SOCIOLINGUISTIC: CHOOSING A CODE “BILINGUALISM, MULTILINGUALISM AND CODE CHOICES”

A.    BILLINGUALISM

Bilingualism is about the use of two language or two language code. Monolingualism, that is the ability to use but a single language code, such a widely accepted norm in so many parts of the western world that is often assumed to be a worldwide phenomenon, to the extent the bilingual and multilingual individual may appear to be unusual. Indeed, we often mixed feeling when we discover that someone meet is fluent in several languages.

Bloomfield in his book Language (1933:56) said that bilingualism is the ability of the speaker to use 2 language with the same ability. So, according to Bloomfield someone is bilingual if he/she can use the two language with the same ability. But this statement is quite controversial. Firstly, how we can measure the speaker’s ability to the two language he/she uses. Secondly, is there speaker who can use the two language with the same ability, if yes, it will be very rare to find.

Diebold (1968:10) said that the presence of bilingualism at the beginning of the bilingualism rate experienced by the people, especially children who are learning a second language in the early stages. At this stage it is still very simple bilingualism and the low level. But can not be ignored because at this stage of the base located next bilingualism.

From the above discussion can be summed up as an answer to the first question that the definition of bilingualism is a range of tiered finally began to master the language well plus the first few will know a second language, second language acquisition followed by a tiered rose to second language acquisition as well as mastery first language. If bilingualism is up at this stage it means that bilingual speakers will be able to use the first language and second language as well, for the function and any situation and anywhere. A bilingual who can use both languages ​​equally well with a first language, by Halliday (in Fishman 1968:141) called ambilingual; by Oksaar (in Sebeok 1972:481) called ekuilingual; and by Diebold (in Hymes 1964:496) referred to the coordinates bilingual.

In many parts of the world an ability to speak more than one language is not at all remarkable. In fact, a monolingual individual would be regarded as a misfit, lacking an important skill in society, the skill of being able to interact freely with the speakers of other language with whom regular contact is made in the ordinary business of living. In many parts of the world it is just a normal requirement of daily living that people speak several languages. These various languages are usually acquired naturally and unself-consciously and the shifts from one to another are made without hesitation. 

             We might also say that certain attempts to distinguish people who are bilingual from those who are bidialectal may fail. There may be some doubt that very many people are actually be- or even multi-dialectal. They may speak varieties which are distinctly different, but whether each separate variety is genuinely a dialect variety depends on how one defines dialect, which in not at all an easy matter to decide. In some case, then, the bilingual bidialectal distinction that speakers make reflect social, cultural, and political aspirations or realities rather than linguistic reality.

In many parts of the world people speak a number languages and individuals may not be aware of how many different languages they speak. They speak them because they need to do in order to live their lives. In such situations language learning comes naturally and it is unforced. Bilingualism or multilingualism is not at all remarkable.

The choice of languages depends on a variety of factors: location (city or country), formality, sex, status, intimacy, seriousness, and type of activity. The choice of one code rather than the other is obviously related to the situation.

B.    MULTILINGUALISM

A bilingual or multilingual, situation can produce still other effects on one or more of the language involved. It can lead the loss, e.g., language loss among immigrants. But sometimes it leads to diffusion; that is certain features apparently spread from one language to the other (or others) as a result of the bilingual situation, particular certain kinds of syntactic features.

Multilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of globalization and cultural openness.

An interesting example of multilingualism exist among the Tukano of the Northwest Amazon, on the border between Colombia and Brazil (Sorensen, 1971). The Tukano are a multilingual people because men just marry outside their language group; that is no man may have a wife who speaks his language, for that kind of marriage relationship is not permitted and would be viewed as a kind of incest. Men choose the women they marry from various neighboring tribes who speak other language. Consequently, in any village several languages are used: the language of the men; the various languages spoken by women who originate from different neighboring tribes; and a wide tread regional ‘trade’ language. Children are born into this multilingual environment: the child’s father speaks one language, the child’s mother another, and other women with whom the child has daily contact perhaps still other.

