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

not be possible because “eat” has not been intergrated into Spanish (Poplack, 1980:
586).
The second constraint is the equivalence constraint (Poplack, 1978, 1980) observed
that the code-switching is such that virtually no instances of language one and
language two occur. He further says that switching takes place only at boundaries
common with both languages. The researcher gives English to Malay code-switching
examples. According to Malay grammar rule, the adjective comes after noun wheres
in English grammar the adjective comes before the noun. Example:
English: Clever boy
Malay: Pandai budak
(Own Examples)
Code-switching is not acceptable here because it does not follow the Malay grammar
rule.
However, Nartey’s study (1982) on code-switching among educated Ghanians found
that both constraints did not work for Ghanian Languages in general. He says social
factors are more important than structural factors (p188). His observations on code-
swithing further indicate that code-switches follow certain guidelines like the nature
of the topic, the audience, the emotions versus the aspiration level and age.
To sum up, there are many factors that affect code-switching are internal linguistic
structure, culture and the sub-conseious mind.
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