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CHAPTER 8
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OVERALL SUMMARY
In this study, I set out (Chapters 1, 2) to test the applicability of Bolonyai
and Bhatt’s Optimality Theory for the analysis of bilingual grammar on the
Hungarian-American immigrant community living in North Carolina and
to analyze the sociolinguistic characteristics of the examined community
describing the socio-cognitive dimension, which instantiates the community’s
bilingual grammar.
First, I have examined the meaning-making function of code-switching
from various theoretical perspectives (Chapter 3). Then, the theoretical
framework of the Optimality Theory for the analysis of bilingual grammar
has been discussed (Chapter 4) with special emphasis on the interaction of
sociopragmatic constraints governing the meaning-making mechanism of
code-switching.
My own research has focused on the examined Hungarian-American
immigrant community’s, more particularly on the North Carolina Hungarian
Club’s, collective code-switching patterns and on the sociopragmatic functions
they fulfill individually (Chapter 7) and in interaction with the others (Chapter
7). The interaction of the constraints has been represented in algorithmic
tableaux.
As Lalso set out to define the examined Hungarian-American community
in its appropriate socio-cognitive dimension, a thorough description has been
provided placing the examined community in its relevant socio-historical¬
cultural macro- (Chapter 5) and micro-context (Chapter 7).
Relying on statistically significant correlations in the community’s
sociolinguistic characteristics (Chapter 7), two sociolinguistically distinct
subcommunities have emerged in the examined community along the lines
of intergenerational affiliation — first- and second-generation speakers. In light
of the sociolinguistic data, I have argued that the community-specific ranking
proposed by Bolonyai and Bhatt?" cannot be applied for describing both first-,
310 Bhatt — Bolonyai, Ibid., 522-546
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