Oldal 61 [61]
OPTIMALITY THEORY IN ANALYZING BILINGUAL USE
Studying the literature on code-switching, Bhatt and Bolonyai have sub¬
sumed various socio-pragmatic functions of code-switching described by
previous theorists under the principle of Face, for example, among others, for
avoiding “risking loss of face", "mitigating or defusing face threats""", and
“dampening directness”'’,
Below, two examples will be provided to demonstrate how face management
can be optimally accomplished through code-switching. Example [9] is a good
illustration of how code-switching can be used to express positive politeness
by mitigating a request.
The conversation below takes place in C’s house with C, the mother, C’s
children (B, D), and the maid (A) present. The children (B, D) are visiting their
mother’s (C) house where A works as a maid. The conversation takes place in
New Delhi. The bilingual conversation predominantly takes place in Hindi,
with some switches to Kashmiri between the mother and the children.
In this tri-lingual speech community, A speaks only Hindi (normal font)
and does not speak Kashmiri (italicized), whereas the mother speaks Hindi and
Kashmiri and the children: English and Kashmiri. Therefore, the only language
all the participants of this situation speak is Hindi. The code-switch that will
be examined more closely is in line [5] (in bold letters).
Example [9]
1 A “kyaa baj rahaa hai”
(‘What time is it (getting to be)’)
2 B “bas cay pinee ka wagt ho rahaa hai”
(Just getting to be the time to have tea’)
3. C “vuch aayas caay tyaTh”
(referring to B) (‘look, he’s getting the urge to drink tea’)
4 D “mujhe bhii piinii hai, main bana detiihuN”
(‘I also want to drink (tea), I will make it’)
5 C “D vanyi chak vatshmatsayi, zaraa A ke liyee bhii paani rakh degii”
(‘D, now that you are up, can you put some water (for tea) also for A’)
6 D “haaN”
(‘yes, (Okay)’)
(cited by Bhatt and Bolonyai)!°®
1588 Gumperz, Discourse strategies
Myers-Scotton — Bolonyai, Calculating speakers, Language in Society, 1-28
Penelope Gardner-Chloros — Katerina Finnis, Code-switching, gender and politeness: A study
in the London Greek-Cypriot community, Estudios de Sociolinguistica, 4 (2) (2003), 505-532
Bhatt — Bolonyai, Code-switching and the optimal grammar of bilingual use, Bilingualism:
Language and Cognition, 532
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