A Tale of Two Languages in Blogging: Code-Switching Analysis in Pakistani Blogosphere
Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) have brought about a new medium for information sharing and communication and weblogs are becoming more and more popular in the virtual sphere. The process of code- switching can be traced in this fast evolving medium of communication. This paper aims at investigating the existence of code-switching patterns by examining the categories and frequency of Urdu code-switches in Pakistani English weblogs authored by Pakistani bloggers. The quantitative and qualitative approaches were used in this study. The blog entries of 10 Pakistani bloggers were analyzed by using the descriptive research paradigm. The findings illustrated that the linguistic choices of Pakistani bloggers as bilingual internet users are living in between two worlds, two cultures, and two languages which they employ in this mode of communication to fully express themselves. The findings showed the linguistic features that are particular to the context of CMC. The study concluded that the presence of code-switching in CMC have to be considered and treated as a unique and different entity from spoken form or written form of code-switching to capture its fundamental attributes.
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Bilinguals, Code-Switching, Computer-Mediated Communication, Pakistani English Weblogs, Pakistani Bloggers, Weblog
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(1) Kanwal Fatima
PhD Scholar, Department of English, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan. Assistant Editor (English), ORIC, Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
(2) Samina Amin Qadir
Professor Emeritus, Department of English, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan.