| Abstract [eng] |
The Functions of Code-Switching in the Facebook Profiles of Different Genders: the Šalčininkai District Case In this thesis the functions of code-switching in posts and comments published in the Facebook, taking into account a gender aspect, are analysed. The code-switching is an interesting sociolinguistic phenomenon characteristic to bilingual and multilingual communities. It is the use of different languages in the middle of a sentence, between sentences in one specific domain or discourse. It is an individual language choice determined by such factors as the topic, the situation, the participants of a conversation, their interrelationship, emotions, demonstration of one or more identities, and so on. On this basis, researchers R. Appel and P. Muysken (2005) identified six functions of code-switching: referential, directive, expressive (identity), phatic (metaphorical), metalinguistic and poetic. The aim of this thesis is to find out which of the provided functions the code-switching performs in young people originated from the Šalčininkai district Facebook discourse, to identify predominant functions in girls' and boys' profiles, and to compare the frequency of all detected occurrences of the functions of code-switching based on gender aspect. The research material consisted of 1048 posts and comments published in 2017 – 2018 from 30 Facebook profiles. Young people aged between 20 and 30 years, with Polish as their school language. Facebook posts and comments are investigated by applying qualitative linguistic and quantitative analyses. The research results showed that the code-switching in girls’ and boys’ Facebook discourse functionally is similar. The number of the functions is the same in the Facebook profiles of both genders, but the frequency of these functions varies. In both cases, the predominant function is directive, when languages are changing depending on the language chosen by the interlocutor. This research could be useful for sociolinguists which investigate electronic discourse of young people from South East Lithuania and the languages used in the environment influence on the emergence of linguistic codes in the Facebook. The research could also stimulate greater interest of sociolinguists in the residents’ of the Šalčininkai district speaking mode. |
