%0 Journal Article
%T Investigating the Social Functions of Code-Switching in Amarbail by Umera Ahmed | Naseem | International Journal of English Linguistics | CCSE
%A Aisha Naseem
%A Hafiz Qasim
%A Qamar Khushi
%J Home | International Journal of English Linguistics | CCSE
%D 2019
%R 10.5539/ijel.v9n3p164
%X The present study attempts to investigate the social functions performed by English code-switching in an Urdu novel, Amarbail, written by Umera Ahmad. The focus of the study is to examine how the societal norms and patterns of a contextual society are externalized in the selected novel through code-switching phenomenon. The study has a pragmatic stylistic focus and qualitative method has been utilized to describe the social functions of code-switching in the selected novel. The data have been selected by employing handpick non-random sampling and insights have been taken mainly from Myers-Scotton, and Albakray and Hancock for the analysis of data. The results reveal that the code-switching is a deliberate literary device exploited by the author to show the sociolinguistic norms of the target society. The main social functions performed by English code-switching in Amarbail are i) depiction of power relations, ii) construction of fluid identities, iii) acculturation and iv) maintaining class difference. The study concludes that code-switching in a literary text is a multipurpose phenomenon which not only symbolizes the societal norms of its contextual society but also displays the writer¡¯s artistic and creative aptitude. It is hoped that the bilingual writers and researchers would find results of this analysis opportune and beneficial
%U http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijel/article/view/0/39192