Oldal 164 [164]
CHAPTER 7 FINDINGS
In this example, the speaker talks about how he feels when most Americans ask
him where he is from, realizing that he is not American. He says that if he feels
that people are really interested in where he is actually from, he is happy to tell
them. However, when he says that if the person inguiring about his nationality
has a hidden agenda either because they do not like aliens, or they are afraid of
them, he switches to a sarcastic note. He says that he feels sorry for these people
as they do not know that they do not need a passport if they want to go to Texas.
By this, he means that they are ignorant and that is why he does not mind even if
he feels that these people only ask about his nationality because they realize that
he is an ‘unliked alien’. By switching to the English word, passport, he indexes
the sarcastic content of the comment he makes about these people.
(i) Interjections
Example [36]
1 G1F60,82 "Oh, God! Huszon, mit tudom én, négy, öt, valahogy így. De ott
is mindig magyarokkal voltunk, mert ott is volt magyar klub,
3 tudod, ez az!"
(‘Oh, God! Twenty, I don’t know, four, five, something like that. But we were
always with the Hungarians, because there was a Hungarian club, too, you
know, things like that!’)
(source: data collected by Kovacs in 2008-2009)
The utterance listed above is an example of code-switching serving as an
interjection. An interjection is “a word, which indicates an emotional state
or attitude such as delight, surprise, shock, and disgust, but which has no
referential meaning”*”. In this utterance, the speaker switches to English to
make an interjection. By doing so, she is able to give an additional expressive
force to her interjection. This English interjection is also an example of
linguistic routine.
(j) Conclusion
Example [37]
1 G1F60,82 “Elrontott népség. That's for sure.”
(‘It is a spoiled people. That’s for sure.)
(source: data collected by Kovacs in 2008-2009)
303 Jack C. Richards — John Platt — Heidi Platt (eds.), Dictionary of Language Teaching and
Applied Linguistics, Longman, 1996, 186
* 162 +