morphemes), words (unbound morphemes), phrases and clauses from a cooperative activity where the participants, in order to infer what is intended, must reconcile what they hear with what they understand. Other phenomena that could result from languages being exposed to one another are bilingualism, borrowing, pidginization and creolization. However, some people have used the term ‘code-switching’ and ‘code-mixing’ to distinguish two types of alternation in the use of two languages. Code-switching is said to be the alternate use of
sentences from two languages in a single discourse, while code- mixing refers to the alternate use of constituents from two languages within a sentence.
