Types of Dutch-English code-switching in Nederlandstalige hotel reviews.

Abstract

Over the past decades, multilingual interaction has become more of a standard than an exception (e.g. Hall and Nilep, 2015). With this increase in multilingual interaction, code-switching has become a common phenomenon in physical and online interaction. Code-switching can occur in three different types: intra-sentential, inter-sentential and word affixation. Research has shown that code-switching is related to emotional communication (Dewaele, 2013) and the Communication Accommodation Theory (Giles, 1974). This study investigated whether there is a relation between the type of emotion communicated, the Communication Accommodation Theory and the type of code-switching (intra-, inter-sentential and word affixation) used by analysing hotel reviews. Results showed that inter- sentential code-switching occurred more in positive reviews than in neutral reviews. Previous research of Van der Heijde (2019) suggested that clarification is a function of inter-sentential code-switching, which may explain the result of this study. Furthermore, the results confirmed a relation between code-switching and the Communication Accommodation Theory since Dutch-English code-switching occurred more in American hotel reviews than in reviews of Dutch hotels. By code-switching to English, the reviewer may be accommodating to the hotel’s location. Overall, this study resulted in interesting findings regarding Dutch-English code- switching in online hotel reviews.