A SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS OF CODE MIXING AND CODE SWITCHING AMONG THE ENGLISH SPEAKERS OF YORUBA CASE STUDY OF YORUBA SPEAKERS IN A NATURAL SETTING

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the syntactic analysis of code mixing and code switching among English Yoruba bilingualism using the Government and Binding framework, specifically the Case Theory. It explore the patterns and structures underlying code mixing and code switching between English and Yoruba languages in bilingual individuals. This study is motivated by the need to understand how bilingual speakers navigate and utilize different linguistic systems while engaging in code mixing and code switching between English and Yoruba. By examining the syntactic aspects of this phenomenon to uncover the underlying principles and mechanisms that govern code mixing and code switching in bilingual language production. This study employs the Government and Binding framework, with a specific focus on Case Theory, as its theoretical foundation. Case Theory is concerned with the assignment of case markers to noun phrases and the relationship between case and syntactic structures. By incorporating Case Theory the analysis of how grammatical rules and syntactic structures from both English and Yoruba interact and influence code mixing and code switching is brought to light. This study adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative methods. A corpus of bilingual speech data, comprising interviews, and recorded interactions, are collected. The data is then analyzed using principles from the Government and Binding framework, with a particular emphasis on Case Theory. Additionally, language dominance, and language proficiency will be taken into account during the analysis. Through the syntactic analysis, the study identifies and describes the patterns and structures employed in code mixing and code switching between English and Yoruba. By focusing on Case Theory, this study uncover any systematic variations or constraints in the usage of case markers and their relationship to syntactic structures during code mixing and code switching. Furthermore, the investigation explore whether these patterns are influenced by language dominance, language proficiency. The findings contributes to a better understanding of the syntactic mechanisms underlying bilingual language processing and shed light on the role of Case Theory in code mixing and code switching phenomena.