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OPTIMALITY THEORY IN ANALYZING BILINGUAL USE
Example [8]
1 A (Clerk) “Ee... Semma”
(OK ... what do you want?’ (literally: ‘speak’))
2 B (Customer) “Nipe fomu ya kuchuka pesa.”
(‘Give me the form for withdrawing money.’)
(...)
3 A “Bwana, huwezi kutoa pesa leo kwa sabau hujamaliza sika saba.”
(Mister, you can’t take out money today because you haven't finished
seven days since [last withdrawal].’)
4 B (switching to Luo) “Konya an marach.”
(‘Help, I’m in trouble.’)
5 A (also speaking Luo now) “Anyalo kony, kik inuo kendo.”
(‘I can help you, but dont repeat it.)
(cited by Bhatt and Bolonyai)""
According to Bolonyai and Bhatt, this example is a clear indication of how
code-switching acts by “maximizing the value of ethnic connection” as a
means of constructing “a relation of solidarity and alliance at the discourse
level as well". In this situation, Swahili is the unmarked choice, and both
the speaker and the customer start their conversation in Swahili despite
their shared Luo ethnic origin. Swahili is used in service-related domains
to guarantee equal treatment in a multi-ethnic society, and the participants
of the situation comply with this rule. However, when the customer realizes
that he is in trouble because he cannot withdraw money, he switches to Luo
(line 4). By switching to Luo, to the ethnic language shared with the clerk, he
signals that he intends to move away from the official frame of their service¬
like relationship and wants to establish a common platform based on their
shared ethnicity. Creating this common ground, this sense of togetherness,
he hopes that he can expect more solidarity and some extra help from the
clerk exceeding his official scope of authority. By responding in Luo, the clerk
indicates that he places himself into the same ethnic group, which is a more
intimate association than between a clerk and a customer. As a member of the
same ethnic group indexed and instantiated in this situation by the switch to
Luo, the clerk displays more solidarity with the customer and helps him even
violating some rule.
In the OT framework, the code-switch to Luo is evaluated as a more opti¬
mal candidate than the monolingual Swahili. The code-switched instance by
45 Bhatt — Bolonyai, Code-switching and the optimal grammar of bilingual use, Bilingualism:
Language and Cognition, 532
46 Bhatt — Bolonyai, Ibid., 533