The nature and extent of code-switching and code-mixing of Songhay speakers of French

Abstract

The present thesis entitled “The Nature and Extent of Code-switching and Code mixing of Songhay Speakers of French” is a research work on language contact phenomena of code-alternation by Songhay speakers of French. The study aims at analysing the switches by classifying and categorising them according to the existing models on CS and CM constraints. It also aims at analysing the context that conditions this language practice. To achieve these goals, the study comprises five chapters and an oral corpus of the recorded conversations of the participants. The population of the study is all Songhay speakers of French. 90 participants are selected out of five groups called “grins” in Bamako, Gao and Timbuktu. Three instruments are used in the study: participant observation, a questionnaire for thep bio-data of the participants, and a conversational interview to get ideas and opinions of six selected respondents. The study has confirmed the ‘equivalence of structure constraint’ of Poplack (1980) stating that, in the inter-sentential switching where sentences or clauses are juxtaposed, there is no violation of the grammar of the two languages involved in code-switching. In the intra-sentential switching where French words are inserted in a Songhay-based code, the inserted words are not transformed but sometimes take the Songhay inflectional affixes to adapt the Songhay grammar system. This confirms the ‘Matrix Language Frame Model’ of Myers-Scotton (1993a, b). The intra-sentential type of switching has been revealed more frequently used than the inter-sentential one with 82% of speeches, confirming Poplack’s (1980, 1981) ‘size of constituent constraint’. The most striking finding is the frequent use of the past participle of the verbal forms of switches. The study has also revealed phonological processes of assimilation, insertion and vowel consonant harmony in the intra-sentential type of switching of participants of the Gao dialect of Songhay. The study has demonstrated that this linguistic practice does not endanger the native language, but ‘denatures’ it by a massive invasion of foreign words.