Interdisciplinary Research Seminar - 03.07.2024 - Mrs. Christine Pejakovich

An analysis of language contact between Seychelles Creole and English in web discourse, from the sociolinguistic and structural perspectives by Mrs. Christine Pejakovich

This dual-focus study combines research from sociolinguistic and structural perspectives to analyse the phenomenon whereby Seychelles Creole speakers code-mix/switch with English in their online discussions (reflective of the status quo in oral communications). This paper focuses on written communication within community Facebook groups. From a sociolinguistic perspective, bilinguals code-mix for a variety of functional reasons, which are well documented in linguistic literature. A study of two community Facebook pages was undertaken in order to elucidate the nature and functions of code-switching between Creole and English – via the lens of digital ethnography.
It was found that code-mixing in Seychelles’ social media aligns closely with the classic functions of ‘code-switching’ posited in sociolinguistic literature (Pejakovic, 2016, 2021). For the subsequent structural analysis, small-scale language data was obtained in 2023/24 and analysed to ascertain the level of intermixing between the two grammars. Although this synchronic, exploratory study was not intended nor designed to make predictive statements on language change - which affects entire language communities, interesting dynamics were observed.

Mrs. Christine Pejakovic is the Director of the Education and Socio-Economic Research Institute (ESERI). She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics, a Master of Applied Linguistics from the University of Southern Queensland and is currently pursuing a PhD in Linguistics at the University of New England, also in Australia. A proud Seychellois, Mrs. Pejakovic enjoys learning about other cultures, their languages and histories. She is currently particularly focused on comparative studies of creole languages. She also lectures English language at UniSey and undertakes research in language and education.