SMS communication as plurilingual communication

2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Étienne Morel ◽  
Claudia Bucher ◽  
Simona Pekarek Doehler ◽  
Beat Siebenhaar
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Large Databases ◽  
Semiotic Systems ◽  
Communication Calls ◽  
Broad Understanding ◽  
Hybrid Forms

The use of more than one language in SMS communication is widespread, yet has remained relatively underexplored in the existing research. In this paper we ask: What methodological and conceptual tools are needed for empirically investigating code-switching in large databases of SMS communication? We show that the investigation of SMS communication calls for an adaptation of the conceptual and the methodological apparatus of classical code-switching studies, which have been typically concerned with the analysis of spoken, mostly interactional, data. We argue for a broad understanding of code-switching that comprises switching between natural languages and language varieties along with style shifts as well as switching between language and other semiotic systems (ideographic switching). We also document, as a key feature of SMS communication, hybrid forms of language use that blur the boundaries between what we commonly call languages (e.g. homographs, mixed spellings or allogenisms), and we suggest that these possibly indicate that SMS communication has become one site where the tension between localized and globalized social practices is played out. The study presented here is part of an inter-university research project, entitled “SMS communication in Switzerland: Facets of linguistic variation in a multilingual country”, based on a corpus of 26,000 authentic messages collected between 2009 and 2011.

Gay (White) Male Speech and the E(race)sure of Identity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianna R. Cornelius
Keyword(s):  
Racial Identity ◽  
Language Use ◽  
White Male ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gay Identity ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Gay Male ◽  
Men Of Color ◽  
African American Language

Although a notable body of work has emerged describing gay male speech (GMS), its overlap with African American language (AAL) remains comparatively understudied. This chapter explores the assumption of whiteness that has informed research on gay identity and precluded intersectional considerations in sociolinguistic research. Examining the importance of racial identity, particularly Blackness, to the construction of gay identity in the United States, the chapter investigates the treatment of GMS as white by default, with the voices of gay men of color considered additive. The desire vs. identity debate in language and sexuality studies contributed to an understanding of gay identity as community-based practice, thereby laying a necessary framework for the study of GMS. However, this framework led to a virtually exclusive focus on white men’s language use. Although efforts to bring a community-based understanding to gay identity have been groundbreaking, the lack of consideration of intersectionality has erased contributions to GMS from racially based language varieties, such as AAL.

Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian: Inherent Translanguaging in the Linguistic Landscape of Sarajevo

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Tankosić ◽  
Jason Litzenberg
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Common Core ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Primary Language ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Southeastern Europe ◽  
Linguistic Identity ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Balkan Region ◽  
Town Center

Abstract Language in the Balkan region of Southeastern Europe has a complex and turbulent history, acutely embodied in the tripartite and trilingual state of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in which Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs all make claim to their own mutually-intelligible varieties of local “languages”. This study utilizes a linguistic landscape methodology to consider language use in Sarajevo, the capital of BiH, approximately 20 years after a brutal war that led to the establishment of the country. Data originate from three municipalities within the Sarajevo Canton – namely, Old Town, Center, and Ilidža – because of their representation of the region’s diversity and history. Signs were classified according to the three primary language varieties, i.e., Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian; BCS, representing a common core among the three varieties, as well as English, other languages, and mixed languages. The application of BCS uniquely positions the present research in comparison to other studies of language use in the region and allows for a more nuanced, less politically and ethnolinguistically fraught analysis of the communicative tendencies of users. More specifically, data indicate that actors in the linguistic landscape transcend the boundaries of their national, ethnic, and religious identities by tending towards the more neutral BCS, suggesting an orientation towards more translingual dispositions than previous variety-bound approaches have indicated. Thus, instead of the divisiveness of linguistic identity politics, the linguistic landscape of Sarajevo indicates a tendency toward inclusion and linguistic egalitarianism.

scholarly journals LANGUAGE VARIATIONS IN DEPOK: A STUDY OF LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE AND DIALECTOLOGY

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sri Munawarah ◽  
Frans Asisi Datang
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Regional Variation ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Language Variety ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Public Landscapes

Written languages are present in various media in public landscapes, such as notice boards, banners, or bumper stickers. Studying these simple signs is the starting point in observing how a language variety exists and interacts with other languages. It is interesting to study how the instances of written texts found in public landscapes can be an indicator of what language variety is actually used by the inhabitants of Depok. Based on its history and its geography, a hypothesis states that many speakers of Betawi language and Sundanese reside in Depok. The study is aimed at demonstrating the written language varieties found in Depok public landscapes based on written evidence which are compared with language varieties based on the regional variation (dialectology). This qualitative study used the sociogeolinguistic approach combining sociolinguistics, linguistic landscape, and dialectology (geolinguistics). The results show there are two language use distributions in Depok, the Sundanese and the Betawi language. From the landscapes, Betawi language is used in billboards, restaurant signboards, and local government banners. The study is useful for the local government in their efforts to confirm the identity of Depok people.

