Attitudes Towards Euphemistic Codeswitching in Job Titles in the Saudi Context
Euphemistic code-switching in job titles is an understudied linguistic phenomenon, especially in contexts outside Western cultures. Hence, this study attempts to bridge this gap by investigating the frequency of, as well as the attitudes towards, euphemistic code-switching between Arabic and English for low-status job titles in Saudi Arabia. To achieve this aim, nineteen employees and freelancers working in low-status jobs were interviewed. They were asked about their linguistic preferences for their job titles and whether they find Arabic-English code-switching to be a sign of politeness from others when referring to the worker’s job titles. In addition to the interviews, 936 Saudi respondents filled out an online questionnaire in which they provided information about their attitudes towards euphemistic code-switching. Overall, the interviewees showed a preference towards euphemistic code-switching. A similar pattern was also confirmed in the data of the questionnaire. The implications of these findings, such as, corpus planning to minimise the need for code-switching, have been provided towards the end of the paper.
Although the phenomenon of code-switching has been a subject of interest to sociolinguists since the 1970s, to date, little research has been conducted on the impact of gender on the frequency of…
The present study provides the first-ever report on the language shift from Tibetan to Arabic among descendants of Tibetan families who migrated from the Tibet region to Saudi Arabia…
Euphemistic code-switching in job titles is an understudied linguistic phenomenon, especially in contexts outside Western cultures. Hence, this study attempts to bridge this gap by investigating…