CHAPTER 1 1.0 Introduction - DSpace@UM - University of Malaya

2.0 Introduction
CHAPTER 2
Literature Review
It is interesting to note, there are three ways of spelling code-switching: code-
switching codeswitching and code switching. This may be because, many scholars are
involved in studying code-switching: linguists, pscycholinguists, sociolinguists,
philosophers and even anthropologists. The researcher will spell it as code-switching.
This chapter contains a review of previous studies of code-switching. The study of
code-switching has prompted considerable interest among linguists and sociolinguists
since the year 1972; they have made studies on linguistics from sociolinguistic and
psycholinguistic point of view. Linguistics is concerned with the structure of
languages used in code switched discourse. The sociolinguists study how socio-
cultural factors affect language functions. Psycholinguists study how the subconscious
mind influences code-switching; the mind acts impulsively and the conscious mind is
not aware of it.
Linguists have made numerous indepth studies on code-switching in Malaysia and the
rest of the English speaking world: English-Tamil, English-Tagalog, English-
Taiwanese and English-Spanish. The linguists provide important and interesting
findings even if they differ in their views. However, the linguists still need to do
further research to find out why code-switching takes place in formal and informal
situations to formulate a universal theory.
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