PATTERNS OF VIETNAMESE-ENGLISH CODESWITCHING: A CASE OF A VIETNAMESE TV SHOW

Abstract

Codeswitching has remarkably drawn interest from many linguists around the world. However, the amount of research in Vietnamese-English codeswitching is still limited and few of them have studied this phenomenon in Vietnamese TV shows. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the patterns of codeswitching instances in a Vietnamese TV show called “Người Ấy Là Ai” (Who is Single?). Data presented in this paper was gathered from a 138-minute episode in the show and then analysed based on the framework of Poplack (1980). It was found that the speakers employed different types of CS, among which intrasentential switches being the most popular compared to other categories. Some implications for the appropriate uses of codeswitching in the mass media industry will also be mentioned.