Code Switching in Sepet: Unveiling Malaysians' communicative styles

Abstract

Code-switching phenomenon can be said to be successful in bringing out the unique Malaysian communicative strategy in “Sepet”, a locally produced motion picture written and directed by the late Yasmin Ahmad. The strategy used throughout the entire film is to put meaning across in a natural way and at the same time to maintain the cultural setting in the movie. It can be considered to have unreservedly mimics the authentic communicating style among multilingual in this country. “Sepet” tells a cross cultural love story between a Chinese young man and a Malay girl who just finished Secondary 5 (Form 5). Instead of using solely English as the lingua franca in the movie, Yasmin had chosen to include other languages and Chinese dialects that are widely spoken among Malaysian communities into the characters‟ verbal interactions. Yasmin had always made full use of the assorted cultural qualities in Malaysia‟s pluralistic society in her works. The objective of this study was to find out how code-switching in the movie depicts Malaysians‟ communicative strategy, by providing examples from the movie to explain reasons for code-switching.

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