Code-switching and advising in multilingual African situations : An analysis of radio phone-in programmes in Kenya and Cameroon

Abstract

Abstract

en Radio phone-in programmes are relevant for linguistic analysis in multilingual contexts, like Kenya and Cameroon, because they provide relatively natural data in expert-user and user-user contexts in an often emotional interactive environment. Any relationship topic is an emotive undertaking in any society, given the varied cultural disparities. On radio phone-in programmes, speech activities such as advice-giving and advice-receiving are also performed symmetrically or asymmetrically. In this media format, code-switching is a significant phenomenon that is an expected and unconscious part of the linguistic behaviour of multilingual speakers. Switches between languages are highly relevant since they provide evidence for evaluations of language variety, power and authority, as well as language and emotion. This research explores how code-switchingis used on radio phone-in programmes during discussions on relationships. This article focuses onthe social and pragmatic motivations of code-switching between the caller and the host during phone-in sessions. The Kenyan data was collected from two radio phone-in programmes: TheBreakfast Show on Classic 105 Fm and The Big Breakfast on Kiss 100, where participants switched from English, Kiswahili, Sheng, and their mother tongue in isolated occurrences. At the same time, two radio phone- in programmes from Cameroon, Make we Talk and The Other Side of Midnight, were considered for illustrations with code-switches between English and Pidgin. The analysis reveals thatsituational code-switching was dominant for the Cameroonian data, while metaphorical switcheswere evident for the Kenyan data. The findings further demonstrate that speakers’ code-switching is far from random but switch between languages at specific times for particular reasons, especially in informal emotion-provoking (public) discourse to achieve meaning and urgency.