Socio-Pragmatic Functions of Algerian Arabic/French Code-Switching: The Case of Tlemcen Speech Community

This work is a micro-sociolinguistic investigation of Code-switching (hereinafter, CS) in an Algerian context. It attempts to point out the socio-pragmatic functions of Algerian Arabic/French CS among adult bilinguals in Tlemcen speech community. The present investigation aims at showing the different instances of CS that occur in distinct settings and in daily conversations, in particular occurrences that may not always be interpreted literally as speakers say what they do not really mean. This work relies mainly on Gumperz’s notion of ‘contextualisation cues’ that views CS as a communicative strategy to achieve certain socio-pragmatic functions. Moreover, it seeks out the fundamental reasons for which the bilingual speakers participating in this study may alternate either consciously or sub-consciously between the two genetically unrelated languages. A qualitative method is used to gather reliable data that are analysed as objectively as possible. The results show that the occurrence of CS differs from one case to another and is closely related to bilinguals. It is a discourse strategy used by speakers to communicate effectively and in certain cases it is mostly influenced by social aspects like the context, participants, the topic, and by social dimensions like status, solidarity, formality and functions.