Oldal 68 [68]
CHAPTER 4 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The interaction of constraints: Two community specific instantiations of
the universal bilingual grammar (Kashmiri-Hindi-English and
Hungarian-English)
Optimal bilingual grammar: Kashmiri—Hindi-English code-switching
As has been pointed out earlier, the universal constraints stated as principles
might be in conflict, and through their interaction, the actual surface realizations
emerge. In Bhatt and Bolonyai’s model, the number of the inputs, the competing
candidates, has been reduced to the number of codes involved in the act of
switching: the monolingual and the code-switched candidate(s). It must be noted
that the two candidates differ only in their formal representations and have non¬
distinct semantic representations. In accordance with the OT model, Bhatt and
Bolonyai claim that the underlying representations (UR), the potential outputs,
are fed into the evaluative part (EVAL) of the generative bilingual device, which
selects the optimal candidate by filtering them through a set of constraints
(CON). The constraints are generated by the generative device (GEN), which is
universal, though the ranking of the constraints is community specific.
As the main premise of the OT model in bilingual use is socio-cognitive
optimality, the candidates are evaluated with regard to how optimally they
fulfill the socio-pragmatic function relevant in a situation relying on linguistic
resources instantiated by the act of code-switching. Optimality is a relative notion
as it is the result of the interaction of the relevant constraints. The constraints
are hierarchically arranged and violable. The ranking of the constraints is
instantiated by a particular speech community’s rules of well-formedness.
Although the constraints can be violated by the candidates, the only inviolable
rule is that the highest ranking constraint determines ultimately optimality in
a given situation, and the optimal candidate cannot violate the highest ranked
constraint. The optimal candidate that complies with the highest ranked
constraint emerges as the surface realization. OT in bilingual use combines
a deductive, empirically-based approach with a theoretical one in exploring
the rules of well-formedness in bilingual grammar. The principles, stated as
constraints, which determine the universal rules of well-formedness, have been
set up relying on relevant theoretical evidence. The particular instantiation of
these principles, through their actual ranking in a bi-or multilingual speech
community, is set up relying on the algorithmic representation of the surface
realizations or outputs collected as empirical evidence in tableaux. There is
no definite number of algorithmic representations required for the setting up
of the constraints. Nevertheless, enough data must be provided to deduce the
relation of the constraints to one another. Also, the more empirical data and
their algorithmic representations are provided, the more well-grounded is the
ranking.
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