A STUDY ON THE PATTERNS OF CODE-MIXING IN SRI LANKAN TELEVISION ADVERTISEMENTS: BASED ON SINHALA AND ENGLISH TELEVISION ADVERTISEMENTS

Abstract

Code-mixing is a common linguistic phenomenon observed in bilingual or multilingual contexts. It is commonly used in Sri Lanka by mixing Sinhala and English. This study aims to discover the most frequently used code-mixing pattern in Sri Lankan bilingual Television (TV) advertisements. Hence, the patterns in which code-mixing occurs in bilingual TV advertisements were examined. This study employed a qualitative approach. Accordingly, twenty Sri Lankan bilingual TV advertisements, broadcast during prime hours in Hiru, Derana and Sirasa TV channels were randomly selected as research samples. Then, the data were qualitatively analyzed using thematic analysis methodology. Subsequently, the collected data were categorized into six themes. The findings reveal that Nominalization, Hybridization, Nativization, Alternation, Internal mixing of words, and Coinage were six code-mixing patterns occurring in the selected advertisements. The findings inferred that Hybridization is the most frequently used code-mixing pattern in Sri Lankan Bilingual TV advertisements. Moreover, our findings imply that code-mixing is a common phenomenon used by creative writers in TV advertisements to reach a wider audience. It shows how English exerts its power on the national language of Sri Lanka. Such forms of code-mixing have become extremely natural in the Sri Lankan context where both Sinhala and English co-exist.