Code switching of Russian-German bilinguals

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,7, University of Stuttgart (Institut für Linguistik/ Anglistik), course: Code Switching, language: English, abstract: In the following pages I want to focus on the code switching of Russian-German bilinguals. The phenomenon of code switching has its origin in the research of bilingualism and code switching can be examined from different perspectives. There are grammatical or syntactic, sociolinguistic or pragmatic, conversational and psycholinguistic aspects of code switching. In which situations is code switching possible or probable? Where does code switching seem to be possible syntactically? Why do speakers code-switch? Do bilingual speakers behave in another way in different social situations? Firstly, I will give some definitions of the term "code switching" and I will define the various types of code switching. In addition, I will concentrate on Shana Poplacks grammatical constraints and on Carol Myers-Scottons Matrix and Embedded Language theory. The next chapter will deal with my case study. First of all, I will name some relevant characteristics of Russian and then the procedure of the case study will be presented. Afterwards, while analysing my collected data I will try to find similarities as well as differences with regard to Poplacks and Myers-Scottons theories and I will take a look at the functions of code switching. The conclusion will comprise the main points and some suggestions for further discussion. Up to now many researches on code switching were undertaken. As a consequence, various definitions and types of code switching can be found throughout the history of research on code switching. In this chapter I will concentrate on two of the major theories of code switching - on Poplacks and Myers-Scottons code switching theories. Code switching is the term for different languages coming into contact with one another in a conversat