Summary and conclusion

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Gafaranga
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Research Direction ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
Concurrent Use ◽  
Interactional Functions ◽  
New Research

Research in code-switching, undertaken against the backdrop of very negative attitudes towards the concurrent use of two or more languages within the same conversation, has traditionally been geared towards rehabilitating this form of language use. From being seen as a random phenomenon reflecting the user’s lack of competence, code-switching is currently seen as sign of an advanced level of competence in the languages involved and as serving different interactional functions. However, as a result of its success, the research tradition now faces an entirely new challenge: Where to from here? How can research in code-switching continue to be relevant and interesting now it has largely achieved its original purpose? This book has argued that, in order to overcome this challenge, the notion of bilingualism itself must be redefined. Bilingualism must be seen as consisting of diverse interactional practices and be investigated as such. This book has made the case for this new approach, outlined a methodology for investigating bilingualism as interactional practices and illustrated it by means of three case studies. This concluding chapter wraps up the argument and invites other researchers to contribute to this new research direction.

Language choice and conversational repair in bilingual interaction

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Gafaranga
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Additional Resource ◽  
Concurrent Use ◽  
Language Alternation ◽  
Conversational Repair ◽  
Research Questions

Research in code-switching, undertaken against the backdrop of very negative attitudes towards the concurrent use of two or more languages within the same conversation, has traditionally been geared towards rehabilitating this form of language use. Now that code-switching has been rehabilitated, the research tradition faces an entirely new challenge, namely that of its continued relevance. This book argues that, in order to overcome this challenge, research should aim to describe specific interactional practices involving the use of two or more languages and outlines a methodology for doing so. This chapter illustrates this methodology by means of a specific case study. The chapter describes the interactional practice of conversational repair in bilingual interaction. Two research questions are raised: (a) where in the repair sequence can language alternation occur and (b) what does language alternation do when it occurs in repair sequences. It is shown that language alternation interacts with repair organisation in two ways. Either language alternation is the focus of conversational repair or it is an additional resource for the organisation of conversational repair.

Clause-initial Vs in sign languages: Scene-setters

2021 ◽  
pp. 192-220
Author(s):  
Donna Jo Napoli ◽  
Rachel Sutton–Spence
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Clear Communication ◽  
Communication Calls ◽  
Broad Understanding

In our study, we seek to determine for sign languages the conditions under which a predicate can precede all its arguments. We consider data from the sign languages of Australia, Brazil, Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden, examining interviews (informative dialogues) and narratives (monologues). While pressures of visualization converge to make SOV and SVO the unmarked orders in sign languages for most predicates, existential and presentational predicates may appear in sentence-initial position. In such instances, the predicate is a scene-setter, establishing a broad understanding of how we are to interpret the event we are about to visualize. We argue that pressures of visualization are again at work. Since sign languages are largely iconic – where the articulation itself brings up visual images – there is a stronger pressure for them to align articulation with mental visualization than for spoken languages; the goal of clear communication calls for this alignment whenever possible.

Code-switching does not predict Executive Function performance in proficient bilingual children: Bilingualism does

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 366-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
CARISSA KANG ◽  
BARBARA LUST
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Task Switching ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Proficiency Tests ◽  
Semantic Fluency ◽  
The Relationship

Previous studies of bilingual adults have suggested that bilinguals’ experience with code-switching (CS) contributes to superior executive function (EF) abilities. We tested a highly bilingual developing population in Singapore, a multilingual country where CS occurs pervasively. We obtained CS and EF measures from 43 English–Chinese 8-year-old children (27 females, M = 100 months). We measured spontaneous CS with a novel task and EF in terms of task-switching (Semantic Fluency) and inhibitory control (Stroop task in both languages). Contrary to previous work, CS performance did not significantly predict EF performance in either case. Rather, bilingual language proficiency, i.e., degree of bilingualism (as measured by direct proficiency tests and parents’ estimates of daily language use and exposure of both languages) influenced EF performance. Accordingly, the relationship between CS and EF may be more indirect and non-necessary than previously assumed.

Code-switching and the optimal grammar of bilingual language use

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 522-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
RAKESH M. BHATT ◽  
AGNES BOLONYAI
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Cognitive Constraints ◽  
Local Functions ◽  
Global Principles

In this article, we provide a framework of bilingual grammar that offers a theoretical understanding of the socio-cognitive bases of code-switching in terms of five general principles that, individually or through interaction with each other, explain how and why specific instances of code-switching arise. We provide cross-linguistic empirical evidence to claim that these general sociolinguistic principles, stated as socio-cognitive constraints on code-switching, characterize multi-linguistic competence in so far as they are able to show how “local” functions of code-switching arise as specific instantiations of these “global” principles, or (products of) their interactions.

Why Don't All Contact Features Act Alike? Contact Features as Enregistered Features

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Babel
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Andean Spanish ◽  
Anthropological Theory ◽  
Linguistic Repertoire

AbstractIt has been widely observed that speakers of Andean Spanish use features that are borrowed or calqued from Quechua (de Granda 2001; Pfänder 2009). In this article, I demonstrate that these features are not evenly distributed over contexts of language use; rather, most contact features occur significantly more frequently in conversations than in formal contexts such as meetings. However, some contact features behave differently: they are more likely to occur in meetings than in conversation. Why don't all contact features act alike? I suggest that this result can be explained by the linguistic anthropological theory of enregisterment (Agha 2005, 2007). Agha defines register as 'a linguistic repertoire that is associated, culture-internally, with particular social practices and with persons who engage in such practices' (2004: 24). I demonstrate that while some Quechua contact features in Spanish have been linked to informal contexts associated with Quechua and Quechua speakers through the process of enregisterment, other features bypassed this process, retaining Quechua pragmatic content that links them to a formal register. I argue that the theory of enregisterment provides a useful tool for interpreting the effects of language contact.

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