scholarly journals A semiotic approach to language ideologies: Modelling the changing Icelandic languagescape

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2-4) ◽  
pp. 271-296
Author(s):  
Stephen Pax Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
E Coli ◽  
Semiotic Model ◽  
Semiotic Approach ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Linguistic Purism

Attempts have been made to examine how speakers frame linguistic varieties by employing social semiotic models. Using ethnographic data collected over many years, this article applies such a model to Iceland, once described as the ‘e-coli of linguistics’ – its size, historical isolation and relative linguistic homogeneity create conditions akin to a sociolinguistic laboratory. This semiotic model of language ideologies problematizes the prevailing discourse of linguistic purism at a time of sociolinguistic upheaval. The analysis shows how an essentializing scheme at the heart of Icelandic language policy ensured that linguistic “anomalies” such as “dative disease” and “genitive phobia” indexed essential differences. “Impure” language was indicative of un-Icelandicness. Once monolingual (indeed monodialectal), the Icelandic speech community is increasingly characterized by innovative linguistic transgressions which thus far have not been instrumentalized by language policy makers. It is shown how a semiotic model can help us analyse the function of language ideologies more generally.

The native-non-native dichotomy in minority language contexts

2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernadette O'Rourke ◽  
Fernando F. Ramallo
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Language Policy And Planning ◽  
Autonomous Community ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Policy And Planning

In minority language contexts, the aim of language policy and planning initiatives is frequently to enhance their survival prospects by increasing individuals’ knowledge and use of such languages in a variety of social contexts. The success of such policies depends on a variety of factors. These include the ability of policy to encourage maintenance of the language amongst existing speakers (the so-called ‘native’ speakers of the language) and its revival amongst individuals in the community who no longer speak it and who have become ‘native’ speakers of another language, typically, the dominant language. However, the task of policy makers and language planners is often made more difficult by sociolinguistic, socio-economic, socio-geographical and ideological differences between ‘native’ speakers and ‘non-native’ newcomers to the language. Rather than forming a unified speech community, ‘native’ and ‘non-native’ speakers of the minority language very often see themselves as being socially and linguistically incompatible. The purpose of this article is to examine the native-non-native dichotomy in two minority language contexts: Irish in the Republic of Ireland and Galician in the Autonomous Community of Galicia.

The past is prologue

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 366-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Cassels Johnson ◽  
Crissa Stephens ◽  
Stephanie Gugliemo Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
New Latino Diaspora ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
The U.S

Abstract This article examines reactions to the changing linguistic ecology in the U.S. state of Iowa, which is experiencing a demographic phenomenon often referred to as the New Latino Diaspora (NLD) (Hamann et al., 2002). We first examine the historical processes and social structures that link current language policy initiatives within Iowa to local and national nativism. We then analyze public policies and texts to reveal how language ideologies circulate across diverse texts and contexts, forming discourses that shape the experiences of Latin@s in Iowa.

scholarly journals Parents as stakeholders: Language management in urban Galician homes

Multilingua ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anik Nandi
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Language Management ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
Language Revitalisation

AbstractMacro-level policy makers, perceived as stakeholders of language management, employ a range of language policy strategies to legitimise hegemonic control over meso- (i.e. family) and micro- (i.e. individual) level language ideologies (Cassels-Johnson 2013). However, language policies of an individual are often difficult to detect because they are implicit, subtle, informal, and often hidden from the public eye, and therefore frequently overlooked by language policy researchers and policy makers. The primary focus of this study is to investigate how individual, as well as collective linguistic practices of Galician parents act as language governmentality (Foucault 1991) measures influencing their children’s language learning. Drawing from multiple ethnographic research tools, including observations, in-depth fieldwork interviews and focus group discussions with parents, this paper demonstrates that in Galicia’s language shift-induced shrinking Galician-speaker pool, pro-Galician parents can play an important role in the language revitalisation process. The goal is also to ascertain whether these parents’ grassroots level interrogation of the dominant Castilian discourse takes the form of bottom-up language policies.

