LANGUAGE HYBRIDIZATION IN PAKISTAN AS SOCIO-CULTURAL PHENOMENON: AN ANALYSIS OF CODE-MIXED LINGUISTIC PATTERNS

Code mixing is an interesting phenomenon in bilingual societies. The social aspects of code mixing which include various factors ranging from the setting, addressee, and addresser to the prestige attached to a language, and its socio historical background, determine the linguistic choices in the process of code mixing; reciprocally the linguistic choices for code mixing reflect the socio cultural environment. Code mixing leads to language hybridization that in turn gives birth to the issues of language maintenance, shift, and desertion. All these phenomena have significant socio-cultural implications in the context of globalization and emergence of English as an international language in the recent decades that has challenged the survival of regional and national languages of many countries. As far as Pakistan is concerned these phenomena are a familiar and well-known feature of the present day linguistic scenario that is clearly reflected in the media as well. In this context the present research aims at the study of language hybridization and code mixing of English in Urdu in the country. To analyze the linguistic, socio- cultural and attitudinal dimensions of code mixing, this research quantitatively and qualitatively analyzes the code mixed linguistic patterns used by the speakers in TV programs i.e. talk shows and discussion panels. Data is categorized under various lexical structural categories to study the processes employed, to examine the frequency of occurrence in different lexical and structural categories, and to investigate linguistic and social constraints involved. The linguistic data is further explored to trace the socio cultural implications of code mixing and language hybridization. Structurally the dissertation is divided into nine chapters. After presenting the background of research, review of the relevant literature, description of the research methodology, and issues of bilingualism in international and national scenario. The data is quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed and interpreted under three broad categories, Insertion, Hybridization and Synthesis respectively. At the end the limitations of the study and the contributions of this research are discussed