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OPTIMALITY THEORY IN ANALYZING BILINGUAL USE
of how the sociopragmatically meaningful instances of code-switching can
be assumed to index certain social constructs and to (re)negotiate the (con)
textual framework within an ethnographically specific bilingual immigrant
community’s linguistic repertoire.
The uniqueness of the model is that it attempts to adapt the Optimality
Theoretical framework of generative grammar for the analysis of bilingual
speech in order to describe the mechanisms of bilingual grammar, with special
emphasis on code-switching.
Therefore, this approach is based on the assumption that, like in monolingual
speech, there are universal grammar rules that determine the mechanisms of
code-switching in bilingual speech. Relying on a sociocognitive theoretical
base, the model premises that the interpretation of the instances of code¬
switching should be based on their implicitly conveyed meaning. Therefore, as
a leeway out of the ongoing discussion between the constructivist, primarily
conversational or the more essentialist, sociocultural approaches, the model
enables the interpretation of code-switching on the basis of its conversational
setting, but referring to (previous) extra-interactional, sociolinguistic, and
pragmatic knowledge as well.
In line with the premises of generative grammar, the model assumes
that there are universal grammar rules governing the mechanism of code¬
switching. These rules act as constraints, referred to as principles, and
actual code-switched speech production (output) is the optimal result of the
competing candidates (input) filtered through the hierarchical and violable
set of constraints. This set of constraints is universal in every bilingual
speech community, however, the ranking of these hierarchical constraints is
community specific. Therefore, the model also integrates the universal and
community-specific approaches in the interpretation of code-switching. The
idiosyncratic nature of code-switching is of less importance in this model.
Relying on thorough and comprehensive research of the relevant code¬
switching and pragmatics literature, Bhatt and Bolonyai claim that there are
five global principles acting as constraints and determining the occurrence of
sociopragmatically meaningful instances of code-switching in every bilingual
speech community. These are the Principle of Interpretive Faithfulness
(FAITH), the Principle of Symbolic Domination (POWER), the Principle
of Social Concurrence (SOLIDARITY), the Principle of Face Management
(FACE), the Principle of Perspective Taking (PERSPECTIVE).
°° Bhatt — Bolonyai, Code-switching and the optimal grammar of bilingual use, Bilingualism:
Language and Cognition, 522
+ 37 +