Mixing and switching of speech codes of Ukrainian emigration (on the example of memoirs and epistolary works by Ulas Samchuk)

Abstract

The problem of switching and mixing codes is extremely relevant in foreign and domestic linguistic science over the past decades. In this case, if code-switching is understood by all researchers more or less equally (switching from one language to another within a single text – dialog or monologue), then by mixing the code (code-mixing), the case looks much more complicated. The term «mixing of codes» is understood by different researchers in fundamentally different ways: from the introduction into one language of the elements of another language in almost unlimited quantities and in the unadapted (phonetically and grammatically) form before switching codes within the same sentence, that is, the kind of switching codes (the second approach thus postulates the process of speaking in two languages and removes the fundamental difference between switching codes and mixing codes). The study of the mixing of speech codes is an interesting and promising branch of research on the theory of language contacts. Among the fundamental works on this subject should be the study of P. Muysken (Muysken, 2000), where he provides a detailed typology of situations of mixing language codes. In linguistic research, there is a widespread practice of using «mixing codes» and «switching codes» as interchangeable, as well as a series of studies where the term «mixing codes» is used to describe and switch codes and massive borrowings. While the term «switching codes» emphasizes the transition of bilingual from one grammatical system to another, the term «mixing codes» implies the presence of hybrid forms associated with both grammars. In other words, mixing codes emphasizes the formal aspects of linguistic structures or linguistic competence, while code switching emphasizes linguistic performance. The psycho-linguistic direction concerning the study of the switching of speech codes among the bilingual environment explains which aspects of the linguistic competence of bilinguals allow them to modify the codes. Often, the choice of a foreign language involves a waiver of the synonymous form in the language of the successor of the language, thus opposed to an alternative way of expressing communicative intentions in a foreign language. The purpose of our scientific studio is to present function the mixing and switching codes on the materials of the memoirs («Planet DP») and the epistolary works of Ukrainian writers-emigrants in Canada, in particular, by Ulas O. Samchuk with his colleagues, publishers, etc. The main methods of research used were: the method of comparative analysis, which allows to detect English-language infusions as units of English, which determine the national-cultural specificity of the English language; the method of component analysis, which allowed to reveal the semantic interrelations of British realities; descriptive method and method of content analysis. In the course of the study, we came to the conclusion that the addressee and addressees, real masters of the artistic word, almost do not allow the English language to be spoken in Ukrainian, or such spraying is deliberately used and is a means of language play.