Walte, I: The use of code-switching, code-mixing and accomod

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,3, University of Hannover, 14 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Today, globalisation, the mass media and new technical innovations rule our modern world. All these factors include many foreign names which make it obligatory and important to be capable of English.Social and technological changes are factors which favour bilingualism. In some cases, the acquisition of English already starts in Kindergarten. Children learn a second language and are aware, in the best case, of two languages afterwards. Bilingualism is also the result of the increasing number of parents who have different backgrounds and thus speak different languages. Children grow up bilingually and consequently they can switch without any problems from one to the other language. Mainly, both systems are fully known to bilingual speakers as Meeuwis and Blommaert (1998) claim. But which actions make bilinguals switch from one language to the other? It is argued that code-switching does not occur arbitrarily. Auer says that "reported speech, a change of the interlocutor, side-comments, a new topic etc., may lead to a change of language" (Auer, 1998: 120). Thus, many factors like the setting, the interlocutor, the social circumstances or the topic play an important role when choosing the code. Besides, using a code serves to express something. You can show solidarity or refusal, social integrity or distance, intimacy or coldness via certain codes. As we can see, the choice of a code depends on many different factors and sometimes it is important to be aware which code to choose because every choice carries meaning and is interpreted by the interlocutors.In the following paper I will try to examine the phenomenon of code- switching with regard to the spin-offs Speech Accommodation Theory and code-mixing. In the second part of my paper I will attempt to analyse the