An Analysis of Code-Switching and Code- Mixing in Wole Soyinka’s The Beatification of Area Boy

Sociolinguistics is the study of language from the social perspective. It enables us to know about the various ways of using language in society, as well as the various ways through which our society conditions such uses. It reveals to us the extent to which language use is related to social identity. Both code-switching and code-mixing are sociolinguistic phenomena that have become unavoidable in any bilingual/multilingual society. They constitute varieties of language code used in general communication. They are used as stylistic devices to enhance interpretation of messages and the subject matter. This paper examined both language phenomena as a stylistic device applied by Soyinka in his text, The Beatification of Area Boy. The paper used the Theory of Meaning to analyze instances of code-switching and code-mixing identified in the text with a view to ascertaining how meaning is created amongst the characters in the text. It was discovered that the use of codeswitching and code-mixing enhanced the flow of conversations amongst the characters despite the differences in ethnicity and social background of the characters.