Multilingual Individuals

A multilingual person, in a broad definition, is one who can communicate in more than one language, be it actively (through speaking, writing, or signing) or passively (through listening, reading, or perceiving). More specifically, the terms bilingual and trilingual are used to describe comparable situations in which two or three languages are involved. A multilingual person is generally referred to as a polyglot. Poly (Greek: πολύς) means "many", glot (Greek: γλώττα) means "language".

Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood, the so-called first language (L1). The first language (sometimes also referred to as the mother tongue) is acquired without formal education, by mechanisms heavily disputed. Children acquiring two languages in this way are called simultaneous bilinguals. Even in the case of simultaneous bilinguals one language usually dominates over the other.

A further possibility is that a child may become naturally trilingual by having a mother and father with separate languages being brought up in a third language environment. An example of this may be an English-speaking father married to a Mandarin Chinese speaking mother with the family living in Hong Kong, where the community language (and primary language of education) is Cantonese. If the child goes to a Cantonese medium school from a young age, then trilingualism will result.

In linguistics, first language acquisition is closely related to the concept of a "native speaker". According to a view widely held by linguists, a native speaker of a given language has in some respects a level of skill which a second (or subsequent) language learner can hardly reliably accomplish. Consequently, descriptive empirical studies of languages are usually carried out using only native speakers as informants. This view is, however, slightly problematic, particularly as many non-native speakers demonstrably not only successfully engage with and in their non-native language societies, but in fact may become culturally and even linguistically important contributors (as, for example, writers, politicians and performing artists) in their non-native language. In recent years, linguistic research has focused attention on the use of widely known world languages such as English as lingua franca, or the shared common language of professional and commercial communities. In lingua franca situations, most speakers of the common language are functionally multilingual.

Multilingualism between different language speakers

Whenever two people meet, negotiations take place. If they want to express solidarity and sympathy, they tend to seek common features in their behavior. If speakers wish to express distance towards or even dislike of the person they are speaking to, the reverse is true, and differences are sought. This mechanism also extends to language, as described in the Communication Accommodation Theory.

Some multilinguals use code-switching, a term that describes the process of 'swapping' between languages. In many cases, code-switching is motivated by the wish to express loyalty to more than one cultural group[citation needed], as holds for many immigrant communities in the New World. Code-switching may also function as a strategy where proficiency is lacking. Such strategies are common if the vocabulary of one of the languages is not very elaborated for certain fields, or if the speakers have not developed proficiency in certain lexical domains, as in the case of immigrant languages.

This code-switching appears in many forms. If a speaker has a positive attitude towards both languages and towards code-switching, many switches can be found, even within the same sentence.[18] If, however, the speaker is reluctant to use code-switching, as in the case of a lack of proficiency, he might knowingly or unknowingly try to camouflage his attempt by converting elements of one language into elements of the other language through calquing. This results in speakers using words like courrier noir (literally mail that is black) in French, instead of the proper word for blackmail, chantage.

Sometimes a pidgin language may develop. A pidgin language is basically a fusion of two languages, which is mutually understandable for both speakers. Some pidgin languages develop into real languages (such as papiamento at Curaçao) while other remain as slangs or jargons (such as Helsinki slang, which is more or less mutually intelligible both in Finnish and Swedish). In other cases, prolonged influence of languages on each other may have the effect of changing one or both to the point where it may be considered that a new language is born. For example, many linguists believe that the Occitan language and the Catalan language were formed because a population speaking a single Occitano-Romance language was divided into political spheres of influence of France and Spain, respectively. The Ukrainian language is considered distinct from Russian partly due to a large number of borrowings from the Polish language in the vocabulary of the former, and borrowings from Turkic languages in the latter. Yiddish language is a complex blend of Old German with Hebrew and borrowings from Slavic languages.

