Pragmatic Motivations of Code-mixing in Oral Context among Local Chinese Employees in Foreign Companies: A Case Study of a Chinese Subsidiary of an American Company

Foreign company employees (FCEs, meaning local Chinese employees who work for foreign companies) have become a considerable social group in China. One of their salient characteristics is the language they use in their speech community: mixed language of Chinese and English, which is a classic case of code-mixing. Although some scholars have already noticed this phenomenon, few focused research has been found yet. Thus, this present research aims to look into this code-mixing case from an apparent-time, sociolinguistic perspective, focusing on the pragmatic motivations of this code-mixing. Accuracy, efficiency, emphasis, emotion softening and strengthening are the main motivations found in this case study. The present research also calls for more attentions on this code-mixing case in this special social community in the future.