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OCR
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 codeswitching 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 codeswitching. 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 codeswitching 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 +
