SYNTACTIC CONSTRAINTS OF ARABIC-ENGLISH CODE SWITCHING

Abstract

The study investigates syntactic constraints preventing code switching of Jordanian university students on their Facebook communication. This study is conducting testing two controversial theories, free morpheme constraint and functional head constraint. These two theories were argumentative among literature. Therefore, the study bridges literature gaps discussing these theories. Data are collected through a focus group among nine students at the University of Jordan. Those students are asked through a Facebook post to comment using Arabic-English code switching. Then, data are analyzed deductively. Moreover, results showed that the free morpheme constraint theory is more applicable than the functional head constraint theory to govern code switching in this context.