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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION switching as a ‘marked’ linguistic act gains significance only if interpreted against a broader social, macro context taking into consideration the socially determined rules of well-formedness. As a leeway out of the dichotomy embracing the theoretical approaches to the interpretation of the meaning-making function of code-switching, Bhatt and Bolonyai* adopted ‘Optimality Theory’ for the analysis of bilingual language use, a comprehensive model based on an algorithmic representation of the empirically observed sociopragmatic functions that the act of codeswitching fulfils. Bhatt and Bolonyai? claim that code-switching is a sociocognitive mechanism fulfilling an array of sociopragmatically interpretable functions. They focus only on the meaning-making mechanism of codeswitching, so they have excluded from the scope of their model the instances of code-switching prompted by lack of appropriate language competence, as well as borrowings, abbreviations, and proper nouns. Adopting Optimality Theory for the analysis of bilingual use, Bhatt and Bolonyai® claim that the sociopragmatically meaningful function(s) that an instance of code-switching fulfils is always the optimal one in a particular context. Optimality Theory is based on the premise that the linguistic output is the optimal one among the candidates, or linguistic inputs, competing for surface representation. Therefore, if code-switching is realized, then it fulfils a particular function in the given context the most optimally, more optimally than a monolingual realization, or in given linguistic contexts, a switch toa different language would. In the process of competing for surface realization, the candidates, or linguistic inputs, go through a set of constraints which act as sociopragmatic principles. The constraints are arranged hierarchically and are violable, which means that the successful output might violate all the constraints but not the highest ranked one. A code-switch, therefore, can be interpreted as the most successful candidate optimally fulfilling the sociopragmatic function required by a given situation. As the successful candidate cannot violate the highest ranked constraint, the fulfilled function is the optimal one and is ranked above other functions activated in the given context. and code choice, International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 44 (1983), 115-136; Carol Myers-Scotton, Code-switching as indexal of social negotiations, in: Monica Heller (ed.), Codeswitching. Anthropological and Sociolinguistic Perspectives, Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter, 1988, 151-186; Carol Myers-Scotton, Social Motivations for Code-switching: Evidence from Africa, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1993b; Carol Myers-Scotton, A theoretical introduction to the Markedness Model, in: Carol Myers-Scotton (ed.), Codes and Consequences: Choosing Linguistic Varieties, New York, Oxford University Press, 1998, 18-38 Bhatt — Bolonyai, Code-switching and the optimal grammar of bilingual use, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 522-546 5 Bhatt — Bolonyai, Ibid., 522-546 ®° Bhatt — Bolonyai, Ibid., 522-546 + ]4 +
