Reasons for Code-Switching and Mixing: A Gender-Based Comparative Study of Social Interactions on Twitter

Abstract

There is a general belief that the language of women is different and even inferior to men. Jespersen and Chomsky disagree with this notion while scholars like Lakoff, Tannen, and Trudgill point out certain differences in the language of men and women. The issue has been subject to investigation in literary texts as well. This study investigates the reasons for code-switching and mixing (CSM) in social interactions on Twitter among men and women and keeping in view the difference in frequency of reason the present study tries to highlight how the language of men is different from that of women. The data collected to highlight these differences is in the form of tweets posted on social media platform Twitter by students at university students. Samples have been collected by using a stratified sampling technique. The researcher has employed the theoretical framework of Gumperz (1982) & Malik (1994) to categorize the reasons for CSM. A mixed-method approach has been adopted for the analysis of the collected data. After presenting quantitative findings in the form of a table, the researcher supplemented it with qualitative analysis to provide readers with a deeper understanding of the reasons behind CSM. Most of the tweets that have CSM can be placed under various reasons identified by Gumperz (1982) & Malik (1994). As in any case related to language studies, there are a few exceptions as well. This analysis is particularly helpful in developing an understanding of the motivations behind the use of CSM.