Bilingual interaction can even take place without the speakers switching. In certain areas, it is not uncommon for speakers each to use a different language within the same conversation. This phenomenon is found, amongst other places, in Scandinavia. Most speakers of Swedish and Norwegian, and Norwegian and Danish, can communicate with each other speaking their respective languages, while few can speak both (people used to these situations often adjust their language, avoiding words that are not found in the other language or that can be misunderstood). Using different languages is usually called non-convergent discourse, a term introduced by the Dutch linguist Reitze Jonkman. To a certain extent this situation also exists between Dutch and Afrikaans, although everyday contact is fairly rare because of the distance between the two respective communities. The phenomenon is also found in Argentina, where Spanish and Italian are both widely spoken, even leading to cases where a child with a Spanish and an Italian parent grows up fully bilingual, with both parents speaking only their own language yet knowing the other. Another example is the former state of Czechoslovakia, where two languages (Czech and Slovak) were in common use. Most Czechs and Slovaks understand both languages, although they would use only one of them (their respective mother tongue) when speaking. For example, in Czechoslovakia it was common to hear two people talking on television each speaking a different language without any difficulty understanding each other. This bilinguality still exists nowadays, although it has started to deteriorate after Czechoslovakia split up

C.    CODE CHOICES

CODE SWITCHING

The term codeswitching (or code-switching) refers to the alternation between two or more languages, dialects, or language registers in the course of discourse between people who have more than one language in common. Typically one of the two languages is dominant; the major language is often called the matrix language, while the minor language is the embedded language.

·        (Code-switching) "occurs when a bilingual introduces a completely unassimilated word from another language into his speech." (Haugen 1956:40)

·        "Codeswitching ... is the selection by bilinguals or multilinguals of forms from an embedded variety (or varieties) in utterances of a matrix variety during the same conversation" (Myers-Scotton 1993:3).

As we know that people know two languages are the first language(mother tongue) and the second language. So from this case sometimes people combine these languages in their communication. So in this problem they have used code switching.

There are some experts have given definition about code switching. Some of them are

·       Appel ( 1976 : 76) code switching” the changing of the using language because of tthe changing of situation”

·       Hymes (1875: 103)state that code switching is not happen between language but also can happen between variety or styles in the any language. On generally Hymes state that “Code switching has become a common term for alternate us of two or more language, varieties of language, or even speech styles”

     Studies of the social motivations for code-switching, such as those discussed above, have demonstrated the following :

·       Bilingual code switching is meaningful. it fulfils certain  function of an interaction

·       A speaker choice of language has to to do with maintaining or negotiating a certain type of social identity in relation to other; code switching between language allow speaker access to different social identities.

·       Particular switches may be meaningful

·       Code switching may switching maybe unmarked, or expected choice, or a marked or unexpected choice:  in this manner it may function as an attempt to initiate a change to relationships.

·       Code switching is useful in cases of uncertainty about relationship; it allows speaker to  feel their way and negotiate identities in relation to other.

Reasons for code switching

Reason for code switching are:

1.     Speaker

2.     Listener

3.     Situation change because of third person

4.     Change from formal to informal or

5.     Change of discussion topic

CODE MIXING

Code mixing also called intra-sentential code switching or intra-sentential code-alternation occurs when speakers use two or more languages below clause level within one social situation. Muysken (2000) defines three types of code mixing: insertion, alternation, and congruent lexicalization. In his view, insertion occurs when lexical items from one language are incorporated into another. The notion of insertion, according to Muysken (2000), corresponds to what Clyne (1991) terms as “transference” and Myer-Scotton as “embedding”.

Equating in this instance code of language, there are two kinds of code-switching: situational and metaphorical. Situational code-switching occurs when the languages used change according to the situations in which the conversant find themselves: they speak one language in one situation and another in a different one. No topic change is involved. When a change of topic requires a change in the language used we have metaphorical code-switching. In this point, some topics may be discussed in either code, but the choice of code adds a distinct flavor to what is said about the topic. The choice encodes certain social values. Code-switching is often quite subconscious: people may not be aware that they have switched or be able to report following a conversation which code they used for a particular topic. Code-mixing occurs when conversant use both languages together to the extent that they change from one language to the other in the course of a single utterance.

            Metaphorical code-switching has an affective dimension to it: you change the code as you redefine the situation – formal to informal, official to personal, serious to humorous, and politeness to solidarity.

Example of code switching English/Spanish

A: The picture looks so cool.

B: Which picture?

A: The one you have in your messenger.

B: Ah…Si, me gusto mucho. (Ah…Yes, I liked it a lot.)

