Code—switching between Naxi and Han in Yulong Village

【Abstract：】 the present paper is going to make a brief analysis of code-switching between Han and Naxi in Yulong village. Based on former researchers’ work on code-switching， the present research will further dig up the reasons of code-switching between Han and Naxi. As for the purpose of the research， its ultimate goal is to get a relatively complete picture of code-switching in Yulong village. Its research data are from 9 villagers’ recording of daily spoken language and interview. The result of data analysis demonstrates that age， occasion and topic are the three most important reference variables that affect the frequency of code-switching.

【Key words】： code-switching， Naxi， Han， Yulong village

1.Research background and Motivations

In the Yulong village， the code-switching between Naxi and Han keep a long history. As a Naxi people in Yulong village， the writer wants to get a picture about language use in Yulong village， especially code-switching between Naxi and Han. Therefore， the explorer did the research. The research data of this paper are mainly from the recording of Naxi people’s daily spoken language in Yulong village and personal interview. Generally speaking， the spontaneous spoken language can demonstrate to what extent the code-switching happens. A relatively objective and scientific graph can be got through the analysis of the daily spoken language.

2.An introduction to code-switching

When it comes to code-switching， it is necessary to make a general definition of code-switching. Generally speaking the particular dialect or language that a person chooses to use on any occasion is called a code that is a system used for communication between two or more parties （Wardhaugh， 2000：99）. It is obvious that one particular code represents a unique communicative way for one person. In different occasions， one person would switch to different codes to gain good effects. That is to say， interlocutors switch to different codes with different motivations.

3.Language Use in Yulong village and Three Reference Variables

As mentioned above， Yulong village as an old Naxi settlement which has a long residential history. It is also such a place where Naxi language and culture are relatively well protected. Almost all the villagers are Naxi people except some are Han or Bai nationality who got married with native Naxi people. Over 90 percent villagers are farmers who did not have chance to get higher education. Most of them are not well-educated because they have to drop out at early age.

Their daily used language is Naxi. However， code-switching between Naxi and Han often happens. According to the recorded data collected during the summer holiday， code-switching between Han and Naxi happens in different occasions where different topics are discussed about by different age groups. Thus， three factors， namely， age of speakers， occasion and topic are three major reference variables for the research of code-switching between Han and Naxi in Yulong village because the three reference variables are closely related to the code-switching.

It is obvious according to the collected data that different topics means using different languages for Naxi people particularly for young Naxi people. After making a brief analysis， the writer found that young Naxi people tend to speak Chinese when they are talking about the topic closely related to politics， economy and personal emotions. That means while talking about some serious topics and personal emotions they will Code-switching as a special case of language use is not an easy phenomenon to research. Many factors should be carefully analyzed if to get a relatively complete picture of code-switching in Yulong village. Among them， age， occasion and topic are the most important variables which highly affect the frequency of code-switching. As for the fundamental reasons of code-switching between Naxi and Han in Yulong village will be analyzed in the next part.

4.Reasons of code-switching between Naxi and Han

Code-switching， as a common language use phenomenon， doesn’t emerge accidentally. It resulted from many different reasons. At first， code-switching gradually develops with the society moving forward. So historically speaking， code-switching keeps an intimate relationship with social development. Economy is the base of social and cultural phenomena. Language change therefore is deeply rooted in economical development and its developmental requirements. Generally speaking， education nowadays is directly related to language use and change， especially school education. School education and national educational programs can gradually change one speech community’s language structure. It can also be said that language change， including code-switching simultaneously arises from historical， economical and educational reasons. Accordingly， researching the reasons of code-switching in Yulong village can not escape from those three reasons.

5.Conclusion

Study is based on fieldwork done by the investigator during summer holiday in 2015. The recording material and interview are two main data sources. They can show to which extent the code-switching in Yulong village develops. Certainly， the study is not a complete one because there are still many limitations of the study. First， the research data are not enough and totally scientific. Second， research method is not so systematic. In point of code-switching in Yulong village， the writer can still do a lot. The paper just explored briefly three reference variables that affect the frequency of code-switching and then further revealed that historical， economical and educational reasons all together lead to the high frequency of code-switching between Han and Naxi in Yulong village.

Reference

[1]Dewaele， J.-M. and Wei， L. 2014. Attitudes towards Code-switching among Adult Mono-and Multilingual Language Users. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development， Vol. 35， No. 3， 235-251.

[2]Gal， S. 1988. The Political Economy of Code Choice. In M. Heller （ed.）， Code-switching： Sociolinguistic and anthropological perspectives. Berlin： Mouton de Gruyer， 245-265.

[3]Wardhaugh， R. 2002. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.