Oldal 20 [20]
CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
tables, the study aims to provide empirical evidence for the applicability of the
proposed community-specific ranking of constraints in the examined speech
community.
However, as the sociopragmatic function that the act of code-switching
fulfils is influenced by the macro-linguistic social context as well, the salient
tendencies of code-switching will be analyzed against the sociolinguistic
variables, language use, and attitude patterns of the members of the examined
speech community with a view to finding statistically significant correlations
rendering the examined community susceptible to its ranking of constraints.
In other words, in this study I set out:
(1) To show how the Optimality Theory for bilingual grammar can be
applied for the Hungarian-American bilingual immigrant community in North
Carolina, and how the constraints interact with each other in a community¬
specific ranking, based on the qualitative analysis of the empirical data.
(2) To find statistically significant correlations, relying on the quantitative
analysis of the survey data (based on the results of the questionnaires) in
the Hungarian-American immigrant community’s quantified sociolinguistic
characteristics (with special emphasis on the salient differences between first¬
(G1) and second-generation (G2) speakers), their participant- and function¬
related language use patterns, their motivation in cherishing Hungarian
language and traditions, and their attitudes to code-switching, to English and
Hungarian, and to being an American-Hungarian.
(3) To find out, relying on the results of the qualitative and quantitative
analyses, what is the function of code-switching in the Hungarian-American
speech community in North Carolina, USA.
+18 +