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

call it conversational code-switching because it is difficult to differenciate between
the situational and the metaphorical code-switching.
In summary it must be said that it is not easy to differenciate between situational and
metaphorical code-switching. They may be grouped together as conversational code-
switching.
2.5 Conversational code-switching
Gumperz in his research, which he did in collaboration with Hernandez (1971), on the
social meaning or the significance of code-switching among Slovenian-German,
Spanish-English and Hindi-English illustrated six conversational functions. Gumperz
and Hernandez (1971) as cited in Ong Kin Suan (1990:115:3)
Gumperz argues that code-switching passages are identifiable either as direct
quotations or as reported speech…… to mark an interjection, to repeat a message in
either literal or in modified form. Whereas, Rayfield (1970) says that the most
important function of switching is its use as a rhetorical device. Rayfield classified the
functions under five categories:
(i) to emphasise the contrast between two clauses, whereby the second is often
put in the other language.
(ii) to emphasise a statement which the hearer might not expect.
(iii) to avoid saying unpleasant or slightly indelicate matter in the language of the
speaker.
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