LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 12 : 11 November 2012
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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An Analysis of Code-Mixing in Television Commercials

Hammad Mushtaq, M.S. English
Taskeen Zahra, M.A. English

Abstract

This study sought to analyze the extent and impact of code-mixing in various advertisements shown on widely seen channels of Pakistan. Data for this quantitative research was taken from three Pakistani channels: Geo TV, ARY Digital and Hum TV. The recorded data ranged over the duration of three days. The data was first recorded from the channels and then analyzed in order to determine the extent of code-mixing in the commercials; later a questionnaire was devised and then distributed among a sample of thirty students, and the data thus was analyzed in order to determine the impact of code-mixing on the viewers of Television Commercials. The population selected for this research was one hundred and thirteen students belonging to the undergraduate programs of English and Mass Communication Departments of Foundation University, while the sample consisted of thirty students. The sample was selected through convenience sampling. After analyzing the questionnaire and the response of the audience, it was concluded that code mixing is prevalent in advertisements to a great extent and it leaves a very strong impact on the viewers and serves the purpose of effective communication. The results show that code-mixing is being accepted by the youngsters as an important aspect of linguistic communication. This study plays a very important role in a society like ours, which has people belonging to different regions, who tend to speak a variety of languages, and where code hybridization is a common factor.

Introduction

Code-mixing is the moving from one language to another within the similar statement, utterance or within the same oral or written text. Sometimes more than two languages are mixed up and code mixing becomes a common feature of language usage. In linguistics, the term code mixing is often used interchangeably with code-switching that creates confusion. It is, however, necessary to understand that unlike code-mixing, code-switching refers to the switch or shift from one language to the other which involves longer stretches of language as the clause or sentence boundary; while generally code-mixing does not involve shifts beyond smaller units of language such as words or phrases (Milroy, 1987; Wei, 1998; Swigart, 1992; Goyvaerts and Zembele 1992).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Hammad Mushtaq, M.S. English
Assistant Professor
Head, Department of English
Foundation University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
1-New Lalazar, Rawalpindi
Pakistan
hamaadhashmi@gmail.com

Taskeen Zahra, M.A. English
Scholar of M.S. English
Air University Islamabad
Pakistan

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