            Conversational code-mixing involves the deliberate mixing of the language without an associated topic change. Pfaff (1979) provides the following examples of conversational code-mixing among Spanish and English bilinguals:

§  No van a bring it up in the meeting

‘They are not going to bring it up in the meeting’

§  Todos los Mexicanos were riled up.

‘All the Mexicans were riled up’

Example of code-mixing in English/Indonesian

§  I mean, ganti ke kalimat laen.

‘I mean, change it to another sentence’

            Such conversational code-mixing is often used by bilinguals, primarily as a solidarity marker. A speaker who mixes codes in this way in conversation with a friend or acquaintance will almost certainly shift entirely to English when addressing a monolingual English-speaking person or entirely to Spanish when addressing a complete stranger who is obviously of Spanish origin.

            Conversational code-mixing is not just a haphazard mixing of two languages brought about by laziness or ignorance or some combination of these. Rather, it requires conversant to have a sophisticated knowledge of both languages and to be acutely aware of community norms. These norms require that both languages be used in this way so that conversant can show their familiarity or solidarity.

            Gumperz’s analysis of both choice of language and type of code-switching and code-mixing in the community reveals that the situation is quite complex because of the number of possibilities that are available with the ‘right’ choice highly depend on the social context and intend of the speaker like which occurs in Slovenian. Gumperz add that “each communicating subgroup tends to establish its own conventions with respect to both borrowing and code-switching, and that factors such as region of origin, local residence, social class, and occupational niche are involved in defining the norms.

            Many other investigators have report results which clearly indicate the listeners partly judge what is said by the code the speaker choose to use. Certain codes are deemed more appropriate for certain messages than other codes. Code and message are inseparable. Consequently, when a choice between code exist, you must exercise that choice with great care since it can affect what happen to the message you wish to communicate.

            The code we choose to use on a particular occasion is likely to indicate how we wish to be viewed by others. If we can comfortably control a number of codes, then we would seem to have an advantage over those who lack such control. Speaking several of the languages can obviously be distinctly advantageous in a multilingual gathering. Code-switching may be a very useful social skill. The converse of this, of course is that we will be judged by the code we choose to employ on a particular occasion.

Some form of mixed code,

1.     insertion of the word, for example, “Ok. Kalian ujian minggu depan.”

2.     Insertion of phrase, for example, “ Ini namanya reading skill.

3.     insertion of word repetition, for example, “ada banyak souvenir-souvenir dari Cina”

4.     insertion of idioms, for example, “makanya jadi orang itu don’t judge book by the cover”

5.     insertion shape baster (native and foreign joint formation). for example, “saya menunggu transferan uang dari orang tua saya.”

Code - Switching and Code – Mixing

Living in a bilingual (or multilingual) community forces people to be able to speak in at least two different languages. I will take Javanese as a case in point. Javanese people can speak Javanese, their mother tongue, and Indonesian as their secondary or national language at a minimum. It is possible to find them speaking foreign languages too. As people have to speak different languages (or follow different speech levels; i.e. ngoko or krama in Javanese language) for different reasons, the so-called linguistic phenomena of code switching (you call it "alih kode" in Indonesian) and code mixing (campur kode) will inevitably occur.

•                 Most speakers command several varieties of any language they speak. People are usually required to select a particular code whenever they choose to speak, and they may also decide to switch from one code to another or to mix codes.

As for code mixing, it occurs when you incorporate small units (words or short phrases) from one language to another one. It is often unintentional and is often in word level. You probably say or hear someone saying something like "jangan suka nge-judge gitu dong. orang kan beda-beda" (note that "judge" is the English word inserted in the Indonesian utterance). You can see that in code mixing, you don't alternate the whole sentence, but you only use one word or two. This often happens unintetionally. Sometimes you have a bunch of lexicons that get jumbled in your brain, and you often use more than one languages.

·       The difference between code switching and code mixing. When you change language intentionally and you do it because of specific purposes (e.g. the presence of third person that does not share the same language, or the change of topic or situation), in other word the switch is functional, that means you code-switch. When you insert a piece of word other than that of your language, and you have no specific purpose or intention when doing that, that means you code-mix.

Copyright 2005 Steven David Bloomberg questions.steve@verizon.net

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