grammatical constraints and motivations for - University of the ...

Sequential unmarked codeswitching implies that when situational factors change
during a conversation, the unmarked RO set may change. Myers-Scotton (1993a:
113) uses the following example: when a security guard discovers that an enquirer
comes from the same ethnic group as he does, the ethnicity factor changes from
unknown to shared and the RO set changes from one held between strangers to
one held between ethnic group members.
Further, Myers-Scotton (1993a: 119) states that the following conditions must be
met for unmarked codeswitching to occur:
1. Speakers must be bilingual peers.
2. The interaction has to be a type where speakers wish to symbolize dual
membership.
3. Speakers must positively evaluate for their own identities in this type
of interaction.
4. Speakers must be relevantly proficient in the two (or more) languages
involved.
2.4.1.2 The ‘marked-choice’ maxim
When codeswitching occurs as a marked choice, speakers simply do not wish to
identify with the expected RO set and this usually occurs in conventionalized
interactions. This maxim directs speakers to put aside presumptions that are
based on societal norms for certain circumstances (Myers-Scotton, 1993a).
Marked choices, according to Myers-Scotton (cited in Pütz, 1992: 419), may be
used to express a wide range of emotions or “… in cases in which the speaker
wishes to dis-identify with the unmarked rights and obligations set for an
interaction and negotiate a change in the social distance holding between other
participants and himself/herself.”
Speakers may also engage in this form of codeswitching to exclude other ethnic
groups by switching to a language that such groups cannot comprehend. For
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