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OCR
CHAPTER 7 FINDINGS It can be seen from Tableau 12 that in this situation two candidates compete for surface realization: the monolingual Hungarian one and the switch to English. Ihe monolingual Hungarian candidate fulfils the constraint of Solidarity, as it is the default language of the inerview, the ‘we-code’ of the participants. The switch to English, however, fulfils the constraint of Faith, as it expresses meaning with the greatest specificity. As the actual surface representation is the switch to English, it is the more optimal choice for surface representation. Relying on the OT logical premise, no successful candidate, the surface representation, can violate a higher ranked constraint, so Faith must outrank Solidarity. Example [57] — The interaction of FAITH and PERSPECTIVE 1 G1F8,35 "elkezd egy beszélgetést, nekem mindig az az érzésem, 2 hogy hi, how are you, hi, how are you, ez olyan először 3 olyan nagyon furcsának gondoltam, hogy mit érdeklődik ez 4 » (‘and they start a conversation, I always have the feeling that this hi, how are you, hi, how are you, first I found this so strange, why they would want to enquire ... ‘) (source: data collected by Kovacs in 2008-2009) We have seen already that in this utterance, the speaker highlights one significant difference between American and Hungarian speech practices. She cites one common set linguistic expression hi, how are you as a typical example, as according to her it well illustrates the different cultural connotations embedded in the American-English and Hungarian languages. In Hungarian, ‘hi, how are you’ (“szia, hogy vagy?”) usually expresses interest, to which a detailed response is acceptable. For Americans, though, it is rather a way of greeting or starting a conversation than expressing real interest in how the other person is, and no detailed responses are expected. When illustrating the striking difference between American and Hungarian speech patterns, she switches to English to quote this characteristic example. By switching to English, she fulfils the function of Faith, as the switch to English the most optimally expresses the culture specific connotation of the American term. The Hungarian equivalent could not fulfil this function for its different underlying connotation. The switch to English fulfils another function as well, that of Perspective, as it is a quotation from Americans, expressing their voice. The switch to English, hence, fulfils the function of Faith and Perspective. However, as Hungarian is the default language of the interview, the ‘we-code’ shared by the participants of the interview, it violates the constraint of Solidarity. * 178 +
