Methodological considerations of code-switching between Serbian and German

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Comparative Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Frankfurt (Main), language: English, abstract: The present study examines natural production code-switching data between Serbian and German. The data in this study is based on audio recordings of naturally occurring interactions among Serbian-German bilinguals. These conversations were recorded in everyday situations in order to capture spontaneous formulated code-switching patterns. In order to analyse this data collection, it was considered from a grammatical and socio-functional perspective within the framework of the theoretical part of this thesis. During the analysis, the main goal has been to identify the discourse functional and pragmatic aspects that motivate the presence of code-switching and therefore to give an explanation why bilingual speakers alternate between two languages. Thus, the analysed Serbian-German conversations shared some coincidences with the examples of the theoretical part, but also implicated other code-switching occurrences which served important functions in the communities where it was used.