A Socio-psychological Analysis Of Code-switching As A Strategy Used By Politicians In The Political Discourse

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to determine whether the Communication Accommodation Theory by Howard Giles would be applied to determine the sociopsychological motivation for code switching in the data collected from political arena in Meru County. It was hypothesized that the key principles of CAT are found in the target data. The study also hypothesized that Giles CAT can adequately account for socio-psychological motivation for code switching in the target speeches. The data used consisted of observed, recorded and transcribed instances of discourse in the political arena. Politicians being multi-lingual, political arena provided ground for a fruitful research. Code switching within the discourse was looked at the point of view of the theory posited by Giles Communication Accommodation Theory. The finding of the study showed that the tenets proposed by CAT model were observed in the data. Although, the CAT theory seemed to work in most cases, there seemed to be other reasons motivating the switches. No one theory is sufficient to explain the variables for code switching. CAT model, though, it is valid, but it leaves some gaps that can only be filled by theories posted by other scholars in the field. This thesis is organized in such a way that, chapter one deals with a summary of what will be done in the study, chapter two presents the recorded texts in their various types without analysis. In chapter three the data is analyzed using the CAT in its various tenets, chapter four looks at the findings of the study and finally, chapter five gives a general summary of the study, conclusion and recommendations