Language Policy and Ideology

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Special Administrative Region ◽  
Language Policies ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Economic Considerations ◽  
Modern Nation State

This chapter discusses language policies in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR since 1997) and Taiwan. The term “Greater China” refers to these three territories. Contemporary language policies in the region are driven by the need for, and play a vital role in, building a unified modern nation-state. The discussion notes that language policy is informed and shaped by language ideologies and attitudes, as well as by sociohistorical, geopolitical, and economic considerations. All three territories have witnessed drastic socioeconomic and political change since the last two decades of the twentieth century. Such transformations have undoubtedly left their impact on their languages and language policies.

A simple traffic-light semiotic model for tagmemic theory

Semiotica ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (225) ◽  
pp. 253-267
Author(s):  
Vern Poythress
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
Multiple Views ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Traffic Light ◽  
Semiotic System ◽  
Traffic Lights ◽  
Semiotic Model ◽  
Semiotic Approach ◽  
Field View

AbstractThe complexity and flexibility of tagmemic theory, as a semiotic theory developed by Kenneth L. Pike, can be better understood by examining how it applies to a simple semiotic system like traffic lights. We can then compare the result with how it functions in analyzing a piece of natural language. Tagmemic theory introduces three observer viewpoints – the particle view, the wave view, and the field view. Each view generates a suite of questions to answer. Any one of the views results in a “complete” description of traffic lights, from which the information about the other views can be inferred. And yet each view is distinct in texture from the others, and the existence of such multiple views – each with a claim to emic integrity and each serving as a perspective on the whole – has to be accounted for in a robust semiotic approach. The same phenomena occur when we apply the three views to the analysis of meaning in natural language. The chief illustration is to analyze the meaning of the word dog in multiple ways. The multi-dimensional potential for semiotic analysis highlights the limitations of Aristotelian logic and symbolic logic, both of which simplify for the sake of rigor.

Using lexical variables to identify language ideologies in a policy corpus

Corpora ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Fitzsimmons-Doolan
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Policy ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Department Of Education ◽  
Educational Language Policy ◽  
Group Variation ◽  
Policy Texts

Though theorised as important objects of inquiry, language ideologies – beliefs about the roles of language in society – are difficult to identify from texts because of their covert nature. Language ideologies of institutions are thought to have particular power with respect to subsequent policy development at micro- and macro levels. This study applies an inductive, corpus-based approach to identify language ideologies in a corpus of language policy texts using lexical items as variables. A corpus of more than one-million words of educational language policy texts from the 2010 Arizona Department of Education website was explored using collocate and factor analysis. The resulting solution accounted for 47.48 percent of the variance investigated. Five language ideology factors were identified and interpreted using quantitative and qualitative techniques: ‘written language as measurably communicative’, ‘language acquisition as systematically metalinguistic and monolingual’, ‘academic language as standard and informational’, ‘language acquisition as a process of decoding meaning’ and ‘nativeness of language skills as marking group variation’. The findings (a) present likely ideological stances of the Department of Education in a state where educational language policy development has been robust in recent years, and (b) validate the somewhat novel methodological approach used in this study.

The semiotics of metaphor

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lionel Wee
Keyword(s):  
Language Policy ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Analytic Framework ◽  
Semiotic Process

This article investigates the role of metaphor in the production and reproduction of language ideologies. It does this by focusing on official discourses concerning the language policy of Singapore, where recurrent appeal is made to the conduit metaphor (Reddy 1993) in articulating various claims and beliefs about language and its relation to questions of identity and values. The analytic framework adopted here treats language ideologies in terms of three semiotic processes: iconization, recursion, and erasure (Gal and Irvine 1995). By tracking a single metaphor through a variety of discourses, the article illustrates how these semiotic processes come together when metaphor is used in the service of ideology. The article also suggests the introduction of a fourth semiotic process, performativity, which draws attention to the various lexical realizations of the conduit metaphor.

