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A corpus-based analysis of code-switching in the oral discourse of Shona-English bilinguals by Faith Chiedza Chapwanya A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree MA in Linguistics in the Department of Afrikaans at the UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Supervisor: Prof. H.J. Bosman August 2016 © University of Pretoria Declaration by candidate ‘I hereby declare that the dissertation submitted for the degree MA Linguistics, at the University of Pretoria, is my own work and has not previously been submitted to any other institution of higher education. I further declare that all sources cited or quoted are indicated and acknowledged by means of a comprehensive list of bibliography’. Faith C. Chapwanya August 2016 © Universityii o f Pretoria Acknowledgements My utmost gratitude goes to the following: • My husband Mike for his love, support and encouragement. Thank you for believing that I can conquer my fears and do more than I ever imagined. • My children Nyasha and Noku for their love and understanding. You keep me going boys. • My parents Edmon and Elizabeth Mufanebadza for imparting in me the value of education. • Special thanks to my supervisor, Professor Nerina Bosman for her guidance. Thank you for all the comments and feedback throughout this study. You have helped me broaden my horizons. • The financial assistance of the National Research Foundation (NRF) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are those of the author and are not necessarily to be attributed to the NRF. © Universityiii o f Pretoria Abstract Bilingualism is one of the by-products of globalization and migration. As people from different ethnicities come into contact, their languages will influence each other. People learn a second or third language in different environments leading to their linguistic proficiency levels being different. In conversations involving bilinguals, code-switching may be prevalent. This practise of alternating between two or more languages during a speech act has been of great interest to researchers with various models and hypotheses being proposed to explain it. Although code-switching has been studied extensively in literature, indigenous languages such as Shona have received less attention. This study aims to determine whether the markedness model of code-switching can be applied to Shona oral discourse (speech). An analysis is done to ascertain the nature, occurrence and characteristics of code-switching in the speech of Shona-English bilinguals. Participants who attended formal education for at least ten years were selected for the study. In order to inform on the theoretical background and on previous studies that dealt with code-switching, a literature review was conducted. The study used semi-structured interviews, a cloze test and recordings as data collection methods. Data was analysed to determine the applicability of the markedness model to the compiled corpus. Data analysis was also aided by WordSmith, (corpus analysis software). Results of the analysis seem to suggest that the markedness model can be applied to Shona-English code-switching. In addition, an analysis of the corpus using WordSmith showed frequently used English words and collocations and concordances of the code- switched words. An examination of the collocations and concordances shows the contexts in which the code-switched words appear. © Universityiv o f Pretoria Keywords Code-switching Markedness model Corpus Bilingualism Code-mixing Borrowing Nonce borrowing Translanguaging Multilingual discourse Maxim Collocation WordSmith © Universityv of Pretoria List of abbreviations A: Advanced O: Ordinary P: Participant R: Researcher Exam: Examination © Universityvi o f Pretoria List of acronyms ALLEX: African Languages Lexical project ALRI: African Languages Research Institute CS: Code-switching CM: Code-mixing M-S: Myers-Scotton LRMA: Language Resource Management Agency PanSALB: Pan South African Language Board OCP: Oxford Concordance Program TACT: Text Analysis Computing Tools BNC: British National Corpus ESFSLDB: European Science Foundation Second Language Databank © Universityvii of Pretoria Transcription conventions In transcribing recorded conversations, the following symbols were used based on Jefferson’s transcription conventions (2004). {LG}: Laughter {NS}: Background noise (e.g. banging of spoons, chairs moving) {BC}: Background conversation {BR}: Audible breathing sounds, sighs (.): Brief pause (. .): Longer pause lasting more than 3 seconds --: Person’s name or name of a place (( )): Inaudible {CG}: Coughing or grunting -: Incomplete word © Universityviii of Pretoria Table of Contents Declaration by candidate .............................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... iii Abstract ............................................................................................................................................. iv Keywords ............................................................................................................................................ v List of abbreviations ...................................................................................................................... vi List of acronyms ............................................................................................................................. vii Transcription conventions ........................................................................................................ viii Chapter 1 Overview .............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Introduction and background ..................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Languages of Zimbabwe ................................................................................................................ 1 1.3 Shona language ................................................................................................................................ 2 1.4 English use in Zimbabwean schools .......................................................................................... 3 1.5 A brief discussion about the Markedness Model .................................................................. 4 1.6 Problem statement ......................................................................................................................... 5 1.7 Motivation .......................................................................................................................................... 5 1.8 Assumptions ...................................................................................................................................... 6 1.9 Research Questions ......................................................................................................................... 6 1.10 Objectives of the study ................................................................................................................ 7 1.11 Arrangement of topics in this study ....................................................................................... 7 Chapter 2 Code-Switching: A theoretical o verview ................................................... 9 2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 9 2.2 A historical overview of code-switching ............................................................................... 10 2.2.1 Two main focal areas ............................................................................................................................. 10 2.2.2 Three main focal areas .......................................................................................................................... 11 2.2.3 Coining of the term code-switching ................................................................................................ 11 2.3 Early trends in code-switching research .............................................................................. 11 2.3.1 Blom and Gumperz’s contribution to code-switching ............................................................. 13 2.3.2 Criticism of Gumperz’s approach to code-switching ............................................................... 15 2.4 Definition of key concepts ......................................................................................................... 15 2.4.1 Code-switching and Code-mixing ..................................................................................................... 16 2.4.2 Why code-switching is difficult to characterize ......................................................................... 16 2.4.3 Intrasentential code-switching ......................................................................................................... 18 2.4.4 Intersentential code-switching ......................................................................................................... 20 2.4.5 Other terms proposed for code-switching ................................................................................... 21 2.4.6 Multilingual discourse ..........................................................................................................................