
Language Variation: Code-Mixing and Code Switching in Pakistani Commercials
English is one of the most-spoken languages around the world, not due to its native speakers alone, but because many others learn it as a second language. As a result, it has left its impact on most of the languages spoken in the world. Code-mixing is extensively used in the modern multilingual and bilingual world and its impacts can clearly be seen in the media industry as well. The media industry utilizes this phenomenon to capture audience attendance. This research intends to investigate the extent to which code-mixing is used in advertisements of private channels. The research technique of qualitative approach has been applied in this case study. Twenty on-aired commercials have been selected from three widely watched Pakistani channels: Geo TV, ARY Digital, and Hum TV from March 2019 to August 2019 and the use of English words as a replacement of Urdu has been checked. A sample of 50 respondents collected to evaluate the influence of code-mixing using a survey questionnaire. The recorded data revealed that the code-mixing is extensively applied/implemented in all the commercials despite most of the words used have equivalent words available in the Urdu language. Factors such as restricted vocabulary of writers, trends, and technological innovation are the motivations behind code-switching. The research intends to bring awareness to content writers about their practice of code-mixing and helps the policymakers to design a language policy for TV advertisements as these are viewed all over the world.