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OPTIMALITY THEORY IN ANALYZING BILINGUAL USE
The switch to Hindi from English is an example of fulfilling the constraint of
Faith. However, the switch to Hindi from English, to the language of shared
ethnicity and socio-cultural heritage from the official language, the language
of power and prestige, complies with Solidarity but violates Power. The relation
of Faith and Power is of interest to us, though.
Tableau 3: Interaction of FAITH and POWER (FAITH >> POWER)
Candidates FAITH PERSPECTIVE FACE | POWER SOLIDARITY
— (a) “The
saat pheras
(‘seven cir¬
cumnaviga¬
tions’) around *
the agni (‘fire’)
serves asa
lakshman
rekha”
(b) ‘The
seven circum¬
navigations
around the fire | *! *
serve as a line
(one does not
crosses)’.
As the intended socio-pragmatic meaning of the utterance is to express most
authentically and economically the cultural notion entrenched in Hindi
culture, the code-switch to Hindi fulfils this function of Faith more optimally
than the monolingual English candidate. The switch to Hindi, therefore,
complies with the constraint of Faith, while the English monolingual one
violates it. With a view to the constraint of Faith, the code-switched instance is
a more optimal choice than its monolingual counterpart. The switch to Hindi
activates two other constraints as well. The switch to Hindi, to the language
of shared cultural heritage, complies with Solidarity, but violates Power. The
monolingual English candidate, though, would comply with the constraint of
Power, as English is the official language, the language of power and authority,
but it would violate Solidarity.
The switch to Hindi, hence, complies with Faith and Solidarity but violates
Power. As the actual surface representation is the code-switched candidate,
and violating the higher ranked constraint in the relevant interrelation
of candidates renders the surface representation of the given candidate
impossible, the constraint of Faith must be a more dominant constraint in
terms of optimality than the constraint of Power. It is important to note that
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