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CHAPTER 7 FINDINGS
(b) Contextualization cue
Example [29]
1 GI1F42,22 ”Jaj, jöttem visitbe, egy csaladhoz, és amig itt voltam, kaptam
egy,
2 elmentem, untam a Beverly Hills-t, meg a wheel of fortune-t,
3 akkor még reggel”
(Yeah, I came to visit, and while I was here, I got a, I went, I was tired of
‘Beverly Hills’ and of the ‘Wheel of Fortune’, that time in the morning ...’)
(source: data collected by Kovacs in 2008-2009)
Auer claims that “contextualization comprises all those activities by
participants which make relevant/maintain/revise/cancel some aspects of
context”*”, that is, contextual cues are such discourse elements that allow
the speaker to provide extra (contextual) meaning to their utterance. In the
example above [30], the code-switched instance serves as a contextualization
cue for highlighting the purpose of the speaker’s coming to the USA. In the
utterance above, the speaker recalls the circumstances of how she came to the
USA. The Hungarian word jöttem (I came") already establishes the direction
of her journey, that is, to the USA. In the first line of the utterance, though,
she switches to English in order to express that she came to visit somebody. By
switching to English, she is able to place the story in the appropriate context,
when she first came to the USA to visit, and with no intention of immigrating.
The switch to English, therefore, contextualizes as well as highlights the
original purpose of the speaker that is, simply visiting somebody rather than
immigrating.
(c) Positioning
Example [30]
1 G1M?27,50 “A kôrnyezettôl függ, tudod, példaul, hogyha, mar nekem erre
van
2 egy tervem, például, ha januárban elmegyek Magyarországra,
3 akkor meg fogom keresni a budapesti baptista templomot, és
akkor
4 ott fog megismerni, valószínű lesznek amerikaiak is, so, így, így,
I
5 can hang out with the Americans."
300 Auer, Ihe pragmatics of code-switching, 123