Linguistic Features of Code-Mixing and Code-Switching: The Case of Educated Ogba Bilinguals

Abstract

Code-mixing and code-switching are known to be universal phenomena among bilinguals. Not until recently, code-mixing/code-switching was seen as evidence of “internal mental confusion, the inability to separate two languages sufficiently to warrant the description of true bilingualism”. However, studies have proved that code-mixing/code-switching is not a manifestation of mental confusion but a rule-governed behaviour among bilinguals, which is motivated by various socio-psychological as well as linguistic factors. This paper seeks to explore and analyse the linguistic features in code-mixing and code-switching. It also investigates and finds out that in more cases, code-mixing and code-switching motivate the bilinguals in Ogba as they borrow words from other languages, especially English, to make speech utterance or writing. This to a large extent minimizes struggling with words among Ogba bilinguals because they easily code-mix/code-switch to continue speaking and/or writing. It has been observed that code-mixing/code-switching is more predominant among the Igboid/English bilinguals (which Ogba belongs to) compared to any other linguistic group in Nigeria. This paper explains why the Ogba people code-mix/code-switch a lot by looking at the history of the Ogba language contact with English, the socio-psychological factors as well as the linguistic factors/features that contribute to the predominance of code-mixing/code-switching among educated Ogba/English bilinguals. The study investigates the linguistic features of code-switching that include intra-sentential code-switching, inter-sentential code-switching and code-switching at word, phrase and clause levels, which are examined in both male and female Ogba/English bilinguals in conversations. It is found that intra-sentential code-switching (37.15%) is the highest code-switched area, and code-switching at word (31.21%), clause (21.54%) and phrase (6.42%) levels, being a part of inter-sentential code-switching, are the successive areas.