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- Title
"We just mix": code switching in as South African township.
- Authors
Finlayson, Rosalie; Slabbert, Sarah
- Abstract
This study concentrates on the interaction between languages with similar morphological and syntactic structures. It will show that code switching between morphosyntactically similar languages of equal social function has certain implications for the matrix language-frame model for code switching which has been developed by Myers-Scotton (1993b). The two languages under scrutiny here are Southern Sotho and Tswana, two very closely related and functionally equivalent languages spoken in South Africa. In certain contexts the speakers of these languages will switch frequently from the one language to the other. The paper will investigate how the matrix language in this multiple switching can be determined and whether the distinction between the matrix and the embedded language is still relevant in such a situation. Given the relatedness of the two languages, the implka- dons for the constraints which the matrix language-frame model proposes will also be examined. The paper concludes that in this case an interlanguage has developed which must be regarded as a merger between the two languages. This is particularly salient in the South African context since the harmonisation of the Sotho and Nguni languages respectively has been put forward as the Nhlapo-Alexander proposal (Alexander 1989).
- Subjects
SOUTH Africa; CODE switching (Linguistics); BILINGUALISM; LINGUISTICS; SOTHO language; TSWANA language
- Publication
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 1997, Vol 1997, Issue 125, p65
- ISSN
0165-2516
- Publication type
Article