On intergenerational differences in code-switching among Cantonese
people
Yunming Shan | South China University of Technology | La Trobe University
As part of a Chinese government project to document and protect
the country’s language resources, this research examines variation in Cantonese
spoken in the city of Guangzhou. Over 100 speakers were recorded and the 44
hours of natural discourse were searched for occurrences of code-switching (CS)
between Cantonese and Mandarin (C-M) or English (C-E). This paper describes the
differences between age-groups in terms of the distribution of different types
of CS and its communicative functions. More frequent CS is observed among
younger people due to increasing degrees of language contact with Mandarin and
English, challenging the maintenance of Cantonese in younger generations.
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