Code-mixing English Into Mandarinː a Case of the Speech of Chinese People Living in Nairobi

Abstract

This study examined code-mixing English into Mandarin with a particular focus on the speech of the Chinese people living in Nairobi, Kenya. It was guided by three objectives, namely to establish the dominant language in the English-Mandarin code-mixed utterances, to establish the positions in which code-mixing occurs, and to assess the acceptability ratings of the code-mixed utterances by the Chinese people living in Nairobi. It collected its data using recordings of 35 participants who were in their natural environments. Apart from the recordings, a closed ended questionnaire helped to test the acceptability ratings of the participants. Based on the findings of the study, Mandarin is the dominant language with respect to all the three theoretical models used, namely the Matrix Language Frame (MLF), the word count model, and the first word model. As for the second objective, the results showed that most of the English (embedded language) words were inserted in the word medial positions in the code-mixed utterances, followed by the word final position and then the word initial position. About the last objective, the study found out that the participants had higher ratings for code-mixed utterances with fewer English words than those with more English words.