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CHAPTER 9 —o> — CONCLUSION As a result of the qualitative analysis of the transcribed data, it has been demonstrated that the ranking of constraints proposed by Bolonyai and Bhatt*!? can be applied for describing the linguistic mechanism underlying the emergence of socio-pragmatically meaningful instances of code-switches in the Hungarian-American immigrant community in North Carolina. It has also been shown that the ranking of constraints cannot be the same in the Gl and G2 groups of community members. For the better understanding of the different bilingual experience in Gl and G2 groups, and its most overt linguistic manifestation, the use of code-switching, a quantitative analysis has also been implemented. Having examined more closely the different salient sociolinguistic variables in Gl and G2 groups, I can conclude that G1 speakers have an overall more controversial attitude to code-switching. This controversial attitude is determined by how purist attitude Gl respondents have towards codeswitching. This two-fold distinction between language seen as an abstract asset and as a pragmatic tool of communication well reflects the transitional bicultural, in- between-two-cultures state of G1 members. Code-switching tendencies seem to depend on which extreme is more dominant in a particular situation on this scale of transitional bicultural continuum. Overall, G2 speakers have a more positive attitude to code-switching. In the G2 group, Hungarian competence determines the most their codeswitching patterns. Higher Hungarian competence results in fewer instances of code-switches. Altogether, G2 speakers seem to have a more natural, pragmatic attitude to code-switching. They readily rely on it as a means of filling competence-related gaps in their speech or as a device for expressing their bicultural experience. Therefore, this two-fold distinction between the purist attitude to code-switching and its pragmatic use or the transitional continuum of the bicultural experience observed in the Gl group seems 32 Bhatt — Bolonyai, Ibid., 522-546
