Abstract:
Cohesion and coherence are linguistic elements which are relevant in discourse unity and in
the interpretation of meaning. However, some researchers have labelled codeswitched
conversations as disjointed and incoherent pieces, which do not follow rules of grammar. As a
result of their claims, it was not clear whether multilinguals use some strategies to bring about
cohesion and coherence in their codeswitched discourses. Founded on this background, this
research sought: to study the cohesion and coherence strategies used by multilinguals in
generating unified codeswitched utterances, to establish the cohesion and coherence rules
which govern generation of codeswitched discourse and to analyze the linguistic and nonlinguistic features which determine coherence in multilingual discourses. This study was
guided by two theories: Tanskanen’s Cohesion theory which is based on repetion and
collocation was applied in the study of cohesion strategies. Tabaoda and Mann’s Rhetoric
Structure Theory which relies on the rhetorical relations existing between text spans as
coherence strategies was used in the study of multilingual discourse coherence. Data was
collected from a sample of two universities, namely: Moi University and University of
Kabianga. One campus was purposively selected from each of these two universities and these
were Kericho Campus of Moi University and the Main Campus of University of Kabianga.
The two campuses were purposively sampled out because most of the students, from Bomet
and Kericho counties where most of the native speakers of Kipsigis live, had joined them
through the Privately Sponsored Students Pragramme, thus it was easier to access the target
population. Snow balling technique was applied in choosing nine discourses from university
students and six from university staff in each of the sampled university campuses. This means
that, from the two campuses, a total of thirty discourses were studied. Data analysis was guided
by the two research theories as per the research objectives. This study found that multilinguals
apply distinct strategies in building discourse coherence and cohesion in their codeswitched
conversations. The findings of this study are valueable to those who are interested in
understanding coherence, cohesion and structural analysis of discourse. The study findings of
this research have also been used as the basis for advancing a new multifaceted theory which
is relevant in the description of cohesion, coherence and other linguistic elements.
