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THE RATIONAL CHOICE (RC) MODEL
As a strong opponent of language-reflects-society approaches, Gafaranga""
claims that the interaction between language and society is more complex
and could only be understood from a theory of interpretive processes in
conversation. He has called for the need of a "demythologized" perspective to
language alternation. In line with that perspective, he claims that "language
alternation must be seen as practical action and that it relates to the social
structure in so far as language itself is a social structure”®. As in his
interpretation language alternation is itself a categorization device and a means
of expressing the speaker’s identity, an inquiry into the organizational force of
code-switching in bilingual talk should not look into the wider social context®.
Rather, he places conversation in the center of attention and calls for a “whole¬
conversation” approach”. As such an approach is currently unavailable (and
he doubts if it ever will be available), he states that there are only two ways of
interpreting the meaning of language alternation. One is a “single instance
sociology”, which focuses “on one significant aspect of talk organization”. In
line with this approach, it must be examined what linguistic and non-linguistic
resources have been drawn upon to produce a particular instance. However,
theorists should not presume that the same set of linguistic and non-linguistic
resources will be relevant in interpreting the meaning of another instance. As
opposed to this “single instance sociology”, language alternation itself can be
examined as “a significant aspect of talk organization””’. In this latter case,
theorists should examine how language alternation creates meaning in various
different situations without presupposing an a priori existing social reality. On
the contrary, this approach premises that language defines social structures,
and as such it cannot rely on any non-linguistic resources or social structures
that need to be explained but only on the conversational instance of language
alternation as a means of organizing talk.
THE RATIONAL CHOICE (RC) MODEL
We have seen that there is a common ground for the necessity of a
comprehensive model unifying the ethnographic, conversational and
sociolinguistic approaches. Driven by the same need to integrate social
67” Gafaranga, Demythologizing language alternation studies, Journal of Pragmatics, 281
68 Gafaranga, Ibid., 283
§9 Gafaranga, Ibid., 292
7 Gafaranga, Ibid., 297
71 Gafaranga, Ibid., 297
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