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" Structural, socio-pragmatic, and psycholinguistic analysis of codeswitching in Arabic TV programs "
Ehsan Alatawi
Mahootian, Shahrzad
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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803766
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| Doc. No
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TL48569
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| Call number
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1750071963; 1605310
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| Main Entry
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Varol, Fatih
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| Title & Author
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Structural, socio-pragmatic, and psycholinguistic analysis of codeswitching in Arabic TV programs\ Ehsan AlatawiMahootian, Shahrzad
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| College
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Northeastern Illinois University
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| Date
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2015
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| Degree
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M.A.
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| field of study
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Linguistics
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| student score
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2015
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| Page No
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103
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| Note
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Committee members: Gebhardt, Lewis; Kaplan-Weinger, Judith
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| Note
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Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-339-31830-1
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| Abstract
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Using more than one language within a spoken discourse is a world-wide phenomenon. This linguistic behavior is known as codeswitching (Gumperz 1982, Auer 1984, Myers-Scotton 1988, Mahootian 1993). This study examined whether codeswitching between Arabic and English occurs in TV programs broadcast on an Arab broadcasting channel, and whether there is a correlation between the language choice, the (perceived) TV audience, and the type and content of the program. Four different types of programs were selected as follows: a religious program, Nabd Alklam (Pulse of Speech), a fashion program, Style, a medical program, Atwfah Alakdar (Green Apple), and an entertainment program, Arabs Got Talent. Where it occured, this study investigated the syntactic patterns and structure of codeswitching in these shows. It also explored the socio-pragmatic motivations for the codeswitching, and to what extent social variables such as the type and content of the show, interlocutors and their status, and audiences influence language choice and codeswitching. Moreover, it investigated whether there are psycholinguistic motivations for codeswitching such as trigger-words, like a proper noun, lexical transfer, bilingual homophones as proposed by Clyne (1980, 2003). Finally, it explored the attitudes of Saudi audiences towards the use of codeswitching in Arabic TV shows through a web-based survey. The findings of this study show that Arabic-English codeswitching occurs in three of the TV programs, Style, Atwfah Alakdar (Green Apple), and Arabs Got Talent but not in the religious program. Regarding the syntactic structure, the results provide counter-examples to the free morpheme constraint (Poplack 1980) and the Functional Head constraint (Belazi et al. 1994), and provide additional supportive evidence for the Head Complement Principle (Mahootian 1993, 1996). The predominant pattern in the three shows was intra-sentential switches and the constituent within which the most switches occured was the DP. The socio-pragmatic functions of codeswitching identified were semantic accuracy, repeating for clarification (Gumperz 1982), accommodation, showing bilinguality and modernity, and connection with the West. The difference in the use of English in the various programs has been attributed to the programs’ interlocutors and the perceived expectations of the target TV viewership by the interlocutors. Moreover, psycholinguistic motivations for codeswitching were identified in the form of trigger words such as lexical transfers, and proper names (Clyne 1980, 2003). Finally, Saudis’ attitudes towards tolerance of codeswitching were found to vary based on the type of show, the importance of the content, and their linguistic competence.
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| Subject
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Linguistics
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| Descriptor
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Language, literature and linguistics;Codeswitching;Language choice;Media discourse;Psycholinguisrics;Socio-pragmatics;Structure
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| Added Entry
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Mahootian, Shahrzad
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LinguisticsNortheastern Illinois University
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