A Study on Code Switching and Transfer and WeChat

劉輝

【Abstract】It is sociolinguistics that is the important viewpoint to analysis WeChat. And this passage is going to introduce WeChat from code switching and transfer.

【Key words】WeChat； code switching and transfer

1. Introduction

WeChat as a newly sprouted thing is very popular and important phenomenon. This passage is going to analysis the WeChat from code switching and transfer

2. The Definition of code switching and transfer

For the definition of code switching and transfer， there is no uniform definition about it now. So this passage will adopt the definition of code switching and transfer made by Myera-Scotton. That is code switching and transfer is a kind of phenomenon that speakers can use two sorts or more linguistic variants at the same conversation. These codes dont need to own the similarity in voice. Switching code could be in different language， dialect or the different style of the same language. Switching and transfer could be in a sentence and also be among sentences even a word.

3.The Analysis to Phenomenon of Code Switching and Transfer in WeChat

Popla divided code switching and transfer into three kinds： code switching and transfer among sentences， code switching and transfer in a sentence and additional code switching and transfer. Through summarizing， some scholars found that code switching and transfer among sentences， code switching and transfer in a sentence are two types mainly exist in WeChat. In WeChat， the words embedded in a sentence mainly are nouns， verbs and adjectives. English is embedded language whose all sorts of morphological characteristics are abide by the Chinese grammar rules （Chinese as subject）.

Example1： code switching and transfer in a sentence

A： Thank you， honey！ 期待我們的下一次見面

B： My pleasure， sweetheart. 不見不散！

Example2： code switching and transfer of phrase

A： 她是一個a good student。

B： Yes， 她每天都do homework。

Example3： code switching and transfer of word

A： 我想吃Sandwich， Daddy！

B： Ok， 你可以自己去buy 一個。

4. The Analysis to The Reasons for Code Switching and Transfer in WeChat

The first one is to avoid vacancy of vocabulary. In different code systems， the volume of vocabulary is not always equal. Or communicators can not find the suitable words to express in their code library.

Example： A： Sorry， what is it？

B： It is 麻辣燙， would you like it ？

A： Ok. Thank you. Cucumber is 胡蘿卜， right？

B： No， Its 黃瓜， and 胡蘿卜is carrot.

In this example， A is a foreigner， and B is a Chinese. When A wants to know the name of a certain thing， B says the Chinese word“麻辣燙”cant be completely equal to any word in English. And if you want to explain it by saying its ingredients， you know it is very complicated. So ， it is Ok that B just need to speak out the Chinese name. From the standing of B， the Chinese words corresponding to “cucumber” is vacant in vocabulary library of foreigners， so B mistakes “cucumber” to be “胡蘿卜”. Then A corrects Bs error and fills up the vacancy by using code switching and transfer. In a word， this code switching and transfer meets others needs， which is a successful code switching and transfer.

In Wechat， there are many code switching and transfer in order to fill up vocabulary vacancy. People have to use code switching and transfer so as to communicate. But we need to consider whether other persons can accept and understand when we use code switching and transfer.

The second aspect is to avoid ambiguity of meaning. In Chinese， some words maybe contain more than one meaning. At this time， we need to use another code to express concrete meaning by code switching and transfer to avoid ambiguity and increase amusement.

Example ：

A： 出去吃飯了，bye-bye

B： 哎喲喂，出去約會啊？

A： 和girlfriend， 不是boyfriend。

In example， A is very excited for having dinner， and this behavior cause B mistakes that A is going to have a date. “girlfriend” said by A denies straightly the Bs saying. A just has a date with a common friend. By this way， we can avoid ambiguity. Compared with Chinese， this saying is more euphemistic.

Conclusion

we can analysis Wechat from many aspects of sociolinguistics， but from code switching and transfer is the most important and significant one， there are some deficiencies.

References：

[1]J.C.Peter Auer.A conversational analytic approach to code-switching and transfer[A].LiWei.The Bilingualism Reader[C].London and NewYork：Routledge，2000.

[2]Ralph Fasold.The Sociolinguistics of Language[M].Blackwell Publishers Ltd Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2000.

[3]何自然.于國棟語碼轉換研究[J].現代外語，2000.