(b) Solidarity
Example [50]
1 G1F63,36 "I was just talking to Béla, Béla bácsi and he was, magyarul
beszélek, mert magyarul akarjátok hallani"
(I was just talking to Béla, Béla bácsi and he was, I speak Hungarian, be¬
cause you want to hear it in Hungarian.)
(source: data collected by Kovács in 2008—2009)
This utterance serves as an example of how solidarity is created with the help of
code-switching fulfilling the changing requirements of inter-personal relations
in a situation. The speaker recalls an episode of her life in English. This is a
family event and her son — who as a second-generation Hungarian-American
speaks Hungarian, but his English competence is much stronger — is also
present at the interview, so in an act of solidarity with her son, she speaks in
English. However, she realizes that the main frame of this conversation is an
interview, whose ‘default’ language with the two native Hungarian interviewers
is Hungarian, she switches back to Hungarian. She also explains this by saying
that ‘you want to hear it in Hungarian’. Her solidarity with the two interviewers
overwrites her solidarity with her son. The switch to Hungarian, hence, shows
that switching serves as a means of expressing solidarity in line with the inter¬
personal requirements of the situation.
The functions of Face-related code-switches
The various sociopragmatic Face-related functions that have been found in the
sample are listed in the following subsection. All examples come from data
collected by the author.
(a) Mitigating face threat
Example [51]
1 G1F60,82 "Hát a G.... ügyesebb, mint te?"
(Well, G..... is more able than you?’)
2 GI1M51,78 “Uh, egy crude force kell hozzá."
‘Uh, you need crude force for this.’)
(
(source: data collected by Kovacs in 2008-2009)