ENGL7020 Bilingualism
Assignment 1
The Markedness Model and The Conversation-Analytic Approach to Code-switching
Instructions: Your answer should cover BOTH Part I and Part II.
Part I: Analyze the following conversation and the motivations of code-switching in terms of the Markedness Model. What may be some limitations of the Markedness Model with reference to this conversation? Is the CA approach more appropriate in analyzing this extract? Why or why not?
Context: Two friends living in the United States, Li and Wang are both immigrants from China and they usually speak Mandarin Chinese to each other. Wang’s car is out of order and he asks Li for help. Li used to be a mechanic in China. L does not offer real mechanic help but keeps giving advice and suggestions (W = Wang; L = Li).
Their speech data are marked below with line numbers on the left hand side, and in the brackets are a Chinese translation and an English translation.
Line
1 W:wode po che you chu maobing le. zenme ye fadong bu qilai. yidian shengyin dou
2 meiyou a. ni bang wo kankan ba.
“That poor car of mine has trouble again, No matter whatever I do, it simply doesn’t start. There is no sound at all. Please help me take a look.”)
3 L: chayicha battery. keneng battery connection you problem.
“Check the battery. There may be a problem with the battery connection.”)
4 W: dianchi shi xinde. qian jige xingqi gang huan de.
“The battery is new. It was just changed a few weeks ago.”)
5 L:Anything can go wrong with old used cars. ni ye keyi check yixia
6 transmission. ruguo transmission you trouble, jiu zaogao le.
(“Anything can go wrong with old used cars. You can also check its transmission..If something goes wrong with the transmission, it will be too bad.”)
7 W: yanjing kan shi kan buchu shenme maobing de.
(“You can’t see anything wrong with your eyes.”)
8 L:nide che kending you mechanical problem. ni dei jiao dian li de mechanic
9 kankan.
(“Your car must have mechanical problems. You need to ask the mechanic in the shop to inspect.”）
10 W: kanlai you dei hua qian le.
(“It seems that I have to spend money again.”)
11 L: wo bang ni jump start shishi kan ba.
(jump start “Let me try to jump start it.”）
12 W: shishi kan ba. (“Let’s try.”)
13 L: (After he tried to jump start several times) haishi mei fanying a. yidian dongjing
14 dou meiyou a. It doesn’t work. Sorry. Your car is really dead.
(It doesn’t work. Sorry. Your car is really dead/ “There’s still no response. There’s no sound at all. It doesn’t work. Sorry. Your car is really dead.”)
(Data from Wei 2016)
Part II: Conduct an in-depth analysis of the following conversation in terms of Conversation Analysis. To what extent does code-switching mark important sequences (e.g. repair, repair initiation, dispreference, transition between pre-sequence and the key sequence, reformulation, topic shift, etc.)? What are some of the limitations of CA with reference to this particular conversation?
Context: A is the Mother and B is the daughter of a Chinese family who immigrated to Britain. Both A and B are fluent in Mandarin Chinese and English.
Their speech data are marked below with line numbers on the left hand side, and in the brackets are a Chinese translation and an English translation.
Line
1 A: chidiar liangcai XX (the girl’s name, two syllables)
(XX/Have some Chinese salad，XX.)
2 B: (1.2)
3. A: ni bushi ai chi fensi ma
(‘Don’t you love eating rice sticks?’)
4. B: (0.3) mm
5 A: lai, wo gei ni [jia dianr
(‘Come, I’ll get you some.’)
6 B: [Mum? (0.6) la bu la
(‘Is it spicy hot?’)
7 A: bu la (0.4) wo mei fang duoshao lajiao
(‘It’s not spicy. I haven’t put too much chilli in it’.)
8 B: (0.2) wo an ting la de=
(‘I can tell it’s quite spicy hot.’)
9 A: =na zenme neng kan chulai ne
(‘How can you tell whether it’s spicy hot by looking at it?’)
10 B: can I make some salad?
11 A: a?
12 B: can I make some salad?
13 A: ni bu xihuan liangcai yao salad gan ma? zhe bushi you liangcai ma? ni haiyao salad ya?
Don’t you like Chinese salad? What do you want salad for? There is the Chinese salad. Do you want non-Chinese salad as well?’
14 B: I want some cucumber
15 A: (0.7) na ni ba cucumber na lai
(‘Bring the cucumber here then.’)
16 B: can I make some salad?
17: A: what salad! ni ni ba cucumber fangzai cai li buxing ma
(Can’t you put the cucumber in the Chinese salad?’)
18 B: I don’t like it
19: A: what do you like
20 B: it’s hot.
21 A: how can you tell