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THE MARKEDNESS MODEL primary context of interpreting the instances of code-switching. In line with this, linguistic choices and their interpretability are supposed to fall within the community repertoire of a speech community determined by external social factors. Iherefore, the scope of analysis focuses more on the external social factors, and less on the individual’s choices constrained by idiosyncratic factors. In the continuum of how much social meaning is actually thought to be reflected by language use, more precisely by the act of code-switching, the sociocultural approach can be positioned at one extreme of the dichotomy tilting towards its ‘objective’ or ‘essentialist’ extreme. Adopting Fishman’s definition of domains”, one of the functions of codeswitching was defined as situational by Blom and Gumperz* claiming that in certain domains or situations code-switching is the relevant language choice. Consequently, particular language use patterns can be detected in specific domains. Code-switching as a choice in particular situations is determined by the social, political, and historical characteristics of a speech community. Seen from this perspective, code-switching is not the choice of the individual social actor but is rather seen as the most relevant choice for the speakers of a given community complying with its presupposedly existing and socioculturally determined rules. Examining code-switching in the sociocultural dimension, its meaning can be interpreted in the ‘we/they code’ dichotomy of Gumperz*™ expressing inand out-group solidarity. Thus, code-switching is analyzed in the larger social and political context, in which the distinction between the ‘we’ versus ‘they’ codes becomes relevant”. As I have pointed out, although the sociocultural approaches provide information about how language reflects socially, historically and/or culturally determined realities, they do not explain the meaning ofthe individual choice of speakers as social actors in an interaction. Hence, these models do not deal with the idiosyncratic meaning of code-switching, that is, with the linguistic choice of the individual speaker. THE MARKEDNESS MODEL Drawing on the insights of the sociocultural approach according to which language choice can be interpreted in a broader social context, Myers-Scotton Fishman, Hungarian Language Maintenance in the US Blom — Gumperz, Social meaning in linguistic structure, 407-434 Gumperz, Discourse Strategies Gal, Language Shift; Gal, The political economy of code choice, 256-264; Heller, Strategic ambiguity, 77-96; Woolard, Code-switching and comedy in Catalonia, 53-76; Woolard, Double talk; McClure — McClure, Macro- and micro-sociolinguistic dimensions of codeswitching, 25-51 + 23 +
