The study is an in-depth examination of code-switching in the Logoli speech community in the cosmopolitan Kangemi informal settlement area on the outskirts of the city of Nairobi. The aim of the study is to investigate the sociolinguistic and structural developments that result from urban language contact settings such as Kangemi. The main objective is to identify and illustrate the social motivations that influence the tendency of the Logoli speakers to alternate codes between Lulogoli, Kiswahili and English in the course of their routine conversations as well as the structural patterns that emerge in the process of code-switching. Various methodological techniques were used in the gathering of data, including questionnaire surveys, oral interviews, tape recordings and ethnographic participant-observation techniques are highlighted. Extracts from the corpus were analysed within a theoretical framework based on two models, namely the Markedness Model and the Matrix Language Frame Model, both developed by Myers-Scotton. The study identified and interpreted, within the Markedness Model framework, the key social variables that determine code-switching behaviour among the Logoli speech community. These include age, education, status and the various social domains of interaction. In the light of these factors, the researcher was able to explain the tendency to switch codes in different settings and confirm the study’s assumption that urban-based social factors largely determine the motivations for and the patterns of code-switching. This lead to the conclusion that code-switching is not a random phenomenon but a strategy and a negotiation process that aims at maximizing benefits from interaction. Structural features of the corpus were also identified and analysed within the Matrix Language Frame Model. The assumptions of the model were tested and found to be supported by numerous examples from the data. A number of recommendations were made for further research on minority languages in Kenya and the need for language policy in Kenya to be formulated to take these language groups into consideration. / Linguistics and Modern Languages

My thesis investigates the universality of the Matrix Language Frame model developed by Myers-Scotton (2002). The work tests the model by using bilingual data which display code-switching between French and the low variety of Lingala. The main concern of the work is to test the constraints that are posited in terms of principles of the model and which claim that the Matrix Language dictates the morphosyntactic frame of a bilingual Complementizer Phrase (CP). In the light of the findings of this study, it was shown that the ML model failed to account for a number of situations; and such was the case of the Morpheme Order Principle and double morphology, specifically with the outsider late system morphemes.

This study investigates whether code-switching practices among Sesotho-English bilinguals promote convergence between Sesotho and English. First, the study identifies different types and patterns of code-switching between Sesotho and English and analyses them using Myers-Scotton’s (1993) Matrix Language Frame model and Myers-Scotton and Jake’s (2000) 4-M model. Second, it applies the ML turnover in order to detect convergence in Sesotho-English code-switching data and to observe which direction it takes. The study also explores other factors contributing to change in the structure of Sesotho, which are not necessarily influenced by convergence. In conducting this study, data was collected through interviews that were held with younger bilingual speakers from different tertiary institutions in and around Maseru (Lesotho) and through recorded youth-centred phone-in radio programmes. Findings from the analysis of data reveal simple to complex Sesotho-English code-switching performance of various types and strategies. Findings also show through the existence of composite language in Sesotho-English code-switching that there is a turnover in the ML, which indicates a development of an asymmetrical convergence between Sesotho and English. It was also discovered that, although other changes in the Sesotho structure are not English influenced, they are enhanced mostly by younger urban bilingual speakers’ frequent “looser” approach to Sesotho. This is an indication that Sesotho’s susceptibility to change correlates strongly with age; that is, both the length of time contact between Sesotho and English has existed, and the generation in which change is mostly found. This thesis adds and documents a different perspective to the previously recorded changes on Sesotho-English contact in Lesotho.

in English This dissertation deals with one form of language contact in today's Dutch: the 'intrasentential codeswitching' between Dutch and English. The term 'intrasentential codeswitching' refers to such a bilingual situation in which the two languages have unequal roles: the so called matrix language (here: Dutch) determines the grammatical structure of codeswitching, and the so called embedded language (here: English) provides elements of various length which are inserted/embedded into the matrix frame. The definition of codeswitching which sees the phenomenon as a kind of insertion is based on Myers-Scotton's theories (1992, 2001, 2005) introduced in Matrix Language Frame Model (MLF-model). It is a structural model based on neuro- and psycho-linguistic research of language formation. The outcome of the research is a formulation of a set of grammatical hypotheses and principals which explain the codeswitching structure and which the author declares to be universally applicable to all language pairs. In this research, the Dutch-English codeswitching has been examined from a grammatical point of view. The research material consists of a written corpus, which contains 430 examples of Dutch-English mixed sentences. First of all, a morphological and syntactical analysis of the corpus has been...

The study is an in-depth examination of code-switching in the Logoli speech community in the cosmopolitan Kangemi informal settlement area on the outskirts of the city of Nairobi. The aim of the study is to investigate the sociolinguistic and structural developments that result from urban language contact settings such as Kangemi. The main objective is to identify and illustrate the social motivations that influence the tendency of the Logoli speakers to alternate codes between Lulogoli, Kiswahili and English in the course of their routine conversations as well as the structural patterns that emerge in the process of code-switching. Various methodological techniques were used in the gathering of data, including questionnaire surveys, oral interviews, tape recordings and ethnographic participant-observation techniques are highlighted. Extracts from the corpus were analysed within a theoretical framework based on two models, namely the Markedness Model and the Matrix Language Frame Model, both developed by Myers-Scotton. The study identified and interpreted, within the Markedness Model framework, the key social variables that determine code-switching behaviour among the Logoli speech community. These include age, education, status and the various social domains of interaction. In the light of these factors, the researcher was able to explain the tendency to switch codes in different settings and confirm the study’s assumption that urban-based social factors largely determine the motivations for and the patterns of code-switching. This lead to the conclusion that code-switching is not a random phenomenon but a strategy and a negotiation process that aims at maximizing benefits from interaction. Structural features of the corpus were also identified and analysed within the Matrix Language Frame Model. The assumptions of the model were tested and found to be supported by numerous examples from the data. A number of recommendations were made for further research on minority languages in Kenya and the need for language policy in Kenya to be formulated to take these language groups into consideration. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (Sociolinguistics)