A Case Study of Code Switching in Trilingual Conversations

Abstract

In this paper, the codeswitching patterns in two trilingual conversations between two brothers, conducted in Punjabi, Urdu, and, and English, have been analyzed. Quantitative and qualitative  analysis of code switching in both speakers shows that not only the two subjects are fluent in all three languages, but the use of switching is significantly similar in both brothers across a number of features, including relative frequency of different switch types, and the incidence of hybrid constructions involving items from two languages. The subjects appear to display qualitatively similar patterns of intra-sentential and extra-sentential codeswitching in the trilingual mode. Similarities in patterns of trilingual codeswitching and the language combinations, used by the two brothers, were found due to the same linguistic, social and cultural background of the speakers.

Keywords: Code switching, Code mixing, Multilingual communication, Conversation analysis, Communicative competence, Lexical convergence, Discourse strategies