Code-Switching and Optimality

Extensive academic research has been devoted to the analysis of living in a world exposed to the constant interplay of two languages and cultures. In the quest for understanding the underlying mental, emotional, and cognitive mechanisms of bilingualism, investigating the speech patterns of bilinguals has taken on increasing importance. This book will attempt to provide a complex analysis of code-switching patterns in a Hungarian-American bilingual community in the Triangle area of North Carolina, USA. The main premise of the book is that the complex linguistic-pragmatic nature of code-switching patterns activated by various socio-cultural factors can be systematically interpreted in the framework of the theory of Optimality. The uniqueness of this book lies in the fact that the proposed conclusions rely on the analysis of a large-scale corpus of personal interviews conducted in the course of extensive on-site research.