HINDUSTANI-ENGLISH CODE-MIXING IN MODERN LITERARY TEXTS

Mohammad Siddiqi

Ph.D. Dissertation, 1994

Abstract

This study of Hindustani-English code-mixing has the following objectives: (i) to empirically determine the scope and range of Hindustani-English code-mixing in modern literary texts, (ii) to determine the linguistic status of Hindustani-English mixed-code, and (iii) to map the relationship between Hindustani-English code-mixing and the linguistic identity of its users. Chapter 1 highlights the general trends of the studies on form and function of code-mixing and is followed by a detailed discussion of the literature on Hindustani-English code-mixing. It also outlines the goals of this study. Chapter 2 discusses the methodology followed in the study. It also justifies the importance of using literary data to analyze and explain Hindustani-English code-mixing in general. Chapter 3 addresses the issue of linguistic status of Hindustani-English mixed code. For the first time a distinction between linguistic code and sociolinguistic code is proposed and it is shown that Hindustani-English mixed code is a linguistic code and not a sociolinguistic code. The categorization of Hindustani-English mixed code as an independent code is also justified in this chapter. The well known distinction between coordinate and compound bilinguals is extended further and the dichotomy itself is shown to follow from two distinct types of identity of bilinguals. It has also been claimed that the users of Hindustani-English mixed code are compound bilinguals with compound identity; stated conversely, frequent and productive code-mixing is a typical characteristics of compound bilinguals. Chapter 4, illustrates and explains the wide range and scope of Hindustani-English code-mixing. It is shown that this mixed code is widely used and it is not confined to any specific subjects, setting, role relationships and or any specific communicative strategy etc.. The contribution of this study to the ever growing field of research on code-mixing is that it establishes the linguistically independent nature of mixed code and justifies further the claim that code-mixing is a normal linguistic behavior of bilinguals and that this phenomenon can not be fully understood without first understanding the nature of language users themselves.