Language Ideologies and Minority Language Education: Lessons from Brittany for Kashubia

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 192-206
Author(s):  
Nicole Dołowy-Rybińska ◽  
Michael Hornsby
Keyword(s):  
Language Ideologies ◽  
General Trend ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Minority Language Education ◽  
Educational Programmes ◽  
Ethnographic Data

In many situations of minority language education, the focus has been on gains in the absolute numbers of speakers, with the result that less attention has been paid to the processes and linguistic outcomes associated with students in these educational programmes. In this article, we initiate a discussion on the revitalization situations in Brittany and Kashubia from a comparative perspective. In particular, we look at the different models of education in each of these regions and examine ethnographic data that highlight the attempts of students to attain legitimate ‘speakerhood’ of the minority languages in question. In particular, we take into the consideration the difficulties associated with these situations of attempted additive multilingualism when the general trend, among the majority populations, is toward standardized monolingualism. By way of a conclusion, we attempt to evaluate the different educational systems in both regions in terms of the production of future generations of ‘successful’ Kashubian and Breton speakers by examining the various language ideologies that are apparent in both situations of language revitalization.

Troubling translanguaging: language ideologies, superdiversity and interethnic conflict

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Panayiota Charalambous ◽  
Constadina Charalambous ◽  
Michalinos Zembylas
Keyword(s):  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Classroom Interaction ◽  
Public Display ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
Low Profile ◽  
Greek Cypriot ◽  
Interethnic Conflict ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Turkish Language ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis paper looks at how histories of conflict and ideologies of language as a bounded entity mapped onto a homogeneous nation impact on attempts of translanguaging in the classroom in the conflict-affected context of Greek-Cypriot education. Drawing on ethnographic data from a highly diverse primary school, this study examines how nationalist understandings of language and belonging affect the ways in which a group of Turkish-speaking students of Pontian and Turkish-Bulgarian backgrounds relate to their Turkish-speakerness in classroom interaction. The findings show that, despite the multilingual and hybrid realities of this particular school, in formal educational practices Turkish-speaking students kept a low profile as to their Turkish-speakerness. Even when the teacher encouraged translanguaging practices and a public display of students’ competence in the Turkish language, this was met with inarticulateness and emotional troubles, fuelled by a fear that ‘speaking Turkish’ could be taken as ‘being Turkish’. In discussing these findings, the paper points to the impact that different overlapping histories of ethnonationalist conflict have on translanguaging practices in education; in our case by associating Turkishness with the ‘enemy group’ and socializing children within essentialist assumptions about language and national belonging. The paper argues that in this case the discourses of conflict create unfavourable ecologies for hybrid linguistic practices, which ultimately suppress creative polylingual performances.

scholarly journals SOCIO-CULTURAL DYNAMICS AND ETHNOLINGUISTIC VITALITY OF SEMBIRAN BALINESE

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-103
Author(s):  
Desak Putu Eka Pratiwi ◽  
I Wayan Arka ◽  
Asako Shiohara
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
Group Interactions ◽  
Ethnolinguistic Vitality ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Pronominal System ◽  
Linguistic Vitality

This paper reports our preliminary findings on the assessment of language vitality of Sembiran Balinese in the larger socio-cultural transformation of contemporary Bali.  Sembiran Balinese, also known as Bali Aga, is a conservative mountain dialect of Balinese spoken by around 5,000 speakers in the Sembiran village, 30 km east of Singaraja northern Bali. The language and its culture reflect Bali in antiquity (Ardika, et al. 1991; Ardika, et al. 1997), with the language quite distinct from Lowland Balinese (Bali Dataran), for example in terms of its pronominal system and the absence of speech level system (Astini 1996, Sedeng 2007, Arka & Sedeng 2018). The study is based on the data collected through questionnaires focusing on subjective views of ethno-linguistic vitality such as in-/out-group interactions and domains of language use in contemporary multilingual settings, supported by ethnographic data. The analysis makes use of the current development in the sociolinguistics of vitality, particularly the notions of ethnolinguistic vitality (Giles, et al 1977) and theories of language shift and endangerment (Grenoble & Whaley 2006, Fishman 1991). The findings reveal that Sembiran Balinese appears to have a relatively strong linguistic vitality even though the speech community itself is a minority group in Bali.

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